First things first. Get kids to safety. Qrow's niece, first. The weak aughta be protected. You take a deep breath. Legs tense. Sword in hand.
Time to kick some ass.
You leap out the airship's bay. And your aim is perfect. Your sword comes crashing down, straight at Tyrian. To his credit, he somehow sees it coming, kicks off of the flat of Qrow's blade to block it with his tail. Fat lot of good it does him—the raw force behind your blow is too much for him to match. He's easily overpowered, slammed back down. His face careens into the ground and bounces his entire body high into the air. He ends up falling through the rafters of a derelict house with the sound of crashing timbers, out of sight.
(Offhandedly, you note that the recoil from your jump was… a little much. The airship is careening backwards unsteadily. Oops. You'll need to apologize to the pilot.)
Qrow's niece gapes for a moment. Qrow simply nods in appreciation, then turns to Ruby and growls, "Now, like I said: stay away!"
"This is my fight too!" she argues petulantly, still brandishing her scythe.
You don't have time for this. "Listen to your uncle," you bark. "You have wounded, right? Get them to the airship, when it comes down."
You don't know how long they have, whoever they may be. Depends on the quality of their augments, however Aura might've interacted with the wound, how bad Tyrian's little concoction really might be. It's the safest thing to do. Qrow grabbed some limited medical supplies on his way out—said they probably wouldn't be enough to solve any problems outright, but could be enough to slow the spread.
"Jaune's on him! And he's here for me! I won't—"
Whatever it is little Red won't do, you don't learn and don't care about. Tyrian emerges and sprays bullets upon the three of you from the roof of the house in a single fluid motion. Qrow spins his sword about to deflect as you yank Qrow's youngling behind you and your blocking greatsword.
You're a in a slightly awkward spot. Between protecting little Red and keeping yourself safe, you're finding it difficult to respond. You're pretty sure Qrow, less impeded, is about to engage the Faunus and give you a reprieve. But then Tyrian stops of his own accord, and begins to monologue.
"So I finally have the attention of this visitor of the otherworld? Oh my, my, my…"
Tyrian's clothes look like he'd seen better days. His white vest is stained with black, looking like some kind of acid had eaten away at it in places. The man (Faunus?) himself seems largely untouched, unfortunately. Aura and its bullshit nature, you take it.
The man's face holds a psychotic grin, insane enough to rival the worst serial killers, back in the City. And some of those were Singularity-enhanced to be extra-terrifying. It'd be kinda impressive if he weren't in your way and trying to murder children. Perched atop a rooftop beam, he cuts a surprisingly menacing figure, tail curling behind him like a disposable prosthetic limb.
He continues, high and theatrical, "But pray tell! Do I sense weakness? A concealed injury? It wounds me, deeply, to see you so deeply wounded!"
Fuck, and he's perceptive too. Likes the sound of his own voice, but he's not
wrong. Here you were thinking you were putting on a good show of strength.
You say to Qrow in a low tone, "I'm going to bring him down to earth." As an aside to Qrow's niece: "Let the adults handle this one."
Before either can give more than the barest response, you're already onrushing the left side of Tyrian's house-perch, checking it with your shoulder's weight behind your sword. Rotting wood and moldy drywall gives way easily. It only takes one more horizontal swing to crush every one of the housefront supports. It tumbles, crumbles. Tyrian backflips off without missing a beat, but is caught in mid-air by Qrow's scythe. Briefly, they clash in mid-air; Qrow gains the upper hand. A great downward slash from Qrow has Tyrian plummeting straight down. Qrow's niece positions herself to catch him in this silly game of Tyrian-pong, but you're not having it: you smash her out of the way with the flat of your blade and retaliate yourself, though he manages to just barely dodge your attack this time around. You still manage to kick him in the face, which sends him pinwheeling towards the monster Grimm.
A monstrous scream is the herald of another attack on your person. Not much of one; you bat away the horseman-Grimm's outstretched arm offhandedly as it attempts to grab you. It slams into a wall and gets stuck. Green kid tries to capitalize with a scream of rage, but his blades end up rebounding off the monster's unnatural elasticity. He ends up stumbling into what might've once been a canal.
Fight's going well overall, you think. Not much progress has been made on the Grimm front, but neither are any kids dead yet. Tyrian's taken a serious beating and should be down for the count soon. You're not sure if it'd be a social misstep to
kill him, here in Remnant? You'll leave it up to Qrow. You're obviously so inclined.
