"Watts is fully secured. We're on our way." Blake called into her scroll, running alongside Marrow as they made their way to the vault. Harriet and Ruby were up front, leading the charge, while Elm and Amaranth brought up the rear.
The six of them were going to be bolstering Clover and the others in the vault, since it was starting to look like that's where Cinder was headed. She must have spotted Raven and decided to hit a softer target. There were no Atlas soldiers or guards in her way to slow her down, and that was intentional on Ironwood's part. He didn't want to lose precious manpower trying to stop Cinder when they could be used to protect Mantle from the incoming Grimm invasion. Leaving only very few people in Atlas Academy was the best call at this point.
"This is Hill. We've rendezvoused with the student teams and have begun loading people onto transports. I hope they're not going right into Cinder's hands."
All six of them listened intently to the open line chatter, keeping them apprised of the situation. People were going to start arriving on Atlas soon, hoping to escape danger. They needed to make sure Cinder was neutralized before she decided to turn her attention to the civilian populace.
Blake shook her head. "Part of me wishes Yang were here, but I'm not sure if I would want her to face Cinder."
Up ahead, hearing Blake, Ruby gave a smug smile, an attempt at keeping her mood light. "I could live with my sister being the Fall Maiden."
They turned the corner, seeing the door that would take them down into the vault. Then, at the opposite end of the corridor, Cinder appeared. Her disguise would have probably worked if they only saw her from one side, dressed up like a normal Atlas soldier, except that all Atlas soldiers were actively involved in the evacuation. When she turned the corner, however, they saw her head on. The patch covering her eye was more than enough to recognize her by. Crescent Rose was out in an instant.
Harriet saw Ruby moving to attack Cinder. She didn't have time to stop her, so the only way to keep Ruby from going ahead and getting hurt was to beat her to the punch, which already seemed like a good plan to Harriet. With a burst of energy, Harriet was ahead of Ruby, charging in against Cinder. Ruby stopped, firing Crescent Rose at range. Harriet was able to dart around and under Ruby's fire, which was quickly joined by Marrow and Blake's weapons. Using her momentum to carry her up the wall, Harriet moved across the ceiling at lightning speed, coming down the other wall. Cinder was distracted, trying to avoid or block all the incoming fire, which gave Harriet the opening she needed. At the last second, Harriet dove in to deliver a bone-crunching punch to Cinder's side.
"Hare, look out!"
Marrow's shout was all the warning she got before Cinder's hand caught her fist, stopping her cold. A knife appeared in Cinder's other hand, flames pouring off the blade as it arced up towards Harriet's chest. She twisted to the side, tumbling away and crashing into the wall with a thud, but with the same number of holes in her body as usual. Knowing that Cinder was standing over her, Harriet scrambled up to fight. Cinder was not interested in fighting her here in the hallway, however.
A blast of fire hit Harriet, sending her hurtling down the hall and crashing into Ruby and Marrow, knocking them down. Blake ducked under her and kept firing, with Elm taking up a position next to her while the others recovered. Elm fired a rocket out of Timber, sending it sailing down the hall. Cinder conjured three flaming spears, sending the first into the rocket and causing it to explode halfway between them. The fire and smoke from the explosion gave her cover to launch the other two spears, which shot through the cloud of smoke and nearly impaled Elm and Blake. Elm blocked with Timber, but the spear stuck in, disabling the launching mechanism. Blake managed to deflect the spear with Gambol Shroud, almost perfectly, but a gash appeared on her arm.
"Damn it!" Elm gave her weapon a smack, then looked over to Blake. "You okay?"
Wincing, Blake answered. "It cut right through my Aura."
The smoke cloud was blown aside suddenly as Cinder leapt through it, wreathed in flames. Elm instinctively stepped in front of the others, planting her feet and holding Timber in front of her. Cinder landed right in front of her, letting out a burst of flame that sent them all reeling back down the hall, save for Elm. A burning knife cut up, splitting Timber in half, and Elm only had time to move her head to the side to avoid getting sliced across her face. She did notice that it sliced off a few of the hairs of her bangs.
