Chapter 6: Corrosion
Atlas and Mantle. Two cities. One above, and one below. The barriers between the two extended beyond the kilometers of open air separating them. Atlas had its shining city skyline, advanced technology, military might, and the great Huntsman Academy of the same name. Meanwhile, Mantle sat in its shadow; while it wasn't especially poor, it was definitely poorer than Atlas, and the citizens of both cities knew it. Of course, travel and trade helped even things out. Supplies moved to and from the floating city, with Mantle often sending food and resources up while Atlas sent more refined products and technology down to the ground. And people commuted between the two cities just as often, traveling for work, leisure, or a vast variety of other reasons.
Unfortunately, plans for a giant elevator reaching down from Atlas to Mantle had never left the planning phase, so unless you had a flight Semblance, the only way to get up to Atlas was by airship. This was recognized quite early, and it wasn't long after the floating island was formed until companies started forming to provide ferry services between the two cities. Fast-forward to the current day, and the market consists mostly of a few large companies that have either bought out or pushed out their competition.
Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't room for smaller operations. That's where Lindbergh Ferry came in.
"Hey y'all, this is your captain speaking," Chartreuse Lindbergh said into the ship's intercom as she pulled up on the controls, sending the ship upwards towards Atlas. The Queen Lindbergh, an old cargo airship that had been refitted to carry human passengers rather than supplies, was currently on its morning voyage towards the floating city above. It currently held three flight attendants, about two dozen passengers who wanted a cheap ticket up to Atlas, and one airship captain who had been dishonorably discharged from the Atlas Air Fleet several years prior for recklessness. "It'll be about twenty minutes or so until we land in Atlas. Winds are picking up a bit, so y'all might not wanna be standing up, cause things might get a bit bumpy. If any y'all are new to Atlas, you may wanna take a gander out the window, cause we'll be passing pretty close to the underside of the big ol' rock."
As Chartreuse steered the ship closer to Atlas's underside, she paused and leaned forward as something caught her attention. The Atlas Air Fleet usually had gunships patrolling around the underside of the giant island, which was expected. After all, many of the Atlas Military's facilities jutted out of the rock. However, a lot of gunships happened to be congregating around a single point. Though it was hard to make out, it looks like they were stationed around a building labeled 'Atlas Medical'. A big hole was gouged out of the side of the building, about the size of a room. Huh. Did a bomb go off or something? That wasn't something you saw every day, considering the pristine-perfect image the military usually upheld.
"Aircraft identified as Queen Lindbergh. You are entering restricted airspace," a voice crackled through the radio. Chartreuse squinted out the window to see a Manta gunship in the distance turn towards her. "Turn and exit this airspace, or you will be escorted out."
"Yeah, yeah, gotcha. Just wanted to give the people a nice view of y'all's city, you know?" Chartreuse replied, turning the ship away. She leaned back into her chair and sighed. "Hardass... what's he afraid of, a ferry ship getting too close to that hunk of rock and blowing up the city? I ain't even got weapons on this thing, but no, he's too blind to see that shit..."
"Pilot of Queen Lindbergh," the voice crackled on again through the radio. "Please be aware that you're still broadcasting."
"You think I didn't know?" Chartreuse said, lazily grabbing the radio and setting it to 'receive only'. She leaned forward, adjusting a few switches before grabbing the steering apparatus.
Well, time to head up.
"Unfortunately, the boys in white and blue don't like me going into restricted airspace, so we'll have to take a detour around to the landing platform on the East side of the city," Chartreuse said into the intercom as she shifted the airship's bearing towards the landing strip jutting out of the edge of the floating island. "But since we're taking the scenic route, I'd encourage all passengers to take a gander at the view out of the windows on either side. You can see all of Mantle from up here, and it's also gonna be the best view of Atlas's bum that you're ever gonna get unless you join Atlas's air fleet. Not that I'm endorsing that, of course, as much as those guys would want me to - "
"Emergency!" One of the flight attendants said as he burst into the cockpit. "One of the passengers - a girl, she just opened a window and climbed onto the roof!"
