Chapter 53
For the Record
I now know how to take atoms apart and turn them into hydrogen!
According to Goodwitch, that's really the hardest part. Developing the discipline to not nuke myself trying to do that. Everything next is just getting used to juggling anywhere from one to a hundred simultaneous electrons, protons, and neutrons.
Hopefully this will pay dividends in weaning me off of my magic.
Anyways after that, the Master Sword tried to set my fucking soul on fire.
That's the only explanation I have - I grabbed it from Jaune, and despite touching it with my Venom Snake hand, it felt like I'd dumped the whole thing in a tub of lava, and my aura (You know, my goddamn soul!) was all out of whack, felt weird for days.
Man that puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
But I've gone on about that countless times before now, so I'll spare you all another 'Am I good or evil really?' diatribe.
Instead I'll say we're starting down the road to making Jaune a badass. Pyrrha's working on his sword work (and I may or may not be paying attention, get some tricks from her to compliment my tricks from Weiss), I'm showing him how to use the shield, and waddaya know? He's taking to it pretty well. It's been a few weeks and a few training sessions since the first, and the progress is slow, but there. Pyrrha put it best: Her combat style and his just don't mesh at all, whereas his and mine are a lot more compatible.
Especially since he doesn't fry his aura shields for more combat power, which means he has an even larger margin for error when it comes to taking attacks than I do.
In short: Plan B is coming along swimmingly.
And speaking of plans, Vytal's in eight months, and we've got one final thing to tie up so I can kill off Goud and start working towards the Endgame.
Ozpin brought the Watchmen in on the whole 'Ruby and Pyrrha Against the World' thing, and Torchwick agreed to be a sacrificial lamb of sorts.
I do notice how things appear to be lining up, in their own drastically altered way, with the show as was depicted before I showed up, and while I could have something to say on the nature of time, and some Bioshock Infinite 'constants and variables... There's always a man and there's always a lighthouse' thing... God damn I just don't care to. Be it because I've pretty much given up trying to make sense of how the universe treats me and everyone else, or because I am in part responsible for those things lining back up, take your pick.
Regardless, guess who gets to jumpstart that little sequence of events?
Thankfully I know pretty much everything I need to do, I just need to... Do it.
Ever since Aldric had begun his extracurricular lessons with Goodwitch, he'd made it a small habit of his to give anything he touched a passing glance at the atomic scale. More often than not, things were rough and uneven, feeling almost itchy to the touch, their atoms merely stuck together as they fell. Some things felt smoother than others, glass, for instance, was a head and shoulders less rough than any random bits of debris he'd find while out helping fix up the city, and most metals were smoother than that. It was like comparing silk to sand, there was a clear difference between the two in which one was rougher and coarser. Beyond their simple texture was their actual structure; a far cry from the uniform rows and 'bricks', so to speak, he had expected, instead what he was finding was that no two objects were ever atomically the same. Some would have gaps where others wouldn't, some atoms would be higher or lower than others, some would be clumped together, others further apart. Even materials that had a smoothness about them still weren't uniform in their construction, with metals appearing as though they had just been rammed together, and glasses looking like someone had poured out a drop of water and let it dry, all uneven and strange-looking, leading Aldric to be both bewildered that these things could hold themselves together like this, and also feeling a lot more fail as he wondered what he looked like, that small.
But, as time, his lessons, and his skill all grew, another question formed in his head: Considering he was now wearing the stuff, and would likely be melting it down at some point in the future to give to Adam Taurus, what did vibranium look like?
And with that question now gnawing at his very soul, Aldric found himself seated in front of Beacon Tower's fountain, waiting on Ruby and needing a way to pass the time. So, with his eyes shut and his shield in his lap, Aldric slowly lowered his good hand down to it, until his fingers were just skimming its surface. He pushed down further with his semblance, until he felt that increasingly familiar buzz of atoms and particles smacking into eachother on their infinitesimal scale. All he could see, all he could feel, was the magical metal and its atoms. He took great care not to move or touch them, not to compromise the shield's integrity, but rather to study it, to try and commit it to memory, to divine its secrets in a way perhaps only someone with this particular ability could, and what secrets it had.
Once he pushed past its first fresh coat of paint in months, the metal in his hands right now, despite the shield's light weight, it was incredibly dense, practically stuffed with as many atoms as was physically possible, with some atoms appeared to even share space with their neighbors, like two shields overlapping in a shield wall, or scale armor. Despite this, it had a structure unique to everything he'd seen before. It was ordered, all of its atoms and particles arranged perfectly in neat rows, fitting together snugly, like building blocks. The texture was perfectly smooth without a single irregularity, no deformities, no coarseness or bumps anywhere. Damn thing was as close to structurally 'perfect' as Aldric was willing to describe it, like someone had gone in and individually sculpted and placed each and every single particle.
I... Wonder if I could - But his thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice.
"Hey Ash!"
Concentration shattered, Aldric started at Ruby's loud entrance. He opened his eyes and saw little red riding hood standing in front of him, a smile on her face and her hands held behind her back. Aldric nodded to her, standing to his feet and popping his back with a groan and a yawn. "Well howdy-do, Ruby. What took you?" He asked, mounting his shield on his back. "First day off in weeks. What, did you sleep in?" He grinned.
Ruby frowned, avoiding eye contact. "Maybe..." She mumbled, before shaking her head. "But I'm here now! Are you ready? I heard they got the transports working again, so no more walking down the cliffs!" She grinned widely.
Aldric nodded and followed her, "saying that as though I actually use the stairs." He jabbed, levitating a few inches off the ground before coming back down.
Ruby rolled her eyes, "you're so lucky! I wish I could fly."
Aldric shook his head, "says the chick with super speed. You seriously do not know what you've got."
"But all I can do is go in a straight line! That doesn't help!" Ruby whined.
