Oh...MY...GODDDDDDD! I'M SO SORRY! I really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really (I know this is a lot idc) really really really really really am sorry about disappearing for so long without saying anything. I know that I should have totally sent you guys a message or something, but college has turned out to be a big fat motherfucking pain in my ass, and ive been so busy and stressed out lately that I haven't really been able to write. Fortunately, i'm luckily starting to settle in and I'm able to write more. I'm sorry this one is so short, but I promise a much longer, much better chapter is coming the soon soon soon future. Thanks to all of you for staying with the story, It really means a lot to me to know that you guys didn't decide to unfollow or unfavorite(though im sure you all stopped paying attention lol) I hope you still enjoy this story and that im able to deliver you guys better and more frequent content.
Blake's cat ears flattened against her head as the pounding against the safe house door continued. She ushered Aname behind her, and drew Gambol Shroud from it's sheath.
"Who's there?" Blake yelled, though in her mind she already knew.
"Hehe, well if it isn't the pretty kitty." A familiar voice responded between the hits.
"Oscar." Blake growled, confused by the much more sinister and twisted tone than when she had last met him.
"That's right. I'm a man who takes pride in my work, and you and I have some unfinished business." He chuckled again. Before Blake could even react, the door to their safe house had been blown open and Oscar had entered. His blue eyes and blonde hair with streaked with black corruption. He and Blake glared at one another while Aname quietly loaded a magnesium shell into her grenade launcher.
"What happened to you?" Blake asked. She was curious, but kept her voice steady.
"I was shown the true path. Milady has granted me a second chance and all the power I can handle." He pulled his warhammer from his back. This new one was made of sheer bone, and had a large goliath face bone as the hammer portion. Oscar swung it around as if to test it, casually destroying the furniture in the room, and started slowly stepping towards the two he was a mere 5 feet from them. Blake let her face crack into a little smirk.
"Now!" she yelled, ducking down and prompting Aname to let loose with the magnesium shell. As Blake ducked, she undid the ribbon she used for Gambol Shroud and expertly whipped it around her and Aname's eyes, protecting them from the blinding light. Oscar screamed as the light nearly burned his eyes out, and he started thrashing wildly all over the room. Once the light had died down, Blake grabbed Aname by the hand, and dragged the girl out of the shelter and away from Oscar. As they took their first step outside, the duo was immediately blindsided by a cleaving blow from Oscar's monster. The two girls hit the pavement and skid, gripping their sides tightly. Blake coughed as instincts kicked in and she pushed herself to her feet.
"Aname… Are you alright?" she asked, in between large breaths.
"Yes Blake, I'm fine." She responded, applying pressure to her cut side. Blake kept her eyes focused on the monster as it roared another of its demented roars.
"Good Boy." Oscar praised the monster as he walked up to its side, still rubbing his eyes. "Get her." The monster lurched forward and started running at Blake, clearly rearing back with its club hand. Blake waited until the monster had just started the arc of its swing to jump into the air. As the club passed harmlessly under her she threw the pistol form of Gambol Shroud at the monster, the ribbon reattached to its hilt. Blake pulled herself in close, sharply swiping her elbow against the monster's temple. She grimaced as she grabbed its grotesque flesh and pulled Gambol Shroud back out, before unloading its clip right into the monster's faces. Blake smirked in satisfaction until she felt the monster's hand grab at her back, throwing her down into the pavement with force. Blake wasn't even given a moment to catch her breath before Oscar was immediately started kicking at her side and face. Blake used her semblance and put some space between her and her adversaries. She rose to her feet and shifted Gambol Shroud to its sword form while drawing her sharpened sheath. Blake stepped back holding both her blades at the ready. In response, Oscar stepped forward and swing at empty air with his warhammer, sending six black missiles streaking straight towards Blake. Blake gasped at they raced towards her. Blake tightened her body, knowing there was no way for her to dodge the attack outright. She especially didn't expect to see Athena's light clad shield whir past her, intercepting each of the missiles before implanting itself in the ground halfway between Blake and Oscar. Blake glanced behind her and saw Weiss and Athena both sprinting across the courtyard, their swords drawn.
"Good, the other one is here." Oscar smiled, breaking into a sprint right for Athena and Weiss. Blake moved to cut him off, but a slash from the monster's axe hand stopped her right in her tracks.
Across the courtyard, Athena watched as Oscar approached, his hammer drawn back. She kept her blade down at her side, not wanting to telegraph her moves. Athena relied on her patience until she and Oscar were close enough for him to start swinging his hammer. Athena flipped her sword into a reverse grip and braced the flat part of the blade against her forearm before raising it to block. Oscar looked at the ease with which Athena repelled his attack, knocking his hammer back and throwing him off balance. Athena flipped the blade in her grip and maliciously stabbed forward. Oscar grit his teeth as he threw himself to the side, resulting in his shoulder as opposed to his stomach being pierced.
Weiss left Athena and Oscar to fight among themselves and rushed to Blake's side, where the faunus girl was focused on dodging each of the monster's strikes. Engaging her semblance, Weiss used the Monster's focus on Blake to quietly place a glyph below its feet, slowly encasing its lower body in ice. The monster roared as its struggled against its new prison.
"Nice." Blake complimented Weiss as the heiress stopped next to her friend.
"I try." Weiss rotated the barrel of Myrtenaster to its fire dust setting. "Ready?"
"Absolutely." Blake nodded. Weiss summoned a line of glyphs, each of which began to fire balls of fire straight into the monster's chest. The monster desperately tried to use its arms to defend itself, but the repeated impacts and the intense heat eventually burned its arms completely off, leaving it vulnerable. Blake saw the opportunity and rushed in. The Monster gave one last scream as Blake dragged both of her blades across its body from it's hip to its shoulder, nearly bisecting it. The Monster thrashed against its frozen prison before it finally slumped over and disintegrated, the weapons that formed the core of its body clanging to the ground.
