"Three queens." Thanaton munbled, laying out three cards of a queen of spades, dimonds, and clubs. She gave a wicked grin, leaning back in her chair with her arms behind her head. "Top that, Dion." She licked her lips as her purple eyes flickered in the dim light of the room.
In a small room inside a warehouse, there was a square collapsible table with three metal folding chairs around it. Thanaton, Dion, and Nihilus all playing poker.
"Beat that huh?" Dion leaned in, running one hand through his messy hair. "Let's see." He let his chest muscles flex a bit as he reached over to grab a bottle of vodka. "Top those three the ladies, hm?" He held the neck of the bottle up to his lips before he tilted it and started to chug it like it was water. After a moment, he slammed the bottle down along with three cards of his own. "Three kings! I believe that deems me a winning!"
She gave a deep groan, her eyes narrowing more and more with each passing second. Her head quickly snapped over to her brother. "You better put down something nice."
"Huh?" Said young man glanced up, his hand holding up his head by his chin. "What?" He raised an eyebrow before leaning back. He blinked a few times few before glancing down at his cards. "Oh yea. Right. We're... playing this why exactly?"
"Just put your cards down already." His sister mumbled, kicking him under the table. "Come on, Nill. Put them down."
Nihilus just sighed slightly, laying them down with another sigh. "I don't get the point of this." He muttered.
"You surely know how to play though, kid." Dion said, blinking rapidly had the Royal Flush he had just put down. "Even when cheating, I never get that as easily as you just did."
He just stared back more confused before sighing. "Whatever." He munbled, slouching down as he blew some of his shaggy dark blue hair from his face.
"Always so grumpy, Mr. Grumpy." Thanaton said, kicking him under the table again. He actually flinched this time from it. "Why don't you just play for once and try to have fun!?"
"Because there's no point in this." He reached down, rubbing his shin. "And there's no point in kicking me either."
She rolled her eyes, leaning back into her seat with a sigh. "Mr. Apathetic."
"Ms. Hype." He responded, only to flinch as he kicked her again. "Okay! Damn it! Stop!"
"Children..." Dion mumbled, glancing back as he heard the door open. He gave a faint chuckle as he saw pink. "Well if it isn't the Pink Princess."
"Shut it, Dion. Unless you want to lose your tongue?" Valentine flashed him a sinister smile which quickly silenced him. She stepped closer, her hips swaying back and forth with each step. Besides the demonic look in her golden eyes and pure hatred across her face, she was actually rather pretty.
She wore a light pink, mid-sleeve shirt with a single slit cut into each sleeve and then tied back together by a hot pink string around the bicep. This was underneath a hot pink vest which only had the bottom button closed to show her shirt underneath. She had a pair of high rise pink shorts with faint gold trimming all around underneath a pink leather mid-calf cloth which had gold trimming as well. Around her waist was a black towel, tied loosely with two leather belts with pouches filled with Dust crystals. She had black ankle boots with straps keeping them locked in place and light pink stockings that rose up to her mid-thighs with black straps around the rims with a pouches filled with Dust as well. Her hands, covered in fingerless black gloves sewed to black leather cuffs which were buttoned with two golden buttons. And as always, her pink bow and pink quiver were on her back, a pink strap across her chest that held her quiver. She had a beautiful hourglass shape, her hips sticking out like white on black. Her light pink hair always flowing like the wind even though it was straight. She was stunning, monstrous or not.
"I'm good." The shirtless man said, quickly looked down at the table with a gulp.
"Good." She purred before sitting down on said table, crossing one leg over the other. "Now, Roman-" She was cut off, blinking a few times over at Dion who spoke up.
"That wannabe criminal is nothing!" He stood up. "He's nothing but a creepy pervert! At least I don't go after girls who are under eighteen!"
"Not to mention the men you go after." Thanaton chuckled, glancing up at him with wicked in her eyes.
"I-" Dion glared at her for a moment, going silent. After a moment, he snapped. "At least men don't blabber as much as you!"
"But they don't have booooobs~!" She wiggled her eyebrows, her hands motioning around her chest.
"Than... Thanaton..." Nihilus mumbled, glancing over at his sister. "Why don't... you know what, nevermind." He shook his head with a sigh.
"Quiet!" Valentine snapped, rubbing her face. "Our allies are busy with a Dust raid tonight. They have been running into trouble lately. I want you three watching the streets with other White Fang members to try and make sure no one, especially nosey Huntsmen and Huntresses show up."
Thanaton grinned, glancing over at Nihilus. "Hear that bro? We get to go out finally."
