It's been a rough couple days for Junior; VPD keeping an eye on his business since Torchwick's incident at the Docks; security is down because the Malachite twins are out of commission; and the Red Hood's been on his ass since the meeting with the heads. With how things are right now, he couldn't think how it could possibly get any worse. Much to his dismay, fate certainly proved him wrong.
It was long after dusk and Junior's was preparing for their opening in a couple hours. Bouncers were already waiting upfront and the D.J was setting-up his station. Junior himself was preparing everything behind the bar while his men were cleaning up, transferring crates, and stocking up bottles. During their preparation, they all heard the loud roar of a motorcycle coming from outside.
That should've been their first clue. Nobody showed up until an hour before opening, but even then, not many would make such a loud entrance. Looking over the security feed outside, dread sunk in the moment he saw the familiar yellow-black sports bike. Oh no, not her. Junior thought.
Next came the muffled yelling from the club's entrance, which was then followed up with punches being thrown and glass breaking. Soon enough, multiple of his men came charging in and desperately tried closing the door.
"Hurry up and close the door! She's coming in!" One of them yelled out to the others while they barred the door.
Frustrated, Junior yelled out to them, "What are you idiots doing!?"
Before any of them gave a coherent response, the door they held back exploded open, knocking them all down. A familiar long blond mane of hair walked through the smoke and stopped before them all.
"Guess who's back!" Yang smirked and posed, undisturbed by the amount of weapons now aimed at her face. The men around her stood ready and scared, still remembering her last visit.
Not wanting for things to get further out of hand, Junior straightened his tie and cut through his blockade of men to approach the girl. "Stop! Stop! Nobody does anything stupid!" called out Junior before coming face to face with the brawler, "Blondie, you're here!...Why!?"
Yang's smile dropped at the sight of him. "You," She pointed at him before grabbing his arm and dragging him off to the bar, "Still owe me a drink."
Once there, she practically threw him behind it and sat herself comfortably atop one of the stools. "Still remember my order?"
Junior could only groan and grumble as he prepared her drink; grabbing the champagne glass; mixing the tequila and juice; layering with some strawberry syrup; and garnishing it with a strawberry slice and a tiny umbrella. "Strawberry Sunrise, no ice. Now, what the hell do you want?"
"Ah, jackpot," The devilish smile Yang had as she took a sip from her drink and sighed at its freshness. It didn't disappear when she looked him dead in the eyes, "Roman Torchwick. What do you know?"
Junior wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the twist of fate. Hell, he did the former, much to the blond's confusion. At this damn rate, everyone in the city wants a piece of that son-of-a-gun, and there's not enough of him to go around.
Yang raised a brow and frowned at the laughing man before her, "Is something funny to you?"
"Yeah," Junior had to wipe a tear from his eyes while he tried to compose himself, "You think you're the only one who's looking for him? Blondie, half of the city has been asking for him. And I'll give you the same answer that I gave them: I don't know!"
"You're the biggest information broker in Vale, how can you not know?!" Yang leaned in and pointed out.
"Are you aware how much heat he is under? How many ears are on the ground just for him? The only way anyone is finding Torchwick is if he stole a cop car and started blazing across the highway with the sirens on!"
While she knew she could press him more on the topic, Yang knew that it would be pointless. If not even Junior could find him, then the lead was pretty much dead. Her trip there was almost pointless. Almost.
Wiping the frustration off her face, Yang decided to switch to a different topic, "Fine then, enough of Torchwick. How about…that other thing….I asked you?"
Junior's face shifted from one of annoyance to uncertainty and caution. He didn't dare look at her while he cleaned a glass. "Remind me again, who is she to you?"
"None of your damn business. Did you find her or not?" Yang demanded.
Her impatience got Junior to chuckle and shake his head, "She's dangerous business, blondie. You're not even out of the frying pan, are you sure you want to jump into the fire?"
"Save the rhetoric for the superstitious and cowardly and actually tell me." Yang was starting to lose her patience as her eyes shifted to red.
