Yang
The mysterious metal man sprints across the sand dunes towards the town of which they were headed, the town is constructed of Sandstone, blending into the sandy environment. He runs extremely fast, inhumanly fast, the sound of gyros and gears scraping can be heard from his running animation. His metal legs are not faltered by the deep dunes of sand, able to move through with perfect ease. The sand trails from the poncho that it wears as it runs extremely quickly. Yang slides down one of the dunes, but when she runs, she hears the voice of Winter calling to her. "Yang!" She calls as she jumps off the dune, using a Glyph to soften her descent. Yang's lilac eyes looks straight at hers. She points behind them and they see the massive plume of sand barrelling towards them like an avalanche, the Sandstorm has grown in size and is getting closer and closer. Visibility will be at a complete zero unless they get inside before it hits. "That Sandstorm is catching up with us!" She shouts.
"Then we need to move fast! That thing could be the Architect!" Yang yells, running after it as it sprints towards the town, leaping across the Barricade. Some of the soldiers are utterly bewildered as the robot passes right by them, too fast for them to aim, and they aim at Yang and the others.
"Stop right there!" The soldier yells.
"We just saved you!" Yang argues as she continues to run. The soldier opens fire, he must not have known, Yang ducks down to avoid the dust bullet and she jumps at him, kicking him in the head to simply get him out of the way. She continues to run after rolling across the floor. The Poncho Man starts clambering their way up the side of one of the sandy buildings, scraping its metal feet and fingers into the structure to hook on and get further up there. Yang pursues him, her eyes on the rooftops, the robot jumps off one building, sailing across the sky and landing on the roof of another building across the way. Ren jumps up to the building and he chases after this character, Stormflower in hand.
"We just wanna talk!" Ren yells. Yang turns a corner and there is legitimate surprise on her face. There are actually civilians harboured here, wearing the same kind of civilian style clothing as people in Vacuo do. But some of them have the symbols of Mistral on them, this must be yet another Refugee Camp of some kind. And the White Fang are defending it. Both Human and Faunus, which makes it even more surprising. Ren follows the figure but he jumps down into the streets, vanishing into the crowd, straight from Ren's view. Ren scours the area with his pink eyes to figure out where he went to find him, but he has blended straight into the mix of clothing and civilians, completely vanishing without a trace. He grits his teeth in frustration. "I've lost him!" Ren yells. Yang stammers in confusion, stressing out because he could be the best chance they have to find Ruby. She looks across the street though when she hears distant shouting.
All of a sudden, there is an Acolyte of Lien Grunt with an Assault Rifle in his hand, he points the rifle in the air and waves the barrel around, holding the trigger back. The rifle spills bullets from the barrel with a constant set of bangs from the muzzle, launching bullets into the sky. The abrupt gunfire freaks the civilians out and their hands raise around their lowered heads as they flee for cover. The soldiers all where unique Desert Styled armour, ponchos around their tactical gear and wearing sand-proof goggles. Yang snarls in anger when she sees the soldiers aiming their rifles at them. "Lookie what we have here, boys!" One of the soldiers cheers, he is the same Captain that was present for the deaths of Neon Katt and Flynt Coal, but Yang does not realise this yet. "Got ourselves the pretty one!" He cheers, aiming his assault rifle at her. Yang dives for cover as he fires straight at her. Yang rolls her eyes as she pumps her Ember Celica back into action. The shells load into the chambers and she lifts them up as she peers back round the corner at the soldiers that are making their positions. Her eyes widen when she sees two Seekers darting across the courtyard, their S. aimed at their location.
"Hey, can we talk about -" The soldiers immediately shoot at Yang as soon as her head sticks out a little, breaking the sandstone into little pieces, making her yelp from the sudden collection of bangs that launches the bullets at her face. "Guess not!" She squeaks. "Old fashioned way." She sighs, jumping out from cover as she fires Ember Celica at the soldiers. The soldiers take cover and the Captain throws a device straight at her. The device lands before her, a small metal object and the metal shifts, a strange piston with coils electrified emerges. Everyone else catches up with her and they are too late to retreat when the soldiers see them. The device detonates, creating a powerful electromagnetic pulse that stuns them, holding them in one position in a pained strain. It continues to keep them locked in position, making guttural sounds as they try and break free from the grip of the blue lightning forks coming from the device. The chopping sound of propellers approaches the village and Yang's eyes are the only things that can move as she sees a Helicopter arriving to the scene along with two Armoured Trucks. They set a trap here.
