Sun's chest heaved as he sprinted through the streets of Kuo Kuana at full speed. He took greedy breaths and kept his hands bladed as he ran, dodging and weaving around signs, small fences, and the occasional stunned villager. Over time, Blake caught up to his side and tossed his weapon over to him in mid-stride. Sun caught the small red rods and transformed them into a staff while running, before twirling the implement to rest against his back as he made his way into the marketplace.
"Sun! What are we going to do!?" Blake asked with a strained voice. Sun spared her a look as they both kept pace, and found that her eyes were already starting to well up.
"Just… just get there, first! We need to catch our breath, and… we'll form a plan! Where's Ilia?"
Blake stole a glance over her shoulder as she leaped cleanly over a market stall in her path.
"Behind us! She's coming!"
Sun began to slow his pace as the duo reached the path leading up to the manor, and eventually walked to a stop. The building before them glowed a bright, sickening orange from within the windows, and a back section of the house was wreathed in smoke. Gunfire echoed from within the home, and Sun took several breaths to steady himself as Blake paced back and forth, scroll in hand.
"Mom? Mom!?" she nearly screamed, as the call connected. "Where are you? What's going on?
Blake paused to listen intently, before hanging up the call and stuffing her scroll back into her pants. Ilia finally reached the two speedier faunus, and doubled over to hold her knees while panting as she looked up at the building.
"Oh… oh shit! It has to be Adam! We need to get in there!"
Blake gripped Gambol Shroud and drew the halves of the weapon into both hands as she shivered.
"Mom's in the downstairs study, but she doesn't know where Dad is. I'm going to her. Sun, you find Dad, and we both prioritize getting them out of here safely."
Ilia took one last breath and nodded, before drawing her weapon. "I'll go with him."
Sun's mind raced as he watched the flames begin to creep up a distant wall. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he turned to face Ilia. "No. Go upstairs, and start checking rooms. Stay stealthy, and see if you can locate Adam. Call us, as soon as you do. Your cover isn't blown just yet, and you can get the drop on him while we distract him. One clean shock mid-fight, and he's down. Are you willing to risk it?"
Ilia's eyes widened as she looked back and forth between Sun and the burning manor, before she nodded with determination and lowered her mask to cover her face. "I'll start on the side by Blake's room."
"And I'll break a window on the way to the study, on the back hall of the first floor," Blake said.
"Then the main entrance is mine," Sun concluded. "Either of you need help, you call, immediately. Stay smart. Stay safe… and let's all make it out of this alive."
The two girls nodded their approval and took off; Ilia extended her whip and used it to attach to a balcony and zip upward, while Blake darted off to the right and rounded the side of the house before disappearing out of sight. Sun paused momentarily to watch her go, before beginning a purposeful stride for the front door of the mansion. He kicked it open and flourished his staff into a two-handed ready stance while looking around the entrance hall.
Several decorative vases were smashed, dirty footprints led in all directions, and a painting had been torn off the wall and laid face down upon the carpet. Sun heard a round of gunshots go off to his left, and immediately broke into a run through the halls in pursuit.
Blake kept low to the ground as she hugged the wall of the building and hurried along toward the far end. As she neared the window to the hallway adjacent to the study, she paused and strained her ears against the wall to listen in. Two muffled voices echoed from inside, though she couldn't make out the words from either party. The sets of footsteps rang out incredibly close to each other, and so, Blake rose and leaped into the window shoulder first.
The glass shattered as she tucked her head and converted into a roll, before aiming Gambol Shroud ahead of herself and doing a quick check of her surroundings. Two White Fang members stood before her at the opposite end of the hall, and she opened fire immediately. Each of the men dove to opposite sides of the T-junction, and Blake ran forward as she readied her bladed sheath.
"Get out of my home!"
Blake hurled a clone of herself forward into the perpendicular hallway, and the double was assaulted by a hail of bullets from either side. While the grunts were distracted, Blake slid along the floor and faced to the left before emptying the remainder of her clip into the man before her. The White Fang grunt stumbled backward and fell to the ground as the other aimed his rifle down at Blake, only for her to kick off the wall and seemingly disappear into thin air.
"W-what the hell!?" he exclaimed, only for Blake to appear behind him and snatch the rifle from over his shoulder. She aimed down and emptied the remaining rounds into the man's legs and watched his aura drain just before the last bullet, which dug into the back of his calf while he let out an agonizing scream. Blake kicked him over as the man's partner rose and reached down for his gun, only to find the bladed pistol portion of Gambol Shroud flying through the air to latch onto the firearm and drag it toward Blake. In one smooth motion, she knelt and used her bladed sheath to split the firearm in half, before pointing down to the sobbing grunt beneath her.