"What the fuck?!" Chartreuse exclaimed. She kept her hands on the controls of the airship, making sure to keep the airship steady. After all, if someone was on top of the airship, the worst thing she could do was throw that person off. "Well, what are you doing here? Go and get her down! I'll keep the ship level."
As the flight attendant ran off, Chartreuse flipped a few switches on the control panel and grabbed the steering wheel tightly. The winds up in the air were several times stronger than on the ground, so anyone standing up on top of the ship would probably take a tumble if they lost their footing just a little. As she tried to keep the ship stable, she heard the flight attendant shouting in the main cabin.
"Come back in here, please! It's not safe out there!" the flight attendant shouted. "Are you listening to me? What are you doing? Wait, don't jump - "
BANG!
A metallic crunch rang out through the cabin as the ship suddenly and violently lurched to the side, nearly knocking Chartreuse out of her seat. Lights and alarms on the control panel began blaring as she looked out the window to see the sky flying by as the ship spiraled out of control. Without hesitation, she grabbed onto the controls of the ship and yanked them the other way, flipping switches and pulling levers to stabilize the ship once again - this time not because of a girl standing on the roof, but because the Queen Lindbergh was careening towards the ground. What happened to the girl? No time to think about it now. Focus on the safety of the passengers and get this ship out of crash velocity.
After what felt like hours - though it was probably only a few moments - the velocity of the ship petered out, pulling it out of its downward spiral towards the ground. Some of the alarms had gone off, though many were still ringing out. Chartreuse sighed as she relaxed back in her chair. What the fuck just happened? Did one of those gunships accidentally send a missile her way or something? All she knew was that the ship was now a thousand meters lower than before and, according to the status panel in front of her, had a huge dent in its side.
At least the engine was still running.
"Sorry about that, folks. Dunno what happened there, but the old girl still seems airworthy, so I'll still be getting y'all up to Atlas," Chartreuse said into the intercom as she started her ascent back towards the great floating city. "Gonna be a bit of a delay on account of us dropping nearly a mile out of the air. If you got a ride waiting, might wanna call and say you'll be late."
"I checked all the passengers. They're shaken, but fortunately, no one was injured," the flight attendant said as he came back into the cockpit. "Some are asking for refunds, though."
"Hey, I'm still getting them up there, right? Ain't my fault we got hit by... whatever the hell that was," Chartreuse said, turning to the flight attendant. "What was that, anyway? And what about that girl who climbed onto the roof? Is she okay?"
"Actually..." the flight attendant said. He paused for a moment. "She's the one who did that."
"What?"
"Her eyes started glowing and then... boom. She took off like a rocket, jumping towards the underside of Atlas," the flight attendant explained. "I don't know how she jumped that far, but the force of it was enough to put a huge dent in the ship and send us spinning out."
"You ain't making this up?"
"I'm not."
"Huh. What the hell's going on in the world?" Chartreuse muttered as she turned back towards the airship's controls, adjusting the course of the ship towards the landing bay in the city above. There were a lot of things going through her mind, but the first thing to do was to drop off her passengers. Then she'd have to file an incident report, find a place to get her ship repaired, dredge up some funds for said repair, refund tickets since the repairs would probably take a little while... well, at least her day couldn't get much worse than -
"This is a broadcast from the Atlas Military. All Atlas ports are closed, effective immediately," a voice broadcasted over her radio. "All incoming traffic is to redirect to Mantle. I repeat, all traffic..."
Chartreuse swore under her breath..
The girl with the rusty pipe slammed into the rocky underside of Atlas like a missile, her impact gouging out a crater in the stone and giving her enough footing to stand on without falling to the city thousands of meters below. Her eyes were still glowing as she raised her pipe, gathering energy into it and preparing to swing into the rock in front of her.
