A/N: Sorry for the delay folks. Once again, time seems to have slipped away from me. I told myself, 'Yeah! I can get this done in a week if I put my mind to it!' Now look at me, nearly 3 weeks overdue. Anyway, I don't have much else more to say. I won't bore you guys with excuses and will have to settle for saying that I'll probably miss my next deadline if I set one.
Shadowfall
Present Time
Truthfully, T hadn't expected the rogue to come for them. He had taken the possibility into account, but since he regained consciousness in that armoured carrier, the hacker had been planning his escape independent of whether or not SK came to their aid. Many of the solutions that came to him, however, required unreasonable precision and all weighed heavily on the others' abilities to keep Cinder and her goons busy. He had already sent out a signal for help, but T knew that they would not reach him in time without some kind of diversion.
Now, however, the task was easier.
The mistake on Cinder's part had been that she did not have anyone take away his – or anyone else's – Scroll, as while he was unable to move his arms, the implants that connected his mind to his Scroll, his arm and all the other appliances and equipment he had wired to the same system allowed him to perform several of the tasks on the device without even touching it. T always played up the fact that his arm was one of the most advanced pieces of hardware he had ever put together and that it was his most powerful weapon, but it wasn't. The truth was that his Scroll was both of those things, but no one knew that. It was the ace up his sleeve; no one knew how powerful his Scroll could be, and it would keep his enemies ignorant of how dangerous he really was.
The second T had been forced off the transport, the hacker had begun trying to fry the magnetic lock the White Fang had stuck to his arm. The technology was mediocre at best; electromagnetic bolts that were used by the joint Mistrali-Atlesian androids to lock them up when they weren't in use to avoid wasting power or any accidents from happening.
For him, the magnetic lock prevented any movement at all out of its contracted armour-lock or use of its weapons system. T still had control of the internal electronics, but it didn't matter if the cyborg couldn't even move his fingers.
To unlock the magnetic bolt, a person would normally need a key or a spike under the correct code to demagnetise it, but the lock could otherwise as easily be broken by enough blunt force or a powerful enough electric shock. Usually, however, the amount of electrical charge that would be needed to fry the bolt could only come from a truck battery or a medium-sized generator.
Usually, T would be able to pump out that much charge from his arm alone, but the magnetic bolt also hampered the flow of electricity in the prosthetic's circuits. Fortunately, the magnetic flow between the bolt and T's arm meant that the charge flowed more easily into the lock's contacts. The hacker had already run the calculations to make sure that it would work.
All that was left was to wait for the right moment to make his move.
"This, uh, this was supposed to be a rescue." SK stated dumbly, standing on the catwalk with his sword at his side.
"And how's that working out for you?" Torchwick called out, suddenly appearing out of the shadows along an adjacent catwalk and holding his cane out, ready to fire.
Shrugging, the rogue held his falchion in a ready stance. "Oh, you know; it was going fine up until you guys spotted me."
"Y'know, for a guy who can turn invisible, I can honestly say I've seen stealthier people – or, y'know, not seen them." Raiden stated mockingly, his arms folded as he stepped up to better eye the rogue. "And 'Hey, there'? That was the best line you could come up with? Right off the top of my head, I can think of, like, seven way better lines you could have opened up with."
"Thank you, but I don't remember asking for your opinion." SK shot back.
More guards abruptly started pouring in to the hangar, likely having heard the commotion as Torchwick and SK were locked in a fierce stand-off. One of the White Fang goons walked up to Cinder and asked her, "Ma'am, what do we-"
"Kill him, bring me his head." She ordered, not bothering to wait for the goon to finish his question.
"Don't worry about it, Fall. I can take him by myself." Torchwick boasted with a smirk, taking a few steps closer before SK raised his left hand and activated the missile launcher function of the bracer T built for him.
"You can try." Before Roman even had enough time to fire a single shot, the rogue had already raised his left hand and fired four shots out of his wrist bracer. Each of the micro-missiles went skyward and blew two of the cables that supported the catwalk, raining dust and debris down from the points of impact and masking SK's movements as he lunged at Roman. Their weapons made contact once before the rogue turned his attention to the other cables, cutting them each with one slice and causing the catwalk to collapse.
Roman Torchwick reacted fast enough to get off the collapsing catwalk – hopping backwards and gripping the railings of the catwalk to ensure he didn't slide off – as SK slid down the catwalks as they broke apart and slanted at a sharp angle.