The Captain chuckles with a huge smirk on his face as he walks towards Yang with his Rifle held tight. Nora growls in anger, her Semblance is unable to work against this, it is some sort of electric device that is not designed the same way, it is close to electricity but is something completely new and different. This means it has no effect on her semblance, it just makes her frozen like the rest of the gang. Winter tries to move but she can't and the Captain looks right at her, taking his sunglasses off with a smirk. "Well I'll be damned...Winter Schnee." He greets as he looks at the woman who is frozen before her. He has weathered scars on his face and a couple of scars, along with a fully shaved head, covered with scars. He wears some sort of Armoured Suit that is powered with Dust. Very similar to the kind that Kassius wears, which also has malfunctioned his suit to lock up so he cannot move. "Well boys, the boss'll be happy with this. That's one Schnee, now we just have to find the other Schnee. Maybe the old man shouldn't have had so much fun in his younger days with his pretty wife." He scoffs as he walks around. "Hope he didn't here that, because someone would like to have a chat with you." He says, taking out a small spherical device that has small jets underneath it as it floats towards them. Yang watches it as it stops right in front of Winter, the reflective plates around its spherical form project images from them all, creating the holographic live image of Jacques Schnee. He holds his glass of Whiskey in his hand, a smirk on his face as he stares at his beautiful eldest daughter.
"Winter..." He greets as he holds his glass. Winter grunts and tenses where she is held by the restraint. The Helicopter hovers above them, the blast from the chopper's blades blows the sand all over the place as it hover above them, the machine gun aimed straight at them if anything happens.
"Father..." Winter greets with a scowl on her face.
"You were always the promised one." He huffs with a disappointed look in his eyes, shaking his head. Winter smirks and scoffs at him.
"You're calling me a disappointment? Look in a mirror? You are a disappointment to the Schnee Name." She growls. Jacques chuckles deeply.
"I don't think so." He says. He starts walking around the area with the device floating inside of his holographic body, his eyes focused on them all. "Well done, Captain Ridley." Jacques says to him, raising his glass to him. The Captain bows his head down to him, smirking away as he always does. So that is his name: Ridley. Yang glares at the man as he walks around, and there is a personal hatred in Blake's eyes for how he has been treating the Faunus in his business, a hate that she would happily send to him with a punch between his eyes. "Winter, where is Weiss?" He questions as he stands there, looking straight at her. Winter scoffs, shaking her head in disgust.
"Did you even know she was stabbed by Death?" She questions.
"I heard, one less loose end." Jacques says. That statement sends Winter into a storm of rage, lunging through the electrical restraints but another lightning bolt wraps round her wrist, holding her back in her place instead of attacking the hologram.
"How can you say that? She is your child!" Winter shouts.
"A child who turned against me." Jacques adds.
"You are something else, Jacques." Kassius scorns. That sentence brings Jacques' attention to him and he turns round to face him.
"Kassius Locke? I have heard stories about you..." Jacques says as he looks at him, standing right before him with a smirk.
"Good or bad?" Kassius inquires.
"Depends on the side of the coin." He says, turning from him again and walking before them all once more.
"How did you find us here? How did you know?" Nora questions, straining to get free.
"I have my sources, or did your old Crow over there miss that one?" Jacques chuckles as his eyes move over to Qrow Branwen who hangs there. Qrow grunts.
"Screw you, old man." He snarls.
"The Arkhoni Ruins across Remnant are the key, they hold the key to the problem that we are all facing." He says, walking past them all and looking at one of the ancient monumental statues with the old hieroglyphics engraved into the stone. "The key to learning how to control the Grimm." He says as he looks up at it with awe in his eyes.
"Or destroying them." Winter challenges, making his hand crunch into a fist, turning to face her.
