A.N. (11/30/22) - Here's a treat for y'all, another chapter so soon after the other!
Atlas (3) - Sympathy
The results were immediate.
Right after he fired, Roman quickly activated a device to shield himself and Will before the room was suddenly filled with dust and debris. From the newly made hole in the ceiling, snow began billowing around as visibility became obscured within seconds.
"Well, I'd love to stay and chat. But I don't really like my chances of going up against the famed Specialists of Atlas. So I'll be taking my leave with this guy here."
"Hold on a sec!"
"Don't think about moving closer." Roman pointed the end of his cane against Will's body, causing Marrow to freeze in place. "As much as I need this guy, I wouldn't risk my own ass in exchange. One wrong move and I might end up doing something we'll all regret."
Rin could see that Marrow didn't know what to do. He lost his chance to use his Semblance, and now Roman was keeping a close eye on the two of them. Any slight indication that they were about to act could pose a risk to the hostage in his grasp.
Roman smirked before he threw Will over his shoulder in a firefighter carry and jumped from ledge to ledge until he escaped through the roof.
"We have to go after them," Marrow immediately said. "I'll tell the others to block his escape routes. You wait here and–"
Whatever he was about to say was suddenly cut off as Rin dashed in his direction to block an attack aimed at his back.
"You go on ahead," Rin shouted. "Looks like there were a couple more invisible foes. I'll deal with these guys while you go after Scarlatina!"
"But–!"
"Clover said it himself, he's the important one. I'll be fine, just leave this to me!"
He gave a reluctant nod, then quickly moved to pursue Roman. Once he was out of sight, Rin turned to face the two hazy figures standing before her. Checking her surroundings for a second, she relaxed and spoke to them.
"You can discard the disguise now, it's safe to talk."
There was no response.
"That attack from before probably destroyed all the cameras. Besides, only a few people have the authorization to check the footage here, and I'll take care of that before you two leave." Again, no response. "Really, the silent treatment? I thought our relationship was better than that."
Finally, one of them spoke. "You're really a bitch, Rin."
Their appearances fizzled as the girls revealed themselves. They were dressed the same; purple halter tops, black cut-off shorts, and mid-calf boots. Not only were their uniforms the same, but their appearances were identical as well. If not for having known them for a while now, even Rin would have trouble telling the two apart.
The other sighed. "Did you have to hit us so hard earlier?"
She was referring to when Rin shot the two of them with her gandr shots. It was only due to her holding back that they were able to recover so fast. Rin was just glad that Marrow didn't notice that these two were the ones he was fighting earlier, his mind still focused on Roman instead.
"I had to make it look convincing," Rin replied. "So what are you two doing here anyway?"
"What makes you think that you deserve to know anything?"
"Are you two still angry about me leaving?" Rin rolled her eyes. "Militia, Melanie. I never had a problem with the two of you. It was the Lil' Miss that crossed the line and made me decide to leave. Have you heard about what happened in Argus? Your mother was partially responsible for that happening when she dealt with Merlot."
It may have been her notes that allowed Merlot to progress to the abomination that he became in the end, but it was the Lil' Miss who stole Rin's research and gave it to Merlot that allowed that to happen in the first place. Rin still held a grudge against the older lady for that, and she vowed to eventually pay a visit to her one day to make her displeasure known.
"Whatever." Militia gave her a critical look. "But anyway, what's up with that freaky eye of yours?"
"Please don't tell me you finally gave in to the impulse to experiment on yourself," Melanie said. "We always did tell you that your mad scientist habits would one day make you act reckless."
"No." Rin scowled. "I lost my old eye a while back during a particularly rough scuffle. This is just a placeholder until I get myself a proper replacement."
"Were you thinking of us when you got it?" Militia wiggled her eyebrows. "Don't think we wouldn't recognize our namesake. Malachite, I approve. Unless you're trying to honor the Lil' Miss, then that's just creepy." They never called their mother by anything but the Lil' Miss. "Was that how you noticed us earlier too?"
Mystic Eye.
By cutting a precious gem into shape, she was able to turn it into a low-ranking artificial mystic eye. Using malachite as a base, it functioned as a mystic eye of sympathy—allowing her to see the emotions of others within her line of sight. It was this ability of hers that allowed her to determine Militia and Melanie's identities. Even though she couldn't see their appearance, she could tell from their emotional signature who they were.