Cinder flipped the knife around in her hand and brought it back down to try and stab Elm in the neck. Elm dropped the severed parts of her weapon and grabbed Cinder's arm, holding her back. Cinder put her other hand on top of the knife, pushing it down further, causing Elm to have to use both hands to push back. Floating into the air until her feet were almost on the ceiling, Cinder let out a series of small fiery explosions, like rocket boosts to press even harder. Each time an explosion went off, Elm could feel that she was losing ground. Cinder wasn't letting her push the knife to the side, and it was getting closer to her neck.
If Cinder wouldn't move, and the knife wouldn't move, Elm would move. She released Cinder's hand, diving to the side at the last second. It wasn't quite fast enough, as the knife sheered through her Aura and traced a red line down her arm, but it was far better than a deep neck wound. She slammed into the wall, clutching her bleeding arm, but pushed off again to try and get on top of Cinder before she righted herself. Cinder wasn't waiting, however, and launched herself at the door to the vault, crashing through it and rocketing through the air. She turned downwards and careened towards those waiting below.
Elm rushed to the door, looking down to see the lift was tumbling down to the bottom, turning into a twisted piece of hot metal. She shouted down to the Clover. "She's here!"
Down below, Clover looked up. He saw the elevator falling down, but more importantly he saw the fireball headed his way. "Just my luck." He unfolded Kingfisher. "Vine! Get ready!"
For Cinder, time was moving slowly as she approached. She saw Vine on the wall. She saw the two elderly people hiding behind a crate. She saw a box-like room standing alone off to the side with someone standing inside. She saw a kid she'd seen before crouched behind another crate. Stopping, Cinder conjured more of her flaming spears. They had proven quite effective against the likes of Weiss Schnee, so it made sense to go with what worked. Looking down over her targets, she swept her hand across in front of her, sending all her spears flying in every direction.
Oscar dove out of the way as two spears buried themselves in the floor where he'd been crouching. Clover deftly moved his head to the side as a spear flew past him harmlessly. Vine had to jump down from the wall and over the edge of the walkway, grabbing on with his Semblance and dropping out of sight. Maria moved in front of Pietro, her mechanical eyes narrowing as a pair of spears flew at them, and knocked them aside with her staff.
Three more spears punched right through the window of the Flute containment room, one of which continued on through the door into the central chamber and struck the pedestal, knocking it over and spilling the Flute onto the floor. Piper backed herself against the far wall to try and hide, but the breach in containment caused the security measures to release a cloud of sleep gas that quickly washed over her. Kali ducked down, though none of the spears were aimed at her as Cinder couldn't see her just yet. She saw Piper drop to her knees and then onto her face, being put to sleep by the security measures. That was not a good sign.
Cinder lowered herself to the walkway, her feet hovering just an few inches above the floor as she floated opposite Clover. "You're either very brave or extremely stupid."
"Thank you. You too." He casually pointed Kingfisher at her. "What do you say we do this the old fashioned way and leave magic out of it."
Behind him, Maria jumped up onto the crate holding the Cradle. "Screw that! Eviscerate the bitch!"
Clover let out a huff. "I hate to disappoint the elderly." Like lightning, with a flick of his wrist, Kingfisher's hook latched onto Cinder's shoulder. He spun the weapon, pulling her unprepared towards him, and brought his knee up to meet her chin, sending her into the air. He whipped Kingfisher's line around her throat and pulled her back down, slamming her into the ground. Standing over her, Clover sighed. "I don't suppose you'll just give up now. You know, my Semblance is good luck, even if you do stab me, it'll probably miraculously hit nothing vital."
Cinder's eyes flared up in anger, and Kingfisher's line snapped. She kicked Clover in the chest, sending him stumbling back. She stood up, and immediately Vine was on her. His Semblance wrapped around her in a huge bear hug, pinning her arms to her sides. She looked over her shoulder, then swore at herself and looked the other way so she could actually see him.