To which Aldric shook his head, "that's just where you start, lady!" He said, "again, you've got super... Speed. Figure out how to idle that fast and at the very least no one alive could touch you again." One of Aldric's fondest comic book memories was when Superman and the Flash were going at it, and when Superman boasted about how he'd won some of their races, the Flash threw down the gauntlet, told him they were all for charity, and promptly outpaced him so bad that Supes, with all of his ridiculous strength and speed, couldn't come within a mile of hitting the Flash; it was one of the reasons he was really looking forward to the day he had time to dedicate to seeing if his kamehameha had been a fluke, or if it was the secret he needed to copying semblances. If he could ape the Speed Force, he'd never lose another fight, period.
Ruby, however, was unconvinced. "Well, maybe, but I've had my semblance for a year now and I still can't figure out how to sit still when I'm that fast!"
Right, she's fifteen. Aldric thought, pulling out his scroll and sending a message he'd had waiting; now it was on Neo and Torchwick. "No better time to learn than the present, Ruby." Aldric grinned, "you can go in straight lines, next step is to go there -" He reached forward, "-then back." He brought his hand back. "Like a yoyo." He stowed his hand back in his pocket, "then it's as simple as figuring out how to stand still and watch stuff coming at you in slow motion."
Still unconvinced, Ruby at least nodded. "I'll try that next, I guess." She said, as they reached the transports, and took a seat, waiting for the time to come for them to take off. "So, you said you were going to go out for a new coat, right?"
"Yup." Said Aldric, "then your sister told me you were heading out too. Figured we might hang out..." He let the suspense build, "maybe finally get around to setting up that RWBY/GEMS fight."
Ruby gasped, hands going to her face as she finally realized his ulterior motive. "I'd forgotten about that!" She shrieked, "oh my gosh, Ash! We need to do that! Like - we need to do that before Vytal!" She proclaimed, practically vibrating in her seat. "We need to do that soon!"
"Nah." Aldric leaned back, rested his head on the airship's bulkhead, and shut his eyes. "I just mentioned it to get your hopes up." A coy grin stretched across his face.
Ruby played along, grabbing Aldric by his shirt and shaking him back and forth. "No! Wake up! Stay up! I'm not letting you forget this, Ash!"
Aldric shivered, and rubbed his arms. "Ooh, this unfamiliar chill, it's hampering my ability to think. Maybe -"
"Of course we'll get you a new coat now come on the pilot's here!" Ruby laughed, falling back into her seat, the both of them buckling up.
The flight was short, just taking off, falling a few hundred meters, and then landing. Aldric would never understand why Vale thought it prudent to fly students up and down from Beacon when they had perfectly functional stairs, and elevators would work just as well. Using resources like that, that kind of excess was how his planet hit peak oil. Regardless, he and Ruby were soon off and leisurely strolling through Vale, their target being first a clothing shop for Aldric, and then a few weapons stores to pick up supply orders from their teams.
"So, since you already fought Yang once, and I see you training with Weiss all the time, that means you'll focus on someone else when our teams go up against eachother, right?!" Ruby chirped, hopefully.
Aldric grinned, "yeah!" He said, "can't wait to see what Blake can do!"
Ruby's mouth dropped, "Ash!"
"'Cause I mean, technically, you swung at me - and shot me - when Yang and I met. That does constitute conflict which fits the definition for a fight, the result being that the only person I have yet to throw hands at on your team being your lady friend with the animated bow."
Ruby pushed Aldric with both hands, scoffing. "C'mon, Ash! You know what I mean!"
Aldric chuckled, "you should know damn well and good by now Ruby, I fight who fights me. So you'll have to race your sister."
"A certain someone said -" She lowered her voice in a false approximation of Aldric's, "you have super speed!" Before giggling.
Aldric's grin didn't budge, as they crossed the street, and he raised his voice to a higher falsetto. "But I can only go in straight lines!" With his semblance he then slid himself over to the bleeding edge of the sidewalk, just as a car rolled by. "Oh how easy it would be to just dodge the literal bullet as long as I see it coming." He raised his gaze, eying the construction cranes off in the distance as they rotated to and fro.
Ruby, meanwhile, was almost beside herself, her head tracking the car as it sped by, honking its horn, then turning back to Aldric. "Ash, that wasn't funny!" Though the smile struggling across her face said otherwise.
Aldric slid back over to her, and then bounced his shield up and down on his back, "long as this thing's still flying? I'll never fuckin' die."
She rolled her eyes, "oh! We're here!" She rushed forward and threw her hands up in a wide, sweeping, 'ta-dah!' motion.
"Who the fuck names their kid 'Umber'?" Aldric asked, staring at the sign hung above the deceptively large shop, 'Umber's Ulster's', and also wondering what the hell an Ulster even was.
Ruby rolled her eyes, head lolling about her shoulders as well. "C'mon, Ash. Where'd you buy your last one?"
"The last ten, Ruby. And every goddamn one of them got destroyed at some point, too." He whined, "and the shop got blown up."
"Exactly!" Ruby spun around on her foot, hand held up and finger pointed skyward, "so this is where we'll get your new one!"
"Why this place specifically?" Aldric had actually been considering going to the Garden and seeing if they had a tailor, see if they couldn't make a coat like one of those Kingsman or John Wick suits, functionally indestructible, that way he could just buy three and never have to worry about them getting trashed. A pipe dream had spawned up in the wake of his trying to work out the logistics of making more vibranium for Taurus, which boiled down to him lining his clothes with the stuff, so he wouldn't always have to be walking around in a body suit - or, if it became necessary, a tribal necklace. "Looks kind of expensive, actually." Not that that was an issue, actually - he and Cinder had settled Mercury's affairs and divided his assets between them, the money splitting up equally between them, and with Aldric giving the Aviator to Cinder in exchange for three quarters of his Garden coins.
Ruby waved Aldric's concerns away, "oh, don't worry about that! Weiss brought me here a couple times. Things aren't really as expensive as they look!" She said, as they strolled inside. "Okay, so..." She paused, as they entered the air-conditioned, brightly lit coat shop. "That way!" She pointed in a random direction and started walking.
Aldric didn't argue, instead just smiling and following Ruby. She soon brought him to a small corner in the shop and already had a coat in hand as Aldric arrived, she twirled around and held it up for him, looking to it, then him, a big smile on her face.
