Chapter Text
The flare from Roman’s cane whistled through the air and impacted the cable of the crane, leading to a massive explosion.
The steel cable groaned loudly overhead and then it snapped.
Blake’s eyes widened and she shouted. “Sun, move, now!”
The suspended cargo container dropped like a guillotine between them, smashing into the concrete hard enough to shake the entire pier. Dust exploded outward in a choking wave.
Sun barely had time to jump out of the way, at the same time Blake vaulted backwards to avoid being crushed into a pancake.
Now they were separated, Blake had quickly recovered, rolling through the debris. She quickly looked around her, Gambol Shroud already back in her hand.
She heard Roman laughing from the other side of the crate, he was cackling like a saturday cartoon villain. That was until she faintly heard a familiar voice, Ruby’s. Followed by the sound of the fighting picking back up.
Blake was confused as to how she had gotten here but decided that was important for now. She would take any help she could get in obtaining more information from this sleazeball in a suit.
Blake wanted to go around the wrecked crate to get back in the fight. However at that moment, a flash of black opened on the crate in front of her, for a moment she thought it was just a weirdly cast shadow, but before she got the chance to dispel this thought something shot out of it, forcing her to duck out of the way.
A loud clang followed. Directly opposite of the circular fading void, a hammer had embedded itself into the floor where she had stood just a second earlier.
Before Blake could fully recover, another portal snapped open overhead. It forced Blake to roll in order to avoid the object that fell out next.
A girl dropped through upside down, grinning wildly as she landed in a handstand. “Almost gotcha!” She said with a chuckle.
She twisted her body into a spin in order to deliver a kick in Blake’s stomach, forcing her back, then straight into the right side up position. She planted both her feet on the ground next to what Blake guessed was her hammer.
The girl pulled it free from the ground and rested it on her shoulder in the same motion, her grin still firmly planted on her face.
Blake braced herself, raising Gambol Shroud defensively. She had anticipated what came next as the girl launched herself directly in Blake’s direction without a care in the world about her safety. Dark hair whipped around her face, one crimson eye gleaming with manic excitement while a striped raccoon tail flicked behind her.
Blake managed to sidestep the wild newcomer's first swing, the one-handed hammer swung again immediately after, she was fast even with the seeming weight of the weapon.
She backflipped to avoid several more attempted strikes from the hammer girl and also too get some distance between herself and that girl.
The girl stopped chasing the agile cat, still smiling, she pointed the hammer at her dramatically. “Ooooh, so you’re one of those Beacon students right, Huntress in training right?”
Emphasizing the question by throwing her hammer in Blake’s direction, which the cat easily sidestepped, the weapon landed somewhere behind her with a dull “clang” noise.
Blake, from the corner of her eye, noticed a void similar to the first one she saw appearing, the hammer falling through and soon after a second void appearing beside the girl, from which the hammer fell right into her hand. She rested the hammer back on her shoulder. Looking way to pleased with herself.
Blake narrowed her eyes. Who was this girl? She had immediately noticed the Raccoon tail, was she with the White Fang? Blake doubted that since she wasn’t wearing a mask. But she couldn’t be sure without asking either…
“Who are you? Are you with the White Fang as well?” She suddenly asked and it was as if a deafening silence fell over that part of the battlefield, just for a second.
That was until the raccoon girl burst out laughing. “Me, with the Fang? Oh no absolutely not! No No, way kitty cat. Too holier-than-though for me.” The girl stated, she seemed to be absolutely in stitches at the mere thought of it. “I only have one boss. And it’s that guy!” She said pointing behind her without even looking.
There Blake noticed Roman was quietly walking in the opposite direction.
During this short engagement between the two faunus, Ruby and Penny had mixed themself in the fight, together with Sun they were making quick work of the White Fang forces that had accompanied Roman on this heist. Thus, seeing the tide of battle turn decisively against him, he had decided to make himself scarce and was withdrawing from the fight.
Now, as he made his way in the direction of one of the still functioning airships he spotted the Raccoon girl standing opposite of the black Cat faunus that had started this ruckus.
“Mara,” he called, sounding deeply unimpressed despite the chaos around him. “Less flirting, more covering our escape thank you very much.”
