*Beep* *Beep*
Baldur woke up later that night to a heart monitor. His heart monitor, to be exact. His hands cuffed to the bed blocked his aura, so his injuries had only been treated so much. His body was still littered with cuts and his bones remained broken. Every breath equaled pain and his breathing was accompanied by painful rasps.
*Cough* "Fuck... fuck.... I lost..? No.. that can't be right. I don't lose.." Baldur rasped, gripping his bed as his teeth grashed together.
Thinking back, Yin was just too fast, too durable to properly fight. Even with all he had, he felt completely outclassed. In weapons, in speed and in sheer strength. Baldur had never felt more powerless. Rage consumed him. So much so that he barely noticed when the officers standing outside his room had suddenly had their throats slit.
"Baaaldur~" A seductive female voice purred beside him, shaking him out of his increasingly hateful thoughts.
Seeing Carmilla appear beside his bed, he felt on edge. He's the only surviving member who actually dealt with her in person. So, in his mind he could think of one reason she came to see him in person.
"You've come to kill me."
His statement made the redhead smirk dangerously.
"Not strictly, no. Though it's not off the table. You see, I hate wasting resources. And you have the will and strength to help me still." Carmilla said, taking a seat next to him while Mercury dragged the bodies of the Officers inside with a nervous expression and shut the door.
"Even with Atlesian weapons and vehicles, we couldn't scratch her. I can fight with the best of them. I may not be a top tier Huntsman but I'm certainly not weak. But her? I've never seen strength like that aside from my eldest brother and Father." Baldur looked Carmilla in the eyes and leaned his body up.
"It'll take more than me.. more than a human to take her down."
Carmilla's smirk turned into a toothy grin. As if these were the exact words she was waiting to hear. She stood up and touched his shoulder.
"That's exactly what I was thinking as well. Would you like the strength to get revenge? To get retribution for your humiliation? Does that appeal to you, Baldur?"
Emerald, standing behind Carmilla, shivered. This was who she truly was on the inside. Carmilla is a monster in flimsy human disguise. With how eager she was offering this 'deal' to Baldur, he knew there was no going back for this bandit.
He would either accept it and become a monster or be killed by a monster right here and now.
"....It does." Baldur replied after a tense ten seconds of silence.
Carmilla chuckled and turned to look at Mercury, "Mercury, dear. Go get my car ready. We've got a little excursion to Mountain Glenn to go to.."
Mercury nodded solemnly and gave Baldur a look of pity before walking out. Going to Carmilla's limosine, he felt his palms get clammy and sweaty.
"Mountain Glenn... She's getting him involved? Gods.. this Yin girl.." Mercury shook his head and silently pitied the girl who had so thoroughly caught Carmilla's attention.
-Branwen HQ-
Sitting in the meeting room, Yin looked at her Uncle, who had just came in while taking little sips of the whiskey she had in the cabinets nearby. His legs were kicked up onto the table as he enjoyed the drink.
"Premium stuff here, Mini-Rae.. Ah, come on. Don't give me that look. I get it enough from Raven already.." Qrow grumbled as he saw the flat glare Yin gave him.
Yin just shook her head and replied, "You gotta cut down on the booze, Unc. I always see you drinking. You're also kicking up your dirty shoes on my nice table.." *Sigh* "So why don't you tell me what you want, Uncle? You're not here to just hang out."
Qrow nodded and put his flask in his pocket while sitting up straight and looking at her with a more serious expression.
"Right. Yeah, let's get serious for a sec here. You know about the whole Atlesian Underworld invasion. I got an assignment. End this before it gets bad. Though the means to do so are up to me." Qrow paused and looked at Yin's interested eyes before continuing.
"I'm forming a task force and I want you in it. I think, with your skills you could help me dismantle the gangs quick. And it'd definitely help the clan, seeing you guys help Vale will net you good PR." Qrow added.
He wasn't wrong. If people, especially the councilors saw that the Branwen clan was actively helping Vale. Only, Yin needed to participate in the war as Ryuko too. There would need to be a balance but as it stood, Yin could benefit from playing this out as both herself and 'Ryuko'.
"Alright. I'm game. Is it just us though?" Yin asked, folding her legs.
Qrow scratched the back of his head and shrugged. He had a few other candidates. Almost all included the Arc women, as every single one over fifteen had gone to become a Huntress or specialized in combat.
"I'm thinkin' of Noire Arc. Amazing sniper and she came recommended by Oz and her dad, Nicholas Arc." Qrow answered.
Yin hummed. She met pretty much every Arc sister at some point during her stay with Yang in Domremy. Though she hadn't seen any in action, the Arcs were a clan of warriors so it was a pretty safe bet to say Noire was capable.
"Sounds fine to me. Actually, I was planning to strike at a gang that's participating in the war tonight." This got Qrow's attention.
Her Uncle leaned forward with an interested smile, "What gang exactly? And strike where?"
"The Executors. My mercs have been looking into them. They're colluding with the Atlesian mob and receiving weapons and Dust from them. About thirty minutes ago I had gotten a report from my guys about where an important warehouse they keep their weapons and Dust in." Yin informed, seeing the interested smirk on her Uncle's face grow.
"Well now! That's definitely something.. But if you don't mind me asking? Why them and the Atlesian focus? We could achieve the same result if we focused on the other gangs. They're well-settled and we know where their territory is. It'd be easier to hit them. So why the Atlesians?"