Vine calmly approached. "Do not resist any further, and you will not be harmed."
She narrowed her eye at him. "I'll do the harming, thank you." A pair of long flaming spears appeared in her hands, forming all the way across the gap between them, their points appearing just in front of him. She stabbed them into Vine's stomach, then wrenched them up, a malicious grin on her face as he stumbled and collapsed. A moment later, his Semblance faltered and released her. Oscar appeared next to her, swinging Ozpin's staff for her head. She grabbed it and lifted him in the air. "I've been hit with that thing enough times."
Kingfisher's line wrapped around her arm, pulling her back from Oscar and forcing her to drop him. She lashed out behind her, only for Clover to punch her square in the face. One of his team was injured. He was done playing. He grabbed her mid-stagger, slamming the reel of Kingfisher into her face repeatedly. She brought up a flaming knife to try and ward him off, but he ignored it, turning and smashing her back into the floor. She wrapped one hand around her neck and lifted her, slamming her down again. The knife went into his hip, and he could feel a more than one bone being cut apart, but he picked her up again and hit her against the floor again. Cinder let out a cry of pain that told him it was working.
Her cry of pain was followed by a cry of rage. She hit him in the chest with a blast of fire that sent him flying away and crashing into the Cradle's crate, forcing Maria to hop off. Cinder got up, stalking towards the elderly woman. Maria activated the scythe head of her staff. Seeing that she wasn't just facing some mouthy old lady, Cinder launched forward, leaving a trail of fire behind her as she sped around Maria's side. Swinging her weapon, Maria caught Cinder in her shoulder, knocking her out of the air. Getting back up, she was immediately assailed by Oscar, who smacked her in the head with Ozpin's staff. She kicked the boy aside and went for Maria, only for Vine's Semblance to grab onto her leg.
Cinder glared back at Vine. "You just don't give up, do you?" She prepared another spear, aiming for the wounded Ace Ops, but Maria hooked her scythe around Cinder's arm and pulled her back. "Wha- Get off me!"
Penny's foot connected with Cinder's head, knocking her down. The teenage robot landed beside her. "You're under arrest." Cinder launched a fireball up at Penny, who jumped to the side, using the jets on her feet to speed away, and one of her blades hooking into the floor next to Cinder's head to bring her around in a semicircle, landing on Cinder's opposite side. "I said you're under arrest."
"Damn you!" Cinder raised her hand and brought it down, conjuring a knife that stabbed through Penny's foot.
"Aah!" Penny screamed as her foot sparked.
Cinder hit her with a blast that knocked her away, then aimed another blast at Vine. She kicked off the floor with and explosion that staggered Maria, then dove for Oscar and grabbed him, flinging him at the old woman. Both of them tumbled away and hit the side of the Flute containment room with a crash. The door to the containment room opened, revealing Kali, who quickly drew her sidearm and fired it at Cinder in a panic. The shots hit home, knocking Cinder back. Annoyed, Cinder fired more flaming spears, which peppered the containment room walls. Kali ducked back behind cover, letting out a yelp as one of the spears punched through the wall, its tip coming out right next to her face.
Cinder wasn't immediately sure who to go for in this target rich environment. Penny seemed the best choice, as she was still mostly functional. It would be easier to clean up once everyone was too hurt to fight back. She turned to face Penny, who was standing with her hurt foot held gingerly off the ground. Cinder thought that was an odd behavior for a robot. Then she noticed in the corner of her eye that Vine was standing up again. On her other side, Oscar and Maria were getting up. Clover limped to Penny's side, Kingfisher still in his hand as he bled profusely from his hip.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?" She asked, not really expecting an answer, and not really caring if she got one. The whole walkway shook as Elm landed behind her. She looked back to see Marrow and Harriet landing on either side of her. Ruby and Blake joined them, coming out of Ruby's Semblance combat ready. Then some other girl landed between them, Cinder didn't recognize her. "This is getting ridiculous."
Penny fanned out her blades, then brought them together, charging up her main cannon. "I'll say it again. You are under arrest."