Chapter Text

Neo tensed up when she saw the ethereal beowolf in front of her, his white fur and blue eyes unsettling her more than it should have been. How many of those creatures had she killed? Hundreds? Thousands? She had lost count long ago when she was still training, when she was still perfecting her skills. All those years ago, she was training to learn how not to feel fear ever again. If she could look at those creatures of darkness straight in their red eyes and still maim them to pieces, she could vanquish all of her fears. But now, as the creature in front of her got closer and closer, she began to wonder if she could somehow manage to disappear completely before that creature finally got to her. She flinched when the creature grabbed her prison pod, thinking that her time had come to pay for all the things she had done, even if she regretted none of those. But, when she felt no pain but felt like her prison was being torn apart, she opened her eyes and marvelled at the sight in front of her. The white beowolf was breaking her away from her prison and, after a few seconds, she was free to get away from the pod, jumping between the grimm's legs. She got back up behind it, in a combat position, ready to defend herself and even kill the beast. But it didn't attack her, instead, it simply disappeared in a whirlwind of snowflakes.

Surprised, Neo looked around only to see Weiss panting as she rested against another ghostly grimm, softly petting it with a smile before it disappeared as well. This little moment of peace didn't last long, however, as the atlesian soldiers began to charge at them, the beowolves having disappeared. Two of them had rifles and began to shoot their incapacitating bolts, the high concentration of lightning dust in these rounds was capable of wonders when used against human or animal opponents, knocking them out in one or two shots. However, four other soldiers were charging them with a sword, two axes and a pike, all showing the same electric blue coming from the blades, showing that they were all imbued with lightning dust, probably to stun while inflicting some minor damage to incapacitate their opponents. Grinning, Neo looked at the soldier with the pike, thinking about her strategy as she reckoned that he would be the easiest to take out without a weapon if she could only get into his guard. A few seconds later and she was running towards the atlesian soldiers who quickly got in a combat position, surprised by the head on assault that she was doing. One of the axe soldiers tried to hit her but as soon as his blade connected with her, she ...

Shattered the pod with her semblance infused strength, Coco quickly freed herself from it, her rage only flaring up as she dodged two shots coming from the atlesian troopers, the high voltage of the ammunition making her hair stand to attention. She moved behind Fox's prison and quickly tore it apart from the back, allowing her team's ninja to extract himself from it. Without a word between them, Coco simply nodding to Fox, he dashed towards the enemy, this group having decided to create a firing squad rather than splitting its forces in a close combat team and range team. But Fox didn't care. He dodged easily all the shots before cocking his arm back and unleashing his semblance with all his strength, a large pressure wave coming out of his fist like a cannonball. The seven Atlesian troopers were thrown to the ground, slightly dazed by the attack, but not enough to put them out of the fight. That wasn't the intention, however, as it bought enough time for Coco to free Velvet and Neon. Velvet quickly retreated behind Yatsuhashi's pod, fiddling with the lock while Coco grabbed Neon by the shoulders, looking at her straight in the eyes.

"You, hurry up and go in the house. Find Velvet's box and camera. That's what matters right now. If we get that, we may have a chance. But as we are, even if we manage to hold them back right now, we can't outlast their stun guns and weapons!"

The diva groaned in displeasure as she was sent to the ground, a shot coming from the atlesian soldiers hitting her square behind the head, her body spasming as she was hit with, in her opinion, a far too large amount of electricity.

"Oh, now you've..."

"... Done it Weiss, that was awesome!" smiled Yang as she grabbed the panting heiress by the shoulders to hide her behind her pod, away from the two sharpshooters hanging back from the fighting between Neo, Blake and the four soldiers, the two girls doing their best to avoid being hit, trying to charge the ranged enemy, but each time they got too close one of the four other opponents was there to intercept them and make them retreat again, if only to avoid being hit by a supercharged electric axe. Weiss took a deep breath and slowly stood up, her hand resting against Yang's shoulder.

"I will draw their attention. Circle back around them and try to take out the two with their rifles. Once they're down, the others won't have cover from an all-out assault."