Aldric had to resist laughing, instead covering his smirk with his gauntleted prosthetic hand. "Uh... Ruby. That's not a trench coat." He said, "that's a cassock." He nodded at it, eyes trailing down the buttons trailing down its center.
Ruby frowned, blinking first at him, then at the coat, then at him, "what's the difference?"
One looks like a cape but has the function of a coat, and the other... He hummed. "That's what priests wear, Ruby." He grunted, still trying to hold it in.
Ruby looked at the cassock again, "but it looks just like your old one!" She insisted.
"Ruby there isn't a single pocket in that thing." He scoffed.
He noticed Ruby getting really still at this. "Oh..." She breathed. "Um..."
Aldric leaned his head back, realizing what was about to happen. "I get the strangest feeling our hanging out today only served into a certain someone's goals..." He walked forward, accepting the coat.
Ruby stowed her hands behind her back, twisting one shoe back and forth. "I..." She drawled. "Might have been planning to buy you a new coat for a few weeks... As thanks for keeping my sister safe when you two were on that boat. Yang talked about this place a few times, about a coat she's looking at getting."
Aldric felt touched, not even trying to suppress the genuine smile twisting up the corners of his mouth. "Aw, thanks Ruby." He said, "you see, you open with that next time, be surprised at the results." He gave her a one-armed hug. "So how'd you get them to leave it up on the racks?" He asked, examining the coats lining the walls next to them.
Ruby perked up again, albeit a little hesitantly. "Oh, that's easy - I ordered a pickup in store! So I just have to show them my receipt and we can walk out with it!" She said, "you're sure it's okay? I think we can swap it out..."
Aldric rolled his eyes, "no, I fuckin' hate it." He sparked a fire in one of his hands, waited a moment, and then let it die. "Of course it's fine, lady." He popped its buttons open and slid it on, testing its fit and finding himself a little surprised at how light it was. Compared to his last one, which felt like a small weight on his shoulders, this one was light, loose, and flexible; it may make him look like he just walked off the set of the Matrix, but it felt remarkably comfortable. "Now we buy guns."
Ruby's smile returned, and she gave a small nod, and led Aldric outside. "So that place you mentioned, what was it called again?"
"Gray's." Aldric said, reciting the name Torchwick had given him. "Gray's Guns. It's a one-stop shop." He took the lead, "swords, shields, guns of all shapes, sizes, makes, and models, bullets, large Dust dispensaries, place has everything." He recited, stowing his hands in the coat's outer pockets, and finding himself pleasantly surprised how deep they were, practically able to stuff his arms in them.
Ruby hummed, "ooh, shop there often?"
"Before my sugar-mama let me inherit the shield or have the plans for my sword, I shopped out of here to get my stuff." The grey goop that constantly covered his hands and was stuffed inside a false tooth was a testament to that. "Or, rather, she shopped out of there."
Ruby giggled, "so - fight!" She held up both of her hands, pumping them up and down, "fight fight fight!"
Aldric rolled his eyes, "one track mind." He murmured, "we'll get it done, let's just make our teams happy first, yeah?" He pulled out a slip of paper from his pants pocket, "can you believe Ecru wants exactly forty eight electricity crystals?"
"Why forty eight?" Ruby tilted her head, craning her neck and looking at the sheet of paper. "And... Why does Srebro want a gravity gem?"
"Because she's able to mess with impact force. Adding gravity dust to that would just make it like she's swinging around an entire fucking building." Aldric responded, as a team of builders drove past them, the sound of laughter riding by in their wake. "Hard to think a war just ended. Look at the place, parts of it look like it never even happened."
Ruby nodded, "well it has been a few months..."
"Well, have you been looking at what the terrans have released to us?" He asked, "about their world? What'd they call it... the, uh... Great World War One?" He shrugged, "there was this huge stretch of land they were fighting over for years."
Ruby hopped up and down, "oh yeah! They called it the trenches, right?"
Aldric nodded, "it was either that or No Man's Land." He shrugged, "but they fought there a hundred years ago without pretty much any of the technology they have now." That was the war that invented the tank, for chrissakes. "And from what I read, most of it is still completely uninhabitable. So this -" He nodded up to the cranes in the distance, "- this is a damn miracle, is what it is."
Ruby agreed, "maybe that's a sign?"
Nearing Gray's Guns, Aldric sensed a few vans a single street over, with a direct line of sight on Gray's, filled with a small group of thugs, and a few familiar-looking faces. Cinder, Torchwick, and Neo in the front-most van, the former-most under the belief that this was primarily meant as a means of furthering Aldric's standing with Ozpin, his plan being to explain Ruby's presence as a coincidence.
"Sign of what?" Aldric wondered, looking over to Ruby.
Ruby shrugged, "good fortune?" She voiced, smoothing out a wrinkle in her skirt. "I think... With them here, things may get better." She said, "they said that they managed to repel a Grimm attack." A beat, "like... Completely!"
Yeah, by rendering Los-fucking-Angeles inhabitable. Aldric nodded, "planet of seven billion people... You may be right." He nodded to Gray's, and the two went inside. "Who knows? Maybe our grandkids won't be buying guns before they can walk."
Ruby scoffed, her head rolling exaggeratedly. "No! I don't want to think about me when I'm that old!" She practically shrieked, "you'll get old! You'll get old and crusty and I'll stay young forever!"
Aldric shook his head, "tell you what - we're growing old together." He said, grabbing a shopping basket. "And when we're both stuck in a retirement home, only able to walk because of our aura, I'll point at you and go -" He added an aged tremolo to his voice. "Yew ohld bisch! Fuhkin' toe'd yew!" He dropped the voice, "then the false teeth I'll have gotten from how many times I'd have broken my fucking jaw will fall out, and you'll super-speed them to a place I can't get to, and my alzheimer's mind will forget in two minutes and I'll live the rest of my life with no teeth." Ruby was laughing at this point, wiping a tear out of her eye as she picked up her own basket.