"You have entered a restricted area. Cease all activity immediately and surrender, or we will remove you by force."
The girl turned to see two gunships floating in the air, their guns trained on her. She stared at them for a moment, giving no response. The glow in her eyes flared up slightly as she continued to pour energy into her pipe. A whirring noise came from one of the gunships as the high-caliber assault cannons attached to its side quickly warmed up.
BLAM - CLANK!
The gunship fired, and in the following instant, the girl swung her pipe, redirecting the high-velocity Dust-tipped shell straight back to where it came from. Before the pilot could react, the shell exploded against the gunship's wing, blowing it apart and sending the ship spiraling down towards Mantle below. The other gunship opened fire as well, but the girl was already leaping through the air towards it, her pipe raised as she sailed over the stream of gunfire. Magic once again poured out from her, into the pipe in her hand as she prepared to swing.
CRKKK-CRUNCH!
The pipe struck the roof of the gunship with enough force to tear through the metal like aluminum foil. The impact of metal upon metal sent a shockwave rippling through the ship, tearing through steel and electronics as the ship buckled underneath the force of the blow. As alarms blared inside the ship, the girl jumped into the giant gash she had made in the roof of the gunship and turned towards the front, where the pilot was sitting.
"Manta-two is down! Enemy's on top of me, she's - " the pilot shouted as he turned and noticed the girl with the rusty pipe. He pulled a pistol from his waist and immediately started firing, but the girl ducked underneath the shots, dashing forward as she pulled her pipe back to strike. "She's in the ship! I need backup, I need - "
CLANG!
The pipe smashed against the pilot's head, shattering his Aura and slamming him against the ship's controls, where he lay still. As alarms blared and the ship started to fall from the sky, the girl stepped up to the front of the ship, peering out the front window towards the hole she had made in the rock beneath Atlas. It was still there, but further up now that the ship was careening towards Mantle. No matter. Energy quickly gathered, this time into her legs. Then, she leaped forward, shattering the glass of the cockpit and rocketing back up towards Atlas before slamming into the crater she had made before. Far below, two gunships fell towards Mantle, but she paid them no mind. The pipe pulled upwards, towards the center of Atlas. She had the way.
Energy gathered in the girl's pipe. She swung, gouging out another portion of rock and pushing towards the center of the giant, floating rock. One more step forward. One more step towards her destination.
"Alright, here's the sitrep. An hour ago, an intruder broke into Atlas Command's Medical Wing. A girl wearing a thick coat and wielding a rusty metal pipe," Clover said, turning to the rest of the Ace Ops as they made their way down the elevator. The other four members of the team listened intently, eyes locked on him. "The Intelligence Division wasn't able to identify her, but what matters is that she broke into the Winter Maiden's room, killed her, and escaped by jumping out the side of the building down to Mantle."
"Wait, down to Mantle?" Marrow asked as he leaned on the elevator's railing. "That's several kilometers down before you hit the ground. Doesn't that mean..."
"A normal person would not survive, but this world is full of abnormal people," Vine said, looking to Marrow and then back to Clover. "Especially if she's now the Winter Maiden."
"That's Ironwood's assumption. Fortunately, the fact that this intruder dropped to Mantle means she isn't up here," Clover explained, looking down below towards the vault that contained the Relic of Creation. It was a walkway extending out over a deep chasm with walls of rock and metal. Jagged stone spires floated around the walkway, and at the end was a door that glowed a bright orange. "The order's already gone out to lock down the city's ports so that she can't get up here."
"Doesn't that mean we should be down in Mantle, where this intruder is?" Harriet asked, crossing her arms. "You know, so we can catch her?"
"We already have people on the ground to find and catch her. Police, troops, specialists... as far as they know, a dangerous criminal by her description has escaped into the city and must be apprehended," Clover said. "But we still have the most important task of all."
