Four shadows flitted between the trees, trying their best to keep their existence unknown to their charge. The object of their quest plopped along quietly on her horse, many thoughts rushing through her head. Mostly about what her life had become ever since she acquired her curse, no, her "abilities". Ozpin wanted her to stay at Beacon, where he could keep an eye on her and keep her safe. But she refused to live under such restrictions, she needed freedom, she would die without it. She would not relive her childhood. So they made an agreement. She would wander Remnant, never stopping for anymore than a day at most, and make sure to leave virtually no tracks, so as not to be found. Although she was almost 100% certain that Ozpin probably had agents tailing her all the time, he was too predictable sometimes.
She might even call them out of hiding, in fact, it might be funny, she was oh so bored nowadays. But before she could utter any words. She noticed a small child, laying in front of her, seemingly abandoned and malnourished. Something wasn't right, but her conscience screamed at her to help this child. So she did.
She hopped off her horse and walked over to the child, slowly, she extended her arm with an apple as an offering. The child seemed unresponsive, which already started ringing several alarm bells, but what fully tipped her off about the situation, was the dirt blowing across the road. On a completely calm and windless day. Someone was there!
"So, should we do something? She's just kneeling there offering an apple to the dirt, and there's a strange girl standing in front of her, most likely armed. This is obviously not going to be good" Alexandra exclaimed. She wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but even she could see that this was a trap.
"nah, leave it be, it'll be good for her to gain some experience in how to deal with these sorts of situations." Stated Ryan, the man simply not wanting to do his job.
"no, I'm going, experience or not, our job is to keep her safe, I'm doing my job!" Brandon passionately explained, he always had a sense of duty, and this was possibly the most important duty he'd ever have in his life. The protection of a Maiden.
"No bolt wait! Look, it's quite obvious that it's a trap, there's obviously going to be more of them. If we wait for them to show themselves we'll be able to attack at the opportune moment." Veronica piped up, bringing her cunning expertise into the conversation.
"you're right," he let out a small sigh "very well, but the second that more of them show up, I'm pouncing, got it?"
"Yes, I got it, just, trust me, ok?"
Amber quickly jumped back and immediately brought her staff up to deflect the incoming shots from the now visible attacker, before letting out a burst of high wind pressure, through a subtle use of her abilities. Although it was enough to confirm her identity.
Suddenly, a new opponent appeared, she didn't have enough time to bother trying to see what he looked like, because she was currently trying her best not to die. She blasted him back with a column of flame, the intense heat destroying his clothes, and skin. Or it would have, if he didn't have metal legs shielding him! How!? Atlas level prosthetics were extremely expensive, and only available to the wealthiest and most influential of people! How did this lowlife get them!?
Her musing was cut short when a new attacker showed herself, as she appeared however, Amber looked around herself, and saw Team Brave, Ozpins most recent toys, emerging from the bushes, weapons at the ready. This charge was led by the gorilla Faunus on the team, Ryan, who had already engaged the prosthesis user in a fight, his Warhammer already mid-swing. As it connected, the amputee was sent flying backwards, his aura taking most of the blow, although he still very much felt it. And he would probably continue to feel it for days.
Ryan savagely leapt after his new plaything and brought his gavel of justice down onto his opponent, no hesitation, shattering his aura, and consequently the metallic limbs, as if they were nothing but ancient pottery.
On the other side of the path, Alexandra was courageously facing off with the jade illusionist, living up to her lion faunus heritage, by having no fear in battle, as she fiercely hacked away at her opponent with her battle axe, her shield at the side ready to be used in case something went wrong. Although it was there less for her, and more to protect the others. The verdant villain was not given any quarter, as Alex viciously and valiantly assaulted her aura. Swing after swing depleted the girls aura before she could retaliate.
Veronica ducked and weaved between projectiles, as the main assailant, who was clearly the leader of the group, fired arrow after arrow, trying desperately to hit the fox faunus. Until eventually she gave up and resorted to using her semblance, creating several spears of superheated ground, firing them far faster than she did her arrows, resulting in several glancing hits, however her target was far more skillful than she appeared at first glance, and managed to dodge most of them.
Eventually Veronica finally reached the onyx haired woman and engaged her in close quarters combat, in which she was clearly superior, as her opponent did not last for very long. The leader desperately tried fighting back, but she was not a trained huntress and it wasn't very long until her aura broke.