"Damn it, Winter! Destroying the Grimm gains us nothing!" He argues.
"How about peace? Survival? Freedom?" Winter lists with a shocked smirk on her face from how ridiculous his ideals have become.
"Salem is just trying to control us. Think about it, she has been dividing us into different sections to make us fight each other. She wants to learn how to control our motives." Jacques explains as he paces back and forth before Winter.
"What the hell are you talking about, Schnee?" Qrow questions.
"I know the Knights, Qrow...I know how they think." He reveals, fuelled by his raging ego inside of his head. Yang scoffs as she listens to all of this.
"I think you've gotten a little too close to the enemy." Yang says, leading to Jacques to approach her next, walking in front of her. He recognises her immediately because she was there when Weiss tried to change her identity with Ruby and Neptune.
"Miss Xiao Long, tell me what would be more beneficial: destroying something stronger than you or learning to control it?" Jacques asks, and he does raise a good point, but one that is too insane to possibly be for the greater good. It is all for one purpose, his ego.
"Sure, but trying to control them is insane! You're doing exactly what they want!" Yang disputes. His moustache curves diagonally as he smirks menacingly at Yang.
"I could say the same of you, attempting to destroy something that cannot be beaten." Jacques states.
"At least we're fighting." Yang snarls. Jacques stares at her and he points his finger right at Yang's face with anger in his eyes.
"Don't ever question my ability to fight! I've been fighting the Grimm longer than you can imagine! And don't assume that you know me...my methods of beating the Grimm...are simply more refined than yours." Jacques says to Yang, sounding so confident in himself.
"Yeah? And what about us Faunus?" Blake questions.
"Took the words right out of my mouth." Sun adds, glaring at him with his blue eyes. Jacques looks at them, and all his eyes view them as are a pair of animals. Something else that should be controlled.
"We would have far less problems if you could not argue with the rules." He states, and that triggers a rage fuelled reaction from the two Faunus Warriors, causing the soldiers to aim their rifles at them to keep them under control. Winter glares at her father with eyes filled with hatred.
"I might have believed you at one stage, but you've gone too far." Winter says to him. Ren watches the soldiers as they wait for their next batch of orders, their weapons in their hands. Seekers stood there with dust vapour leaking from their backpacks that help them move at supersonic speeds.
"Winter, you're out of your depth. There are choices coming that you'll have to make, choices you are not mentally equipped for." Jacques warns as he stands there.
"At least I'll be making them as a good person, with the right decisions in mind. Not just some puppet for Salem to play with." Winter states.
"No, there's always another way forward, humanity will always find a way, and I am the vessel that will carry us to that safe shoreline." Jacques says, taking a sip from his glass in his hand, the ice cubes clinking against one another.
"We're gonna find Ruby and Oscar, and when we do, we're gonna send the Knights back to hell." Winter says to him.
"I can't let you do that." He says to her. Jacques's hologram starts walking back to Ridley, but he stops before he leaves, looking at the restrained team members before him. "I am only going to say this once, Weiss and Ruby suffered the consequences of challenging the alliance I have forged with the Knights of Grimm. Stand down, go home and live your lives. This is your final warning." He says to them all, and Yang glares straight into his eyes with a snarling scowl.
"Go to hell." Yang growls.
"As you wish. Ridley, these individuals have information we need. Get whatever you can out of them and retrieve Target Alpha." Jacques orders as the hologram dissipates and the device lands in his hand, shutting down.
"It'd be a goddamn pleasure." Ridley smirks. Ridley fits the device into his pocket, and his dark eyes stare straight at them all, with murderous intent in them. He walks around, his eyes fixed on them. He takes a few steps forward, creating a very ominous vibe to himself as he approaches. "Now then, let's get down to business." He begins. "Winter was not the only target we were hired to collect. There is an individual in this town, one of which you know the whereabouts of. Where is he?" Ridley demands.
Who is he talking about?
Fear begins to rush over Yang like a plague. She does not have any idea of what he is talking about, and it is legitimately scaring her from how silent he is currently being, just walking around and staring at them. "Who the hell are you talking about?" Sun questions. Ridley glares at him when he speaks.
