Chapter 3
"Boss said that the radio signal should be somewhere on this floor, but so far we haven't found Jack." said one of the mercenary lackies.
The four men walks through the area, being careful to not miss anything but all they came up with is dusty old papers and rusted furniture. Absolutely nothing in this godforsaken building has any worth besides the Dust storage the girls on the radio mentioned. Dante knew better to rely on the fragile truce with the huntresses so he demanded to get down there and keep an eye on the girls.
"Man are you sure about this? I don't know if any of us notice, but our leader may not be right in the head." the other man replied.
"Quiet you! You know the Boss hates it when we openly have second thoughts about his orders..."
"Isn't he just a kid? He may be young in his mid-twenties but the dude never really thinks. Plus neither of you have told us what happened to the last men before us."
"That's not important right now! Let's just find the damn Dust storage and make sure the girls are listening." the man barked.
The guards walked off without another word, totally oblivious to the strange shadow passing by them. The other man stopped for a second and let out a loud sneeze.
"Bless you." said a feminine voice.
"Ah, thanks..." the man sniffed but paused, "Wait who-"
"HiYAA!"
"NOT THE FACE!"
The men turns around as and met the poor sob who got blasted back and knocked them down like bowling pins. Yang let out a chuckle as she watches them scramble around like scared cockroaches, "Sooo, has any of you goons seen a girl about this short wearing a red hood?"
"W-We got nothing to say to you! You're suppose to find the Dust storage!" one of the men shouted, "We'll give you a chance to apologize or else there'll be trouble!"
"Oh god, I think she broke my nose..."
"Right... I'll be sure to get on to that, but you see, I'm missing my little sister and if no one is going to tell me where she is..." Yang took the moment to show off her Ember Celica and pounds against the wall next to her with an unbelievable amount of force, leaving a rather large hole in its place.
"I think you may get the idea." she grinned with her eyes flashing red.
"Ah... maybe we should listen to her?"
"Good choice." Yang grinned.
"Like hell we will! I don't want to face the boss and explain how we got our ass kicked for nothing!" the leader shouted as he pulls out his rifle.
Yang sighs as the others hesitantly do the same, "Fine by me I guess, I do rather prefer it this way." she grins as yellow flames erupted by her battle pose.
"Fire!" they shouted as the whole hallway lights up by the spray of bullets, but the young girl dashes through with her gauntlets deflecting the barrage. She punches the first unlucky soul in the gut then strike with an uppercut follow by a kick, launching him towards the other second lackey.
The leader ducks as the third and fourth guy flies over him. "Freaking bitch!" he growled at her.
"Excuse me?!" Yang snaps at the man as she lets go one of the badly bruised lackey. The leader stares at her hair as it engulfs itself into yellow flames but still kept his hand on the rifle.
Yang charges in with her gauntlets fully-loaded to deliver a beating on the poor soul. The man retaliates by firing at her but the girl deflects the incoming bullets and drops down for a sweep kick knocking him off his feet then thrusts her fist into his stomach.
The leader flies off and crashes against the wall with a heavy thud. He coughs out as he feels a loose tooth before he was pulled to his feet by the collar. "I'll ask one more time: Where's my sister?!" she tightens her grip around his neck.
"Okay okay! I'll t-take you to him!" the man choked out.
Yang lets go of him to let him get a breath of air before kicking him forward. "Lead the way." Yang growls at the man.
The lackey hesitantly nodded and began walking off, but in a corner of his eye one of his men is seen facing halfway to the ceiling with a radio in his holster.
"Ohgodmylegmuscles!" the man cries as he awkwardly falls on top one of the men. Yang shook her head irritably and drags him off by the collar again, "Alright, just the point the way and I'll take us there..." she sighed.
"You're the boss..." the man grins as he holds the radio transmitter inside his sleeve, "... for now."
{}Ruby/Vossler{}
The Hunter pulls himself up from the large gaping hole and took the moment to pant. He looks up to observe the area then whistles down the hole. Ruby's head pops out and eventually her whole body climbs out as the Hunter discovers the room to be a laboratory. As Ruby took the time to let loose of nearly becoming a drink-pouch, Vossler walks over to the tables with dusty folders and tubes filled with series of strange liquids.
"We worked pretty well as a team back there." Ruby spoke, snapping Vossler out of his trance.
"Huh, oh yeah... you seem to handle yourself pretty well, could've fooled me into believing you as a Huntress." Vossler said as he pats the young girl's head. Ruby beams and could feel her cheeks turning red, "Well, Beacon Academy is a pretty amazing school..."
The name rang an eerie bell to the Hunter. Had he heard about this academy before?