Aldric stopped by the dust bins and started loading up, while Ruby meandered over to a shelving unit with boxes and boxes of ammunition, and started loading up on slugs for her sniper rifle and shells for her sister's gauntlets. They greeted the store owner when he came to the front from the employee's area, and made idle chat with eachother as they picked up all of their promised purchases. Aldric ended up near the hardlight nanites after a few minutes, frowning down at them as what Ozpin had said about them came to mind.
And Cinder had no sooner described what was written on these signs... Aldric's eyes snapped up to the descriptors above the bins. Than did I immediately equate them to Green Lantern rings. Did my influence begin right then and there? He read:
Hardlight Projectors
Cost: 100 (L)/Gram.
With physical contact, will sync with wielder's cerebral cortex, and is capable of forming any simple, non-moving, solid object user envisions.
Capable of self-replication (additional charge!) up to an accumulative limit of 1KG detected per NFC.
Warning: Lacking outside source or specific target, replication will draw from user to achieve requirements.
Battery life: 6 hours, constant use. Recharges via solar input.
Warning: Exceedingly fragile. Do not expose to heat, cold, magnetism, water, electricity, or pressures in excess of 1 atmosphere.
Aldric nodded. Yup... That stuff was leaking out of me as early as back then. Would he really be able to wean himself off of it like he wanted? Or was his entire skillset wholly reliant upon this unconscious magic he was rocking? He shook his head. I need to step that stuff up with Goodwitch... I get good at matter recombination, I'll only need magic for the freaky shit. And considering what all was in his belt, his 'freaky shit' quota could be far lower than it has been.
Yeah... He sighed, strolling over to the pistols and examining them, wondering if he should buy a new one or just stick with his bolter. Yeah, I'm literally trying to get rid of power anyone else would kill for... But... He gritted his teeth. Fuck, man. This is the same shit that let one of us make Mjolnir. Let Ozpin teleport me across time and space in an instant. Lets Salem open up four stable wormholes connecting two planets either across one universe, or linking two. He sighed. I joke about being Saitama strong with this stuff, I joke about warping reality like Doctor Strange, but now I really wonder. He threw a pistol into the basket. And again going back to Mjolnir... He sensed Torchwick and Co. leaving their vans and preparing for their grand entry, while Ruby was looking at the wall with the place's most expensive weapons, eyes wide, jaw agape, practically salivating over them.
And return to that Mjolnir thing. A guy made a literal god's weapon. I made a weapon made by big 'G' Godesses, for fuck's sake! And ignore the fact that I can't get rid of the latter, what's stopping the other two from getting the idea to go home, read up on some Warhammer, or... Fuck, just steal a Cosmic Cube from Marvel? They wouldn't have the same compunction against that that I would. He frowned, shifting his senses towards Ruby. If I can't handle them myself, can she? She can cancel out their magic, but there are some things I have that, because I made them beforehand, she couldn't do shit about. Some things they could make that could kill her before she even realizes it. His closed his eyes and let out a long, tired, shaky sigh, preparing himself for the group's arrival. Both times I fought someone with magic I almost died. Both times were against someone who had little to no use or understanding of their powers. The one time I pissed off Ozpin, he - at twenty percent of what his full power used to be - showed me what someone who had a mastery over it could do. And all of that was pointedly ignoring that his entire plan was revolving around fighting someone who would functionally have a fully loaded infinity gauntlet sitting two feet from her.
He wondered if the flutter he felt in his heart was just pre-combat jitters, or the kind of abject fear that came from a man who knew he was in over his head, knew he was only getting deeper, and was scared of his only way out.
Aldric cracked his neck, as Torchwick's thugs reached the door.
So let's go. He opened his eyes again, Torchwick's thugs streaming inside, and Torchwick and his assassin just reaching the door at their leisurely pace.
Two of them, with pistols tightly clenched in their hands, bee-lined it for the front desk, two others with shotguns lazily hanging from their shoulders and hidden by their coats, began checking the building. Aldric wasn't sure how many of them were in on it, or if any of them were even in on it at all besides their bosses. That one of them fearlessly drew his shotgun and tapped the star on Aldric's shield with it, sealed it for him: They had no clue. Aldric frowned, raised his head, and then slowly turned over to the thug.
The poor guy was doing an admirable job, keeping the gun in his jacket completely hidden from any cameras, but folding his arms across his chest in a way that parted the jacket just enough that the gun was clearly visible to Aldric, directly in front of him. Looking past the thug, Aldric could see another coming in behind him, just as skillfully letting Aldric know he was armed, while hiding that very fact all the same. Aldric looked down at the thug's jacket, then up to the thug, as another pair located and approached Ruby.
"Oh... You clearly need a lesson in manners." Aldric shook his head, as Ruby noticed she was being threatened as well.
Then she noticed Torchwick ostentatiously strolling inside, and her eyes grew wide. "You!"
Torchwick blinked, theatrically rotated to face her, and then, "oh shit."
Ruby reached for her scythe, the thug drew his gun, and suddenly Ruby was gone, and the thug in front of Aldric slammed into the wall adjacent them, and was being buried in a shower of pistols falling from the racks they were hanging from, with Ruby stumbling to a halt in front of the spy. Aldric looked down at her, blinking once, as she, swinging her arms, regained her balance and her footing.
"Getting a head start?" Aldric asked, catching one of her arms with his, and then sliding his shield onto his free arm.
Ruby smiled, but it dropped quickly. "These guys are bad news!" She looked over Aldric's shoulder, at the two pistol thugs currently emptying the register and raiding the Dust bins.
"No, no, no!" He heard Torchwick call out, as he backed out of the store. "We are not playing with this girl, or her friend, you are going to bring out the big guns!"
"Son..." Aldric sensed the store's manager using the distraction Ruby had caused, and Torchwick's subsequent meltdown, to retrieve his own hidden weapon. "You're gonna have a bad time." He racked the slide with a loud clicking noise.
Aldric and Ruby exchanged glances. "Okay, you know this stuff more than I do, you go out and stop the big hoss, I'll make sure the boss here doesn't murder someone." She nodded, as he sensed the two thugs actually doing the robbing now leveling their guns on the boss, "also, duck."