"Trying to defend him, as always. You were seen outside the gates with him." He says.
The Architect!
They are also looking for the Architect!
Yang stammers as she thinks of an answer and then she breathes out to calm down. "Look, we took down the Deathstalkers out there and we saw him there, that's as much as we know about him." Yang says, and she is telling the truth. But Ridley is cold and cruel. He breathes out through his lips, looking up at the scorching hot sun.
"Perhaps..." He mumbles, grabbing the grip of his holstered handgun slowly. "...I wasn't clear enough." He finishes, swiftly drawing his pistol and pressing it against Sun's thigh. He pulls the trigger, and this device has somehow managed to shut their aura down completely. The bullet erupts from the barrel and darts straight through his leg, blood spilling out, causing Sun to scream in extreme agony. Blake screams in terror as she sees the blood. The blood lands on the hot floor and Sun cries out in pain, unable to press his hand against the wound but he can feel the pain. And now he is bleeding out. Ridley nods to one of the Seekers and the Seeker nods to him. The Seeker shoots across the town and stops right next to Nora, pressing the barrel of his pistol against Nora's head, making her cyan eyes widen and a gasp emerge from her mouth. Ren's eyes burst open and he starts yelling in terror.
"No!" Ren begs. "Leave her alone!" He demands.
Ridley glares straight into Yang's eyes and she stares straight back, feeling the warm barrel against her chin and now Kassius and Qrow are yelling as well. "Get the hell away from her!" Kassius bellows.
"Take that gun away from my niece!" He shouts.
"Stop, we don't know where he is!" Ren shouts, trying to stop the Seeker from pulling the trigger, and Nora is shaking in fear.
"Ren..." Nora whimpers in fear as the Seeker glares at her through the glowing red visors of his helmet, no emotion showed in the metal mask.
Ridley glares into Yang's eyes as he stands there. "Clear enough now?" Ridley asks, raising an eyebrow as he pushes the gun up, pulling the hammer back to load a fresh bullet into the chamber. Yang grits her teeth in anger, and there is pure rage flowing into the eyes of Kassius right now, his cybernetic hand shrieking as he tries to free himself from the grip of the device. "Now, I'm gonna ask you again, where is he?" Ridley demands.
"Who?" Yang begs, since now she has realised that they know more than they do.
"We have been following this guy since Mistral fell, you know something." He says with furious eyes.
"Ren...I'll always be there for you." Nora promises with a gentle smile.
"You're gonna be fine!" Ren states. "Put the gun down!" Ren shouts, breaking his voice in the process as he begs. The Seeker fires the gun right next to her face, scaring her further. Yang shudders from the gunshot, and her eyes have not left Ridley's.
"Ten seconds." He counts down, and he will pull the trigger if she does not get an answer.
"Look, I swear to the gods! I have no idea of who this guy is! We were here to find someone called the Architect and we had a hunch it was him, but we lost him in the crowd!" Yang explains, tears beginning to well up in her eyes as she is terrified of losing Nora to this madman. But even from telling him the full truth now, he is still not buying it.
"Five seconds." He coldly says, expression still the same.
Inside of a building nearby, the civilians watch in terror as they witness this all in the making as Yang starts screaming, begging him not to shoot her. "I'm telling the truth!" Yang argues. One man stands in the crowd, the hood up and the poncho blowing in the wind. He stands there and the glimmer of a blade sticks out from the poncho and he slowly turns his head when hearing this screaming voice.
"Get away from Nora, right now!" Ren erupts with protective rage. He stops walking away, looking over his shoulder and stepping into the light. His blue eyes fix on them, realising who is in trouble here. His messy blonde hair has sand stuck in it and he has bruises and scratches on his face, bags under his eyes from the amount of time he has lost sleep for. He lifts the sword from the poncho that he has been hidden inside of, the light gleaming upon the blade. He grits his teeth as he scowls at the mercenaries as they threaten them.
"Re-en!" Nora cries in fear.
The boy stares at them.
It could only be him.