Suddenly his head exploded with pain as memories flooded in, he grimaced and held both ends of his head together as if it'll fall apart. Ruby gave him a worried and confused look as Vossler winced heavily. Soon enough, the pain subsided.
"Yes... I too was a student... of Beacon..." Vossler murmured out loud to her.
"Are you... okay?" Ruby asked with an sincere face.
Vossler nodded grimly, suddenly a thought popped to his head to replace the pain. "Oh! We haven't probably introduce ourselves, haven't we?" he asked.
Ruby shook her head, "Nope! The name's Ruby Rose, as I said before I'm a student of Beacon."
"Vossler," he shook her hand, "I'm a Hunter, and I've been meaning to ask: What's a little girl like you doing here?"
"Well... I was sent here on a mission from Beacon with my friends. We were suppose to exterminate all monsters so the security guys can claim the Dust storage..." Ruby explained.
They sent students?! Damn, this would've been easier if it were just graduated Hunters... Once they find out about what's going on here Beacon won't hold anything back...
And if Dante gets carried away...
"Are your friends around?" he asked. Ruby shook her head, now worrying the man even more.
"Well," he said as he let out a soft sigh, "we work pretty well back there, so I guess we should stick close so we can find them."
Ruby beams and hugs Vossler's waist, "Thanks so much! C'mon, let's get going already!" She grabs him by the arm and pulls them away aimlessly to hunt down the girls.
Vossler made an awkward grin but was soon interrupted as he hears the haunting sound again.
Bang!
"No... no no no!" he moaned.
Bang!
"It's just in my head, I'm just tired..." he whimpered.
"Do you hear that?" Ruby asked.
Vossler's eyes shot open and stares into Ruby's, "What? You can hear it?"
The red-hooded girl shifted uneasily under his strange gaze and nodded, "Yeah... it's coming from the hallways-"
The two warriors turns as they hear a crash with debris flying everywhere in their vision. Ruby coughs and fans the mixture of smoke and spores away, "What the-" the girl looks up at the source of the disturbance and found herself staring face to face with a large arachnid. The creature had a resemblance to other cave spiders, except this one looked... unreal. The head area has what looks like a mask that resembles to the creatures of Grim but the lines are blue instead of red, and it looked like it was melted to it's face, cracked and crooked.
What really caught her attention is the two large yellow crystals growing in it's sternum. Crystallized Dust.
"Ohmygawd" Ruby said.
The creature screeches as the two crystals pulses electricity together forming an orb. "GET BACK!" Vossler orders as he grabs Ruby around the waist and ducks the incoming blast. Ruby and Vossler landed safely and pulls out their weapons in its' range mode.
"Is that some sort of grim creature?!" Ruby asked without taking one eye of the thing as it remains docile.
Vossler shook his head, "No... this too was a regular creature... this factory-it's making THESE monsters!"
"What should we call it?"
"What?!"
The monster charges at them as Ruby and Vossler fires their projectiles at it but each of them made no result as it bounces off it's body like flies. Vossler slides under the beast as Ruby launches herself in the air with Crescent Rose and fires a caliber at the crystals but an arc of electricity strikes it and explodes before it made a dent.
Ruby lands in front of Vossler as he charges up another dust arrow, "I'm just saying that we're probably the first ones that discovered a man-made, dust-using grim spider! They let people name it, right?" she asked.
Vossler shook his head and fires an electric dust arrow at the creature head-on and zooms like an arc blasts the creature. The hunter grins but it didn't last long as the monster's silhouette appears in the smoke. The two hunters watch as the creature inhales the dust particles until it was clear. The monster's crystals suddenly discharges an extraordinary amount of electricity.
"Scratch that: Dust-Eating grim spider..." Ruby shifted uneasily behind her scythe, "What do we do?!"
Vossler bit his lip as he tries to think of something. He pulls out three capsules of his selective arsenal: Combustion, Electric, and Ice.
If this creature feeds on electric dust and uses them...
"Ruby!" Vossler called out.
"Yeah?" the girl grins.
"Stand back!"
"Oh... right"
Vossler charges at the creature with his bow folded back into a blade with the ice capsule inserted now covering the sword in a bright blue mist. The spider retaliates by attacking with it's own claws but Vossler dodges left to right and deflects the swings. Each contact the blade and the claws made was a clashing battle of the two elements.
Vossler ducks as the right claw swings at him then splits his bowsword into two daggers and shoves the left one without the ice dust capsule and pins the claw into wall. Enraged that it could not pull it out, the beast swipes it's other claw just across the Hunter's chest.
"Vossler!" Ruby screamed out as she stares at his shocked face turning around in what seems to be in slow-motion. Until the corner of his mouth smiled.
