[X] There's got to be people in there. Find anyone still in there and get them out of the path of danger.
"We can't afford to delay." Winter said, as she walked the airship. Everyone followed her, as she lead them to the drop point. "Once we get above the city, we'll jump out. Aim for the tallest building in case something goes wrong, but my summons will get you down without using your Aura."
"Yes ma'am." The voices echoed.
"It's likely the culprit responsible for this is still in the village." She continued. "We have no idea who they are, how many there are, or how powerful they are. The three of you will avoid confrontations."
"But-"
"No buts." Winter interrupted Blast. "I will deal with the enemy threat. You three are to minimise casualties. Get people out of the village, out of burning buildings, whatever. Am I understood?"
"Loud and clear." Piran said. "My Semblance lets me manipulate the size of things. I'll make sure all there's nothing blocking escape routes, like collapsed pillars blocking a door."
"You do that." Winter said. "I'll have some bird summons look for people and guide you to them. I won't be able to manually control them so they won't be too smart, but they'll get the job done."
Winter stopped in a room, and the wall began sliding up.
"Don't try to be a hero." Winter said. "If you can't save someone without sacrificing yourself, do what you have to do. There'll be other people to save."
Yang was silent, as she looked down at the village. There was fire everywhere, and with the wall removed, she could hear the screams.
...There was a lot of reasons Yang had wanted to be a Huntress. Fight Grimm. Have an excuse to walk the world and find her mother. The thrill of it. But none of that mattered right now.
People were dying, and she could stop it. Right now, how she felt didn't matter. Even if she'd rather follow Winter and fight the ones responsible, peoples lives were at stake.
"Let's go." Winter said, and in a flash, she was gone. Three ghostly Nevermores formed around her as she fell, and as Yang followed, one swooped underneath her.
"Down." She said. She couldn't afford to delay. In fact, she didn't.
In the five seconds it took the ghost Nevermore to lower her to the ground, Yang had prepared herself. Leaping off it, she hit her mark and rolled into a window. Glass shattered, and she entered a burning building, but there was no issue there.
She took a moment to listen around. There were no screams from nearby. Everything was too distant. But, in the distance, she could also hear gunfire.
...Winter better hurry.
"Anyone here!" Yang screamed out.
Nothing. The building was empty.
Spinning around, Yang refused to waste time. Ember Celica fired at the wall, and the detonation left a big enough hole for her to open.
Leaping from the building, Yang rolled on the ground for a moment before spinning around.
Part of her wanted to search building by building, but she couldn't waste time like that.
Just find the closest scream.
Dashing around the town, following the first scream led her to a wooden building on the verge of collapse.
Making a hole in it could damage it too much, so to her frustration, Yang went around, searching for the door.
"Help here!" She called. "Where are you?"
The nearest scream faded for a moment. "Over-"
The young girl's voice broke off into a cough, and Yang paled.
The smoke. People weren't able to breath in here.
Running through towards the voice, Yang quickly found the person in question. A girl, easily half Ruby's age, with a pair of fox ears on top of her head. She was huddled to the floor, away from the flames, trying to stay low.
"It's okay." Yang said, as she ran through the flames, her Aura protecting her. "I'm here to get you out of her."
"...Who-"
"Don't talk." Yang said. "Just... Close your eyes for a moment, okay?"
She couldn't carry the girl through the flames, but she could try something. The faunus closed her eyes, and Yang picked her up with one arm, facing the wall with the other.
Running towards the wall, Yang turned at the last second, bursting through the burning wood while covering the child. The fox gave a cry of fear, and the building creaked as it began to collapse, but the two had gotten some distance by the time it finally fell.
Yang slipped back as she tried to alter her momentum, landing on her back and sliding on the ground for a moment. Groaning, Yang lifted her head. "You alright?"
The girl opened her eyes slowly. "Am... Am I dead?"
"I hope not." Yang groaned. "You're about as alive as I am."
The girl gave a small smile, which instantly faded away. "My mother..."
"Where is she?" Yang asked. "I can go and get her-"
"She's..." The girl began, but instantly trailed away, tears in her eyes.
...Oh, shit.
"It's okay." Yang said. "Everything's going to be okay."
A small ghost bird flew by, and Yang followed it with her gaze.
Someone else to save-
She paused, and looked at the Faunus.
...Crap. If the town was still under attack, Yang couldn't just leave the girl by herself. But if she escorted her to the town walls or somewhere safe...
"Hold on." Yang said. "I need to get more people, so hold on tight, okay?"
The fox girl looked confused, and didn't respond, but held on to Yang regardless.
Nodding, Yang set out on a run, following Winter's bird.
In a moment, she came to another building, with the doorway collapsed with burning wood.
"Stay here a moment, okay?" Yang said, as she put the fox girl down. The girl didn't respond, just sat there and cried.
Trying to push the thought of the child crying because Yang was too slow out of her mind, the teenage Hunter-in-training looked at the wall of burning wood, and ran at it.
The wood was shoved away, and Yang took a moment to evaluate her current level of Aura.