"Pretty much," she confirmed. "But let's not derail the conversation any longer. I'm guessing that you stole some pretty fancy Atlas tech to allow the two of you to turn invisible. The real question I'd like to ask is why are you two not in Mistral and here with that bumbling fool from before."
"Roman?" Melanie shrugged. "He's not as fun as you, but he sure knows how to take us on interesting trips."
"He's the one in charge of this operation," Militia continued. "We're just here to have a good time. Not sure what to tell you, but we have no idea what he wants with this place."
Her eye showed that they were telling the truth.
Sighing to herself, Rin slid the eyepatch back down to cover her eye. Since she didn't have full control of the mystic eye yet, she rarely used it unless the situation necessitated its usage. The eyepatch itself was a type of mystic eye killer, blocking the oculus and limiting the amount of information she processed.
"Since we're friends, I'll pretend that you guys weren't here. But I can't say the same for the others. You wouldn't mind if we took in your goons, would you?"
"Go ahead, we have more at home."
"Even Roman?"
"If he gets caught, then that's his fault. We can make our way back home without him if needed."
"Perfect." Rin glanced to the side. "Then I should probably get to doing my job. You two should probably escape while I'm busy."
"Fine with us."
"Nice seeing you again."
The twins turned invisible once again as they quickly fled the area. She allowed them a few minutes to escape first before she turned to one of the terminals.
"Let's see." Rin pulled up their records. "Adaptive cloaking technology… how on Remnant did Atlas scientists learn how to make stuff like this? This stuff is kinda advanced for some of their usual inventions." She kept digging. "Inspired by an artifact found in Kuchinashi ruins? Artifact is being held on base?" Her eyes narrowed. "Anomalous energy signature? Displaces light through unknown means at the cost of using Aura?"
She had a sinking suspicion that this wasn't just any regular artifact they found. If she translated their terminology into concepts she already understood, and if she took into account the fact that Kuchinashi was a hotspot for magical artifacts…
"These scientists are trying to decipher the Mysteries of a mystic code," she realized. "But why would Roman want to steal that? No, is that really what he's after here?"
At the bottom of the page, she caught sight of something that drew her attention and made her bite her lips.
APPROVED BY GENERAL JAMES IRONWOOD
Before she could comment on that, her comm picked up as Marrow spoke in her ear. "Tohsaka, what's the status of that countermeasure to their invisibility? The guy who took Scarlatina ordered a few of his men to distract me, and I can't see them in this weather."
"Give me a second," she replied. "I just pulled up the information on the invisibility tech. I can set up something to negate it for a few minutes."
"Do it!"
Turning away from the terminal, she cleared the floor before her and threw a single gem out. Even though she wasn't negating magic, she could still target the effects of light displacement and interfere with the results. The piece of Dust hovered in the air as she closed her eyes to begin the spell.
-Show me your true form-
"—Now, reveal thyself!"
Bending down and touching the ground with her left hand, magical energy flowed until she found herself visualizing several individuals in her mind. Targeting them, she began to remove the color of their mark and erase the effects of their equipment. The only exception to this procedure was two bright colors of red and white, indicating the presence of the twins from before.
She tapped her ear. "Marrow, did that help?"
"Yeah. Not sure what you did, but I can see these guys now."
"Can you handle things by yourself?"
"The rest of the team is on the way to back me up, so you can leave things to us."
"Great." Rin cracked her knuckles. "Because I might be busy for the next few minutes."
With that said, she turned back to the terminal and began tapping away.
}-{
Will Scarlatina had never been in a situation like this in his entire life.
Hanging limply over the shoulder of his kidnapper, he was roughly tossed aside as the orange-haired man suddenly yelled at something. The Specialist chasing after them was stopped by something—no, he recognized the hazy outline of two attackers using his adaptive tech. The weather suddenly grew worse, causing snow to increase and making their surroundings harder to make out. Will shivered even with his activated Aura protecting him from the worst of the cold, and the man next to him noticed.
"Don't worry," the man—Roman, he introduced himself earlier—said. "I'm not gonna kill you. You're too valuable to certain people for me to afford to do that, and those people are scary enough that I want to avoid getting on their bad side."
"W-Who are you talking about?"
"You'll see," he said cryptically. "I've already sent a signal telling them to come here. I'll tell you now that they're not planning on taking you away if that's what you're worried about. Although, what they have planned in store for you might be an even worse fate."
