As the pair sprinted down the street, adrenaline pumping through their veins, Qrow turned to Bart.
“So what exactly is the plan?!” He shouted over the whistling winds that rushed between the buildings.
“Well,” the doc shouted back, “that depends on what we stumble upon! If our foes are engaged in combat with the one responsible for the storm, then we quickly make our position clear and assist in subduing Cinder and any company she has! You’re quite good at getting into trouble, so I suggest you leave any talking to me!”
That was rude, but Qrow would overlook it until this mess was dealt with.
“I would also suggest-” Bart started up again, but cut himself off.
“Suggest what?! We don’t exactly have time for a long planning session!” Qrow prompted him.
In response, Bart pointed up to the sky. Not towards the funnel of sand that they had spotted before, but more generally the great blue expanse.
Or at least, it had been mostly clear skies. Now, it seemed that they were no longer in the eye of the sandstorm. Clouds of brown dust and sand were sweeping in towards the city center, and Qrow was willing to bet that the entirety of Vacuo was about to become obscured.
And yet, the tendril was still under tight control.
“Shit.”
Another crack of thunder rang out.
“Indeed!” Bart agreed. “It would seem the one responsible is focusing their attention elsewhere!”
Someone who had the level of control over their semblance to command a sandstorm of that size was no joke, and if they had chosen to give it up in favor of what Qrow could only assume was a fight, then it must be against someone who wasn’t going down easily.
“Should we call Glynda?” he half asked-half suggested.
“I’m sure she’s on her way already, and I’m not sure the call would go through right now anyway!”
Qrow felt his hair start to stand on end, the electricity coursing through the air enough that he could feel it. He was no tech wizard, but if it was this bad then he figured Bart probably had a point. As they started turning down the twisting and turning alleyways, trying to reach the fight, the static only got worse.
The BOOM of the next lightning strike was almost enough to deafen him.
“I would advise against using dust! The electricity may cause any cartridges to explode!” Though he was sure the man was shouting, Qrow could barely make out the words. He was going to acknowledge Bart’s suggestion regardless, but that’s when they reached their destination.
It was a rather empty alleyway, with little more than a few wooden crates stacked up against the brick walls. But laying on the sandy stone were two people that weren’t looking so hot. There was a lot of blood splattered across the ground, though Qrow didn’t think it was near enough to be fatal blood loss, even if it all came from only one of them.
One was laid on his back. His face was burned, but the grey hair and the mechanical leg pointed towards it being one Mercury Black, one of Cinder’s henchmen.
Of course, the fact that the mechanical leg had been severed at the ankle, exposing the wiring within, and that there was a gaping hole in his stomach, bleeding but not as much as it should be… potentially partially cauterized? Neither were exactly good signs for his continued survival, but his chest still seemed to be moving.
The other looked like she had been blown back first against a wall and then collapsed. Mint green hair and dark skin marked her as Emerald Sustrai. There didn’t seem to be any big injuries on her, other than her hair being a bit matted with blood. Potential head injury then? Nowhere as much damage as her partner, but depending on how she hit her head she might be dead already… and he didn’t think she was breathing.
But was she dead? Or just pretending to be so they’d lower their guard? Or maybe rather than them it was the one responsible she was trying to trick.
With Harbinger deployed in its sword configuration, he cautiously stepped forward to investigate, keeping his eyes out for the one who had done this to them at the same time.
“Qrow,” Bart started, his voice tense, “Do you see where the funnel ends?”
…come to think of it, he didn’t. He took his eyes off Emerald for a moment to double check, and sure enough it seemed that the “tip” of the funnel was leading to some other alleyway, not visible from where they were at the moment.
“If they managed to focus the sand enough they could have used it to punch right through flesh, explaining the hole in his stomach. The ankle… not a clean enough cut for a blade…”
Getting torn apart by a blast of sand sounded rough. What was this semblance? Powerful enough to control a storm this large, precise enough to do that damage to the guy… and then the lightning strikes just recently…
“Bart, I don’t think this is a semblance.”
The sandstorm alone would have been one thing. Maybe someone had seen that their kingdom walls were breached and decided to keep any more grimm from coming near. Very much late to the party, but still, something he could see.
But lightning strikes on top of that. Controlled strikes, if Mercury’s burns were any indication.
And for the targets to be agents of Salem?
If Cinder and Neo had split Fall, his sister was Spring, and Atlas had Winter locked up somewhere…
“Summer Maiden!” Qrow called out. “I would really appreciate getting to have a word without you putting me in the same state as these two! We’re on the same side, even if we’ve never met!”
How long had it been since they’d known the whereabouts of a Summer Maiden? It had to have been a decade at the very least, since the last one had died… then again, if they hadn’t known any since then, there was no telling how many had gained the power and died in the interim. There could have been a dozen Summer Maidens between the one he and Oz knew and the current one. Would she even know the truth about her power?
“Are you certain that we are on the same side?” Bart whispered with Antiquity’s Roast at the ready, “As things stand it sounds like Winter is the only one that’s definite with and James was scarce with details on her…”
The question was quickly answered. Not by a verbal response like a normal person would give, but rather a thick pillar of sand turning the corner of the alley and rushing towards them.
“Shit.”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
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Never let it be said that Cinder was rash.
Her target was right before her, ready to be harvested like a ripe fruit, but she held herself back, observing for now.
She needed to strike at the perfect moment. She needed to ensure that the fight would end quickly. A single, lethal blow would be ideal.
Cinder was strong. Incredibly powerful with the abilities of the Fall Maiden at her fingertips.
But the woman before her had untold years of experience with the power of a Maiden as opposed to her months.
She was far too intelligent to overlook that disadvantage.