"You. Get him out of here, and to the hospital. Be happy you're leaving alive," she spat, before whirling and heading back the direction she came. Blake didn't bother to watch the pair go as she unloaded the other rifle and pocketed the clip before tossing the emptied metal husk to the floor. She pressed her back against the wall next to the door to the study, and once again listened in. Almost immediately, an explosion rang out from within the room, and Blake found herself unbalanced by the shaking wall.
"Is that all you've got!?" Kali's muffled voice cried through the wall, her statement chased by a crescendo of bullets from an automatic weapon. Blake smirked despite herself and barged in through the door, only to find her mother standing behind a knocked over table and firing down upon an overwhelmed grunt taking cover behind a bookcase. Blake fired a warning shot into the shelves and the man jumped, only to turn and face her.
"Leave!" Blake snarled as she strafed into the room while keeping her gun trained on the masked male. He eyed the door and bolted, only for Kali to rise from behind her table.
"…Blake, what are you doing!?" she asked incredulously. "They wouldn't do the same for you. This is an invasion on our home! You shoot to kill!"
Blake lowered her gun and took a deep breath, before shaking her head and surveying the damage to the study. Countless books and pages lay strewn across the floor, as did smears of blood. A member of the White Fang lay motionless against a cracked column, and Blake averted her eyes as her stomach grew cold.
"…we're better than them. I'll kill only if I need to… or if it's Adam. Sun's trying to find Dad, and we need to meet up with him."
"You'll need to, before the night is over," Kali said darkly as she joined her daughter's side. "Let me take point. Cover our flank, and let's work our way toward the dining hall."
Blake nodded her agreement and fell in behind her mother while reloading Gambol Shroud. Kali kept her pistols leveled as she extended two ethereal azure arms from her shoulders and began a slow walk down the hall. As if on cue, another member of the White Fang appeared at the junction of the hallway, wearing a red hood and confident smirk.
"…so, the prodigal daughter has returned," Fennec said coolly. "Unfortunate that your resistance ends here."
"Move, or be moved," Kali threatened as she leveled her lugers at Fennec's forehead. The male laughed, and raised an ornate sai with red, glowing carvings spiraling up the central point.
"You may have been White Fang before, but it's been a long time, Kali. I think you've lost your edge. To be honest, I don't think you can even kill anym-"
Fennec's words were interrupted by a spray of bullets from above Kali as Blake dove forward and over her mother. She spun in midair and flung her firearm forward as a whirling sickle, aimed directly for the spot at which Fennec stood as he focused on deflecting the barrage. Without a word, he aimed his weapon for Blake and unleashed a wide blast of flames to obscure himself, and disappeared down the hall at a sprint as they dissipated.
"That's more like it!" Kali encouraged as she ran to her daughter's side while the younger faunus landed and broke into a run. The pair rounded the corner together, and Blake reloaded her weapon as they continued forward.
"He's headed straight forward! We're not letting him get away!" Blake shouted as she ran past the door to the sauna.
"Damn right we're not," Kali agreed. "He crossed the wrong family."
Sweat poured down Sun's face and drenched his dress shirt as he stepped quickly through the halls, one hand clutching his staff and the other shielding his face. Patches of walls were slowly beginning to catch fire, and Sun tread carefully to avoid getting caught without an escape as he searched. His heart pounded in his chest as yet another storm of gunfire rang out in the room before him, and he took a steadying breath before sprinting into the fray.
Two house attendants were engaged in a firefight with two members of the White Fang in the small room where he had eaten breakfast with the Belladonnas every morning since his arrival. All four of the individuals had taken cover behind the columns at the edges of the room, and one of the masked grunts noticed Sun a moment too late as he dashed forward and leapt upward.
"He's here! Hey, that one g-"
The alert was cut off by a flying kick to the face as Sun hurtled through the air. On the way to the ground, he converted the motion into a downward slam with his knees to the center of the grunt's chest and simultaneously whipped his nunchaku across the man's face as hard as he could. The grunt's head snapped to one side as he fell silent, and his partner raised their weapon. Sun bared his teeth and held up his paired weapons to function as shotguns, before beginning to fire wildly as he advanced on the other column.
"What did you do with Ghira!? Where is he!?" he demanded as he advanced, peppering the masked man with bullets. The White Fang lackey shifted himself around the column to try to avoid the deadly barrage, only to come face to face with the house attendants, both training their weapons on his head.
"I… I don't know! He and Adam have been fighting since we got here! Don't hurt me!"
Sun's hand shook as he aimed his weapons at the man's forehead, before striking him across the face with the side of the barrel. Much like his comrade, the man went down, and Sun stood over the unconscious pair as his mind raced.
"…sir? Mr. Wukong?" one of the attendants tried. Sun looked at them with a detached, vacant expression, as though the words hadn't quite registered. He remained silent for a while, and then licked his lips before speaking in a dangerous, tense tone.