That was all he needed to confirm his own suspicions, and yeah, he was not going to get involved with whatever business this was. Might as well tell her the truth then, "Mistral, somewhere south west of the city, and that's as far as I know and willing to go."
"That's it? You just basically narrowed down to part of a continent! How the hell are you even considered as an information broker?!"
"Look, you wanted to know where she is and that's all I can get you! If I dig any deeper, it would be my name next in the Vale Obituaries!"
By now, Junior was practically in her face with how angry he was. Even with how red his face became or much he tried to overshadow her, Yang paid no attention to him as she calmed herself. Turning around, she made her way towards the destroyed entrance of the building.
NOW the trip has practically become worthless. Hopefully her team was having better luck.
Night had fallen in Vale and civilian activity seemed to have died down. By this time of night, the roads would be busy as many made their daily commute back home. But while many were finishing their day, it had only started for others.
From around an alley corner, Blake watched from afar a pair of horned faunus being ushered into a nearby building. She then looked back and traced her fingers over the chalk claw scratches of a nearby wall. This was the right place.
"This is it."
"You sure?" Sun asked, earning a glare from Blake while she unfastened her bow. "Y'know, I'm just gonna take your word for it."
As the pair entered the building, the faunus upfront gave them a matching set of Grimm half-masks and showed them to where the other recruits were. While Sun examined his mask and was confused by its allegory, Blake stared down and gripped hers with contempt.
"I don't get it. If you believe what you're doing is right, why hide behind masks? And why Grimm?" Sun asked.
"The masks are a symbol," Blake explained, putting on her mask and feeling the familiarity of its weight, "Humanity saw us as monsters, so we chose to don the faces of monsters."
"...That's kind of dark."
Blake shook her head and followed where the other recruits were going. "So was the guy who started it." She whispered underneath her breath.
They were all led to the more open area of the warehouse where a large stage was set up. On stage was a full-masked faunus with tattoos, with something large behind him that's covered in a sheet emblazoned with the bloody logo of the White Fang. Above them, many different White Fang soldiers monitored and patrolled from the catwalks to keep an eye on them all. In an instant, Blake recognized the uniform of a lieutenant on stage, but wondered why he was even here. The White Fang had spokespeople to better ease in new recruits for their cause, so why send a higher ranking officer? There had to be something special about this meeting.
A sudden buzz from her scroll got Blake's attention and was quick to check before the guards caught her.
GIRL_WONDER: I'm in. Will stay in contact.
A sigh of relief washed over the Cat faunus just in time for the lieutenant to start.
"Thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!"
To Blake and Sun's shock, a smiling Roman Torchwick walked onto the stage, much to the crowd's displeasure. Many in the crowd yelled in protest and anguished at the presence of a human being there.
"Thank you, Thank you!" Torchwick cheered and bowed, "Please, hold your applause!"
"What's a human doing here!?" One of the newer recruits yelled.
B. BELLADONNA: Torchwick is here.
…
GIRL_WONDER: Stay low. Make sure he doesn't spot you.
"I'm glad you asked, 'Deerie'! Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans... are the worst," Roman then gestured to himself, "Case and point. So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or, better yet, killed! But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy: the ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty, rotten humans that run our kingdoms!"
As his speech continued on, more and more of the recruits were starting to become swayed by his words; heads were nodding in agreement; different faunus were raising their fist and cheering at his 'truth'; and soon enough, most of them were convinced and rallied behind the human, much to the horror of Blake.
"And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around with the right tools, no offense to any rodents in the room."
With a snap of his fingers, the sheet behind Torchwick was pulled to reveal an Atlesian Paladin, earning a loud applause from the faunus crowd. Unlike the one shown from the presentation, this one had been given a new paint job with the color scheme now being red and black and the logo on the chest being painted over with the White Fang logo.
"Whoa," Sun was in awe, "That's a big robot."
"How did he get that?" Blake rhetorically asked, with a mix of both shock and fear.
"Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world! Thanks to a couple friends of mine underground, we've managed to snag this beauty from the Atlas Military. Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. You can stay in the city if you want, but if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, then here's the kind of arsenal that I can provide you. Any questions?"
Just like that, a loud round of cheers and applause would answer him. Almost all of the crowd moved towards the stage, eager to join Torchwick's 'righteous' cause.
"We should get out of here." Sun strongly advised. However, the dense crowd around them kept them from moving anywhere but forward.
B. BELLADONNA: Torchwick has an Atlesian Paladin!
…
B. BELLADONNA: We're blocked by the crowd! We can't escape!
…
[Seen by GIRL_WONDER]
Blake was starting to become anxious. With Torchwick having such a powerful weapon and more and more White Fang members wanting to join forces, the entire situation was getting worse. Ruby wasn't even responding to her messages, meaning something must've happened. And now they were blocked in, moving ever so closer to-
Looking up to the stage, Roman Torchwick was squinting at their direction, zeroing in on them. His eyes then widened in anger before throwing down his smoking cigar.
"He sees us," Sun pointed out in worry.
At that moment, Blake felt her scroll buzz from a message. Quickly looking down, her blood ran cold by the message:
GIRL_WONDER: LEAVE. NOW.
[A bit earlier…]
In the back of the building, 2 White Fang grunts were discussing with one another about a couple remaining boxes that had yet to be shipped. Their transport truck had somehow broken down during transport and was forced back to the warehouse for repairs. With no more vehicles to spare for transport, the grunts had spent hours on the truck, but were no closer to fixing it.
"For the gods' sake, I am going to wring the neck of whoever drove this!" A scaled White Fang grunt irked as he threw a wrench across the room, "It's as if they just ripped a couple wires out of this thing!"
"Oh, cut Punkleman some slack. She's new." The horned White Fang grunt defended.
"If we don't deliver these weapons on time, then Adam will-" The scaled White Fang grunt stopped mid-sentence, realizing what his partner just said, "Punkleman? She didn't check in this morning."
That threw the other in a loop, "Are you sure? She probably arrived late, because I could've sworn that it was her-"
Their conversation would cease when Robin dropped down in front of them from the rafters. While both grunts were shocked by the vigilante's sudden appearance, they were quick to pull out their own weapons. "Y-You! We're not scared of you! We'll take you-"
"Evacuate the building. Or you're all dead." Was all Robin said before rushing past them and looking through the different crates of the truck.
Both White Fang grunts looked at one another in confusion. What kind of threat was that? Robin never killed, so why the hell-
Their eyes then widened in sheer terror when the Girl Wonder ripped the side of one of the crates. Hidden behind the numerous fire dust that spilled out, various explosives were wired to a large timer that was counting down.
[01:10]
"Holy-"
"I-Is t-that-"
"Run as fast as you can."
They didn't need to be told twice as they sprinted out of the room and warned the others. "Bomb! There's a bomb in the back!". Even from where she was, the screams of terror and the loud steps of people running out can be heard. But Robin ignored them and focused on trying to deactivate the bomb.
[0:50]
It was practically a maze inside. There's at least 10 trigger wires, but knowing the Red Hood, she had to assume half of them are false leads. The question being: which half? Not wanting to take chances, she reached into her belt for her liquid nitrogen spray. Best to shut down as much as I can-
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Robin swiftly turned with a Birdarang at the ready, looking around for the Red Hood. The sound had come from her comms, but how was Red Hood able to see her-
"I built in several thermal sensors. If it drops more than 20 degrees, it will blow. And don't worry…
From the corner of the big room, Robin eyed the lone camera that was watching her.
…I'm just a fly on the wall."
Inside another location, Red Hood watched the glaring Robin from the surveillance feed and rolled their eyes when it was cut off by the girl hurling a Birdarang at it.
"You're really willing to kill all these people just to get to Torchwick?" Robin asked aloud, refocusing on the bomb while trying to get Hood to keep talking.