Yin shook her head. By all rights, he was correct. And if she wasn't in this war as an opponent of the Atlesians, maybe she'd consider it. But there was another reason why she wouldn't work with them.
Of course, it all traced back to the world she wished to shape. The one she wanted to be worthy enough for Yang, for her family to live in. The Atlesians would only use Vale as a resource. Weapons, drugs, trafficking and more. They wouldn't care how many people suffered. It was why she killed and replaced Senior Xiong.
She would never allow for such a presence to settle so close to Yang. Thus, they had to be destroyed.
"When a balanced ecosystem gets introduced to invasive, harmful species, what do people do? Ignore them? Kill off the native species there so the foreign species can settle and multiply?" Yin asked, folding her arms.
Qrow sighed and dragged his hand back through his hair. It wasn't exactly the answer he hoped for but it was enough to get where her headspace was. Empathy for the people who'd suffer here under the Atlesians and practicality all mixed together. Like a strange mix of Yang and Raven.
But he could live with that.
"Alright. When do you wanna make a move? Midnight? Need to know the timeframe so I can set up some sorta plan." Qrow asked.
Yin got up and put her scroll on the table in front of her Uncle, showing him video recording of men in black suits patrolling an isolated warehouse within the huge perimeter of Vale's Industrial zone. There were multiple trucks coming in, nothing out of the ordinary for warehouses but what was odd, was how many 'security guards' were placed in various key positions throughout the warehouse's exterior.
"That video was sent to me by my men using a drone. It has all the possible entrances and a lot of the patrol routes, in case you wanna be boring and go in stealthy. We go in at Midnight." Yin stated before walking out of the room and leaving her Uncle to watch the video.
"Damn.." Qrow muttered, impressed as he watched the video.
-Reid-
"The plan has gone up in smoke, Gelle." Reid muttered into his scroll, sitting within a reclining chair in his office.
There was a short pause before he heard a sigh.
"There is a way to possibly regain the trust of the other families. It'd be a shame if we didn't pursue every avenue to total victory. We're going to hit their primary sources of business. If we hit you, seemingly, the hardest? That'll throw some doubt on that woman, Ryuko's accusations." William replied with a calm, calculating tone.
"You plan to hit me here? Destroy a bunch of our Dust..?" Reid grimaced.
"We'll hit your second storage. Besides, we'll get you that Dust back after we kill off the Hatters, Dragonslayers, Crane and Tigers. The Spiders can stay, as I'd rather not deal with them after the smoke settles." William responded.
"Urgh.. fine. Just-" "Aaaaaaugh!! Attack! We're under attack!!" Reid was cut off by a scream from one of his men within the warehouse.
Then, gunfire.
*BAAANG!!*
The sound of a large caliber round echoed through the warehouse, even startling Reid as he hurriedly stood up.
"What's going on!? Who's attacking!?" Reid opened his door and demanded.
His men were scattering to the front entrance with machine guns and pistols. Though two were knocked back over three meters when two unfortunate men had been yeeted through the heavy warehouse entrance doors meant for trucks.
"Huntsman! We have two Huntsmen attacking- Holy shit! Jimmy just got his fuckin' legs cut off!!" One of the men screamed back fearfully.
"Reid? Use the weapons I supplied you with. I have reinforcements coming." William spoke up in a grave tone.
"What..? But if they find out I have mechs and all those weapons from Atlas they'll definitely know I'm working with you!" Reid replied stressfully.
"That doesn't matter at this point. It's either we increase your chance of survival and staying free or lose you and my investment. It's an easy decision." William replied before hanging up.
"..Shit!" Reid threw his scroll onto his desk and ran out, seeing his men shooting at a man and a woman.
The man was easily dispatching his men with a mechashift sword, sidestepping swings and spinning his blade fast enough to block a storm of bullets flying at him. While the woman was speed-blitzing several of his men, sometimes cutting them, sometimes breaking their limbs.
"Use the special weapons! Don't let them get out of here alive, Godsdammit!" Reid yelled out before running over to the back of his warehouse.
His men rapidly began retreating inward and grabbed weapons from the crates and containers nearby. Now, instead of bullets, high energy lasers and high grade Dust rounds were fired at the two attackers.
While Reid opened a large container in the back of the warehouse. One among six. Inside, was a powered down quadruped mech that resembled a beast. It was roughly the size of a tank and had a high-powered fire Dust laser attached to its tail, a powerful high grade dust shrapnel cannon on its back and hardlight dust claws that could shred through steel like wet paper.
Reid smirked as he hurriedly got in the cockpit and powered up the mech.
-Yin and Qrow-
Turns out regular goons with some training weren't really a challenge for Yin and her Uncle. Though things at least got a bit interesting when Yin was forced to block a laser. The heat of the weapon was unreal, impressive enough where even she could feel it. But they were still humans. Humans without advanced training and aura. The battle was pretty much over as soon as it started.
All they were doing now was prolonging the inevitable. Yin had kicked a poor mook over ten meters away and felt herself get bored. Dodging lasers was sort of fun but that was the only challenge.
*CRAAAAASH!!*
That feeling of boredom was broken when she saw a quadruped mecha leap over fifteen feet and land in front of her and her Uncle with a mechanical growl.
"Mine.. mine... mine....miiiine!!!" Yin exclaimed with a growing grin.
[AN: Woooo!! Ya'll see Lilith updated Eldritch Survey? Go support her! :D Also enjoy some more Yin]