The rogue was invisible before he hit the ground, but he didn't stay concealed for long before reappearing again to slash and stab one of the White Fang guards. The Faunus dropped as SK's falchion popped open and began firing beams of energy at the other guards nearby.
Cinder moved to intercept as she drew her bow back and fired an arrow at his feet. With all the fire and strikes coming from the White Fang and the few Blue Boys that happened to join the fight, SK didn't notice the arrow until the ground around it erupted into a high-pitch screech followed by an explosion.
The blast threw the midnight-haired boy across the hangar and onto his front, where he laid still as if he were unconscious. T knew better, however, as he read off the bio-readings he was getting from the bracer on SK's arm, telling him that the rogue was still conscious.
A wide arc of guards formed around SK's prone form, their guns trained on him and waiting for Cinder's word. The half-Maiden stepped up to the line, where a pair of Blue Boys parted for her to stand beside them with her bow lowered.
To his right, Tanner was standing up like he was getting ready to bolt, but stopped when he felt the bladed tip of Neo's parasol against the side of his throat.
"Don't forget that we're still here." Mercury stated as Tanner slowly got back down on his knees.
SK remained still for another heartbeat before suddenly rolling on his back and firing another salvo of missiles from his wrist-bracer at Cinder. As expected, the ash-haired woman only had to raise her hand to create a field in front of her that took the blast. Two of the micro-missiles made contact with the invisible shield in front of Cinder, while the other two struck the ground around SK, throwing up dirt into the air as someone gave the order to open fire and his position was peppered with shots.
When the smoke cleared, however, there was no body. "Where is he?" Cinder hissed through gritted teeth.
A few seconds of silence passed as T continued to track SK's motion before Tanner spoke up. "Where'd he go?" the swordsman asked as he craned his neck about. "Don't tell me he actually bailed on us."
As the hacker tracked where the rogue was moving about, his eyes widened at where he was going, and the implications of what his plan might be.
Mason was beginning to lose the feeling in his right arm from all the blood loss of the wound Cinder's arrow made. He had been struggling against the thick leather bindings ever since he regained consciousness, and could feel the strain and wear his struggling was putting against it. The berserker would have been able to break free eventually, if it weren't for Cinder and the arrow she put through him. Now, not only was he still losing blood, but the arrow had mostly gone through him and held him against the bench he was strapped to.
It was only when the redhead stopped struggling against the leather belts that he heard the faint sound of footsteps right beside him. He tried to look in the direction the sound was coming from, but could not see anything.
He didn't need to, however, when he heard the person's voice. "This doesn't mean we're friends." SK whispered close to his head as the redhead felt some of the leather bindings slacken.
"Oh, we are so best friends after this!" Mason whispered excitedly.
"Shh!" SK hushed as the redhead felt the rest of his bindings slacken. "Listen, I need you stay here while I go grab your weapons from the table over there, that way we have can the jump on them – can you do that?"
The redhead couldn't control the smile that spread across his face even if he tried. "I'll play nice this time."
"There he is!" Torchwick shouted, having climbed down from the catwalk above, before firing a round from his cane at where Mason estimated the raven-haired teen to be. When the Dust round hit, the blast sent both of them flying.
The redhead involuntarily closed his eyes when he was thrown through the air, but opened them as he landed to see that SK was but a few feet away from him.
"The red one is loose! Focus fire on him and call for reinforcements!" someone shouted from the line of guards in front of them.
The two paused as they locked gaze, realising that the plan wasn't going to work any longer before SK shouted, "Improvise!"
When SK said this, the world around Mason seemed to slow down as his eyes flitted about to consider his options. His sharp, blood-red eyes took in every detail around him; from the armed guards standing in front of Cinder with their weapons trained on him, to T getting ready to spring at the nearest threat and break out of the handcuffs, even to the extra guards rushing through the entrance behind them as a siren rang out through the airbase.
That's it! The idea came to Mason almost as quickly as the smirk did. Picking the closest new arrival to him, the berserker grabbed the shaft of the arrow in his shoulder, snapped it off, rolled to his feet and rushed him, dodging gunfire as he went. Too close to the redhead, the guard didn't have enough time to take aim before Mason grabbed the frame of his rifle and aimed it down towards the ground.
Using the advantage he had, the berserker twisted himself around the guard and used him as a shield while firing the rifle with one hand.
Mason was able to get off two good kills before he felt a few bullets fly by him from behind, feeling them by the shimmer in the air that they left as they went. In one fluid motion, the redhead used his free hand to push the Faunus he was holding on to away before twisting himself around with the rifle now in both hands.