"That...was easier than I thought." Blake panted as the two girls walked to check up on Aname.
"I mean, seeing the monster probably helped." Weiss shrugged. There was a second of silence before the two girls laughed.
Across the courtyard, Athena and Oscar were locked in heated combat. The newly chosen was struggling to hold his own against the queen. The flurry of Athena's blade, even without her shield for protection, would have shred a normal man to pieces. If not for Oscar's semblance creating a trove of monsters to defend him, he too would have been cut to ribbons. After her blade has sliced through yet another of his creations, Oscar lashed out with a noticeably damaged warhammer. Athena tucked her chin into her neck and headbutted the hammer back into the ground.
"Losing steam aren't we?" she taunted, raising her unmarked head, and raising her blade sharply. Oscar grit his teeth as he felt the steel cut into his underarm and raise him into the air. Oscar grabbed the blade and pushed himself off, landing on his back. Athena wasted no time stomping her foot on his chest. Oscar groaned as he coughed up blood.
"Bitch." He mumbled under his breath.
"Now… who are you, and why did you kill so many people in this town?" Athena asked, digging the heel of her shoe into his chest.
"Just figured I take a little break during my travels, get a sense for the powers bestowed upon me." Oscar laughed.
"Bestowed by who?" Athena pressed. Oscar pressed his lips together and didn't make a sound. "Answer me!" She demanded, stamping down on his chest, snapping a few of his ribs.
"Who does not matter, because soon she will come for you." Athena rolled her eyes at his response.
"Fine, where are you going?" she asked, his voice laced with annoyance.
"To guard something very very important." Oscar answered smugly. Athena growled and was about to crush his chest completely when the sound of metal whizzing through the air hit her ears. She jumped back, using as much of her strength as possible as bullets began to litter the ground around Oscar. Athena, Weiss, and Blake all looked up to see three large airships descending on the town, their guns trained directly on them. The three girls watched quietly as one of the airships touched down, and three soldiers clad in black uniforms collected Oscar and his weapon, loading him up before taking off. Once the ships were back in the air, Athena collected her shield, while Blake and Weiss helped Aname to her feet.
"Old friend?" Athena asked, looking intently at Blake and Weiss.
"Long story. I heard him say something about guarding something important." Blake noted.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I'm pretty sure that he was talking about Darron. If they are really after us, wanting to keep Darron well guarded and out of the fight is the best path to victory they have." Blake said, her eyes hardened with certainty.
"Ok that's great, but how are we going to follow them?" Weiss asked. Blake and Athena pondered the idea for a moment until Aname spoke up, coughing from the wound in her side.
"I have a truck in a garage in town. We could use that. I don't know how effective it will be at tracking them though, considering its just a car." Aname suggested.
"Where is it, we'll take care of the rest." Blake said, her spirits heightened by the idea of seeing Darron again.
"It's that way." Aname pointed, and Athena scooped the girl up as easily as a feather. The group followed Aname's directions and were soon standing in front of an old tin roofed garage. Blake and Weiss pushed up the door, revealing Aname's truck.
"Well… It'll run probably." Weiss said, looking at the worn vehicle.
"It's all we've got so get your ass in it and drive." Aname answered, a little aggravated at the way Weiss spoke about her truck. Athena laid Aname in the back seat before she climbed in the truck bed, too tall to sit inside the cab. Weiss took the wheel and Blake sat in the passenger seat, keeping an eye on Aname.
"Alright ladies, let's go." Athena said, knocking on the back window of the cab. Weiss rolled her eyes, and started the engine. She pulled out of the garage and headed down the road leading out of town, following the specs of the airships in the distance.
On the ridge of a small hill a few miles outside of Vale, Adam and Darron were both sitting quietly, as their car billowed smoke behind them
"So you're telling me… We have a broken car, a fake map, and a billion dollar bounty on our head, and all were doing is sitting here like a couple of fools who got caught joyriding?" Darron asked, tightening his grip around one of his desert eagles.
"As it is now… yes." Adam answered, biting his tongue in anger and staring at the sunset. The two kept sitting there in awkwards silence before the two of them immediately turned towards one another.
"This is your fucking fault!" They yelled simultaneously.
"My fault?!" Darron growled.
"If you hadn't floored it like it was some kind of race car, then maybe the car wouldn't have overheated and blown out the engine block(idk how cars work. I put in key, they drive)" Adam explained.
"Well if you hadn't insisted on raiding every single hideout we could find, we might have arrived there two days ago and we wouldn't be having this fucking problem!" Darron countered.
"I'm thinking long term. Strategy, tactics, shit like that. I'm think about what happens once we get your sword back and actually need to fight my sister. I'd rather her have a little back up as possible. The chosen are already going to suck, but a wealth of foot soldiers too. I'm not going off on some super aggressive emotional temper tantrum am I!" Adam's voice rose in anger.
"Well maybe I thought that the faster we get there, the less of her chosen she could muster and have waiting for us at God knows wherever my sword is. Besides, maybe if we had only hit a few of the bases, they wouldn't have figured out what we were doing and we wouldn't be working with a fucking incorrect map!" Darron matched his intensity. The two of them continued arguing, and were even on the verge of slugging it out when they were surprised by lights coming down the road.
"...well that's convenient." Darron smirked. He walked into the road and waved the car down. As the truck rolled to a stop right next to him, he raised his pistol and pointed it right at the driver.
"Get out."