"Guarding the relic," Elm said as the elevator came to a stop by the walkway. "She wanted the Winter Maiden to get to the relic."
"We don't know that, but that's the most likely scenario. If that intruder manages to get up to Atlas with the Winter Maiden's power, then she needs to come here to get to the relic," Clover said as he left the elevator. The rest of the Ace Ops followed close behind. "That's why we're here. If she gets past everything else, then we're all that stands between her and the very thing that keeps this city floating. You all understand the mission?"
Four heads nodded in agreement.
"Good," Clover said, nodding back as he smiled. He looked over to the vault door, which was suspended on a platform overlooking the walkway. A floating set of stairs led up to the platform; how it worked, he had no idea. "With luck, she'll be apprehended in Mantle, but we still need to be on our guard in case - "
CRASH!
Part of the chasm wall far above suddenly exploded outward, and every member of the Ace Ops instinctively reached for their weapons as they looked up. Amidst the dust and falling rubble something shot down like a missile, almost too fast to see. It crashed straight into the vault door, tearing straight through it as if it were tissue paper as it smashed into the ground. Light poured in from beyond the doorway, and a figure stood up, illuminated by that light.
A girl with a thick coat, a rusty pipe in hand, and eyes that glowed brilliantly.
"Lock her down!" Clover shouted as the girl with the rusty pipe ran towards whatever was beyond the doorway. Harriet was already running at maximum speed, electricity trailing behind her as she made her way up the stairs in less than a second. She ran past the doorway, into the bright green fields that somehow occupied the space beyond. In front of her was a path leading down to a staff floating on a pedestal - and the girl with the pipe, running towards it.
"Not on my watch," Harriet muttered as she ran full-speed towards the girl with the pipe. She raised her fists, ready to strike her down before she could reach the relic. The girl turned, swinging her pipe, but Harriet was ready, ducking back just out of the pipe's range -
Ka - CRACK!
- and was blown off her feet as the pipe seemed to smash into the very air itself, letting loose a shockwave that slammed into Harriet like a truck. She reflexively curled up into a ball as she tumbled back, bouncing off the ground before righting herself as she slid back across the grass. As she looked up, she saw that the girl was ignoring her, running towards the relic yet again.
"I'm here!" Harriet heard Marrow shout. She turned to see him running out into the grassy field from the doorway. As the girl reached out towards the staff, he lowered his weapon and raised his hand towards the girl, pointing at her with a single finger. "St - "
The girl with the rusty pipe touched the staff, and time stood still.
Taking the staff in her free hand, she turned and started walking towards the doorway, ignoring the girl she had blown back a few seconds prior or the canine Faunus pointing at her from the doorway. She also ignored the light blue mist coming from the staff, which was coalescing into the form of a large blue man floating in the air behind her.
"Ah, freed again to pursue the art of creation! It's been a long time, so I hope you've got something better for me than my last project," the large blue man said. He looked around before his eyes fell on the girl with the rusty pipe, who was walking past the canine Faunus and out the doorway. "Hey, you're the one that awakened me, aren't you? What have you come to have the great Ambrosius create today?"
The girl with the rusty pipe stopped. She looked up at Ambrosius. Then, she turned and kept walking.
"Whoa, did I miss something? You did come to me to have something created, right?" Ambrosius said, crossing his arms. Meanwhile, the girl walked down the steps, pushing past the rest of the Ace Ops who were frozen in time making their way up the staircase. As she reached the bottom of the steps, she made her way over to the edge of the walkway. "After all, why else would you come to the Relic of Creation?"
The girl looked up at Ambrosius again. Then, she jumped off the walkway into the chasm below.
"Come on, let me engage in my creative wiles here. I could make you a lot of things - though not all at once, of course. I could make you the greatest of weapons to replace that rusty pipe of yours, for example," Ambrosius said as he descended alongside the girl with the rusty pipe. "Or, since you happen to be falling at a pretty great velocity and the bottom of this pit is pretty close now, I could make something that'll ease your fall a bit. A parachute? No, too simple. An antigravity belt, on the other hand..."