With it, he ran for cover while holding down on the rifle's trigger, gunning down a few of the guards entering the hangar while sending the rest ducking for cover. In a couple of seconds, the berserker was behind a crate of machine parts as gunfire trailed after him from all sides.
Suddenly, the gunfire from the front was diverted as SK popped out of cover a few times to fire at the armed Faunuses and Humans with his laser rifle. "Go! Get your weapons! I'll cover for you!" he shouted at the redhead before rushing forward to meet Torchwick in a clash of weapons.
Turning to the crate of weapons, Mason shared a glance – and a quick wave – with Emerald, Mercury and Neo before dashing forward, dodging or charging through bullets and Dust rounds as he went while Mercury stepped up to meet him.
"Finally, some payback!" Mercury muttered under his breath before launching a kick forward. Try as he might, Mason could not defend himself against the force of the kick, knocked onto his back when the boot met his forearm. The second he was thrown onto his back, the redhead had to keep rolling to avoid both Mercury's solid kicks and rounds from Emerald's long-pistols.
Eventually, the berserker was able to right himself and begin peppering the three with rifle fire, causing them to dodge each shot as Mason made to run towards them. When the gun clicked dry, Mason then removed the clip to the gun and held it in one hand while holding the smoking barrel of the rifle in the other. With his improvised weapons, he charged Emerald and Mercury, the two taking point while Neo held Tanner against her, using him as a shield.
Neither of the two seemed prepared for Mason's impromptu attack, which gave him the advantage for a whole of five seconds as he first swung at Emerald with the rifle before throwing the empty magazine at Mercury. The rifle met the mint-haired girl's guns in a clash of weapons, while the clip met its mark and staggered the speedster.
This gave Mason the opening he needed, abandoning the rifle as he ran towards the table of weapons and rolled over it as he grabbed both his weapons. "Hello, my beauties!" he cheered with a grin.
"Stop him!" he heard Cinder yell as he flipped Bas in one hand while taunting Mercury with Fuil.
As expected, the grey-haired teen lunged forward with a barrage of kicks, which Mason deflected with more ease this time now that he had his weapons. Though the berserker was able to get a couple good strikes, each blow was deflected or blocked by Mercury, which prevented his Semblance from building his strength. A couple seconds later, however, the task became all the more difficult, however, when more armed reinforcements arrived with several reprogrammed combat androids.
The barrage of fire they sent his way forced Mason to split his focus between the gunmen and the speedster, which left him more open to attack from either side. When Emerald joined the shower of bullets, she was able to get a couple good shots off on his hip and leave Mason staggered for the grey-haired teen to kick him flat in the gut and throw the berserker to the floor.
Mason was going to get back up, but the many guards began surrounding him and had their weapons trained on different parts of his body. In response, Mason let out a weak chuckle. "Don't suppose some of you guys might consider keeling over and letting me win?"
"Orders, ma'am?" one of them asked as the redhead looked about for where the woman was. His eyes widened slightly when he saw that she was engaged in combat with SK while Roman Torchwick picked himself off the ground.
He was losing.
"Open fire! Make sure he stays down!" she said in between dealing and blocking strikes from the rogue. However, before the circle of armed men were able to fire on him, the redhead heard a single line that told him he was getting his way out of this.
"Lights out." As T said this, the lights in the hangar hanging above them went out, before subsequent gunfire could be heard. What was different about this was that the gunshots were not that of the rifles and pistols the White Fang or the Blue Boys carried.
No, those were the Dust rounds of an androids built-in weapon's system.
The blackout also provided the berserker with the necessary distraction to break out of the circle by hacking a Faunus in the chest while the others began firing in every direction, searching for a target.
Mason wasted no time in taking down the rest of the guards that had been watching him as the lights came back on. They flickered back to life one by one, revealing that he had been right in his assumption; the androids were firing on the White Fang.
Confused and in a state of panic, the guards didn't react to the friendly-fire at first and their numbers were cut in half. This changed, however, when Cinder launched a powerful fireball that blew apart the group of androids standing near the entrance to the hangar, blasting hot metal in all directions.
For now, it seemed that the only people in the hangar were Mason himself, SK, Cinder, her cronies and Roman Torchwick.
That was when it clicked; Tanner and T were gone.