Ruby blinked, but then his words dawned on her and she vanished in a shower of petals, just as the second guy who had been threatening Aldric let out a shot. The pellets slammed into Aldric's shirt and bounced harmlessly off of the armor underneath. Aldric and the thug looked down at Aldric's chest, then up to eachother, then back down to his chest, and then back up again as Ruby reached the front door and drew her scythe. Aldric whipped his shield at the thug who'd shot him, and the man didn't even protest, in such a state of shock at Aldric so brazenly shrugging off a nearly point-blank shotgun blast that he appeared to be reevaluating his entire life.
Aldric couldn't say he disagreed, as whatever life he went to would certainly have far fewer shields slamming into his face, breaking his nose, and knocking him out. The shield came back to Aldric, who made for the front counter at a leisurely pace, just as the store owner started getting loud enough to attract the thugs that had been accosting Ruby. Aldric would give credit to the guy who had four guns on him and was still managing to intimidate his robbers, that took balls, nerves of steel, and a voice so loud that Aldric felt it in his chest.
"YOU STAY THE FUCK THERE!" The man screamed, "YOU MOVE AN INCH AND I'LL -" His gun snapped over to one of the shotgun thugs. "HEY!" The thug froze, and then fell out when Aldric beat him over the head with the side of his shield.
All three of the remaining thugs turned to Aldric, one had the good sense to fire instead of stare at his unconscious friend like an idiot. The bullet hit the edge of Aldric's shield and ricocheted into the Power Glove bins, causing the nanites to spill onto the ground like sand. The shield again left Aldric's hand and bounced between the three remaining thugs, as Aldric sensed Ruby engaging Torchwick's goons outside. The shield returned to Aldric's hand and he used its flat edge to broadside the final standing one in the nose. The final thug crumpled to the ground in a heap, and Aldric grunted, stretching out his organic arm, his inorganic hand clasping his shoulder.
"Agh..." He groaned, "should've stretched." He turned to the store owner, who had his rifle lowered. "You okay, sir?"
The man nodded once, "but you should check on your lady friend, sonny. There were a lot more out there before that man wised up!"
The sounds of Crescent Rose firing and blades clashing told Aldric as much, so he nodded, bade the man to call the police, and then jogged outside. Here he saw Neo, Torchwick, and Cinder all reaching their van as more thugs poured out to buy them time. Ruby was tearing through them left and right, and Aldric noticed with some interest that Crescent Rose had a new addition. Lining its blade were a series of red metal plates, effectively dulling its edge and turning it from a cutting tool to a blunt instrument, which Ruby was using to beat the hell out of everyone present with decidedly nonlethal force.
She noticed him leaving the store and called out his name, "Ash!" She pointed to Torchwick and Neo, "we need to -" But a thug came up from behindher.
Aldric intercepted said thug with a shield toss, and he dashed forward he ordered her, "go, get him! I'll handle these guys!"
Ruby blinked, "but -"
"You're faster than me and they're getting in a car, go!" A nod was the only further response she gave him before vanishing in a shower of flower petals, just as the tires on Torchwick's van started squealing loudly.
It took off far faster than something as big and bulky-looking as it looked like it could, to the point that Ruby almost wasn't able to slam her scythe through its roof and anchor herself to it. It was out of Aldric's radar range in no time at all, and he was left with a few dozen thugs all out for blood. He chose now to try working some not-quite-magic, and as one reached him he beaned the guy in the face with his shield, causing him to trip and fall, and giving Aldric enough time to thrust his hand forward.
He focused on the ground at the charging thugs' feet, and then clenched his fist tightly - the air instantly snap-freezing, going from its normal ambiance to icy cold in a second. Some of the thugs found their boots frozen to the ground, others found them unable to get traction on the ice, the result being nearly all of them falling over themselves and being rendered incapacitated. Some avoided Aldric's cold fury, but they were afforded no better fate, as Aldric turned the dial around, splaying his fingers open and increasing the temperature of the ground until the asphalt was so hot it began to bubble and boil. These thugs found themselves sinking into the scalding hot ground and screaming as they tried to claw their way out of it, their skin quickly turning red with every contact.
Now alone and with no threats, Aldric wondered how long it would be before -
Vrrrt.
Speak of the devil. Aldric pulled out his vibrating scroll and saw it was Torchwick. He answered, "now, I know what you're thinking -"
"Oh Mister Aldric would you like to explain why I'm rampaging down the highway with an annoying little girl hanging off of my roof?" Aldric heard a 'thunk' in the background. "I thought our plan was quite a bit more personal!" Aldric could hear the sneer in this dick's voice, and it made him smile.
"Am I on speaker phone?" Aldric asked, "hey hot stuff!"
Another 'thunk'. "You're very lucky she never saw you or I, Aldric." Cinder responded, no doubt for Ruby's benefit, in case she could hear them, to give the impression that this 'Aldric' was some sort of mastermind behind the heist, and not someone who had been right there in the thick of it. "What are you going to do?" Another 'thunk', Aldric realizing it sounded like something hitting glass.
"Well, considering unforeseen variables, the plan's obviously changed, so I think I'm going to need to spread the love a bit." He opined. "I'll handle it."
Another 'thunk'. "Oh I certainly hope so my good sir." He heard Torchwick call out, preceding another, louder 'thunk'.
"What the fuck is that noise?" Aldric asked.
"Oh our little guest is trying to kick her way through bulletproof glass. Nothing major." Torchwick hummed, "I hope to see you soon!" He cooed, as Aldric's other scroll began going off, this one with a loud ringtone.
Aldric ended the call, and then accepted the other one. "Now Ruby -"
"Ash!" The background noise was far louder, sounding like she was right in the middle of a tornado. "I need a little help!"
Aldric frowned, "Ruby where the hell are you?"
"Highway Teal!" He heard her grunt, "their windows are too thick! I can't use my scythe or else I'll fall off!" She grunted again, and he could barely hear the thunk over the roaring winds.
Aldric grinned, "alright, how long can you hang out? I have to pay for the groceries and drop 'em off. Can you hang for an hour?"