"Oh don't you defend them. Did you not hear the sheer fanaticism from the other room? It doesn't matter if the words came from a faunus, a human or a damn terrorist, they will eat up any damn excuse you give them so long as they get what they want. And right now, what they want is strife and blood on their hands."
[00:30]
"And what? That gives you the excuse to take their lives? For someone who claims to know so much about Batman and Robin, you seem to forget the oath we live by."
Red Hood's laugh could be heard from the comms, "Ha! You mean the Oath the oldman had us swore in the Batcave? 'To swear to fight against crime and corruption, and never-"
"...swerve from the path of justice." Robin finished.
"...Hm. Mine was righteousness."
How in the hell does he know that?
[00:10]
Robin was running out of time. She had rechecked the wires, the explosives, or anything inside the box for a clue. But from what she could see, there was no stopping this bomb, and Red Hood knew that.
"Get out. I'm taking the building down. You won't be able to diffuse it, even if you had all night."
[00:05]
"You're cutting it real close."
And that she was. With the remaining time ticking, Robin let instinct take over and made a break for the nearby window.
[00:02]
As she burst through the glass, a loud *BOOM* erupted before she felt the heat of the explosion behind her, almost enveloping her. While her aura and cape would momentarily protect her, she had to move quickly. Using her grappling hook, she pulled herself towards the wall of a nearby building, escaping the fires of the explosion.
Her landing was rough as she slammed into the nearby wall and crashed into the alley below. It was only thanks to her aura and armor that she only got off with a couple bruises and aches. While Robin groaned and slowly picked herself back up, her comms suddenly came to life from a nearby police call.
'All Units, we have reports of a…rampaging robot?...chasing 2 teens heading for the highway. Send immediate assist-'
An emergency scroll call from her team then interrupted the dispatch,
B. BELLADONNA: "Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back-"
UNKNOWN: "HELP!"
Damn it. Torchwick must've caught sight of Blake and Sun commandeered the Atlesian Paladin. Got to get there quick.
As Robin was about to make chase with her grappling hook, a loud roar echoed through the alley before a familiar yellow motorcycle soared and stopped before her. Only, the driver wasn't who she was expecting.
"Hop on," Red Hood said, gesturing to the back of Yang's Bumblebee, "We'll be able to catch up to Torchwick before they veer off."
At first, Robin was hesitant. Red Hood wasn't someone to be trusted and there were far too many questions she had about him. "Why-? Where did you-?"
Red Hood revved up the bike to dismiss her questions, "Temporary truce. Once Torchwick and the Paladin are off the streets, THEN we can go back to beating the crap out of each other. Now shut up and GET ON."
Guess there's no option for now.
Y. XIAO LONG: "Some bastard stole my bike!"
Robin heard over her team's Scroll Channel while she and Red Hood sped through traffic.
Torchwick had chased Blake and Sun to the Highway and left nothing but destruction in their wake; numerous vehicles were flipped over and thrown aside; people were running and screaming from the wreckage; and things got worse as they continued through the stretch.
"We need to get them off the Highway!" Robin yelled from behind the bike.
"Large pouch on the back of my belt!"
Reaching underneath Hood's jacket and belt, she pulled out a couple of small circular electronic disks. They looked awfully like the disks Lucius Fox made for her and Batman to disable weaponry.
"EMP Disks! A single one can disable a vehicle, so a couple of them should work on the Paladin!"
…Questions for later.
For now, they had a way to stop the mech, but how do they get off the highway? Robin then connected herself to team RWBY's Scroll-Call.
GIRL_WONDER: "Blake! We have to find a way to get him off the highway, so keep him busy, but stay clear of the civilians!"
UNKNOWN: "What do you think we've been doing!?"
B. BELLADONNA: "On it!"
W. SCHNEE: "Get him under the overpass! I have an idea!"
"Friends of yours?" Hood asked, narrowly swerving past a wrecked vehicle. Robin kept silent; the less Hood knew about her, the better. "Fine then. Whatever plan they have, they better do it fast!"
It didn't take long for them to have caught up to the rampaging Paladin as it was closing in on both Sun and Blake. Not only that, but they were closing in under the overpass, so they had to move quickly.