“I’m multitasking boss!” She said as she threw the hammer to the side, another black portal opened up in its trajectory and vanished into it.
A split second later another portal opened behind the cat. Blake, now having a grip on her opponent's semblance, spun to react.
As the hammer rocketed back out of the second portal toward her spine. She used Gambol Shroud’s ribbon to yank herself sideways as the strike obliterated the crate she’d been standing beside.
As metal splinters and dust erupted in every which direction Blake instinctively covered her face. Her Aura flickered as it protected her from getting involuntary acupuncture
Mara cackled. “Oh, you are QUICK. But that seems to be all you are!”
Blake landed lightly on her feet. Her eyes locked on the vanishing portal with annoyance.
Besides them, the White Fang reinforcements were still getting completely dominated by the combined efforts of Ruby, Penny and Sun. A mix of Gunfire and metal striking metal echoing through the harbor.
But Blake barely noticed, she had only one target in her sight. And currently Roman was getting away.
She lunged forward, attempting to sidestep the raccoon faunus while they were busy retrieving their hammer.
Mara however didn’t allow it, immediately intercepting Blake. To the cat’s surprise she was now wielding an axe she definitely had not been carrying a second ago.
Metal shrieked against metal as Blake parried the axe to the side, then locking her sword with the girl’s axe when she attempted another swing. While in this lock Blake happened to notice the girl’s left eye was not just covered by her bangs, but an eyepatch beneath it.
“How many weapons do you even have?” The cat said in frustration, guessing the girl likely acted as a pocket as well as a form of teleportation.
“A healthy amount!” The girl responded, her singular eye sparkling like the shattered moon as she pushed Blake back and went to retaliate with a downward swing, thinking her swift follow-up would leave no room for a response.
This is when Blake caught her by surprise though. As her axe was about to strike Blake in the head she used her semblance in combination with fire dust to create a shadowclone, which exploded upon contact from Mara’s axe, sending the raccoon flying.
Mara let out a surprised yelp as she flew through the air, she landed on her feet but the backwards momentum overpowered her sending her into a roll, eventually coming to a stop in a crouched position.
As Blake went in to deliver a blow with her cleaver another void opened up, this time below the girl and she vanished downward through a portal that had formed beneath her feet
Blake’s ears twitched as she looked around, then she heard a faint noise. Above!
She jumped out of the way in time, just as Mara burst from another portal overhead with the axe raised high. The axe on concrete created a small shower of sparks as it scraped against it instead of Blake’s skull.
Blake had intentionally dodged right, so she would in turn fall into the girl’s blindspot and then fired Gambol Shroud point blank for an additional surprise.
This worked like a charm. Mara’s eyes widened and it earned Blake a surprised gasp from the raccoon as she put up her axe blade to block, still taking several hits, while trying to back of and regain some distance, only truly being saved by her aura cloak, without which she would’ve surely been turned into Vale cheese.
“Already getting a grip on my semblance huh?” She said, sounding quite impressed about how quickly the cat faunus had adapted. For a moment Mara paused, taking a few steps with her axe on the ready "Good for you. Won’t save ya though!” She said charging Blake directly.
In response Blake fired of several more shots in her direction
Before these could land however two portals snapped open in front of Mara and next to Blake, which she ran through, coming out the other side with an upward swing.
Blake jerked sideways just before the blade could impact, but still grazed her shoulder.
Across the dockyard, Roman had reached and was already boarding the airship.
“Mara!” he shouted. “Time to go!”
"Awww!" She said in a truly disappointed tone. Do I really have to?" Mara said as she skidded backward from a blow from Blake’s cleaver.
“But I’m having fun! It’s been so long since I had a decent brawl…” She continued, backing off more, deflecting some slashes from Blake’s weapons as she advanced on The one-eyed girl again.
She shot Roman a quick glance, but as she saw him giving her a serious look back she relented. Groaning dramatically she responded. "Fffiiiine."
Blake surged forward with both her katana and cleaver, having closed the distance again. “You’re not escaping so easily!”
This forced the raccoon girl to block both weapons which came down on her hard.
It actually forced her to set a step back to retain balance but followed this motion up by delivering a kick to Blake’s leg, breaking the lock. “Counterpoint-”
Two portals opened, one behind Mara, one beside Roman on the loading ramp.