"C'mon, Ash!"
Aldric rolled his eyes, "alright, just hang on, yeah? I'll figure something out. What exit did you just pass?"
"Uh..." A beat, "I think that was exit eight!"
"Alright, hang tight." Aldric hung up, and then dialed another number, as he started jogging out towards main street.
He heard the phone click, and the person on the other end picked up. "Hey Beebee! What's going -"
"Yang, saddle up! Your Saturday just got a lot more interesting." He leapt into the air and then blasted off in the direction of the highway, a few ideas running through his head as to how he'd explain him not being able to just end this in a heartbeat.
He could almost hear Yang's frown, "what do you mean?"
"Uh -" Aldric called out over the air, "short version? We were out shopping, the place got robbed by a midget and some dick in a bowler cap, I fought off their goons, and now Ruby is literally hanging onto their speeding car for dear life." He called out, not able to hear the sounds of Yang dropping everything she was doing and arming herself over the air rushing in his ears. "She's on Teal highway right now, I'm flying over there, but there's a problem." He could see the van now, roaring its way onto an elevated highway, and damn that thing was moving, managing to outpace most of the sleeker, newer-looking vehicles. "Yup - I won't be able to fly that fast!" How the hell did they get a rickety-looking van to go DeLorean speeds?
"Teal highway?" Yang repeated, "I'll be there in five minutes - don't have any more fun without me, Beebee!" And she hung up.
"I just fucking told you that I can't keep up with that thing!" And it may not be a lie anymore, either - he'd clocked himself at needing nearly twenty four full hours just to fly from California to Georgia, that didn't equate to the speeds-approaching-one hundred this van was somehow clocking.
I blame Dust. Aldric thought, realizing that his best bet to keep sight of Ruby was to stay in the sky; he pulled out his phone and, after trying to figure out who would be driving, decided to text Cinder.
Jesus Christ, Hot Stuff! How fast are you three going!?
To which she responded: -90MPH. Why is she still on our roof?
Well, last I checked, my maximum air speed was SIXTY FUCKING FIVE. I can't just swoop in and grab her, can I? I had to call in the big guns in order to catch up with you assholes. I sincerely hope he's got backup coming, else this little performance we're putting on will end today. Also, as to the 'why', do you see the giant fucking scythe sticking through your roof?
-How fast can you run? And yes. As much as she wasn't the plan, this chase was a part of it. She sent back, as their vehicle jerked back and forth, trying to throw Ruby from the roof.
Uh, I guess we'll find out, won't we? And with my reputation? Jesus, Hot Stuff - the carnage I caused would piss off Ozpin just as much as catching Torchwick would make him happy! He stowed his Legion of Doom scroll, and then pulled out his Goud scroll, and dialed Ruby.
He could just barely make out the rookie huntress struggle on top of the van, and then he heard her pick up. "Hello?!"
Aldric snorted, "hello?" He parroted back, "are you about to tell me if... I dunno, Weiss, or maybe Pyrrha, had called just now, instead of screaming 'OH MY GOD PLEASE SAVE ME!' you'd just say hello?!" Maybe he was having a little too much fun. "Your sister's on her way, and look up - I've got my eye on you." Through squinted eyes, he could see Ruby look over her shoulder and up into the sky; it took her a few seconds to catch sight of him.
"I see you!" She called out. "And you called Yang? Ash, she'll kill me!"
"Just bring up the bar! She won't do shit! How you holding up?"
"Would you stop that?"
"Question still stands!" Aldric cast a glance over his own shoulder, towards the otherwise peaceful Beacon seeing a few bullheads take off, and wondering exactly how Yang would cross almost the entirety of Vale in five minutes.
"My arms hurt and it's cold!"
"Good to hear!" Aldric grinned, "you having fun?"
Ruby laughed at this, "yes, Ash! I'm having a lot of fun!" She said, as Neo tried throwing her from the roof again.
"Good!" Aldric noticed several cars speeding into position around Torchwick's, "Oh hell, you've got -" He was interrupted by something sounding distinctly like 'Oh no!', and then the sound of Ruby's scroll hitting the asphalt. "Well, there goes that one." He killed the call and stowed the scroll back in his pants. "So how -" He stopped speaking when he beheld Yang's method for crossing a country in no time at all.
His jaw was hanging loosely as he saw one of Beacon's bullheads, engines at full blast, roaring over the elevated highway, and barely a second later, Yang and her motorcycle flew out of it. Aldric could only thusly assume that she'd threatened the pilot with bodily harm, and had, by definition, hijacked a jet so she could perform an urban air drop. The fiery brawler landed on the road and her motorcycle's tires kicked up a lot of smoke as they worked overtime to get up to speed, but soon she kicked off and was tearing across the road, weaving through cars and traffic as she hurtled towards her sister, a fire no doubt in her eyes.
With an impressed snort and a shake of his head, Aldric cut his semblance and started sinking through the air, his new coat billowing like a cape in the wind as he straightened out his body and sped towards Yang and the road like a missile. The ground started coming up to meet him faster and faster, until Aldric finally caught himself, arms and legs pinwheeling, just a few feet over the highway. With the road a gray blur underneath him, and the one ant-sized cars now full-sized and blaring their horns at him, Aldric spread out his radar, and saw Yang in front of him; but, hearing the horns, she looked over her shoulder and saw Aldric slowly gaining altitude until the ground was several feet below him. Seeing that she was outpacing him, she hit the brakes and slowed down until they were neck-and-neck, and Aldric took the chance to mount up.
Of course, once Yang hit the accelerator and started catching up to Torchwick's van, the backup in the cars noticed him and Yang speeding over to them like a black and yellow missile, and began breaking off. Aldric saw thugs in expensive suits rolling down windows and leaning out of their cars, brandishing assault rifles - and convincing the civilian drivers to get the fuck out of the way. Aldric grunted out a curse and quickly slid his shield off of his arm, and secured it to the front of Yang's bike, just as the bullets started flying. Like he'd hoped, they hit the shield and then bounced off harmlessly.
Aldric knocked on the back of Yang's helmet, "get me close to one of them!"