Raising an eyebrow, Yang nodded after a fraction of a second, quickly running away from the fighting, trying her best to avoid being spotted by the two sharpshooters. She ducked and weaved behind every obstacle she could, before disappearing around the house, running at full speed towards the tree line to get behind her enemies. Meanwhile, Weiss slowly stood up, walking towards the fighting, taking deep breaths and calming her nerves. She only had one chance at this and, if she didn't manage... No, she WILL manage, no matter the cost. A dozen meters away from the brawl she stopped and got to her knees, a hand on the ground as she closed her eyes. She felt the glyph slowly forming and she smiled at her own success. She visualized what she wanted to summon. He had helped her once, he would do it again, after all, who better to protect damsels in distress, than a knight?

She opened her eyes when the glyph fully formed and she waited, hoping for him to come out of it, ready to fight her enemies. But, sadly, nothing like that occurred. In front of her stood his sword, embedded in the floor, standing strong as it rose from the ground. She stomped her feet and was about to scream her despair when she saw an arm coming from behind her, fully covered by a heavy armor, grab the sword and pull it from the ground. Slowly she turned around and she smiled once she finally saw him. He wasn't as tall as he had once been, but he stood at a good 9 feet none the less, towering over everybody else in the clearing. He slowly got to one knee in front of her and hung his head low. Weiss resisted the urge to laugh in happiness, having finally done what she wanted to do for the last two years of her life. She slowly pressed her hand on his helm and, with a commanding tone, said one word.

"Rise"

It did as instructed, looking down at her and followed his gaze when she turned around to the fighting. His hold on his sword strengthen and he jumped towards the fray the instant she ordered him. She threw a few glyphs on his path, making him go faster, as he zeroed in on his targets. Finally, he jumped and came crashing down onto the group fighting. The four atlesian soldiers that were in the fray froze as they looked up, overwhelmed by the sheer size of their opponent.

One of them dropped his weapon as his mouth hung open, barely mumbling "Holy. Fucking..."

"Shit!" groaned Neon as she barely avoided a stray shot, finally managing to get inside the house. She took a deep breath as she closed the door behind her and began to quickly search for a brown box. She remembered Velvet using it during the Fall, she remembered the damage that it had been able to do to the paladins, those tanks on legs that were giving so much trouble. And, almost all alone, she had managed to take out two of them. While it indeed had its shortcomings, such a weapon would be an invaluable asset to the fight they were currently in. She began her search in the living room but quickly realized that it wasn't doing her any good, the box nowhere to be found. So, she dashed around, opening doors and closing others, trying desperately to find it. She found the camera in the bathroom, but it didn't help her in what she was doing. She was still missing the box and...

Neon blushed as she saw the picture displayed on the camera's screen, quickly turning it off. Well, she wasn't expecting this at all when she went on this mission... Still, she smiled softly as she began to dash around the house once again, until she found the box in the kitchen, on the counter. She grabbed it and groaned in surprise when she saw just how heavy it was. Damn some people having ridiculous weapons that weight a ton and a half. Why couldn't everybody have simple weapons like her? Still, she had a job to do and a little more weight would not prevent her from finishing it. She dashed outside and gasped as she saw what was happening. Coco and Yatsuhashi were out cold, little arcs of lightning still coming out of their bodies at random intervals. Fox was fighting against one of the atlesian soldiers at close combat while Velvet was doing her best to avoid shots coming from two of the soldiers and Flynt was hiding behind one pod, preventing two more of the soldiers to hit him with their weapons. The only solace that Neon found from the situation was that one of the soldiers seemed to be out of the count, laying on the ground and groaning in pain. Neon dashed to Velvet, dropped her weapon next to her and tackled one of the soldiers to the ground.

Velvet jumped in surprised before grabbing her box with a smile. "Kaleidoscope! You're okay!" she gasped, putting it on her back with a smile as she moved away from the fighting, her weapon humming softly as if it was answering to her, her aura fueling the weapon back to life. She looked and smiled when she saw the knight in action but her mood grew sombre when she spotted Blake knocked out on the ground. She jumped on the rooftop and opened her box, slowly pulling out the hard-light image generator from its protective casing. She took a deep breath before pressing a button on her belt, the generator creating a blue hue around itself as projection began to appear all around her.

"Alright, everybody! Get ready!" she screamed, gaining the attention from everybody in the clearing. "You have 10 seconds to do as much of damage as possible!"