In an attempt to stop him, Sun had made considerable distance from the mech before stopping far enough to use his semblance and summon a bunch of hard-light clones of himself. The clones then launched themselves at the Torchwick, with a pair of them exploding on contact with the mechanical suit. But the suit was quick to adapt, and caught the remaining clones before tossing them aside.
With not many options left, Sun pulled out his Bo staff and jumped at the fast approaching mech, only to be swatted out of the air and off the highway.
"Sun!" Blake called out, before using her shadow clone to dodge a swipe from Torchwick. He's gaining on her. Luckily, his attention shifted to farther up the road.
Up ahead, Weiss had jumped down from the overpass and onto the highway, readying Myrtenaster.
Torchwick smirked from within the robot, unsure whether to admire the girl's bravery or laugh at her stupidity. Regardless, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and picked up his speed towards her. But as he drew closer to her, something had attached itself onto his back and the entire suit had suddenly shut down. The mech crashed and rapidly tumbled towards the heiress.
Weiss didn't even flinch as it fast approached her. Instead, she calmly aimed Myrtenaster towards it while creating a summoning glyph behind her. Just as it was about to crash into her, a giant knight arm and sword appeared and parried the mech off the highway and down to the ground below.
The rest of the team had stopped before the heiress just as she was catching her breath.
"Thanks for that." Blake commended.
Weiss just smiled and nodded at her, before raising a brow and pointing towards the bike upon recognizing the paint job. "Wait a second, isn't that-?"
"No time," Robin deflected, "The fight isn't over." Without another word, she flipped herself down to where the Torchwick fell.
Red Hood looked at Weiss and Blake then down to where Robin jumped. "Colorful friends you got." Hood said before jumping down as well.
The rest of the girls then followed suit.
As they dropped down to where Torchwick crashed, they were surprised to see the mech slowly rising up from the crater. A wave of electricity coursed through the outer layer of the suit, frying the attached EMP disks to the ground.
"That's not supposed to happen." Hood commented aloud, pulling out twin handguns.
The team eyed the mech as it finally stood upright with all systems functioning and barely a scratch on it. As it walked towards them, the team had made their own moves: Weiss froze the ground beneath them before Robin used her explosives to blow it all to smithereens, covering the entire area in a thick mist.; Red Hood and Blake fired their weapons at the mech while they separate from the group, masking their movements behind the heavy mist.
Torchwick grit his teeth as the operating system of the mech couldn't get a lock on them. While the bullets themselves couldn't break through the armor, it won't be too long until they found a way around it. He began manually firing missiles to wherever he was able to get a glimpse of the two. It took a missile or two to have at least knocked Red Hood off course.
"Checkmate!"
Out from the mist, Weiss and Blake darted straight for the Paladin and began slashing at different parts of the suit. Torchwick did his best to cover himself from the barrage, but finally had enough when the heiress tried to stab at the glass of the visor. He raised his fists and slammed them straight to the ground, causing a shockwave around him.
While Weiss had used her glyphs to jump out of the way, Blake attempted to use her shadow clone, but was caught off guard when the Paladin predicted where she moved and punched her straight into a nearby column.
"Blake!" Weiss cried out. She then made considerable distance from the mech before once again summoning an Arma Gigas arm and sword to slash at the mech.
However, much to her shock, the Paladin had caught the ice blade and shattered it with its knee before destroying the summon all together by breaking her summoning glyph. She barely had time to think before she was knocked out of the air by a missile from the mech. Luckily, Blake had recovered and caught the heiress before hiding back into the mist.
Torchwick smirked from underneath the suit as it laid waste to the Huntresses-in-training. For a field test, the Paladin was going beyond his expectations. He was going to have to thank Black Mask for stealing this thing.
As the Paladin continued its search for them, something had caught Robin and Red Hood's attention.
"You noticed that too, right?" Red Hood questioned.
Robin grimaced, immediately recognizing the design, "It's adapting to their semblances, like it did with the EMP."