His imagination was running wild from all the possibilities of what that implied, and he couldn't help but shiver once more. No, that wasn't it. The temperature was dropping rapidly while the weather worsened. Snow was flying around them wildly in a rapid manner compared to before.
"Ah, that's our cue."
Three cloaked figures suddenly appeared before them. Roman took a step back, and was it Will's imagination, or did his kidnapper look nervous at their presence? Either way, he focused instead on the people in front of him.
He noticed one of them linger back while the other two took a step forward. Now that they were closer, Will got a better look at their faces. They were a pale boy and girl with similar features, enough that he could tell they were related. The girl was expressionless while the boy gave him an unimpressed look.
"This is the one?"
"It is," the girl replied. "Once we bring him into the fold, our plans will go along smoother. Better hurry up before the rest of the Specialists get here."
"Don't tell me what to do," the boy snapped back. He turned to face Will. "From now on, you will obey me as your king."
He placed a palm on Will's head.
}-{
By the time the rest of the Ace-Ops reached Marrow's position, the weather had calmed down enough for them to see Will waiting alone for them with a calm smile on his face.
"What happened?" Clover asked. "Where are the others?"
"I'm not sure," Will answered. "They left with no explanation once we reached this spot. I think Roman—that's the one who held me hostage—only wanted me around as insurance so that he could escape. I assume they didn't need me after that."
"Marrow?"
"The two I fought are gone," he said. "One minute, they were panicking at the fact that their invisibility was gone. Next, they suddenly ran away without warning. I decided to prioritize Scarlatina's safety instead of pursuing them, but the snow kept me from reaching here until now."
"Good call, although regrettable. There should still be a few others back in the facility we can interrogate." He turned to face Harriet. "What about the rest of the scientists?"
"They're safe aboard the airship. I set it in lockdown just in case anyone tried their luck."
"Guess that's the best outcome we can expect from this." Clover sighed. "Well, I guess this means we should take care of the aftermath. With the facility damaged to this extent, I believe it would be best to escort everyone back to Atlas until things are figured out. Mister Scarlatina, is there anything important here that you need to retrieve before we leave?"
"No, most of our research is backed up to an online database. We mostly worked here for confidentiality reasons. Important prototypes for the military and government, that kind of stuff."
"Care to tell us what the mercs were after here?"
"Pretty much anything they could find," Will answered. "Drones being developed for Mantle, hard-light shields for police work, cloaking technology to adapt to surroundings. Stuff like that can make a fortune on the black market in the right hands. We'll have to send someone to do an inventory check later."
"I'll tell the soldiers coming here later to keep note of that." He tapped his comm. "Tohsaka, what about you?"
"Things are all good here. The two I was fighting managed to escape, but I'm still maintaining the field to negate the invisibility tech. I'll keep it up for a few more minutes until you tell me otherwise."
"That would be helpful. We'll probably do a few more sweeps through the facility just in case, but you can probably take down the field once we're done."
"Roger that."
"Her Semblance is really useful," Marrow commented once he finished talking. "What exactly is it?"
"Not sure," Clover replied. "Our clearance level isn't high enough for us to be informed."
"Who is?"
"General Ironwood. He's the one who ordered for it to be a secret in the first place."
"Is she with Special Operations or something?"
"According to her, she's just a consultant." Clover slung his weapon behind him. "Either way, I'm not paid enough to look into things like that. Better focus on the problem at hand instead."
"Sure."
And that's the end of the prologue chapters.
Torchwick and the Malachite twins are mostly a cameo and won't have much significance later in this arc. Unless my plans change, they probably won't be appearing again anytime soon.
A lot of the stuff in this chapter was taken from things not introduced in the show, so it might be confusing for readers who don't keep up with all of the other RWBY works. Even I don't do that, mostly combing through the wiki for background knowledge that I can appropriate for this story. Most of that is from the RWBY novels, so if anyone here has read them, you can probably guess who the bad guys of the Atlas arc will be.
Rin's new Mystic Eye is the same as Yvette's from Case Files, only limited to one jewel instead. I picked emotion sight because of the similarities between it and Ren's improved Semblance, as well as the fact that it was based on malachite. Of course, this is only a temporary Mystic Eye until she gets a better one later. What that is will be revealed in time.
Next up, a confrontation between Rin and Ironwood about their opinions on decrypting the mystics.