As she pressed on a few other buttons, she saw the weapons appear near of their respective owners, each and every one of them grabbing their weapons with a smile, while Velvet created Coco's weapon for herself, the revving of the machine gun making even the most courageous of men run away. All of a sudden, hell broke loose around the house, the future huntsmen and huntresses quickly making up for lost ground against the two atlesian squads.

"That one's for you Coco, Portfolio is... "

"... going well, don't you think?" said Taiyang as he smiled to the four huntsmen standing in front of him.

"Would you shut up for once?" yelled Panta, shooting at the senior huntsman, most of her shots missing as he dashed around the clearing, making her angrier by the second. They had underestimated the man in the beginning, allowing him much more breathing room than they should have and they were now trying to make up for that mistake, but it was far from going smoothly. As it turned out, when you were able to wield dust with such a level of control, it was pretty easy to do whatever you wished. How many times did he make an ice shield or used gravity or wind dust to boost away from a bullet? Well, according to Mort, “Way too fucking many to be fair, for fuck sakes”. And Panta had to agree, it absolutely was bullshit, she had already spent too many pistols and other guns, almost half of those she had on her, trying to take down the huntsman.

But here they were, four of the best Atlas had to offer, having difficulty to take out only one huntsman. Where had they gone wrong in the last few minutes? When had they become so bad? They were being schooled by such an old man? No, she wouldn’t let it stand.

“Onyx, I recommend you take cover, because it’s time to Blossom!” she yelled, taking out two guns from under her coat. Her body and clothes, except her boots and hands, quickly took a ghostly appearance. The other members of her team ran for cover, hiding behind trees or, in Onyx case, behind his blade, and she began to spin on herself, both pistols emptying their clips as fast as Panta was able to do so. When she emptied one of them, she quickly grabbed another gun and continued what she was doing, spinning faster and faster on herself as she prevented Taiyang from moving away for cover, the maelstrom of bullets forcing him to either create an ice or rock shield, or to take bullets directly, causing his aura to drop even more quickly. For a second, when she stopped pulling out pistols, he smiled, having survived her bullet storm, he would be able to gain the upper hand once more. His smiled faltered quickly, however, when he saw her take out two automatic shotguns and pointed both of them at him. He began his mad dash once more, this time a purple aura surrounding him, making most of the bullets bounce away from him, a few of them managing to get through his gravity dust shield. After a few moments more, he tripped, exhaustion finally catching up to him, forcing him to put a knee down.

It was at that moment that the three other specialists finally sprung back to action, with Mort staying away, his sniper aimed directly at Taiyang’s mid-section, while Or and Onyx quickly came to stand next to Taiyang, blade at the ready and arms turned into claws, both making it clear that they were not afraid to incapacitate the older huntsmen if he did something wrong. Meanwhile, Panta was quickly reloading a pistol, standing back slightly.

“You know”, said Onyx, a smirk on his lips as he stared down Taiyang, “you should have given up when you had the chance, you wouldn’t have been beaten up that badly. You’re out of aura, I recommend that you surrender”

Taiyang looked at him for a few seconds, before laughing, clutching his side as he did so. “Wow, you guys are almost the carbon copy of my old team…” He looked at Mort and smiled, pointing at him with his finger “The sniper that can fight close and far. I don’t know how much of a slave driver you are towards your teammates about team attacks however. ‘S’” He pointed at Or, grinning as he gave him a thumbs up. “The brawler who has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. ‘T’” Taiyang turned to Onyx and sighed, rolling his eyes. “The swordsman using dust infused blades for their sword. At least you’re less bitchy than she was. ‘R’” he finally turned to Panta and grinned as he pointed at her, a glint in his eyes. “And finally, Q. The arrogant asshole.”

“What the fuck did you just say?” she yelled, pointing at him with her pistol.