The Hunter's body dissipated into glowing bats and rushes around the creature's body with the right dagger flying as it ejects the ice capsule and one of the bats replaces it with the combustion. Vossler reappears as the bats came together right behind one of the two ingrown crystals and stabs his other dagger into it. Ruby's eyes widened in surprise as she watches him fall to the ground on his feet.
"Now, Ruby!" he shouted.
"Right!" She held back her scythe and fires a shot, launching herself at the monster with the scythe blade cocked back and slices through the leg with another increased velocity bullet.
Vossler slides underneath the creature again as it begins to thrash wildly in pain of its missing limb and tries to charge up electricity only to have it detonate the combustion dust and explodes.
The creature, now with only one severely damaged dust crystal, let out a haunting screech and burrows itself into the ground. Vossler and Ruby carefully inspects the area in wait for the monster's return but now they seem to no longer hear it. Vossler let out a sigh of relief.
"Another mission accomplished by Team RV!" Ruby cheers.
Vossler frowns at her in confusion, "Team RV?"
"Well, yeah..." Ruby grins, "You know, that's what Beacon does: take the first letter of our names and form a team with the first person being the leader..."
"So you're the leader?" Vossler crossed his arms. Ruby blushes and looks away, "Well we could make it VR, if you want..."
Vossler grins and let out a soft chuckle as he pats her head. "No, I think you're more capable to lead... although our team name sounds more like a family mobile." he said.
Ruby's face beams and watches Vossler pulling his dagger off the wall with the spider's limb still attached.
"That must've been the queen. The Creatures of Grim are already bad enough, what could this facility be doing creating even more dangerous ones?" Ruby asked, "Plus I don't even think spiders can even make noises..."
Vossler's expression darkens and tries to avoid answering by looking for his other dagger. It seems that it could either still be lodged into the creature or was blasted to hell with it's remains scatter somewhere through the debris.
I want to trust her... we fight well together but we're complete strangers. I don't want her to get involved.
"But still..." Vossler whispered.
"I'm sorry?" Ruby asked.
"Huh? Oh, uh... look let's find your friends, I... I can lead you all to the dust storage." Vossler said, "That you and your friends can finish your mission."
Ruby gave him a curious look before smiling brightly. "Sounds like a plan! Let's go, Team Rubler!"
"Okay, now that one just doesn't make sense." Vossler laughed.
Bang!
The Hunter freezes in place as soon as he hears the sound again and thought the monster is coming back but Ruby seems to continue going forward like she didn't hear a thing.
BANG!
It was coming from the left hallway...
"Ruby! Wait, before we go find your friends... I need to check something." Vossler pleaded to the girl as she turns around.
"Oh," the girl said with a hint of disappointment in her tone, "I guess we can..."
Without another word, Vossler walks off into the other hallway with Ruby following behind to the ominous sounds.
{}Blake{}
"Hey, you're doing okay?" Blake asked as she gave the Head of Security a sip of water.
The man nodded weakly and looks at the injured mercenaries, all mangled up and beaten to pulps. One of them is lying in a smoking crater, he was wondering what that crazy explosion sounds were. Now he just wished he never knew.
"Is... are the girls' okay?" he groaned.
"I don't know," Blake frowned, "We lost contact with Ruby, Yang is looking for her though and Weiss is looking for the storage-"
"Screw the dust! It's because of that damn magic powder that we're playing as pawns for these burglars!" the man coughed violently as his cap fell off his head, revealing two peculiar little ears. Blake gasped, "You're a faunus?"
"Yeah, I know... go ahead and laugh, I know how you kids treat us these days..." the man muttered.
Blake stares at the ground for a while before she gently unwraps her bow. The man looks up and sighs but with a weak smile. "Been a while since I seen a kin." he said. "Surely you're not the only one here?" she asked.
"Afraid so, I seen others who quit because of the discrimination we faced. I've been told multiple times that I won't make it, and I won't be far from following the others. But I succeeded, and earned my position. Although, now I'm starting to they were right. I couldn't protect you all."
"You did your best! You're an icon to what we faunus have strive to be! You didn't give up and made it this far!" Blake exclaimed.
"Heh," the man faintly chuckled, "Such fire in those words... but... I'm afraid my flame is just about to out... Blake, even though these guys don't have tails or fuzzy ears like we do, they're still my team... make sure they..."
Blake slowly watches as the man's head tilts down with his empty eyes gazing at the ground. The huntress waves her hand to close his eyelids and silently curses under her breath.
"Poor sob. Had I known he had a sad story I would've take it easy on him." said a male voice.