Before the lights went out, Tanner was still being held down by the heterochromatic girl while T knelt patiently next to her. Now, they were both gone and Neo was on the ground looking like she had just been hit by a Creep.
Mason was about to face off against Emerald and Mercury, who stood side-by-side ready to take him on, when his attention was suddenly drawn to a loud ringtone coming from one of the corpses near him.
The redhead held up a finger to the two as he bent down to dig the Scroll out of the man's pocket as well as a grenade he carried, priming it the second it was in his hand. Looking at the caller ID on the screen, Mason was surprised to see that all it said was 'T', but shrugged it off a second later. "Hold on guys, I've got to take this!" he told the two as he threw the grenade at them. The explosive detonated before either of them could intercept it, and the blast caused both the mint-haired girl and the grey-haired boy to dive for cover.
"Hello, Mason Mars here!" he answered cheerfully as he put the Scroll to his ear.
"Listen very carefully; if we want to get out of here, here's what we need to do."
SK struggled as it is to deal with Torchwick alone – he underestimated the criminal's fighting ability, but to fight Cinder and the orange-haired man at around the same time was really pushing the limit of his abilities. Already, he had received cuts and several bullet grazes on his arms and legs, and just barely managed to shift his focus back to the ash-haired woman after blasting Torchwick back with a beam of energy.
It helped now that Mason was focusing his offensive efforts on the guards, as it drew their fire onto the berserker instead of the rogue.
His sword-fighting ability was nearly equal to that of Cinder, albeit a little slower to block and deflect strikes. The problem came whenever Cinder used her abilities; sending out a pulse of energy, a fireball or even firing shards of glass at him. At such close range, the rogue had little way of protecting against such attacks, and was forced to dodge each time.
The situation was beginning to play to his advantage, however, as the fighting had moved them towards the back of the hangar, where there were fewer lights and there was makeshift cover by ducking behind all the airship parts.
Ducked behind the engine of a Bullhead to avoid a shower of glass from Cinder, SK was hastily swapping out the cylinder of Dust in his falchion in preparation to blast the woman back with a laser beam.
As soon as the sound of glass hitting metal stopped, SK popped out of cover and took aim, firing a stream of Dust energy at the woman. His eyes widened in shock when Cinder responded by dropping one of her swords and raising her hand to deflect the blast with her palm.
The beam scorched the walls and ceiling of the hangar, like a ray of sun reflecting off a mirror, as the half-Maiden tried to control the direction the beam was sent, grunting with the exertion.
SK kept it up, hoping that Cinder would lose focus before his power reserves ran dry, but his hopes were cut short when a hand grabbed the fabric of his collar not five seconds after he had begun firing on the woman.
Off-balance, SK couldn't fight back as the hand pulled him backwards, threw him over someone's shoulder and slammed him into the ground. The force of the throw left the rogue disoriented, though he tried to right himself as soon as he got a sense of which direction was the ground.
His eyes cracked open just in time to see Raiden put the barrel of his shotgun-sword to the rogue's temple.
The rogue felt the breath in his throat catch as he stared into the dark chamber of the gun, faintly seeing the buckshot gauge in the back of the gun. Or is it just my imagination? From the gun, SK's gaze travelled up the gun's frame to meet Raiden's eyes. He couldn't read the shadowcaster's expression, but even someone like SK could tell that there was a cold, unwavering resolve to them.
A second passed by in silence before they both heard Cinder's voice. "Kill him." Both teens turned to her at the same time before they turned back to stare at one another.
"You're going to regret this." SK muttered while his hand tried to feel for his blade without looking.
Raiden bobbed his head in a nod before replying. "Yeah, probably." SK was about to turn invisible in one last-ditch effort to escape when the teen suddenly turned his shotgun on Cinder and fired.
It was safe to say that the rogue was more surprised at Raiden's actions than the fact that Cinder was able to block the shot with her hand. A second passed where the ash-haired woman just glared at the shadowcaster, before she looked like she was about to say something. Cinder didn't get a chance to as the teen used the hand on the grip of his shotgun to throw a pulse of shadows that sent the woman flying into a bunch of wooden crates, smashing them when she landed.
"Get up!" the teen demanded offering a hand for the rogue, which he begrudgingly accepted. "You and your pals better have a plan to get out of this one."
SK shrugged his shoulders uncertainly. "They're probably improvising something right now." On cue, an explosion reverberated through the airbase, drawing the attention of both teens eventhough neither could see it.
Cinder was just beginning to get back up when Raiden shoved SK on the shoulder. "Go, I'll take care of her."