...Yeah, it was sufficient.
"Anyone in here?" She asked
"Up here!" A woman's voice replied, from on top of some stairs.
Sprinting for them, Yang ignored the flames lapping at her Aura again. "Who-"
A bullet bounced off her Aura, and Yang froze.
The woman who had spoken was outfitted in some sort of uniform, a gun in one hand pointing at Yang, and another holding a boy by the throat.
"Don't try anything clever." The woman hissed. "You're gonna get me out of here, or the boy gets it."
Yang stared at her. "You..."
"Yes, I did this." The woman hissed. "Me and the rest of the Freelance Fighters. This little town here got too far behind on it's payments, y'know? We put in a lot of effort keeping the people safe, and they couldn't even spare the change to pay us for our efforts. Can't let word spread that we're easily conned into free work, can we?"
The yellow-haired girl felt her anger boil over as she glared at the woman. "Put. The boy. Down."
"So you can kill me?" The woman asked. "I'm not that much of a fool. You might be a bit smaller than me, but now that there's Hunters here, I'm gonna need a way out. Those clothes of yours will make a good disguise. Giv-"
And suddenly, a wail thundered through the village.
Yang took a step back, her hands reaching for her ears as the loud, yet melodic, sound echoed in her head. The boy clearly struggled against it too, and the mercenary woman dropped him in her effort to cover her own ears.
And then the wall exploded into flying bricks. Yang looked up as she heard it, and saw the interruption just in time to watch the slab of iron impale the woman. There was a cry of pain, and a snarl of anger, before the giant blade twisted and the woman's midsection was torn apart.
The bloody chunks that remained fell to the ground, and Yang caught her first glimpse of the wielder of the sword.
She was older than Yang was, by a few years at least. Or at least, she looked that way. She was tall, with her sword the length of her long legs and as wide as her torso. Her hair was short and blue, and she wore gloves that covered most of her muscled arms. In fact, all of her clothing was blue, from her rather revealing top to her high heels.
She looked at Yang for a moment, letting Yang observe the mark on her forehead.
II
Roman Numerals, for the number two.
The moment passed, and the blue-haired girl turned to the boy.
"Are you okay?" She asked. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Don't worry. Auntie Two's gonna look after you, okay?"
The boy nodded, and the girl- Two- Picked him up, before turning back to Yang.
"Get the girl outside and follow me." She said, before running back out the hole she had made.
Yang watched her go, then shook herself out of the shock.
That... Had been close. Thank god that Two girl had come along, she didn't know what to do with that woman.
As her thoughts drifted that way, Yang looked down at the woman.
She was dead. As the blade had twisted through her, on it's way out, it had stuck up at her heart. She had died in the moments it had taken Two to look at the woman.
Yang... Didn't know how to feel about that.
But she could think on it later. Two had said to follow her.
Leaping out the wall herself, Yang saw Two waiting on the roof of a building nearby. Hitting the ground near the crying girl, Yang picked her up again.
"We're gonna get you somewhere safe." Yang whispered. "Don't worry. It's all going to be okay."
Seeing her grab the girl, Two ran off again, and Yang struggled to keep up.
Down this street, through that alleyway, pausing momentarily so Two could go into a burning building and save an old man, delaying just long enough for the old man to tell them to go ahead without him, down another street, round a corner, to the wall.
The buildings this far in were devastated and gone, but one stone building was still relatively intact. Leading Yang into there, Two put down the small boy.
Following her, Yang let the fox faunus go, and looked around.
There was a ton of people in here. Mostly children, but some older people as well. One man in the corner was trying to treat children with burns, while a pair of women in the middle of the room tried to cheer the children up by singing them a song.
"Two?" A girl's voice asked, and Yang turned to face them.
By the doorway, the blue-haired girl was talking to a red-haired one that looked about Yang's age. Her right arm was bandaged, and her clothes were bloodied, but she held a large hammer in her left.
"Nora?" Two asked. "What are you doing? Where's Ren?"
The orange-haired girl looked at Two. "He... He ran out. When you left. He said he'd caught a glimpse of their leader when he broke my arm, was going to go finish this."
Two shook her head. "No, no, no, he can't do that, he's hurt too, he'll..."
"I have friends out there." Yang said. "An experienced Huntress from Atlas, too. She went to confront the leader of these fu- Mercenaries. She'll save your friend, don't worry."
Two looked at her for a moment. "But what if she's too slow? Cent's out there looking for the leader as well, but I'd know if he'd have found the guy. I need to-"
"Miss Two?" A voice asked, and a small girl pulled at the hem of Two's skirt. "Did you... Did you find my papa?"
Yang could watch Two's heart break as she looked down at the girl. "I..."
Stepping closer, Yang spoke again.
[X] "I'll call my friends, tell them to bring people here. I'll help you find the guy in charge."
[X] "Get in contact with this Cent guy if you can, I'll call Winter. Co-ordinate the efforts against the leader while we keep looking for people."
[X] Write-in.