"That's it." Ridley sighs, turning to the Seeker, nodding. "Kill her." He orders.
Suddenly the man leaps through the crowd, tearing the poncho from his black hoodie and he swings Crocea Mors straight across the head of a soldier that had his back to him. It's Jaune! Jaune slices the blade straight across his neck, killing him and he blocks the gunfire from another soldier that shoots at him. The bullets ricochet off his shield and he spins round with his sword, slicing it across his chest with force. "Here I am!" Jaune yells with rage. "No one messes with my team!" He screams. Jaune smashes his shield across the face of a soldier and he charges right at Ridley as he turns his head, but not his gun, still pointed at Yang's face. Jaune caterwaul's as he brings the blade of Crocea Mors down across his elbow, slicing clean through Ridley's arm and blood erupts out, splattering against the side of Yang's face, and she is still for a second from shock. Ridley screams in agony grabbing his bleeding stump in pain, staggering away from Yang, his gun and hand landing on the floor, retreating into the dark. Jaune smashes the blade into the device that restrains them and the electrical field deactivates.
Ren takes his chance, spinning round and punching the Seeker in the side of the head with force. The Seeker fires the gun, and the bullet flies right past Nora's head and into a window. Ren punches the Seeker over and over in the chest and performs an incredible roundhouse kick as he jumps up in the air, nearly smashing the helmet apart. The Seeker staggers back but then the backpack blasts to life, orange dust trailing from the exhausts so then he can dart off, leaving a trail, suddenly the soldier is across the courtyard from them. Yang grits her teeth, pumping Ember Celica and she turns to face a soldier behind her, firing the shotgun into the side of his face, sending him airborne from the impact. Kassius throws Lash Equinox whilst in spear form straight into the chest of an unaware Seeker, stabbing straight through the armour and blowing the backpack up. Kassius runs at the Seeker and grabs his weapon, ripping it from its chest. Sun collapses to the floor and he lips aside, into Blake's arms. "Just a scratch!" Sun assures.
Jaune turns to Yang as he protects them from the bullets. "Yang! They're gonna kill you all! Get out of here!" Jaune orders. They all start to flee from the centre of the town, Jaune running with them, pointing to something ahead of them, rolling forward to avoid the missile of the Helicopter behind them.
Qrow looks up at one of the building, and to their horror, they see the dark hooded assassin appear from thin air, the camouflage tech wearing off as she aims her Rifle at Jaune as he runs, firing a bullet straight at him, but the bullet lands in front of his feet, enabling him to roll out of the way and he starts running through the streets. The Onyx Phantom lifts her rifle back to her back, the magnetic strips in the armour latching the rifle onto her spine. She starts sprinting after him, running across the rooftops to chase after him. Jaune takes a different path to the others to escape, and the rest are running down the streets. Qrow spins round when he sees a Seeker darting behind them, pulling and holding the trigger of his Sub-Machine Gun back, unleashing a rapid fire of bullets at them from behind. Qrow spins his sword round to block the bullets from the others. He then folds the sword down, launching a shell at the soldier, but the Seeker darts away in time, the explosion landing where he was stood. Qrow stares at the Seeker as he retreats.
Ridley staggers, a medic has wrapped some medical gauze around his stump and he is barely able to stay conscious, using the medic's shoulder as a support. "Kill them." Ridley orders.
"Which ones?" He asks.
"All of them!" He demands.
"What about the Schnee girl?" The medic asks. Ridley grabs the medic by the throat, glaring straight into his eyes.
"All of them!" He repeats with a thunderous voice.
Yang runs at the tip of the group whilst Sun limps with Blake helping him run as best as he can, blood leaking from the bullet wound that Ridley gave him. The blonde girl turns a corner to see another Seeker zooming before them, orange dust acting as a trail of where they have been. He stands behind cover and fires his weapon at them. Yang fires a rocket straight at the soldier, but he darts to another area of cover where the rocket can do little damage to him. "Keep moving!" Yang demands. They start running as fast as they can to get out of the city, and as they run they see other White Fang stood inside, firing their weapons at the Acolytes of Lien. They all stop as they see a house explode, a Juggernaut-Class Soldier erupts through and smashes his shield down onto the body of a White Fang Militant, crushing him into the floor like a bug being swatted with a slipper. The Juggernaut's Chaingun starts spinning to life and he sprays a cyclone of bullets into the soldiers, shredding them into little pieces. The eight foot armoured soldier stands tall, made huge from the suit of armour.