"This doesn't make us friends!" the rogue stated for the second time that night before turning and making his exit, only to have his way blocked by Emerald, Mercury and Neo.
Rolling off a Blue Boy with a cane-sword, Tanner fired a Dust round at a group of White Fang goons taking cover behind a raised barricade before spinning around to stab the man in the back.
Meanwhile, the White Fang had finally managed to reposition their gun emplacements so that they could turn far enough to fire at the swordsman, forcing him to duck for cover behind an overturned, blown-out jeep that he destroyed.
He was about to fumble for his Scroll to call T when a Mistrali android rounded the jeep and lunged at Tanner with its arm-blade extended. The brunette easily deflected the attack with his sabre before going in for a cross-cut to decapitate the android. The lifeless hunk of metal dropped to the floor as Tanner began fishing out his Scroll.
T had already explained to him that the androids were not on their side, as he could not reprogram them to tell between friend-n-foe. Instead, what the hacker had done was set them off to kill anything that moved.
This also meant that Tanner had to deal with them along with the regulars. "T, how's that escape ship coming along?" Tanner asked into his Scroll, knowing he was on a hotline with the cyborg.
"Focus on destroying the Dust supplies and weapons." T replied, his tone monotonous despite the clear sounds of gunfire from the other end of the line. "Do your job, Mason will do his, SK will do his and we'll all get out of this one."
"Mind explaining what the endgame of this plan is?" he asked as the machine gun turret stopped firing. Popping out of cover, the swordsman saw that the White Fang were trying to fix a jam in the firing mechanism, and took the opportunity to toss a grenade that he picked off one of the Blue Boys at them.
With his Semblance, Tanner managed to cause the grenade to detonate at his command with an even greater result. Keeping the Scroll to his ear for a second longer, the swordsman eventually lowered it when he received no reply from the other end.
Take out the stores of Dust and weapons, he says. This will work, he says. It seemed the White Fang were more determined to protect this place than run for their lives, and that was saying something considering Mason was on the loose.
Tanner took a second first to flex his off-hand in front of his face, surging his Aura through it to make sure he had enough to fire up his Semblance again before running for the nearest crate of Dust. Even though T had removed the Aura Restraint that they had slapped on him, it would still take a few minutes before the swordsman's Aura rose back to full power.
Despite this, enough time had passed that Tanner could pull off a couple moves without feeling like he had just run a marathon, and this showed in the way he fought through another line of White Fang guards, charged up a shot in his pistol and caused the reserve of Dust to fly nine feet into the air with the force of the explosion that shot it upward.
It was when the brunette took a second too long to admire his work that a Blue Boy with a stun baton came up from behind him and began choking him out with the baton from behind. With Tanner incapacitated, another Blue Boy – well, girl in this case – was able to come up from the front with a knife-gun hybrid and took aim.
Thinking on his feet, Tanner threw his pistol at the lady in front of him before grabbing the shaft of the baton over his neck. Channelling his Semblance through it, the Dust in the baton overcharged and sent an electrical shock through both men. When the gangster holding him let go, the brunette took a quick second to shake off the electricity running through his body before his hand went to the scarf around his neck.
Unfurling it in one pull, Tanner coursed his Aura through the Dust-enhanced fabric, causing it to catch fire, before swinging it at the gangsters. The searing heat of the fabric may not have been enough to kill them, but it did scorch their clothing, leave burn-marks across their body and left them unconscious, knocked out from the force of being hit a couple times by a flaming whip.
With the Blue Boys taken care of, Tanner bent down to pick up his gun, ready to face whatever White Fang terrorist or gangster was going to face him. However, instead of facing him like he expected, they were facing a pack of Grimm trying to tear down the fencing around the airbase.
Shit.
When Cinder got back to her feet, she had immediately given the signal that the others should not interfere with her fight against the shadowcaster. Now, the ash-haired woman had her swords drawn and was keeping her distance from the teen as they walked in a circle, their eyes never leaving one another.
Then, as Raiden opened his mouth to say something, Cinder lunged forward waving a hand in front of her to fire a barrage of flaming orbs in a wide arc. Raiden immediately raised a hand to form a pitch-black barrier in front of him, taking the explosive blast of the orb as it made contact.
As the orb broke the barrier, the black-haired teen had to raise his longsword to intercept a downward slash from both of the half-Maiden's swords. Cinder took the advantage and pressed her offense, slashing again and again with both her swords in tandem as Raiden was pushed further and further backwards.