The girl didn't respond. She pulled magic out from within herself, pushing into her pipe as it started to glow with power. Just as she would have hit the ground, she swung her pipe -
KA-CRASH!
- and smashed completely through the layer of rock at the bottom of the chasm, opening a hole through to the open air below. As she fell out of the bottom of the great floating city towards Mantle down below, Ambrosius floated in front of her, looking quite annoyed.
"So is there anything you want me to build? I wouldn't waste this opportunity if I were you; after all, you have the power of creation at your fingertips. Whatever you want, I can build it, so all you need to do is - " Ambrosius said before suddenly stopping as his eyes drifted to the backpack on the girl's back. His eyes lit up. "Oh my, that's a familiar lamp you've got there. Is that Jinn I see?"
Suddenly, blue smoke emerged from the girl's backpack, seemingly undisturbed by the air rushing by as she fell at terminal velocity. It coalesced into a familiar blue woman, who turned towards the girl.
"My, what a situation you've gotten yourself into. Quite a time to ask for more knowledge, don't you think - " Jinn started to say before looking up and noticing Ambrosius.
"Hey, sis, long time no see," Ambrosius said with a smile. "It's been, what, a hundred years since old Oz sealed us away?"
"Less than that. I would know," Jinn said, looking between Ambrosius and the girl with the rusty pipe. The girl was ignoring the two, instead looking down at the city she was falling towards. "It seems that this one has collected half the relics already, then."
"Yeah, about that. She came to me, but she hasn't said a word so far. I'd love to whip up something new after a hundred years, but I need her to give me something, you know?" Ambriosius said. "You know, I feel like she doesn't even want anything. Like, did she awaken me just to stop time - "
"That's exactly what she's doing," Jinn said. She smiled. "Quite creative, even if it is bending the rules."
"So she is. I'm supposed to be the creative one here," Ambrosius muttered with a frown. "So, do you know what she'd want me to create? Well, I mean, of course you do. You're you."
"Indeed. I know exactly what she wants. In fact, she used one of her questions on it," Jinn said with a chuckle. "And it's something beyond even what you can create."
"Huh. If it wasn't you saying it, I'd say that would be impossible," Ambrosius said, stroking his chin in thought. "Interesting. Something that not even I can build. Now you've got me curious."
"There's one question left in this era, you know," Jinn said. "If you're curious, I could tell you all about it."
"I am curious, but nah. I'll let humanity take that question," Ambrosious said, looking down at the girl. "Though I am definitely interested in seeing where she goes with this."
"So am I. But that'll come soon enough." Jinn said. " After all, it seems that two of us four are already reunited under her."
The two spirits dissipated, fading into the air, and time resumed once again. As alarms blared in the floating city above, the girl with the rusty pipe fell through the sky, towards Mantle below. Already her pipe was pulling outwards, away from the frozen continent towards warmer climates.
Towards her next destination.
The girl with the rusty pipe crashed down in an alleyway in the slums of Mantle, obliterating a dumpster and a large pile of discarded furniture. After a moment of stillness, she pushed herself up and walked away, towards the nearest airfield once again.
A/N: And that's chapter 6! This one took a bit longer because of other commitments and writer's block.
After I posted chapter 5, reviewer Cchang3 mentioned that I got the maiden-to-vault pairings mixed up by pairing Summer with Beacon and Fall with Shade. It wasn't too much of a change to correct it, so that's what I did; the conversation near the end of chapter 4 has been edited to reflect this. Thanks for pointing that out!
Besides that, thanks to those who reviewed! I can't really comment much on our protagonist, but I can say that she pretty clearly doesn't have much on her mind other than what she's working towards, no matter the consequences to those around her. Thanks as well to those who read, favorited, and followed, and have a nice day!