"Find the targets!" The Juggernaut orders, his voice transformed into a metallic growl, similar to the Seekers that have voice changers in their helmets. The Grunts however do not have such disguisers in their armour. Grunts leap onto rooftops, using the jetpacks that they have worn or the thrusters in their boots. Yang takes cover as the Juggernaut stands tall, the two red eye visors looking around to search for them. She stops everyone and they all hide in the alleyway as he approaches. They all hide behind the same dumpster as he approaches, Blake holds her hands against the wound on Sun's leg. The Juggernaut is getting closer and Yang can see the three long glowing orange barrels of the Chaingun right by her head, still hot from when it was just firing. She can see the head right next to her and before he turns, he hears something behind him. As he turns, there is a similar backpack to the Seekers, but this seems to be more like a Power Conduit to the armour. Destroying that might be the key to taking that guy down. Yang turns around to see who is ready and they all except for Sun are, since his leg is busted from the gun.
"We can take him, aim for the back." Yang whispers. Nora smirks, recovered from that traumatic moment when she thought that the Seeker was going to shoot her in the head, holding Magnhild tight in her hand. Kassius smiles and he walks out with Yang first, running towards the Juggernaut. They both fire their gauntlets at the Juggernaut, sparks erupt from the conduit, like an explosive charge going off. The Pilot yells in pain, staggering forward and he spins round as Kassius goes to stab his sword into it, but the barrels smash into him, throwing him into a pile of crates in the corner, blowing them all apart from the impact. The Juggernaut lifts the shield up to protect his body from the bullets of Stormflower, the green rounds bounce off the shield. Blake remains with Sun, keeping him safe, shooting her magnum at any soldiers that enter the alley where they are. Even Sun is stood up, leant against the wall, detaching the two halves of the Ruyi Jingu Bang and blasting shrapnel into any Grunts that come their way.
The Juggernaut spins the three long barrels round again with a mechanical whirring sound that builds up and up until the fire erupts from the, launching a barrage of lethal bullets at his enemies. Yang sprints as fast as she can to take cover. Winter darts across the courtyard, using her glyphs to shoot across the area, the bullets chasing her as she darts behind it. She jumps at the conduit and drives her sword into the spine of the suit, sparks erupting from the impact and a metallic scream of pain coming out as well. The soldier staggers forward, turning round. The shoulders of the Juggernaut open, revealing a pair of Swarmer Missile Launchers that aim at her, firing ten tiny rockets towards her that chase her. She runs as fast as she can to escape them, some explode against the floor and some in front of her. She turns round, forming glyphs that explode before her as she blocks them. The fiery clouds erupt around her as she protects herself from the Juggernaut. Qrow spins his sword round, deflecting the bullets of the Chaingun back into the Juggernaut's armour, breaking plates of metal off. The Juggernaut smashes the shield at him, but he jumps into the air and slices his sword across the armour, sparks erupting from the wound. Yang launches rockets towards the Juggernaut whilst she runs, the explosions cause the huge metal beast to stagger backwards from the impacts and he charges at Yang.
But the Juggernaut does not notice Nora running at him from behind, Kassius gets into position with his hands cupped together so she can jump onto them. He launches her into the air and she twirls around like a ballerina. She giggles with excitement as she rises into the sky, the wind rushing around her as she feels weightless, plummeting back to Remnant. She lifts the hammer above her head, cheering as she smashes it into the Power Conduit with all of her might. She lands behind it after making her impact. The conduit explodes and the suit begins to malfunction, sparks and flames erupting through the metal. The body staggers and twitches with a panicking pilot trapped inside. The armour starts to explode, arms held out and the arms explode one by one and finally the whole body explodes in a huge pulse of fire and electrical energy, smoke rising into the sky and the boom echoes across the desert.