He just rolled his eyes, standing up. "Yea, yea." He reached down, picking up a sheathed katana that was leaning up against the table. "Let's get this over with."
In the city of Vale, walking through the streets were four girls who were, even though nick picking at each other constantly, slowly coming together to form a group of friends that only time could test.
"You know, the stars are really pretty tonight." Cheyenne mumbled, her hands in her pockets as she stared up at the night sky. "The moon is looking as pretty as ever too."
"Too bad the city lights ruin most of the good looks." Elise glanced over at her. "At my farm, we're so far away from the city that we can look up at the sky and see every star possible. It looks like someone sprinkled powder sugar all over a black blanket. It's really pretty." She smiled at the memories of sleeping out under the night sky with her father in nothing but a sleeping bag. "You guys should come there and check it out sometime."
"You think your parents would let me?" She looked over at her. "I mean... they won't try to shoot me for my antlers like you did, will they?"
The young farm girl's face went a bright shade of red before she quickly went to rubbing the back of her head with a faint chuckle. "Y-Yea, sorry about that, you know. I didn't mean to try and shoot you. I just sorta... you know... went off of instincts..."
"Let me go to your family farm, and I might forgive you." The deer Faunus smiled a bit.
"Or we could just stop going outside." Kris mumbled in. "It's all humid and sticky and everything and bla." She stuck her tongue out, pointing a finger to the back of her throat as she made a gagging noise. "People are terrible."
"Why are you even complaining?" Kagami glanced over at the young red head. "You got to put your makeup on. It took you who knows how many hours, but you got it all on. And now we are stuck taking a walk at night."
"Not my fault all of you are fine with looking like trash while out here." She grumbled, her arms crossing."
"Excuse me," Elise held up a finger. "I don't look like trash. I look amazing, than you very much."
"She has a point." Kagami pointed at Elise while looking at Kris. "Makeup just covers up insecurities and let's people pretend to be someone they're not. I mean... if people were suppose to be born with green eyelids, I'm pretty sure we would have been born with them."
"I agree with that." Cheyenne added, pointing over at Kagami. "That sounds about right."
"That's not all it does!" Kris snapped, waving her arms around. Before she could speak though, she stumbled from an explosion coming from the docks. "Huh?" She glanced over.
"That... didn't sound good." Elise mumbled, seeing smoke start to rise up. "Doesn't look good either."
"Well," Kagami glanced back at the two before giving a faint smile. "Since we're out here." She started to smile before grinning.
"Well," Cheyenne patted Kris' shoulder. "Hope you're ready to run again."
The small girl blinked a few times before sighing deeply. "I hate all of you." Was all she let out before giving a long and deep sigh.
While the four of them bolted away, none of them seemed to pay attention to the dark figure watching them from the rooftops. The figure slowly stepped away into the shadows of the night, a second later going from roof to roof after the girls.
"Hurry up!" Elise called out to Kris who was a few paces behind, panting heavily. "I swear, I am going to kill all of you! Why can't one of us get a motorcycle or something?!"
"Because-!" Cheyenne started speaking then skidded to a stop as something, or rather someone, jumped down in front of her.
"Whoa, whoa whoa!" Elise cried out, stumbled to a stop as Kris and Kagami slowed down. She just blinked, staring at the person in front of them that was hidden by shadows.
"Listen, you aren't going to go any further. So I am going to say this once." Nihilus munbled, stepping out of the shadows to show his red and white zipper hoodie and dark blue jeans with armor plating. "Leave. Right now." He pushed up the sleeves on his hoodie, reveling armored forearms. "You have one chance. Make the right choice."
Kagami blinked once, glancing back at her teammates. "All in favor of leaving?" Each of the three girls held their thumbs down, glaring over towards him. "Well, that settles it." Kagami looked back at him. "We're not leaving." She took a step forward, drawing her sword as her teammates took out their own weapons.
"Wrong choice." He said plainly, reaching down for the katana handle. When he pulled it out, the four girls all lowered their weapons and tilted their heads as they blinked.
"What?" Kris mumbled, staring at what should have been a deadly weapon but was just the hilt of such. "So you don't even have a blade?" She sighed a bit before smiling with a grin. "That's fine be me." In a split second, she was bolting straight towards him.
"Wait! Christmas!" Elise shouted with a hand outstretched, only to flinch at the harsh glare Kris shot her for calling her by her real name.
"I warned you." Nihilus said, crouching down a bit as he gripped the handle tight in his right hand. He reached into his pocket, glaring at the small girl who lept up into the air with candy cane weapons above herhead. With no emotions on his face, he shoved a Dust crystal into the bottom of the hilt. A moment later, a katana blade made of yellow along with sparks dancing around it shot from the handle.