The raccoon Faunus grinned. “Oh yes we can and we will.”
Blake threw Gambol Shroud forward, ribbon whipping through the air-
But that was also all that it would hit as Mara jumped backwards into the portal. At the same time Roman fired a flare from his cane to cover his companion’s retreat.
Blake’s eyes widened as the red flare impacted right in front of her, sending her flying back, landing on her feet by performing an aerial summersault. Mara emerged beside Roman near the airship entrance a second later.
Blake put on a sprint to close the distance, to her relief also seeing that Ruby, Penny and Sun had just about dealt with all the White Fang Members. The latter of which had also taken note of the lack of a certain well dressed villain and was himself rapidly approaching the slowly rising airship.
Roman smirked smugly. “Well this has truly been a blast but we really must be going, kill ya later folks!” He said as Mara made a deep theatrical bow as if she had been part of some sort of planned circus act.
“Darn right! BYEEEE CATGIRL I had fun!” She shouted over the sounds of the airship’s engines as the side hatches closed and it ascended into the night sky and flew off.
Blake fired off a few more shots with her pistol, more out of frustration than with the hope of them having any sort of actual effect on the plating of the airship.
As the ship rapidly disappeared out of sight, Sun reached her. “Okay, so that was crazy… are you alright? And secondly, who was that girl beside that sleazeball?”
But instead of responding all Blake could do was sigh as she holstered her weapons on her back and shook her head. “Honestly, I have no clue at all… this is just all off, that’s all I can say for certain.”
Not long after both Penny and Ruby joined the pair as well, having cleaned up the last of the White Fang members, having locked them inside an empty shipping container for the time being. And of course not forgetting the most important thing, calling the police to come pick them up.
Blake gave an abridged version of the events that transpired after the crate split her off from Sun. She told about the fight with this Raccoon faunus who apparently worked for Roman Torchwick, but unlike the White Fang she seemed to be more than hired help. After explaining those events she also went on to explain her Faunus nature, her current relation to the Fang and why she had come to Beacon in the first place.
Eventually the last two members of team RWBY also arrived and officially cemented the reunion of the team.
Meanwhile onboard the airship heading due South-East away from the main City…
Mara was grinning ear to ear. “That was so fun! It has been SOOOO long since I got to stretch my legs, that cat girl had some sweet moves.” The girl said happily rambling to her boss. “Ohhhh I can’t wait to tell Neo all about this, she’ll be so excited!”
Roman chuckled to himself and gave the raccoon girl a pat on the shoulder. “Yeah yeah, she sure did and I’m sure she will be.” His expression turned more serious after saying that, he tightened her grip on the girl’s shoulder, not enough to hurt, but enough to make a point. “But I am wondering what you are doing here Fluffy, I thought I told you to keep a low profile for a while, guard duty only?”
The girl’s shoulders slumped and lowered her head a bit. “I’m sorry boss… I was standing guard on the east end… but then I heard the commotion and my curiosity got the better of me… I couldn’t help it.” She tried, hoping he wouldn’t be too mad at her.
He let go of her shoulder and sighed before speaking. “I get that Ringtail, really I do, but we’re in serious business remember? We can’t screw this up, we’d be in serious trouble if we hadn’t secured all that dust in the months before these repeated happy little incidents of the past weeks. Just keep that in mind okay?” His tone had softened somewhat but it was clear he was still serious.
“Yes boss, I know. I’ll keep out of trouble until you need me for the time being.” She said in understanding.
“Good to hear kiddo.” The well dressed criminal said. “Now that’s been cleared up I guess I should inform our partners what went down. Then see what the next step on our schedule is.”
He chuckled, ruffled her hair, which earned him an annoyed huff, followed by a, “hey, wasn’t it already messy enough?!” From the girl, followed by an additional protest. “And I’m not a kid, I'm 18!” Saying this while puffing up her cheeks and crossing her arms, just like a kid.
“That expression isn’t doing you any favors convincing me otherwise.” Roman quipped before turning around. “Now shush, I got a call to make.”
She let out one more huff before turning around and making her way to the cockpit to go sit with the pilot while her boss made his call.