Judging by the fact he hadn't blown her away with an overkill of his Semblance, Cinder took an educated guess that the boy's Aura was still recovering from its exertion throughout the day.
This played both to Cinder's advantage and to her disadvantage; for one, she knew that she would not have to deal with Raiden's unnecessarily flashy attacks that she'd have to match move-for-move with her own powers. On the other hand, the woman had rarely seen Raiden fight so…conventionally, and had little knowledge of what he would do.
Eventually, it was when Cinder began to tire in her constant strikes that Raiden found an opening to parry her blades effectively and launch out a kick to her stomach. The sudden attack sent Cinder back a metre as Raiden transformed his sword into its shotgun mode in the blink of an eye.
He took a step closer to the woman before firing, which she blocked with an energy barrier that she channelled through her weapons. Then, to Cinder's surprise, Raiden slung his weapon onto his back before spinning in a circle, dipping his hands low as he went. As he made his return to face her, Cinder saw that a mass of shadows had accumulated in his hands and barely had a second to react as Raiden sent it forwards in a powerful surge.
Dodging out of the way, the woman didn't nearly get far away enough from the surge to not get caught by it, and was sent tumbling across the ground by the force of the dark wave as she lost her grip on her swords and they were sent flying. She managed to stop herself with minimal injury, and she turned to glare over her shoulder at the shadowcaster when she did. "I should've known you would betray me."
"Betray you?" Raiden parroted in a mocking tone. "You were never going to let me run off anyway."
Cinder then looked back down to her hands, which were now focusing her Maiden powers into a concentrated ball of fire, no larger than a baseball. "Maybe you're right." She muttered, just loud enough to be heard by him, before turning around and launching the fireball at Raiden.
When Raiden made a move to block the blast with his hand, his eyes widened in surprise when the fireball did not break against the shadows he put up in front of himself, but exploded violently like a bomb, throwing him backwards and directly into a heavy, metal workbench.
"I suppose it doesn't matter anymore what I was going to do with you, since you have just sealed your fate with your actions." Cinder declared as she walked to retrieve her weapons and linked them together to form her bow-blade.
Meanwhile, Raiden was still recovering from the force of the impact with the bench, which left a ringing in his ears and a throbbing pain in his head. His vision cleared up just enough in time to see Cinder string three arrows in her bow at once, all aimed towards him.
"You don't have the last say in my fate, Fall." Raiden declared as he made to stand up. The second he moved, Cinder released all the arrows she had readied and each flew at an incredible speed. However, Raiden reacted quickly enough that he was able to dodge the first two by rolling across the workbench before blocking the last one by breaking it with his longsword.
Immediately after that, the shadowcaster channelled his Aura into his good leg before kicking out at the workbench in front of him, sending it sliding across the concrete ground towards Cinder as if he had kicked a ball.
Instead of dodging the attack, the ash-haired woman drew another arrow and fired it at the makeshift projectile, causing it to explode and disintegrate into embers before it even reached her.
"I have to say; when I first met you, you had a lot of potential." Cinder spoke with venom in her words as she took a vial off her belt. "I thought I could teach you – fix your one flaw that would have allowed you to be so much more, but now I see that your arrogance is something that cannot be fixed." With the sharp-end of her bow, the ash-haired woman cut the top off the vial and threw its contents in Raiden's direction. As it tumbled through the air, the powder sparkled in the overhead lights in the hangar before clumping together into shards of glass.
Several orange engravings on the shards glowed briefly before fading as they flew towards Raiden with the speed of one of Cinder's arrows.
At first, Raiden was going to dodge out of the way of the shards, but thought better of it when he saw how the shards seemed to close in on his position. Instead, he intercepted the first one with his blade while simultaneously building up energy in his free hand before unleashing it as a repulse that was able to throw most of the shards off course and away from him.
It was not enough, however, to stop the last two shards from meeting their mark. One jabbed itself into his thigh while the other caught him in the torso, stabbing into him, but not without enough force to cut too deep. With a firm grip, he pulled each out and allowed it to clatter to the floor.
The embers continued to flutter by her as she stood in a ready position. "Are you ready to actually start fighting, then?" Raiden asked as he stabbed his longsword into the ground and summoned the shadows around him to gather at his fist.