It was all he needed to get his plan in motion. He grabbed her wrist, pulled her towards him and punched her throat with all his might, stunning her long enough to get her pistol from her hands. He stood close to her, preventing either Or and Onyx to attack him with their weapons. He peppered them with the stolen pistol, forcing them back. Once it was emptied, he threw it at Onyx and turned around, ducking behind Panta to dodge a bullet from Mort. Quickly, he ran towards the sniper, throwing Panta on him to block any possible shots and, as he got close, ducked under the morphed weapon now turned to a blade. He zipped around the sniper, before using fire dust to burn the man’s face off with one powerful punch. Mort was sent flying, crashing through a tree, groaning in pain as he fell face down on the ground, clutching his face. Taiyang ducked down as Onyx’s blade was thrown his way, blade grazing him, quickly shooting his hand towards the handle to try and grab the weapon for himself, only to dash away when Onyx appeared from thin air, using some kind of teleportation semblance to quickly get to his blade Taiyang assumed. Using earth dust to create a makeshift set of arm guards, Taiyang blocked the blade, flames erupting from the contact point between the blade and arms, and once more moved away from his opponent, only to be blocked by Or’s attack as well. Stuck between the two fighters, Taiyang kept his breathing calm, one arm on each side of his body, prepared to block attacks coming from either side if need be.

“You know… You made a mistake earlier when you said I was almost out of aura.” Said Taiyang softly, as flames slowly began to grow around them, the remnants of Onyx’s attack becoming bigger and hotter as they slowly began to move towards the three of them, the two specialists not realizing the flames, eyes focused on the smiling huntsman. “Because, seriously, you have no way of knowing how much aura I had left. I do. And you made me realized something. I have way more aura than I thought. It’s the first time in a while that I’ve fought against so much firepower aimed directly at me. And it seems that Dust bending is taking less aura than it used to. Guess I’m just that good. But you guys? You guys are in big trouble. You have… I’d say one minute at most before you surrender.”

Onyx confident expression wavered slightly, but his grip on his sword strengthened, a soft mechanic whir making itself heard, the blade dividing in two at the mid-point. From the top half, a new hilt came out, allowing the swordsman to attack the older huntsman in a flurry of metal. Using earth dust to create arm guards once more, Taiyang closed the distance between the two of them, preventing his assailant to make large moves with his blades, rendering them almost useless.

“Thirty seconds,” said Taiyang, taunting the duo of hunters who began to move away from him as flames began to engulf more and more of the clearing, heat radiating from the huntsmen. He grinned and dashed at them, forcing the two specialists to get in defensive positions, Or’s arms shifting to become two large plates of metal, blocking the upcoming fist with ease. The two specialists began to smile slowly, having finally brought the huntsmen to a stop. They were quick to lose it however when the flames finally engulphed the huntsmen, a giant dragon made of flame towering over them in an instant. They moved back slowly, weapons still were drawn despite their chances of winning having been reduced to ash. Imbuing one of his blades with aura, Onyx slammed it on the dragon, using ice dust to try to extinguish the flames. The ice, however, didn’t last long, the fire almost immediately melting the ice. Backing up quickly to avoid a swipe from one of the paws, Onyx brought back his weapon in its great sword form, gripping it tightly.

“Come on Or, we can do it. Let’s show him what we’re made of. We shall win because we can’t…”

“Surrendered huh?” asked Yang, arms crossed as she looked at the four specialists, two knocked out while the last two seemed to have quite a few burns on their body and clothing. She grinned at them and blew a raspberry at Onyx, taunting him. “So, how does it feel, to lose to a bunch of teens and an old guy?”

“Yang.” Sighed Taiyang, putting his scroll back in his pocket, his call done. “Please, don’t antagonize them. They were following orders. Same as you did back in Beacon. If what they said is true, that means that they saw themselves as in the right to do so. Even if you despise them to have done so. I called Signal, they’re sending a few police officers with a two teacher to come and pick everybody up. They’ll keep them locked up while we sort things out with Ironwood.”

Yand pouted before nodding slowly. She didn’t agree with her dad entirely, but he was right on a few things, especially about the following orders part. The White Fang members that were part of the Breach and the Fall did believe in what they were doing. They believed in the orders they were given and thus did what they thought was right.

She turned around and walked away, leaving the four specialists to the care of her father, only to smile when she saw Neon taunting the captured atlesian soldiers, with everybody else idly chatting around their captured enemies. Somehow, some things never changed. Not that Yang minded it. In fact, somethings were better the way they should be. But, as she looked at her favourite monochrome pair talking and giggling, maybe some things could change for the best.