Nora throws her fist into the air. "Yeah!" She cheers.
Blake helps Sun back up and they continue to run as fast as they can to get away from the Acolytes of Lien, and hopefully to find the Architect along the way. They run and run, but then they hear the grunting and combat on the rooftop above them. Yang looks up when she sees a roof tile plummeting down right beside her. She sees Jaune clambering up the side of a building and on a roof lower down is the Onyx Phantom. She aims her Chrome Revolver at him as he climbs, pulling the trigger and the explosive bullet blows the sandstone work apart underneath him as he avoids her. The Onyx Phantom launches her body up the side of the building, and Jaune picks up Crocea Mors, blocking the impact of her sword as she swings it straight at him. Jaune smashes the blade across her cheek, cutting the skin, blood leaking from the wound and a faint coloured aura repairs the damage. Her eyes narrow and she pursues Jaune, tackling him through a sandstone chimney, grunting as she rolls across the floor, her voice transformed into some sort of metallic voice. Jaune gets up and sheathes his sword as he runs, looking back at her as she fires her Revolver at him as he runs. Jaune jumps and lands narrowly on the building, clambering up.
Yang looks forward with a gasp, seeing more soldiers in front of them. Whilst Jaune fights the Onyx Phantom above them, Yang runs at the two Grunts ahead of them and she jumps at them, kicking them both in the head and knocking them onto the floor. She turns, eyes widen when a soldier aims his rifle at her. But then a shotgun blast hits him in the side of the head, killing him instantly, blood splattering against the wall. She turns and sees Sun holding Jingu Bang up, winking at her. Yang winks back and then turns around. A vehicle shows up to fight them, a couple Mercs with rifles aimed at them to put them down. Jaune punches the Onyx Phantom in the side of the head and he takes the chance, grabbing a hook from a crane and smashing it into her armour, kicking her off the roof. She plummets down and the hook and cable tighten, hanging her from the roof and she grunts through her mask in pain, grabbing the cable, struggling to pull it out from her shoulder. Jaune's attention turns to the others, seeing the soldiers. "Yang!" He calls, he sprints across the roof and he jumps down, driving his sword into the sternum of one soldier and then spins round, taking out the second soldier.
He looks at then and nods. "Where have you been?" Nora asks with an amazed voice.
"Tell you later!" Jaune says.
They all turn and they see the Helicopter that was watching them return, aiming the machine guns at them. The helicopter prepares to fire, but suddenly the Poncho-Wearing man returns, leaping at the helicopter and slamming a blade straight into the tail, causing it to spin out of control. The man presses a gun to the rotor blade and fires a dust round into it, blowing it apart and causing fire to erupt from it as it spins and spins out of control. The man pushes his metal legs against the helicopter, launching back and landing before them all with grace. The Helicopter spins and crashes into the ground in a fiery explosion. He looks at them, shadows still concealing his face but a pair of glowing blue eyes look upon them. Yang looks at him, this is the best possible time for answers.
"Well...you have proved yourselves to be just who he is looking for." The person says, the same metallic and deep, commanding voice as always. Yang takes a step forward.
"Are you the Architect?" She asks.
The man takes his hands out from the poncho, revealing completely metal arms and hands that grab the dusty hood and pulls it back. The person is not human at all, it is some sort of Robot, nothing like Penny or the Atlesian Knights however. This is...older...steel metal plates and is quite compact, intricate pieces of metal making up the head structure, no mouth like a human. But fully functioning eyes that glow bright blue with black and gold plates surrounding the body of this machine. The clockwork inside moves around as he moves, looking at them. Kassius walks around the machine. There are two cogs on the side of his head that must make the mouth area move when he speaks. He is a machine, just unlike any they have seen before. And yet he has a personality like Penny, she was allegedly the first machine to have a soul. "I am indeed." The Architect announces, very proud of his name, clearly. The Architect politely bows forward like a butler, waving his hand to them. "You have managed to save this town and most of the occupants from this infestation, the Mercenaries have retreated. The White Fang now have control of the Village once more. Seems Miss Branwen keeps up to her word." He says with amazement.