"Sounding familiar?"
There was only one person who could make that kind of technology, "Professor Ivo."
"And if Ivo made it, then the suit must've been made with a human model in mind…"
Robin was starting to catch on what Hood was leading to, "Which means its weak points are made in the same areas."
Although behind a mask and helmet, there was no mistaking the mischievous smirk they both shared. They had a plan.
While searching the area, Torchwick suddenly felt a couple shots bounce off his armor from behind. Who the hell-? Turning around, he saw Red Hood standing by their lonesome, waving at him with smoking guns.
Just as he was about to retaliate, Robin came charging at him from the mist and drop-kicked him in the visor. He tried to swipe back at her, but she narrowly rolled under the swing before bouncing off the ground and striking him hard enough for him to turn. He was still getting his bearings when Red Hood then jump-punched him back into turning around. Two lines of cables launched past him as he looked back up in time to see both vigilantes zipping towards and double uppercutting him, cracking his visor and making him stagger a couple steps.
Robin, whilst in the air, then turned and threw a couple Birdarangs at the criminal. Although having suffered a couple of hard hits, Torchwick had no trouble swiping most of them away. "You're gonna have to do better than that, Girl Wonder!" He called out, but then was confused when he saw her smirk.
Out of his field of view, a pair of Birdarangs boomeranged back and lodged themselves into the servos behind the suit's legs. Not a second later did they blew up in a large *BOOM* and the mech was forced onto its knees.
Torchwick practically growled in anger as the suit's mobility functions were shutting down. Before he could do anything else, the suit's arms were then frozen to the ground, preventing him from moving anymore. He followed the source to his sides where he saw Weiss and Blake with their weapons charged with ice dust. Then out from the mist before him was Red Hood and Robin, who then stopped a couple feet away from him.
"It's over Torchwick," Robin called him out, "Surrender the easy way or the hard way."
But Roman wasn't going to give up that easily as he saw the suit's weapon system was still online. "Hm, how about…this!" He fired a couple missiles…but was confused when nothing flew out and an error suddenly popped up. Looking at the mech's shoulder launchers, they looked to be blocked by… "Putty? You really think that's gonna stop me-?"
With a press of a button from Robin, the launchers exploded in a fiery mess. It wasn't long until more system errors appeared and different parts of the mech erupted from the inside.
"Try Plastique. You should be safe in there until we pull you out from the wreckage."
The team could do nothing, but watch as different parts of the suit explode before whatever remains then dropped to the ground.
Out of nowhere, Red Hood started to chuckle and shake their head.
"Something funny?" Robin asked.
"Nah," Hood denied, "It's just…taking down this piece of garbage. The way you move and talk during that whole thing reminded me of 'B'. It only hit me now that I missed watching him work."
Unbeknownst to them, Roman Torchwick had managed to climb out from the Paladin's wreckage and grit his teeth in anger upon seeing the two vigilantes. Wasting no time, he pulled out his cane from the wreck and fired an explosive round at Robin.
Red Hood was lucky to have caught it in-time. "Look out!" With no hesitation, Hood pushed Robin out of the way and took the brunt of the shot before being launched back a couple feet.
Robin and the rest of WB swiftly closed in on Torchwick, but stopped when suddenly a short two-toned girl with an umbrella dropped next to the criminal. While the others wondered who she was, Robin immediately identified her: Neopolitan, his partner in crime.
"Neo…get me out of here." Torchwick was barely able to say.
There was no smirk or silly little retort from the short girl. She only nodded and attempted to get the man back on his feet.
Robin moved quickly and threw a couple Birdarangs at the duo, only for the pair to suddenly shatter like glass upon impact and disappear. She ran towards the wreckage to find any clue on where they went, but found nothing. It was almost like they weren't there.
Damn it! Robin berated herself. She should've moved quicker or pulled him out sooner.