Blake's eyes shot open with anger and turns around with her blade unsheathed. There stood Dante with a bruised-up lackey looking at their men lying on the ground unconscious. "You take one bathroom break and have your own men run to you with a problem and you still get to miss out on all the fun..." Dante commented with a dry smile.
"You got a lot of nerves showing up, 'Inferno'" Blake growls, "And here I thought that was the last time I'd seen you..."
Dante's smile faded as the man on his left scratches his head in confusion. "Joe, why don't you stay inside until I call for you?" Dante ordered. The goon looks at him and reluctantly nodded as he followed his order, leaving Dante and Blake alone.
"So," Dante began as he walks around, "I would assume you're either one of the victims of the jobs I took or-"
"An ex-member of the White Fang." Blake interrupted. "My clan once spoke about a boy with white hair being a member of our society. Someone named, Dante. Although, now that I have a good look on you you don't look like any faunus I know."
The mercenary cracked a grin as he patted his right shoulder pad. Blake quickly recognizes it as a disguise for his weapon and kept cautious as he began to speak."Fine," he said, "I guess I might as well tell someone. I was born into an orphanage, without any knowledge of my family. The headmasters said I was left in front of their doorstep, without a blanket, a note, or anything that could tell at least what's my first name is... It was clear that my parents didn't want me, and neither did the orphanage."
"In all of my life what I always wanted was a family that was willing to accept me. But I seen many others who arrived before me was able to escape the hellhole. Each year I stay there, the headmasters were becoming angrier and impatient with me. They wanted me gone and I was fine with that. I was treated just as bad as the faunus children, so I felt sympathy for them and felt more connected to them than humans. It was then when I heard that the White Fang was accepting faunus children to be protected under their wing. It was my only ticket out of there, so I got some fake fuzzy ears and was already accepted just like that." Dante said with a snap of his fingers.
"So you used the White Fang to get escape the life of a nobody." Blake scowled.
Dante shook his head sincerely, "At first, it was the only thing I thought of. But the White Fang had shared with me that all faunas out there were treated like worthless animals and all they wanted was to be equals. So I join the protests with heart, I really felt bad for them and wanted to make that dream a reality... until a new leader stepped up. And my whole life was changed forever. You know what happens after that, right?"
"The new leader used the children to participate into heinous actions. Many of them were used to cheat out of others-"
"And some were picked for 'special' missions," Dante finished for her, "They recognized my abilities and trained me how to fight. It was because of your clan I learned how to kill at a very young age. Cut from the same cloth, you and I-"
"I'm not a killer!" Blake growls at the mercenary, "No one asked you to play as a faunus and live our sorrowful lives!"
"I may not be like your brothers and sisters, but I had friends who were like siblings to me." Dante snapped, "I lost everyone that had been important to me, my friends and my new family."
Blake blinks surprisingly as she can hear how true his words are. She looks away knowing that she too had lost loved ones because of the clan's new ruler. She never knew a mercenary could ever know what they felt.
Dante held out his right arm and closed his palm into a fist as the shoulder pad morphs down his arm into a large cestus. Suddenly a dark grin spreads across his face, "And I butchered those killers!" he said with sickening lust. Blake looks up as she hears a jet-sounding wave coming towards her and dodges with her afterimage ability. Dante zooms by then skidded to a halt by shoving his fist weapon into the ground.
"I was good at doing my job, so good in fact that I ran away from the White Fang and started my own business as a hired mercenary. And once I recover that dust, I'll be settled for life!" Dante chuckles as he rubs his left hand like it contains a wad of cash.
Blake clenches her teeth at him, "I don't think so," she says as she held out a PDA, "Once Beacon Academy knows about what's going on here, they'll make sure that none of your men will be able to walk out of here."
"Oh is that right," Dante scratched his chin with the large cestus, "But what about your friend 'Goldilocks'?"
Goldi-Yang!? Blake turns around spotted her friend, all bruised up and knocked unconscious, being carried by Joe the lackey with her on gunpoint.
"So what will it be, Beauty?" Dante taunted, "Throw the device down and fight, or call your little school and watch your friend's brain get splattered all over the floor?"
Yang silently answers his question by dropping the PDA and kick it over to the man behind her. Dante grins as she unsheathes her Gambol Shroud and points at him with it.
"And here I thought you were a nice guy." Blake scowled.
"Sorry, Beauty, Money and fights are the only things I understand. And I got time to kill before that Hunter shows up." Dante grins.
Blake couldn't help but smile at him, which confuses the mercenary. "Money and fights? Are all you mercenaries this cliche?" she questioned.
Dante smirks at the girl with a slight shrug, "Well it's the only thing I know about."
"Fine then, let's dance!"