A nod and a rev of her engine was her response, "will you be fine without this?" She indicated the shield.
Aldric laughed, over the sound of more gunfire bouncing off of the shield, "I've got other options!" Oh this was going to be fun.
As Yang picked up speed, the backup cars decelerated and formed a line between them and Torchwick, forcing Yang to slow her pursuit or get into a crash, and allowing Torchwick's van to keep speeding ahead. Some of the gunners tried targeting Ruby, but their shots were sparse - likely not wanting to run the risk of their bullets hitting the van's occupants. Ruby, to her credit, wasn't just laying there - after any significant delay in Neo's attempts to throw her from the van, she would try to get up to her knees and begin prying Crescent Rose out of the roof of the car, but the occupants seeing the blade moving would quickly see that as her attention being elsewhere, and thusly would try to buck her off again.
Yang, meanwhile, gunned the accelerator, trying to get as close to the enemy cars as she could, but they were learning too fast for her comfort, and were quickly realizing the futility of shooting the shield, and were instead starting to go for her tires. Aldric took this as his cue to literally spring into action - leaping off of the back of Yang's bike, towards the closest car he could see. He barely made it, skimming its rear bumper with the edges of his fingers, and only able to keep his grip by pushing himself closer with his semblance. His hand locked onto the car's bumper and held it so hard that it bent under the force of his grip. Aldric soon felt a shower of bullets pelting him and he had to use his free arm to cover his head, as several gunmen started unloading on him.
Their mistake, however, was in diverting their attention from Yang - who pumped her good arm once, activating her gauntlet, which she immediately jabbed at the air with, and sent a shell blasting towards one of the gunners. It hit him with a fiery explosion, and it was only through intervention of one of the other passengers that he didn't fall out of the car entirely, though the same couldn't have been said for his rifle. Aldric took this distraction and used it to claw his way towards one of the car's rear tires, but as he grew closer, he sensed a few vehicles slamming on their breaks, resulting in Aldric and Yang being surrounded and with gunfire quickly mounting.
Acting fast, Aldric took his vibranium-covered, mechanical hand, and shoved it into the rear tire as hard as he could. The sound of wind roaring in his ears was now replaced completely by the sound of bending and ripping metal, rubber being shredded, pressurized air escaping in a loud bang, and the thunking, grinding noise as the rim was now spinning unprotected on the ground. Aldric grinned, but his victory was short lived when he sensed and felt the driver losing control of his vehicle, and in the time it took him to blink, Aldric found the car spinning out of control and, soon, going airborne.
"Oh... Fuck." Aldric hummed, wishing he'd had the good sense to ask Yang if she had a spare helmet.
As the car began spinning through the air, Aldric kicked off of it and, lacking any other option, hit the ground running, the car smashing itself to pieces and tumbling across the ground behind him. Aldric's heart rate skyrocketed in an instant and he had to use his semblance to keep himself from stumbling, his feet were a blur and he could barely hear the sound of them hitting the ground, he was too focused on not getting pancaked by the car behind him, and desperately keeping pace with the van ahead of him, itself having created such a good distance that it was almost on the horizon.
Arms swinging, legs beating at the ground, Aldric sensed the car he'd trashed finally come to a halt, as he sprinted past a few civilian drivers who were desperately trying to avoid the carnage. Aldric felt a few bullets hit his armor and do their best to ruin his new jacket, prompting him to stretch his radar backwards, just in time to see Yang take a cue from his book, first blasting one of the vehicles behind her with her gauntlet, and then, under cover of his shield, advancing on the last one ahead of her. The gunner desperately tried to halt her advance, but she'd learned from their previous attempts at taking out her tires and was now driving in a serpentine pattern, throwing his accuracy off by miles.
As Aldric passed by another car, off in the distance he could see police vehicles getting on the on-ramp and hurtling onto the highway. He paid them no mind, though - his lungs were starting to feel as though they'd been set on fire. This speed was unsustainable and he knew it, but so too, it seemed, did Torchwick - who sent him a message over his Legion scroll, asking if the show had gone on long enough. Aldric hastily typed a response by mashing keys on the scroll with his semblance, his intended 'Yes, now slow down!', ending up looking closer to 'wed1 nuslrdo'. Torchwick seemed to get the idea, as when Yang blasted apart the tires of the last car and it ended up totaling one of their pursuers, Aldric found himself gaining on Torchwick.
So this, of course, would be when Ruby would end up throwing a monkey wrench in the works, and would finally be able to tear her scythe out of the roof. As Yang caught up with the still sprinting Aldric, the both of them beheld Ruby bringing down the blade onto the van's windshield. Neo's response was to rip the wheel hard in one direction, and the van did the only thing it could in this situation, and at these speeds: It slammed into the side-barrier, and careened right over the edge of the overpass. Ruby, no longer holding on for dear life, went flying, her scythe still stuck in the windshield.
Aldric sensed Yang gasp, her eyes going wide behind her sunglasses, and the engine on her bike quieting as she limply let go of the accelerator. Aldric, however, grunted and forced himself to keep running, tearing his shield off of Yang's bike and catching it as he came upon the gap in the barrier and jumped. Ruby and the van both were already almost halfway back down to the road below them, and Aldric could sense Cinder inside the latter, rolling down her window and leaning out, one of her hands aglow with energy. With her dealing with her own situation, Aldric instead focused on Ruby - rearing his shield and then throwing it at her with all of his might.
The shield spun through the air and caught Ruby in the back, the impact spinning her around so her back was to the ground. She barely had time to curl up behind the shield before the ground rushed up to meet her, the van, and Aldric. She hit the ground with a gasp and a grunt of pain, but the shield absorbed much of it, and as she grinded across the roar, car horns blaring and tires squealing as they swerved to avoid her, the van came in for a landing as well. Cinder let out a blast of fire from her open palm, slowing their descent such that, when it smashed into the ground, though the air was filled with the sound of splintering glass and bending metal, the van survived in a far better state than it would have.