Speaking of which, as she looked down at what remains of the Paladin (and did her best not to feel the satisfaction of destroying it), a thought couldn't escape her mind. Professor Ivo had been locked up for years now. He wouldn't cooperate with anyone, left no schematic for his robots, and nobody has ever been able to replicate his technology, not even Dr. Polendina. So that begs the question: how in Remnant did Atlas get his tech into their weapons?
A mystery for another time. Right now, there's more pressing matters at- Looking back, Robin now realized that Hood was no longer there. Oh, sonava-! Fortunately, she had accounted for this. She then looked down to her suit gauntlet and immediately turned on the tracker she had placed on the Red Hood during the bike ride. It would only take a minute to narrow down a location.
In the meantime, Weiss and Blake converged at Robin with their own set of questions.
"What was that!?" Weiss asked aloud, "Where did Torchwick go!?"
"Was that the Red Hood?" Blake was next, and she wanted answers. "Why the hell was he working with us?!"
But Robin ignored them, her complete focus was tapping on her suit gauntlet.
"What does Red Hood want with Torchwick?" Blake asked once more, but the question fell on deaf ears.
It was Weiss' turn to try and get her attention, "Robin, please, what is going on-?"
*TING!*
Jackpot.
"Sorry Weiss, let's try to reconvene this later." was all Robin said before pulling out her grappling book.
"Hey! Wait a second! Don't you-" Weiss tried to reach out, but froze as the words sunk in. The nagging feeling in the back of her head had returned with a vengeance. She didn't even react when Robin zipped out of the area, not even realizing that she still had her own hand stretched out.
Now Blake was starting to get concerned, "Weiss? Are you still there?"
It was her friend's voice that pulled her out of shock. But now it was getting hard to breathe. Weiss pulled her hand back to her rapidly beating heart as she tried to keep herself from hyperventilating.
Blake quickly tried to comfort the heiress as best as she could, "Weiss, slow breathes, breathe."
Weiss really tried to calm herself down, but her mind was far too busy racing over different thoughts. The evidence was lining up, and it's becoming even harder to justify them as coincidences.
Could…Could Ruby be…Robin?
Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Robin was closing in on the tracker's location. Based on the data, Red Hood had found a way back to the outer layer of the commercial district. It must be Hood's base of operations. She had to pick up the pace before Hood found the tracker. But as she drew closer and closer to the location, the area was becoming more and more familiar. It was only when she arrived did she realize why.
The Red Hood's base of operations was a safehouse apartment she and Batman had set up as a precaution for whenever they get injured in Vale. But unlike other safehouses they reserved, this area had the sentimental value of being a favorite location for the Rose-Xiao Long Family.
It all felt like a distant memory for Ruby. The perfect place for family outings whenever they visited the city; not too far from the docks to catch a ferry home; a nearby bakery to satisfy the sweet-tooth's of the Rose-Wayne family members; a theater and entertainment store for the enjoyment of the Xiao-Long family members; and isolated enough that nobody would bat an eye whenever Bruce Wayne was with them. Those were truly the days, and they've become fewer and far between since…
…since Mom.
Robin shook her head from the memories. There was no time to reminisce about the past; she had a job to do.
Breaking in wasn't an issue. The locks on the window appeared to be broken and the security system wasn't activated. That meant Red Hood knew how to break through their digital security. Who knows what else was compromised? But that's a problem for another day.
The apartment itself wasn't too big: 1 bathroom, 1 bedroom, and 1 living room area shared with the kitchen. It wasn't meant to be sustainable for too long, so the only supplies inside should be a couple non-perishable rations in the cupboards and a box of medical supplies in the bathroom's medicine cabinet.
Compared to when she last saw the place, it was night and day after seeing what Red Hood did to the living room and kitchen area.
The living area had been converted to a small armory; various weapons were scattered around ranging from small arms like handguns to even higher armaments like an Anti-Material Rifle (Well, that explains the docks incident); numerous shards of Dust laid about (Lots of fire dust as well. What was Hood planning?); the table had been converted to an Ammunition workbench that had a numerous powders, slugs, and even a pressing station; but what's most interesting was the small area next to it with a couple small tools, torque wrenches, and what looked to be a prototype prosthetic arm.