Whilst all of this was happening, Brandon was trying to convince Amber to run away
"Listen, we've got the situation under control, you need to leave"
" no! I want to help, how am I meant to be a maiden if I don't actually fight against those who want my powers and would use them for evil?"
" Shut up you brat, this isn't a fairy tale, where the heroes win in the end through the power of love and friendship, there will be death, there will be losses, you are not experienced, you barely know how to control your powers, these people know what you are, they accounted for it, it's all a trap, this isn't some regular mugging, they want your powers, and if you fight, there's a chance they'll get them. So run, please, for the sake of everyone! Qrow is in a village on a mission in the East, go there now! You'll be able to get help, you'll survive, and the powers will be in good hands, we'll deal with them. Now go!" Brandon pleaded, and so Amber decided to run, knowing that Brandon would not let her fight. So she ran. But it was too late.
Alex, due to her ferocity in battle, was too focused on her verdant adversary, to notice the scorpion about to attack. Several debilitating swings bypassed her aura, severely crippling her, finished off with a ginormous scorpion stinger puncturing her skin, and injecting a lethal poison, leaving Alex on borrowed time. The result was a loud, ear piercing scream, of sheer pain, which distracted everybody, on the battlefield.
"Nooo!" Ryan screamed, after noticing the situation Alex was in, leading him to go berserk, abandoning his hammer and running over to his fallen comrade. In his anger, he grabbed the victim unlucky enough to be in range of his rampage, Alex's opponent, and threw her in a random direction, accidentally hitting Veronica and not noticing the scorpion faunus, who had actually attacked Alex. Cinder, taking advantage of the confusion, fires an arrow at Amber, who had returned to the fight due to the screaming. This would prove to be her undoing.
The arrow proved to be ineffective in harming Amber, due to her Aura, it did however, distract both Brandon and the Maiden, allowing for the Scorpion, to seize the opportunity to deal a decisive blow on the autumn themed huntress, knocking her out, as he completely ignored her aura.
Brandon, noticing just in time, tackled the assassin to the ground, took a shard of lightning dust and proceeded to crush it, absorbing the electrical energy, feeling it flow through his veins, before proceeding to pummel his unfortunate victim with his fists, a kunai as an improvised knuckle duster, screaming in pure, unadulterated rage, guttural sounds emanating from his almost inhuman vocal cords.
This naturally took everyone off guard, especially those who knew him well. As he brutalised the scorpion faunus, that had knocked out Amber, and wounded Alex, Ryan decided to interfere, not wanting his brother to go too far, they still had a job to complete, and a team member to save. He violently separated his brother from his prey, before forcefully shaking him. "think Brandon, think! This isn't you! Stop! We need to take these two out of here, they're both injured! I'm angry too, but now is not the time!" taking advantage of Ryan's distraction, the crimson garbed assailant threw a superheated spear of rock at his head, only for it to turn into just straight rock, as the heat was absorbed by Ryan, emboldening his strength and speed, as he got up to his full stature of 8 feet high.
At that moment, the emerald assailant recovered enough to use her semblance, blinding Ryan's senses, causing him to flail around. This gave her the chance to regroup with her leader.
"Cinder, this mission has gone terribly wrong, we should leave now! Salem gave you that crystal for a reason use it!"
"No! We still have a chance of winning, so long as Tyrian keeps the one who attacked him at bay, and you can keep the big one distracted I can take the Maidens powers" the one now revealed as cinder exclaimed.
The Scorpion faunus, now revealed to be called Tyrian attacked Brandon, causing him to be distracted, and allowing for Cinder to start draining the maiden powers from Amber, the strange bug she had, fusing with her, and creating a strange conduit between the two, allowing for the maiden powers to be transferred.
This did not, however, last long, as Brandon managed to overpower Tyrian and throw a dagger at Cinder, snapping the strange connection between her and Amber. Irritated, Cinder realised she had no other choice. She grabbed Amber, and crushed a dark crystal in her hand, causing herself and all her allies to disappear.
In the end only Team Brave was left. Veronica was unconscious, Ryan was cradling the poisoned and dying Alex in his arms and Brandon couldn't believe they had failed.
"What happened here? Where's amber?" sounded out the raspy voice of one of the greatest huntsmen alive, Qrow.
Brandon could only turn around to look at him before saying
"They took her, we... Failed"
AN: Thank you for reading this chapter, please review, and give us any feedback.