"Tell me anything you know. Anything that could be helpful. Give me a direction, or anything you've seen!" he pleaded.
"Well… some of the other workers here got involved in a fight upstairs, but I think Mr. Belladonna stayed on the first floor. I heard him yelling not too long ago, from there," the other attendant offered as he pointed down a nearby hall.
The passage was a long, wide, trophy and statue lined hall that connected the small room to the dining room after a turn. A bust lay knocked over and shattered upon the floor, and a scour mark from some sort of bladed weapon was carved deep into the wooden wall. Sun's stomach grew cold at the sight, and he looked back to the two men with a firm nod.
"Alright. You two, get these clowns out of here, and get yourselves to safety. I'm going after Ghira."
"But… alone? And what about the people upstairs?" the first attendant inquired as he nervously shifted his rifle in his grip.
Sun took another breath before answering. "I'll be fine. As for the other people… it's too dangerous. Don't go back in and try to help, because this place is going up fast. Go and get us help to put out the fire, and… once I find Ghira, I'll try to make my way upstairs to the others. I promise."
The two men exchanged nervous glances before taking a body each, and beginning to drag them across the room.
"…good luck. We'll see you outside."
"Yeah, you will," Sun reassured as he turned to face the hall. "All of us."
Without so much as a glance behind himself, Sun took off down the hall. He hopped over the shattered statue as he went, and picked up into a sprint as faint sounds of metal on metal began to ring out from somewhere on his left. He followed the junction toward the sound and made a turn, only to be met with an unwelcome sight.
The door leading to the dining room at the end of the hall was firmly shut, with three White Fang guards standing before it. Two carried swords, while the third had a rifle, and all three glared at Sun as he came into view. The fallen body of another house attendant that Sun recognized from random run-ins lay bloody upon the carpet, and a fourth member of the White Fang was crumpled and motionless against one of the walls. Sun hesitated for only a moment before he let out a spirited yell and leaped into the air toward the surprised trio while clasping his hands together as he fell into a slide on his knees.
Three golden clones sprang forth from Sun's body as his enemies drew their weapons. Of the two with blades, the first never got his out of the sheath as a shimmering faunus crashed into him with a shoulder tackle. The other tried to swing for the doppelganger's head, only for the body double to catch the blade in its hand and retaliate with a swift knee to the gut. Finally, the rifleman found his gun tilted upward by his assigned clone's hand as the projection gripped the barrel and caused the grunt to waste a round directly up into the ceiling.
Sun grit his teeth as he directed the first clone to deliver several punches to its victim's face to render the stranger unconscious, before he dispelled the double to conserve aura. The second man put up more of a fight and continued to grapple with the sparkling imposter, as the third continued to fire wildly into the ceiling. Several holes formed before the ceiling itself began to bow dangerously, and Sun ordered his semblance to tilt the gun downward. The resulting combination of the lower angle and the marksman's wild efforts to break free of Sun's grasp caused him to fire directly into his ally's back, and the masked faunus dropped to the floor in a messy heap as the second clone disappeared upon impact.
The remaining grunt's hands shook as he tried to aim the barrel of the gun toward Sun, only for the final remaining clone to hold the gun steady. The man's breathing quickened as he addressed his enemy, and glared at the teen.
"You… you did this… all of this, it was you, and that girl, and none of this would've happened if you hadn't come h-"
"Shut up!" Sun roared as he unclasped his hands and shot up from his kneeling position. The doppelganger disappeared as he ran forward at full tilt and knocked the gun aside using his staff. The firearm went off one more time and put another set of holes into the floor as Sun slammed its owner up against the nearby wall. He gripped the man's forehead and thrust his head again into the wood, before repeating the motion and watching him begin to lose balance. More clashing of steel sounded from behind the doors, and Sun threw the struggling man off to the side as he ran for the entrance.
Upon reaching the wood, Sun kicked the doors open with full force. The entire wall on the left side of the dining room was ablaze, and smaller fires glowed from the second floor railings. Sun winced as he felt the raised temperature and put a hand up to shield his eyes as he tried to adjust to the sight before him. Two men, one far larger than the other stood in the middle of the dining hall, partially obscured by a long table that had been knocked over.
"Ghira!" Sun yelled as he ran forward. As he rounded the fallen and cracked wood, all color drained from his face and his mouth fell open in disbelief.
Adam Taurus stood in the center of the room, a nasty bruise forming on the side of his face and several tears present across his usually immaculate black jacket. He grit his teeth in sheer rage as his chest heaved with effort and he glared straight across at his opponent. In his hand was Wilt, buried deep into Ghira's chest as the larger male struggled to remain standing with one hand clasped desperately around the blade.
Author's Note:
Next update on Friday.
-RD