"Do you protect this place?" Blake asks.
"No, I was assisting your friend here. I found him outside of Mistral, pursued by Grimm. My master has need of his abilities, along with a certain other Rose." He says. Yang's eyes widen in amazement when he mentions the word Rose.
"Ruby?" Yang asks. The Architect takes a step closer, looking her in the eyes.
"You know of the Silver Eyed One?" He inquires.
"She's my little sister." Yang answers.
"Is she with you right now?" The Architect asks her, the pieces of metal moving independently as he speaks, tilting his metal head as he speaks.
"No...she was captured by Death, brought to Salem." Yang answers.
"I see..." The Architect says. "Then that complicates things." He sighs, scratching his metal chin.
"Who are you talking about?" Ren asks. "You keep on mentioning a master." He points out curiously. The Architect takes a step back and Kassius is more...untrustworthy than the others.
"I will explain everything if you would kindly come with me." The Architect says, offering his hand to Yang.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Kassius questions, pushing his shoulder. The Architect abruptly grabs his metal finger forcefully.
"Don't kill the messenger, or the messenger will kill you." He threatens, twisting his finger all the way around, breaking the metal finger, sparks leaking from damaged wiring. Kassius' eyes widen in pain and the Architect pushes him away, causing him to fall onto his back. He grabs his metal finger and lets it all out.
"Ow!" Kassius wails.
Yang giggles a little at how he managed that and Jaune stands there, he clearly does trust him. Perhaps he was telling the truth. They look at the Onyx Phantom who is still dangling on the roof, dropped her guns onto the ground and is still trying to get free. "Now then, these circumstances have intertwined with your mission now. If you wish to save your sister, you will follow me." The Architect says to them all.
"What, just run off with some crazy ninja robot?" Sun questions.
"The people here are safe now, the individual up there has failed and will retreat, I have already foreseen it. Only if you join me now. Your sister is more important than you can possibly imagine." The Architect announces. Yang's eyes widen upon hearing him say that, Kassius gets up slowly, fixing his finger by pushing the plates back into place, flexing it into position. "All of you are needed, ma'am, urgently." The Architect states to Yang, his optics looking at her lilac organic eyes. "My master has a fond habit of repeating this certain statement: no matter how long you may live, there comes a moment in all our lives where the whole purpose of our existence comes down to just one moment." He explains, his educative voice speaking further.
"We need to tell Raven, Weiss and Neptune." Blake points out.
The Architect waves his metal hand, and to their amazement, the same form of portal that Raven can form appears behind him, but this one does not have darkness, it is clear, and they can see Weiss and Neptune reacting as they see it open. "Let us collect them, and be on our way." He says.
The Onyx Phantom
She finally rips the hook from her shoulder, falling from where she hanged and landing on the roof of a different building with a heavy thud. Her orange eyes watch the movements of them as they all vanish into the portal. She yells in anger, punching the floor and using her telekinetic powers to throw a chunk of concrete across the street, exploding against a wall. She turns around, stressed from her failure to kill her target, and when she turns, she sees Hazel, Cinder, Mercury and Emerald stood there, looking at her. "Where are they?" Hazel interrogates. Her eyes narrow and she stands tall, point at where the portal closes up after they leave. Cinder clenches her hand into a fist.
"I'm getting really tired of missing all the good fights." He huffs, dropping his shoulders.
"Shut up." Emerald whispers and Hazel gives him a stern look.
"It doesn't matter." Hazel states. "They will resurface." Hazel assures.
"That's not the problem." Cinder sighs, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"What is the problem?" He asks.
"What does Salem do to the people who fail?" She asks him. He pauses and then she shows him the scarred hand print on her chest. Hazel walks over to her and he gently pats her shoulder.
"We haven't failed." He assures. "She never expects her people to come back unless if their mission is complete. So we will stay out here until we find them." Hazel says.
"So where do we start?" Mercury asks. He looks down at the floor and crouches down, seeing some splatters of blood on the floor, he touches it, looking at it on his fingerprint.
"Start by following the trail." He states, looking upwards.