Author's note- Some people were a bit off put by the JoJo reference at the end of the last chapter, some even finding it cringe...good. By this point I've already decided that I'm gonna make Blake an obnoxious weeb (even more so than her actual character) because well...jojo. Might even branch out and have her force stupid references to animes other than JoJo, idk. I warned you about dumb humor and forced references a while back tho, so buckle up because here comes some more.
There was only a few seconds of very intense powerwalking for the two sisters, one of them repeatedly trying (in vain) to remind the other this was a group mission, before they reached the pads for the bulkheads. They half expected Pyrrah to already be gone but instead they saw her standing there "talking" to a man they could only assume was the pilot who looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but here right about now. As the two got closer they started to actually hear the words being exchanged.
"Sir with all due respect there seems to be some confusion here." Pyrrah said in her friendly voice, and already Ruby was beginning to worry for this bystander.
"Yeah, what's that?" Said bystander asked lazily, not at all interested in the conversation.
"You seem to think I'm asking you to take me to Vale." Pyrrah continued, with only the slightest hint of malice coming through her façade.
The man narrowed his eyes a bit. "What the...who the f-" The man began to respond in the worst possible way, thankfully however Ruby stepped forward.
"Hey, mind if I just hop in here real quick?" Ruby approached with a friendly greeting, hoping to diffuse the situation and possibly save this mans life, after all if he died who would pilot the bulkhead? "What my friend here is trying to say is we have to get to Vale, it's an emergency...right Pyr?" She nudged her, a bit harder than needed due to Ruby growing tired of constantly having to remind her two fellow love struck maidens that this was a team assignment.
The man shifted his attention from the newly arrived girl back to the first headache keeping him from clocking out. She stood there like a statue with an equally stony face as she stared him down, slowly though she smiled in a way that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Of course." She offered while her eyes still bore into him.
"That sucks." The man responded. "Because what I've been trying to say is my shift is over, and I want to go home."
Ruby gave a bit of a grumble, now starting to understand Pyrrha's earlier mood, but this time Yang stepped forward a bit to try and diffuse the situation.
"Awww come on champ, what's the big problem here? All you gotta do is make one more trip and you get some of that sweet OT pay am I right?" Yang came up with her usual casual approach, attempting to appeal to the man's want for money rather than his want to help others or even himself.
"Nope, don't get paid overtime." The man instantly answered.
Yang blinked a few times. "...geez really? That's kinda-"
"Fucked up ain't it?" The man again instantly answered. "Look, I'll be here bright and early tomorrow can't you three just wait until then?"
Yang snorted as she nudged her sister. "Hey sis, I don't think this guy heard you, wanna remind him what you said?"
"Wha-uh...yeah, mister this is a emergency." She stressed and stretched the word as if she was talking to a dimwit. "That means we kinda have to go now."
"Yeah no, I did hear you and I know what emergency means thanks." The pilot sighed, he seriously doubted this so called emergency was anything other than these three kids trying to do some last minute shopping or trying to make it to a party. "But to be honest it's really not my problem and as the adult, and only person who knows how to pilot that heap of junk, I'm saying it's not happening."
Pyrrah took a deep breath and spared a glance to the other two girls. "Leave us."
The sisters shared a look of confusion before they shrugged and made their way towards the bulkhead, perfectly content to let Pyrrah do whatever she deemed necessary after spending a whole minute talking to the infuriating pilot.
Said pilot, none too pleased with being ignored, shouted at the two to attempt to make them stop. "Hey didn't you hear me? It's not happening, I'm in charge here." Suddenly the first girl, the one with the red hair, ever so gently rested the back of her hand on his shoulder.
"Do you feel in charge?" She asked in a manner that was obviously rhetorical and the man suddenly felt cold inside despite her making no move to actually hurt him.
"L-Like I said, I'm the pilot here..." The man mumbled out, suddenly losing the bite he had earlier when talking to them.
Pyrrah looked genuinely confused. "And this gives you...power over me?"
The pilot took a deep and shaking breath to try and calm himself. "What is this?"
Pyrrah messaged the man's shoulder. "Your authority as an adult and part of the Beacon staff have been important." She moved her hand to gently cup the side of the man's face. "Until now."
The man at this point began to visibly shake as the girl continued to stare him down blankly. "What...what are you?"
The gentleness of Pyrrha's hand began to disappear. "I'm Blake Belladonna's reckoning, here to end the borrowed time she's been living on."
The pilot was clearly distraught. "You're...You're pure evil."
"I'm necessary evil." Pyrrah flatly answered before she brought her other hand towards the pilots face, ready to inflict grievous bodily harm.
"waitwaitwaitwaitwait!" The pilot pleaded. "I'll go, right now, it's an emergency right? No time for breaking or snapping anything r-right?" He rambled, suddenly far more compliant.
The hand that surely spelt his imminent doom stopped and retracted to show a smiling and friendly girl. "I knew we could work things out!" She walked past him towards the bulkhead, the pilot following behind her.
She stopped after just a few stops. "Oh, and just so there's no further misunderstanding between us, I feel like I should let you know..." Pyrrah turned around to look at the pilot who stood ramrod straight at the eye contact. "Tell anyone of this and I will break you." She told him with a warm smile.