Cinder gave Raiden a sidelong look at first, as if asking him if he was actually challenging her, before she slung the bow onto her back and drew on her concentration to channel her powers. In that moment of concentration, nothing else mattered to the ash-haired woman. She blocked out all external distractions as best she could; ignoring the sounds of gunfire and explosions coming from outside, ignoring the shouts of White Fang and gangsters alike, ignoring the fact that the whole stronghold was falling apart and the concerns of what to do after.
All that mattered was the man in front of her, and defeating him once and for all.
The half-Maiden's arms caught fire from the elbow down as two flames engulfed either of her fists. Cinder raised them in a fighting stance as Raiden paused for a second before letting out a groan of frustration. "Come on, how is that fair?"
The half-Maiden gave no reply and responded with action instead, taking off at a sprint towards the shadowcaster as he breathed out a sigh and sprinted to intercept her. The two met in the middle of the hangar where they brought their fists to bear on one another, which resulted in a shockwave that threw them to either end of the hangar and sent a ripple of energy through the entire airbase.
SK was in a tight weapon-lock with Neo when the shockwave from inside the hangar shook the whole airbase and caused him to lose his footing, allowing Neo to get in a good couple jabs before a spinning kick to his side from Mercury threw him to the ground with no Aura left to shield him.
Within seconds of him being kicked to the floor, Emerald was there and ready to kick him again – first in the chest, then in his right hand to knock the blade out of his grip.
This time, the mint-haired girl didn't hesitate to pull the triggers on her guns, but the bullets just slammed into the ground as SK rolled out of the way of their fire. It was only as he was rolling did he remember that he wasn't just fighting Emerald, and checked his surroundings a little too slowly to notice Neo standing right in front of him with the rapier hidden inside her parasol unsheathed and raised into the air.
Though he tried to stop, the rogue ended up being pinned to the ground when Neo brought the rapier-like blade down on him just as he rolled onto his back, stabbing all the way through his left forearm. SK had to bite on his lower lip to stifle the cry of pain that followed the attack, and felt rather than saw time begin to slow down as Neo drew the sword out of his arm and raised it right over where his heart was.
Too tired to fight back, with no real way of escaping as his right hand clamped defensively on the wound in his left arm to apply pressure to it, SK could only brace himself for the attack.
However, the sound of a shotgun gauge going off drew Neo's attention, and in a second she had her parasol open and the blade sheathed back into its neck. The pellets from the shotgun shell bounced harmlessly off the parasol's top, but the attack was followed up when Mason lunged forward to bring his longsword down. "D-d-d-d-denied!"
To avoid the attack, Neo gracefully took a step backwards and fell out of the redhead's kill-zone. It was then that Mercury tried to strike a kick out at the berserker, which was deflected out of the way when Mason raised Bas – still in its shotgun form – and redirected the kick upwards.
Mason then followed through with his momentum by taking a swing at Mercury with his sword, followed by another swing from his shotgun as he completed the spin. The grey-haired speedster was able to parry the first attack with a roundhouse kick, but didn't have the momentum or balance to deflect the other swing and had to backpedal by landing on the foot he swung out with in his roundhouse kick and pivoting around on it.
As Mason slowed his spinning to a stop, he also aimed his shotgun over at Emerald and took a shot at her. Off-guard, Emerald could only raise her weapons in a cross in front of her and brace for the impact. Her Aura took the brunt of the blast, but the force behind it still sent her back a couple metres.
Though it hadn't been his best attempt yet, the redhead had succeeded in his aim of driving his three enemies away far enough that he could holster his shotgun by hanging it from the clip of his hip and offer his hand to help SK back to his feet.
"Get up and fight!" Mason demanded, and the rogue only hesitated for a second before complying and pulling himself to his feet.
He looked to his empty hands for a moment, trying to channel his Semblance but only managing to make his palms fade out of existence briefly before clenching his fists and getting into a defensive stance. "Well, there's no running this time."
"In retrospect; there wasn't anywhere you guys could really run to and get away from us." Mercury quipped as he slowly began to circle the two like a predator. Looking to his left and right, Mason found the others doing the same, as they all seemed to be trying to fall into some formation.
Instinctively, the two stood back-to-back against one and faced their opponents. "Really? It seems a lot of the times things fall right out of your reach – like victory." SK shot back.
"Those going to be your final words?" the speedster asked with a chuckle.
"No, I think the words he's looking for is, 'Is that a Beowulf'?" Mason corrected, drawing a confused expression from Mercury.