So Hood's an amputee. It certainly narrows it down, but since he does his own maintenance, I can cross off searching for doctors and prosthetic mechanics. That would also mean he's had it for a long enough while to maintain it.
The kitchen area didn't fare too well either; the cupboards were completely cleared of any food, save for an open box of Alfred's favorite tea and another box or two of gum; the fridge was emptied out of any beverages; and while the plates and other dishes were clean, the trash hadn't been thrown and were filled to the brim of take-out.
Can't say I blame him. If all you've had to eat was strawberry flavored protein bars and oatmeal, it's only a matter of time before take-out becomes your go-to meal.
Inside the bathroom was where the most interesting clues were found. In the sink were lots of strands of black hair and a 'ritualistic' knife with an insignia engraved to the handle.
Robin collected as many hair samples as she could in vials and stored them in her belt. Although finding the right DNA in cut hair is almost impossible, there's always a chance that some hair follicles may have been pulled during the process. And her connection to Penny would allow her to have these analyzed better in a more advanced lab.
For the knife, Robin was able to immediately recognize the design and insignia. Not only was it a League knife, but it was one specifically made for Talia Al Ghul's elite guard.
So the Red Hood is connected with the League. Looks like I'm going to have to make contact as soon as possible.
Just as she was about to leave, something had caught her eye in the bathroom's trash can. Pulling it out and unraveling it, it looked to be a map of Vale with numerous places in each district encircled. She didn't know what to make of it at first, but as she continued to look through it-
*CRASH*
Someone had just broken the bedroom window. Keeping the map, Robin raced to the bedroom, but was shocked to find the inside covered in flames, destroying everything in it. But under all the burning fire, she could see the lone tracker she placed on Red Hood sitting on the bed's mattress. Hood was expecting me.
*CRASH*
That was the window of the living room. Running back, it came as a relief to find no spreading fire. However, what she did find was an unstable fire dust crystal ready to blow…atop the weapons cache and ammunition crafting station. Ah hell.
Robin dove straight out the window and grappled to the roof before the apartment blew up in a fiery explosion. Even from the roof, she continued to feel the building shake as the apartment blew the 'munitions inside.
*BOOM*
Another explosion, only that didn't come from the apartment below. Looking over the city scape, Robin could see the fireball of the explosion happening on the other side of the city.
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
And another. And another. More explosions were happening all around the city. It was an organized attack.
Realization hit her like a truck as she quickly pulled out the map from the burning apartment. The encircled areas were where the explosions were happening, including one used by Roman Torchwick and the White Fang for recruiting. And these weren't just any other buildings, they were White Fang recruitment locations. Hood didn't just plant one bomb at that one warehouse; he planted one in all of them. By now, the places would've been evacuated since the very first explosion of the night, but knew that it didn't matter. Even Robin understood the importance of putting a good scare into people.
The White Fang wouldn't take this lightly. And neither would the city of Vale or the army of Atlas.
Right now, she could only watch from the roof as each bomb continued to go off, almost like watching dominoes fall and waiting for the shit-storm that would come from all of this.
In another location, Red Hood watched from a vantage as all the bombs went off. Each explosion meant one step closer in taking down Torchwick and the White Fang. But after tonight's events, nothing could ever top the catharsis of taking down Atlas' top-of-the-line Paladin.
"Yeah. I missed watching you work."
Holy hell, I hate writing fight scenes. Even with a template, it's so time consuming on how to properly describe the moves while trying to keep engagement.
Anyway, notes time:
- I took lots of inspiration from both comic and movie iterations of Under the Red Hood in this chapter. Give them both a read and a watch if you haven't already!
- We're going to be about the halfway point of the story! Although next chapter is going to be breather for them, it's going to be filled with a lot of key points! (Just like this one!)
Once again, thank you for reading! Please leave a comment or a review if you liked it!I do not own any of the characters.
All characters and names used are owned by Viz Media and Detective Comics (DC).