So, concealing herself from the woman on the rooftop by hanging over the ledge behind her, Cinder took in what details she could.
The Summer Maiden was a platinum blonde woman. Tied up in a ponytail, it hung down to her shoulder blades. Her skin was dark, but not like those who were native to this stupid desert, more like someone who had fair skin but had been tanned by many years under the sun. She wore a long white, or at least what had presumably once been white before being exposed to the desert sands, cloak that covered her from the neck down. Peeking out from beneath the cloak were a pair of dark brown combat boots.
All other details were obscured by the fact that Cinder was looking at the woman’s back.
She supposed she didn’t need to know the details of what the woman’s face looked like though, except perhaps to see the distress when the life left her body.
Much more interesting to her was the fact that she stood unmoving.
There were no gestures, no poses, not even an angling of her body. Her head didn’t move to observe the motions of the storm… even her hair was unmoving, as if the strong winds were flowing around her.
Like she was a statue.
Did she really control so much with such ease? How was she directing things with such control without even looking at them?
…would Cinder be at that level when she got the powers? Or would it only be possible after what might be decades of experience?
A sigh fell from the woman’s lips. Cinder tensed. Was this her moment?
“I know you’re there.” A mature, velvety voice called out.
Cinder’s breathing stopped. Her eyes darted for anyone else that might have been caught. She can’t have been the only one who thought to investigate.
Any such hopes were dashed when the Maiden turned around, staring straight at her.
Her face showed some signs of age, but she was still beautiful. Crows feet were present, but only barely, and her skin was otherwise smooth. She had full, red lips, a button nose, and piercing green eyes that were bathed in the lilac glow of the Maiden’s flames.
Beneath the white cloak was a royal purple crop top and a matching combat skirt, both with white accents.
“Cinder Fall. I heard about your exploits in Vale.”
Cinder wasn’t interested in conversation.
Propelling herself into the air with her own Maiden powers, Cinder quickly formed Midnight in its bow form out of the dust in her outfit, taking aim at her prey and firing in the blink of an eye.
The Maiden looked bored.
Before the arrow was anywhere near her, electricity arced from her hand and forced the dust it was composed of to explode.
Cinder let go of Midnight, and not a moment too soon as it quickly met a similar fate.
That would be… troublesome.
“Dust was a poor choice against me even before I became a Maiden,” the woman explained. “You’re going to fight on my terms. And you will die.”
Well then. At least they were on the same page about this being a fight to the death.
Cinder’s eyes blazed as she responded with a fireball.
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Qrow spat sand out of his mouth.
“I never want to see sand again once we’re done with this…”
“At least it was non-lethal…” Bart groaned as he clutched his bruised ribs and adjusted his glasses, now cracked in one lens.
Aura was great at preventing you from dying, but getting hit by a wall of sand still fucking hurt.
A BOOM shook his body as lightning struck a nearby building. A fireball flew overhead.
“It would seem another battle has started up,” Bart remarked as he straightened himself out. “Shall we join them?”
Qrow sighed. “I don’t think we have a choice…”
They quickly scurried onto the rooftops, and before them was quite the sight.
Floating in the air were two women, both throwing elemental attacks at the other with lethal intent. Cinder he definitely recognized, and the other…
“You bitch!” he shouted out with indignation. “We thought you were dead!”
“That was the point, you bastard!” she shouted back, pissing Cinder off even more by not giving the girl her full attention.
The sand that was flying through the air around Cinder quickly turned to glass, the razor sharp shards flying towards the Summer Maiden but ultimately falling to the ground as she swept them aside with a strong wind.
“You know her?!” Bart demanded.
“To my great displeasure!” she explained as she compressed some sand into small rocks and pelted Cinder’s aura with them.
“Do all of the women in your life hate your guts?!” Bart questioned.
“No!” Yang and Ruby loved him, he was the greatest uncle ever!
“Nice to know that nothing has changed, you prick!” she mocked him while flying in close to Cinder, swiping at her with a blade made of ice. It was deflected with a blade that the younger bitch conjured from thin fucking air, but then the older bitch summoned her gods damned lightning right between them, causing Cinder’s to explode and putting some distance between the two once more.
“Lots has changed,” Qrow defended, “not that you’d know since you apparently faked your own death!”
“Will you take a hint already?! I want nothing to do with you!”
She punctuated her point not with another attack towards Cinder, but one towards him.
Focusing the sand swirling through the air once more, she directed the tendril straight towards him.
“Are you trying to kill me, you psycho?!”
She ignored him, dodging out of the way of another fireball from Cinder.
“Ah, Qrow?” Bart hesitantly spoke up.
“Not the time, Bart!”
“No, no, I think it is the time. Do my eyes deceive me, or is that a ship?”
Just barely managing to side step the sands propelled by hurricane force winds, he dared to let his attention drift to where Bart was pointing.
Trapped within the tendril of sand was a full fledged Mistral airship. More and more of it was revealed as the width of the tendril lessened, growing more compact near the tip. As the bitch redirected the airstream to send the sand towards Cinder, Qrow watched as the ship rose up, helpless but to follow along.
“What the fuck…”
“Do you think anyone is still on board?” Bart asked, the worry clear in his tone.
“I sure hope not, that’d be some awful luck to be caught up in-”
The sand shifted. With the ship directly above them, the ship turned onto its side.
“I’m too handsome to die!” was shouted down from up on high as Qrow and Bart watched a handful of huntsmen fall out of the ship. There was a team that seemed vaguely familiar to him, and what looked like the ship’s pilot was clinging tightly to the back of one of them.
He wasn’t worried about them. Every huntsmen worth their salt had a landing strategy.
What did worry him was the two students falling straight towards him.
“My semblance can go fuck itself.”