"Is what a Beow-" a low growl from right behind him cut the teen off as he froze before pivoting around quickly to see the creature of Grimm crouched right behind him, right before it pounced.
The large creature instantly knocked Mercury on his back and pinned him to the ground, giving SK the opportunity to slip away that he needed. The rogue made a beeline for his sword, but halted when a flash of light appeared right in front of him, blinding him for a split-second before Neo stepped out of it and took a jab at him with the blunt tip of her parasol.
Throwing the full weight of his body away from the strike, SK was able to avoid being hit and quickly threw out one of his legs towards the heterochromatic girl to kick her feet and ruin her stance. His foot made contact and Neo stumbled slightly as SK used the opening to throw himself into a summersault and grab his falchion.
The second he righted himself, Neo was on him, swinging with her parasol and dodging any strike SK returned while the rogue had to use both his bracer and sword to block her offensive. Meanwhile, Emerald was providing cover for Mercury as he got back to his feet, having just worked together to kill the Beowulf that was attacking him. The two fought in tandem; with Mercury striking out at any Grimm that got too close while Emerald took on targets at a longer range.
Mason was having the time of his life on his side of the battlefield, as more and more Grimm continued to pour in and overrun the White Fang. His Aura was flaring off his hair and skin at this point, as each successful blow he dealt only gave him more strength to hit harder. A pack of Creeps made the mistake of trying to take him on, and he decimated them with one hit each. The berserker was so charged after that, it only took one swing from him after to bisect the next Ursa he came across.
All the while, the White Fang continued to lose ground against the three teens, the Grimm and any androids that were still going haywire. Many that tried to evacuate to the remaining airships ran right into Tanner, while others that tried to flee by land had to get past any Grimm that lurked in the treelines.
"I'm running low on Dust!" SK yelled out to anyone that was listening as he pivoted on one foot to avoid a slash from Neo, while simultaneously slapping a new canister into Yakmak's chamber, now transformed into its beam-rifle mode.
SK took one last glance at Neo, who stood roughly two metres from him, before a shiver along his skin coming from his left warned him of a threat and he turned to face it. Neo similarly had to turn to face a large Grimm that was attacking her as well. Without much effort, the midnight-haired boy was able to dodge out of the way of the Beowulf's attacks before blasting its limbs off with his energy beams, leaving its body to disintegrate as he turned back to face the illusionist.
The heterochromatic girl had just finished impaling the Creep that had chosen to attack her when she was subsequently blown into the air by an explosion near her feet. Turning to look for the source of the explosion, SK's eyes fell on Tanner, who was running up to him and breathing very heavily.
"Evening." He wheezed out, clearly exhausted as they both watched Neo slow her descent by opening up her parasol.
"What's happening now?" SK asked as he took a few shots at Neo with his rifle – missing each time.
"Got the last of their major Dust reserves. Didn't bother with the White Fang – they were all ignoring me anyway. Grimm are trickling in, but it's only going to get worse from here out." Tanner explained between breaths. "It's also good to see that you didn't bail on us."
"You didn't think I'd really leave you – watch out!" SK started, but interrupted himself as he swung his sword-rifle towards Tanner's head. Reflexively, the brunette ducked under the swing and it caught the face of a Beowulf instead. Turning to finish it off, the swordsman thrust Beofield through its thigh before dragging it up in a cross-cut. "-didn't think I'd really leave you guys behind?"
"Never doubted you for a second." Tanner replied automatically and half-heartedly. Truth be told; he didn't care if SK had intended to ditch them or not, only that he came back at the right moment.
"When else am I going to get such a good chance to get back at Cinder?" he asked rhetorically as Tanner caught motion from around him and shoved the black-haired teen out of the way to fire a shot at an approaching Creep. "What's our exit plan?"
"Not too sure. All T said was 'do your job and we'll all get out of this'." Tanner elaborated with more than a hint of frustration before the two fell back-to-back.
"That sounds very much like him."
"At least he has a plan to get us out of here."
"Probably, yeah."
SK heard it in the wind before seeing Mason's body get thrown his way, and took a quick side-step to avoid being hit by the hundred pounds of redhead. He and Tanner then turned to face Cinder's three cronies as the number of Grimm around them seemed to have dwindled, and they now had a chance to continue fighting one another.
"I'm ok!" Mason announced as he stood back to his feet.
"Ready for round two?" Tanner asked no one in particular as everyone fell into a battle stance.
Before anyone could reply, however, the sound of engines and wind being swept about could be heard before they were blinded by a bright light.