"Nice trick! But it's not enough!" Kris snapped, blades comng from the ends of her weapons as she brought them downward.
He just calmly brought up his blade, locking it with her twin weapons. The metal in her weapons quickly picked up the charge from his blade, sending a current throughout it and into her body. Kris gave off a scream as she dropped her weapons. She quickly stumbled back, shaking her hands which had faint sparks dancing from them.
"Ow... ow ow ow ow!" She shook them before looking up. Her eyes went a bit wide as she saw Nihilus bring back his blade, slashing at the air. As he did so, a yellow crescent shot through the air and at her. "H-Hell!" She screamed, shutting her eyes. She expected pain, but nothing seemed to come.
Instead, Kagami jumped in front of her, slashing at the yellow energy with her sword. Rather then eletrocuting her, it cut it straight in half. The two pieces separating and hitting the ground on either side of Kris.
"It's an even a more wrong choice to attack my teammates." Kagami mumbled, her eyes narrowing.
"Suit yourself. You've had your choice." Nihilus said before running straight at her. He brought his blade back, swinging it at her.
Kagami did the same, their blades clashing and causing sparks to fly all around. Unlike with Kris' weapons though, the electric seemed to stay inside the blade itself.
He blinked once, eyes narrowing a bit. "That's a new one."
"What?" Kagami couldn't help but give a playful smile. "Never seen a sword conformed by magic?" She whispered the last sentence only for him to hear.
He blinked once again, a faint look of confusion coming across his face.
That was her opening. She quickly shoved him back before sliding a foot under his feet.
He gave a faint grunt, rubbing the back of his head before jumping up to his feet. "You've made a terrible mistake." His eyes narrowed as he twirled his blade.
"Didn't you already say that though?" She smiled at him just as a few gunshots were heard.
Nihilus head quickly snapped to the side, seeing Elise and Cheyenne firing several rounds at him. He gave a soft groan, his dark blue eyes flashing gold. Cheyenne's blasts and Elise's darts suddenly hit nothing but the side of a building, all traces of him gone.
"What?" Kagami lowered her sword just a bit before grunting as something hit the back of her head. She quickly fell to the floor. As she turned around, a foot collided with her chin. Before she could do much else, her sword was kicked straight from her hand away.
As she looked up, she saw Nihilus panting softly like he had just done some great task. "No more of this." He brought his katana up, slashing the air in front of her.
Kagami gritted her teeth as she saw yellow energy launched at her. She quickly shut her eyes, arms crossing across her face. She grunted at first, a tingling sensation all over her body. Then it turned to nerve wrecking pain as she cried out.
Nihilus just looked away, glaring at the two who were shooting at him earlier. He didn't even seem to care about what he had just done. There was no sign of joy or amusement at all. But there wasn't a sign of remorse or sorry either.
"Oh shoot." Elise mumbled, taking a step back. She gripped her marksman riffle tight.
"No kidding." Cheyenne added, trembling ever so slightly.
With a deep breath, the young farm girl did all she could think of when she saw Nihilus slash the air and send the same attack at the two of them as he did Kagami. She shoved Cheyenne as hard as she could away, letting her stumbled into an alley. She felt her heart racing before she quickly shut her eyes, expecting the worse.
But it wasn't her turn to scream.
She looked over as she heard a much smaller and high pitched scream come a bit in front of her. As she did so, she couldn't help but blink several times.
Barely standing, Kris was trembling with sparks jumping across her chest. She gulped deeply, glancing up as Nihilus started walking up towards her. She couldn't helpbut fall to her knees, her arms wrapped around her body with shaky breaths.
He just started down, gripping his katana with both hands while the blade pointed down at her neck. "I told you, you made the wrong choice."
Kris' green eyes went wide with fear. But before she could scream and before Nihilus could deliver the fatal blow, a camouflage blur tackled him straight to the ground. She blinked slowly, her body falling onto the ground, with blurred vision, she saw Elise ontop of Nihilus before she saw her light up in yellow and give off her own scream. Kris just groaned, slowly shutting her eyes as everything went black.
With an agitated groan, Nihilus pushed Elise's unconcious body off him with little care where it landed. "Damn it." He groaned again, standing up as he brushed himself off. He glanced over at Cheyenne who was shakily holding up her Atlas riffle. "Do you really want to do that?"
With a trembling grip, she slowly nodded back to him. At that moment, she squeezed the trigger and sent off a blast. Her eyes then went wide as her shot seemed to complete miss Nihilus by a mile. "Wh-What...?" She took a step back.