What she likely hadn't planned on, however, was the fact that slowing the van down Gave Aldric the chance he needed to land on top of it. He hit the already damaged roof so hard that it bent underneath him. He rolled forward, just barely avoiding cutting his ear off on Ruby's scythe, and as Neo deftly avoided oncoming traffic, Aldric rolled over the windshield, locked his hands to the hood of the car, and soon found his feet hanging just over the car's front bumper.
Aldric would have had a one-liner for them, but both Ruby and Yang made their re-entrances now, the latter by sailing off of the overpass on her bike and hurtling through the air, the former by zooming forward in a shower of rose petals, Aldric's shield secured to her left arm. Now with Yang gaining on them, Ruby ahead of them and bracing for her chance to leap back onto the car, Aldric hanging onto their hood, and with all of them driving right into oncoming traffic, it appeared Cinder chose now to call an audible. The only warning she gave Aldric was a single nod when he and her made eye contact through the splintered glass, and soon after she ordered Neo to hit the brakes.
Before Aldric knew what was going on, Neo slammed on the brakes hard enough that the tires started smoking, and Aldric's feet hit the ground. Aldric adapted quickly, digging his feet into the asphault and pushing as hard as he could to halt the van, digging twin grooves in the highway and shredding the soles of his boots as he did so. They neared Ruby as this occurred, and started backpedaling, shield braced in front of her. The van took several meters before it finally stopped, but that didn't herald a lull in the action, rather it signaled the next phase, as Cinder then thrust both hands forward and detonated the windshield. Aldric was sent flying back in a shower of fire, glass, and Ruby's scythe. As he flew through the air, he made sure to rip a certain something from his belt and have it land in front of the van. He hit Ruby and bowled her over as the doors to the van opened; Cinder stepped outside, wrapping her head in a scarf, and Torchwick and Neo did as well, though without the identity concealment.
As Aldric and Ruby recovered, Aldric groaned, pointing at Cinder. "Holy shit!" He chuckled, "Ruby, look! She's got a fuckin' mask, and we just caused about as much property damage as the terrans." He helped Ruby to her feet and called her scythe over with his semblance, "doesn't that make us superheroes?" He laughed.
Breathing heavily, Ruby giggled. "I... You know, I guess it does!" She said, as Yang swerved around the van and screeched to a halt next to Aldric and Ruby.
"I let you two go out on your little playdate and geek out over guns, and this is what you do." She said, with an expression of faux disappointment, completely ruined by the fire in her eyes. "You two think we can keep them here until help gets here?"
Aldric frowned, as Ruby handed him his shield. "Uh..." He gave Yang a look, seeing out of the corner of his eye traffic beginning to stop and pile up a good distance away from them. "What, implying that you got everyone else's asses in gear... And... Didn't..." He drawled, "I dunno... Bring them with you on the giant airship?"
Yang waved him away, "it was a time for action, not for thought." She nodded to Cinder, "what's with Masky?"
"Well, typically people who wear masks have something to hide, young madame!" Torchwick called out, giving them all a large bow, after spinning his cudgel in one hand. "I'm so thrilled to make your acquaintance today. Had just one last store to clean out, but nooooo, you just had to be there today like you had to be there a few months ago."
Ruby, finally getting control of her breathing, gasped, "that was you!" She said, pulling her scythe off of the ground and chambering a round with a loud 'clack'. "What are you doing?" She asked.
Torchwick laughed, "quite the same as you, I would think!" He paused, "stalling for time!" He clapped his cane on the ground.
Silence, save for the sound of cars passing them on the other side of the median.
Everyone who wasn't Neo or Torchwick gave a look around, as whatever he was referring to never came, with Cinder's eyes skimming across the ground as she did so, and briefly flashing with recognition.
Then it hit Aldric, "oh, I get it." He chuckled, "nice." He snorted, "I'll take big and tall." He nodded to Ruby, "you take scarf and fire." He nodded to Yang, "you take short and crazy." He got nods in response. "Ready?" His trio and the Legion all stooped down into combat positions, but Cinder kept going.
She snatched Aldric's backup plan off of the ground and snapped back up to a standing position, Aldric's group flinched as she displayed the tiny throwing star, its center a deep red. Aldric, Yang, and Ruby exchanged glances, before turning back to the Legion, just as Cinder used her powers to detonate the air behind the van and send it thundering forward - right before she pitched the throwing star at it. It slammed into the van and shattered, and in the blink of an eye the van tripled in size and immediately started picking up speed. Yang stepped up, throwing her fists forward in multiple rapid-fire air-jabs, each punch sending out a bright red missile that chipped away at the van. Aldric, however, had the good sense to just grab Ruby and walk six feet to the left, before using his semblance to pull Yang over to him, allowing the car to harmlessly roll right by.
Yang frowned, "that wasn't fun."
"The smart option usually isn't." Aldric looked back to the Legion, and found that there were eight copies of them, all running in different directions. "Oh, now ain't that fun?" He sighed.
Ruby jogged forward a few feet, before reality hit her. "Did... Did we lose?" She realized.
Aldric draped his arm over Yang's shoulders, "see, maybe they actually would have stayed if a certain someone hadn't let slip that backup was coming." He grinned.
Yang rolled her eyes, "shut up, Beebee!" She growled, wrapping an arm around his neck and digging her knuckles into his head. "You got my sister thrown from a car! A car!" She shouted, a smile on her face, as a forlorn Ruby turned around to face them.
"Did you guys hear what he said?" She asked, over the sound of approaching police sirens. "He said that Gray's was the last place with Dust... What do you think he meant?"
Yang ceased her attempts at grinding Aldric's head to a pulp, and Aldric pried himself out of the crook in her arm. "I dunno..." The blonde admitted, "guess -"
"Now before you say 'we'll have to find out'..." Aldric grunted, hanging his shield from his back, and nodding to the approaching blue lights. "We may want to explain what exactly we were doing smashing the shit out of the highway they just fixed." Several heavily armed police officers sprinting towards them, having abandoned their vehicles to slip between the traffic. Aldric raised his hands, and soon after, Ruby and Yang noticed the approaching uniforms and joined him, deactivating their weapons and raising their hands.