"O-Of course, not a peep." The pilot eagerly answered, now terrified of a girl probably less than half his age. He no longer cared about clocking out or what the so called "emergency" actually entailed, just that his neck kept going in the perfectly unsnapped way it was right now.
When he climbed into the ramp he saw the other two girls already getting comfortable, the blonde one called out to the almost murderer walking in front of him. "Wow good going cereal girl, whatcha do to get him so eager to help?"
Instead of answering Pyrrha merely turned to look at the pilot with a small smile and a almost hidden glare, demanding he answer for her.
The pilot eagerly obliged. "O-Oh you know, just appealed to my better nature." He hurriedly shuffled towards the cockpit. "W-What type of man would I be if I couldn't help Beacon's precious students?"
The two sisters shared a look, surprised and mildly confused about the man's sudden humility before Ruby turned back to give him a thumbs up. "That's good to hear, thanks for the help!"
He didn't even answer this time, shutting the door to the cockpit and starting the engine. As the bulkhead began to lift off the girls had a time to discuss their plan of retrieving Jaune.
"So...how are we doing this again?" Ruby asked.
"Violently." Pyrrah immediately answered.
"But not lethally right?" Yang asked, not truly sounding worried in the slightest.
Pyrrah only gave a grunt that couldn't be distinguished as affirmatory or not as her answer.
Ruby gave an awkward laugh before she continued. "Yeah but...how do we even find them I mean?"
Pyrrah and Yang both blanked at this, bringing their hands to their chins to contemplate as Ruby gave a sigh. "I mean all we really have to go on is in that they're in Vale, an entire city." Ruby continued to break down their current predicament.
"They're probably staying in a hotel of some sort, assuming kitty is trying to get some milk." Yang offered.
The sound of a jaw clenching, something that really shouldn't be audible, caught the sisters attention. "Yes, and I'm sure "kitty" would go to one close to the bulkhead landing zone." Pyrrah said through clenched teeth. "I'm sure she's eager to steal my prize."
Ruby only mumbled the correction of "ours" dejectedly, only half wanting the spartan to hear her. Yang shared no such self preservation. "Hey come on now, group effort right?"
Ruby grumbled under her breath again, remembering her sisters earlier forgetfulness of the "group effort". Noticing the vacant stare Yang was receiving from Pyrrah, Ruby decided to butt in none the less. "At the very least can we just focus that Blake is probably doing uncouth things to Jaune?"
Elsewhere, Jaune and Blake
"S-So, feeling any better yet Blake?" Jaune nervously asked as he played the part of big spoon, laying behind Blake as if he was a plank. He was honestly a piss poor big spoon.
Blake stared at the wall with a flat face as she laid in front of Jaune. "Is that a rhetorical question?"
"No?"
"Then are you just dumb?" Blake asked in a way that almost sounded genuine.
"...No?" He answered, not entirely sure.
Blake sighed as she continued to lay there dejected. "Jaune I understand this may be a bit strange for you but I need some sort of skinship for this to work." To demonstrate her point she used a hand to pat the empty space between the two as they laid there. "Which I'm currently receiving none of."
Jaune gulped a bit as his face heated. "R-Right." He wiggled over a bit closing the gap. He stopped as soon as his chest made contact with Blake's back. "Better?"
"It's a start." Blake answered, voice still flat.
This would take a while.
Back on the Bulkhead with the Girls.
Pyrrah sighed. "Of course, I should focus on my more immediate enemies." Yang also made some comment about Ruby actually using the word "uncouth" but was paid no mind.
Ruby sighed. "I guess that's a start..."
Yang leaned back in her seat as she pulled out her scroll. "Think we can also assume the hotel they're staying at isn't going to be real pricey, I mean student's don't exactly make bank." She began to work away on her scroll, pulling up a map to search for nearby hotels. "Unless you're Weiss I mean."
Ruby snapped her fingers in approval. "Great thinking sis, I knew you had it in you!" She beamed earnestly, earning a narrowed gaze from her sister.
"Not sure I like the way you said that..." Yang responded, wary of Ruby's potentially backhanded complement and unsure if she deserved a thrashing. She decided instead to return her focus back to her scroll. "But whatevs, I think I know where we should check first."
Pyrrah leaned in to peek at Yang's scroll as she read out the name of the hotel Yang was studying. "The...Ankha zone?" Pyrrah looked back up, shooting a confused look to the sisters. "What's an Ankha?"
Ruby only offered a shrug. "And why does it have a zone?"
Yang hushed the two. "Who cares what an Ankha is? It's just the nearest hotel with beacon student price range, that's all that matters."
The girls shared a nod as the Bullhead had already began to touch down on the landing pad in Vale, the Pilot putting the pedal to the metal so to speak to hasten the journey speed limit laws be damned. The "Ankha Zone" was only a short walk away, they'd be there in no time at all.
And when they did there was no telling what would happen.
Ending notes: Yep another cliffhanger ending, what can you do about it? Also a relatively shorter chapter because some real writers block...what can you do about it? Nah but truly, sorry about the somewhat lackluster chapter but I felt like I had to get something out after all of this time and not to put this story down or anything but it's far easier for me to force out words for this story than my Oregairu one (which I'm also hitting a huge wall with, sorry).