Nihilus took a step forward, panting a bit like his aura was running low for some odd reason. "Wrong choice." He mumbled, slashing the air at her.
The deer Faunus yelped, shutting her eyes tight. She only opened them as she felt something run past her. She spotted a glympse of green before she looked forward.
In front of her, Kagami was breathing heavy as she drove her blade into the ground. She knelt down on one knee, gripping the hilt of her sword tight as the eltric energy shot straight into it, absorbing it like it was nothing.
She slowly glanced back at Cheyenne, standing up. "Get... get Elise and Kris and run." She mumbled out.
Before she had a chance tocrespond though, Nihilus spoke up. "You're kidding, right?" He tilting his head. "To be honest, you had the chance to run. I probably wouldn't have even saw you do so. You could be long gone from here and safe, yet you choice to stay here and let others flee?"
"Wh-Who said I was fleeing?" Cheyenne asked with a gulp, gripping her gun tight.
He just shook his head, an hand on his forehead. "Now that's even more stupid. Having the chance to save yourself and not taking it."
"It's called sticking by your friends." She snapped back, a lot harsher than she normally would.
Kagami just glanced back at her, smiling just a little as she looked back at Nihilus. Friends stuck by friends. She never really had one, and she always assumed the four of them were, but hearing Cheyenne say it out loud was something else in its own way.
"It's ridiculous, that's what it is." Nihilus said, twirling his katan before regaining a stance. "It's a terrible choice that will cost you your life."
"Fat chance." Kagami mumbled back, barely able to stand as she gripped her sword tight. "You'll have to get past me to kill her... to kill my friend..." She blinked, watching Cheyenne walk up to her side.
"And you'll have to go through me before you touch her." She held up her riffle, aiming it straight at him.
"This is idiotic." He mumbled, his eyes slowly narrowing as his grip tightened on his hilt. His eyes mainly glaring towards Kagami. "There's no point in fighting, you can't win. You should have ran and lived while letting these worthless excuses for a human being die. Save yourself while letting trash be trash. Not that all of you aren't trash. You're mere existence is horrible. Our existence as living beings is awful!" He snapped, charging at the two.
Cheyenne took a step in front of Kagami in a protective way, and even though Kagami was happy to have her, have all of them as friends, she still didn't trust anybody with her life. Not yet at least. So she, even though she could barely stand, bolted forward as well with her sword raised.
"Kagami!" Cheyenne shouted, fear and concern filling her voice as she ran after. Not like she did much though.
Nihilus and Kagami just clashed blades over and over again. Sparks dancing all around them. Kagami was clearly given the lower hand though. Her strength failing her fast and faster while Nihilus only seemed to pant.
Finally, he managed to shove her down. Kagami grunted, the wind being knocked out her her lungs. She coughed several times before going stiff at the electric Dust blade a hair from her neck. She gulped deeply, her chest rapidly rising and falling. She then flinched as a large blast suddenly struck Nihilus in the back, making him stumbled away with a groan.
Kagami looked up, seeing Cheyenne holding up her Atlas riffle in its second form with the larger barrel. She couldn't find the words to say thank you, so instead she lowered her head back down to catch her breath.
Nihilus growled deeply, shaking his head as he glared back at Cheyenne. He gripped his katana tighter, reaching in his pocket for another Dust crystal only to pause as he heard his scroll going. He blinked once, grabbing it and pulling it out.
"Yea?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Right now? I'm in the middle of something... okay, even if he is done and someone messed with the heist, I'm about to-" He gave a faint sigh. "Alright. Understood. I am coming back now, Thanaton." He shut off his scrool, sticking it back in his pocket. The yellow blade of his katana vanished as he sheathed the hilt. "Consider yourself lucky." He mumbled before vanishing into the night.
With a shaky breath, Cheyenne lowered her weapon. "Really lucky..." She mumbled before slowly walking over to Kagami and kneeling down next to her. "You alright?"
"I could be better..." She mumbled, breathing softly. "A lot better..."
Cheyenne just nodded, glancing over at Elise and Kris who were still both unconcious. "They saved each other." She smiled a bit, looking back down at Kagami. "And what in the world is that sword of your's made out of?"
"Nothing..." She mumbled in response before opening her eyes as she stared up at the star covered sky. "And you know what I have learned so far? We suck at being Huntresses and taking down villains..." She softly chuckled.
"Yea, we really do." She smiled a bit, sitting on the ground with a sigh. "But that's why we're are Beacon. To get better."
Kagami just nodded, staring up at the broken moon before shutting her eyes.