The Faunus managed to straddle said Grimm in the moments you were distracted. Might've let out a "Yee-haw!" You and Qrow close in on both sides for a killing scissor blow while he's goofing off. At the last moment, though, Tyrian bends his back improbably, ducking and sliding off. Your blades clash, and unfortunately, yet again, Qrow eats shit thanks to your strength, even as you pull your punches last-second.
Pivoting (and cutting off the Grimm's man-head before it can bite you as you go), you once again slam Tyrian with as much force as you can muster. The blow lands easily against his dual chakrams, and flies backwards. Right into the waiting rubbery arm of the Grimm, still stuck in a wall.
It flexes, almost to the point of snapping. Tyrian shoots you a cheeky salute, and too late, as you chase him down, you realize what's about to happen.
With one final push, the Grimm's arm snaps back. Like a rock fired from a slingshot, Tyrian rockets away. Hammer girl attempts to stop him, jumping up to smash him, but he somehow twists to both dodge her blow and
also wrench her hammer out of her grip on his way out. He lands somewhere in the forest, out of sight once again. Qrow lands, curses, and bolts after him, yelling, "Finish the Grimm!" over his shoulder.
Well, since he asked so politely. You may technically be faster, but the Huntsman probably has a better chance of finding him, given his whole bird thing.
Green kid pulls his head out of the canal just in time to see you cut off the horse Grimm's other head. That leaves you in the midst of a ruined town, an ex-battlefield, and a team of teenagers.
"Who are you?"
"He took Maghnild!"
"Where is the Nuckalavee?"
…You're starting to think that Qrow ran off after Tyrian solely so he wouldn't have to answer these brats' questions. And you're seriously contemplating joining him.
In the time it takes for the airship to come back around and land, you manage to get the kids' names and mostly avoid answering any awkward questions. Even the fourth one that showed up from behind a fence. The green kid—Ren, apparently—seems to not like you much, and sits out of hearing range next to ex-hammer girl Nora. The other two—Ruby (that name's familiar, huh) and Jaune (ditto)—work together to move the wounded Citydweller, finally. You get a good look at 'em.
…Not a Thumb Soldato. But not much better.
It's a ranker of the Index. A Messenger, judging by the clasp on his cloak. A rancid agent of one of the Five Fingers. The weirdly hollow chest with the sickly purple-looking strings is new and unusual, but not the pale outfit, the blade of locked potential, the Messenger's clasp. You must've instinctively scowled in distaste, because Ruby shoots you a questioning look. You don't answer it, and simply watch as the poisoned piece of shit is carried aboard the airship.
Before seeing them, you were kinda feeling pretty good. You'd successfully executed this rescue mission without anyone dying, without taking any injury. But now seeing just who you'd saved…
…Honestly, you almost wish you'd let 'em die.
The airship takes off, leaving Qrow behind for now. During the trip, you have four new brats to converse with.
Pick two.
[ ] All: Who's this fucker here?
points at Index member
[ ] Ruby: You might've met her sister on a boat.
[ ] Ruby: What was up with that
stupid shit during that fight?
[ ] Ruby: Tyrian wanted her: Why?
[ ] Jaune: Where the hell was he?
[ ] Jaune: You may have met his dead teammate atop Beacon tower.
[ ] Nora: [Write-in; I can't think of anything Kali might have to say to Nora.]
[ ] Ren: Why the cold shoulder?
[ ] Airship Pilot: Apologize for rocking the boat.
[ ] Write-in.
A/N: The Brett vote was tied, so I flipped a coin. No sidequest for him.
Hm. I never actually figured out the 'rolls' for Tyrian's Combat Pages. You can mostly assume she outrolls him in general. A fair bit of his danger, I think, could come from his multi-hit ranged pages. But those are pretty easy to beat with sufficient dice.
Narratively, Kali utterly kills any resolution Team RNJR might've gotten out of V4's climax. Poor Ren. Poor Nora. Poor Ruby.
If you're curious what Yan is doing here, you can find out in
Sword of Volition, which I somehow managed to complete. It's got a pretty different tone compared to KaliQuest, so buyer beware.
Been awhile, huh? I figured I'd update this because I had the update mostly finished. Any further updates will be entirely up to my natural whimsy. Many apologies. Oh lord, I just realized I need to make like six character sheets.
…Later.
