Spark
“This just in, police are involved in a high speed chase with a pickup truck, including it’s tow trailer.” A woman whirled in her chair. “The truck was pulled over for speeding just ten minuets ago and slammed on the gas the moment officers recognized Blake Belladonna in the driver's seat. They have been traveling at speeds approaching two hundred kilometres an hour.”
“Holy shit! Are you seeing this? They just jumped the canal.” A voice came from her screen. “Crystal tell me this is getting through?”
“It is.” The woman, Crystal, said. She paused as something happened on screen. “Is that… Is that the jet engine from the Blackbird they stole?”
“Yep, definitely.” The voice said as the truck took off, steadily accelerating to near the speed of sound. “We can’t keep up anymore.”
“Hold on, did the military deploy jets to tail them?” The roar of multiple jet engines erupted from the screen. “Wait, Dresden zoom in on that!”
The camera zoomed in on a shape kicking the back window of the truck out. The barrel of a sniper rifle is clearly visible. What truly caught the eye however was the one wielding the rifle.
“No fuckin’ way.” The cameraman, Dredson, said. He sounded far beyond shocked. “Is that Ruby Rose?”
“I want two J-26 Greyhawks on them.” Ironwood said. He was standing at the helm of his troops command center. “We can’t lose them. Not now that they’ve integrated that tech.”
“They just passed seven hundred kilometres an hour, how are they handling at these speeds?” Marrow flicked something across his screen. “Shit, they just dropped off radar.”
“Keep them in our line of sight. Elm I want an update on those Greyhawks.” Ironwood gestured to the central screen. His eyes locked on the data points for the truck.
“They’re on the runway sir, two F-14 Redwings are in pursuit at the moment.” Elm replied. “The acceleration rate is constant though, the Redwings won't be able to keep up for long.”
“One of them was hit, establishing radio contact.” Clover said, pulling his mic over. “This is Alpha base to Redwing pilot, Code 5. Come in, what’s happening?”
“It’s no good, whatever that shot was it’s tearing the engine up. Damn thing’s falling apart.” The pilot sounded panicked. “I’m turning over the bay, hopefully I’ll manage to land this bird.”
“Sir the Blackbird had two engines.” Elm was looking at the blueprints of said jet over as she spoke. “Where’s the second one?”
“Keep your eyes peeled people, we have no idea what they did with that tech.” Ironwood kept his eyes on the screens, they had pulled the news feed up and he froze at what he saw happening. “What is she doing?”
An Hour Earlier
“Everyone file in.” Ruby cocked the slide back on a rifle and slung it into the back seat of the truck. Ruby flickered slightly, her teeth seemingly far sharper than they should be. “Today we do this.”
“You're certain that Crescent Rose is ready Ruby?” Weiss said. The white haired girl flicked through a series of diagnostic screens on her laptop quickly. Weiss looked to all of them. “Your right, today’s the day, let’s go.”
The release on the back window and side door are good to go.” Blake looked up form where she was by the left side rear door. “Everything good on your end Yang?”
“Systems are golden, everything’s connected and test parameters are met.” Yang was sitting in the driver's seat. “Disruptor field is a little iffy, doesn’t like working within the speed generator. That should be solved by the time we turn it off.”
“We have a route planned, we’ll have to be careful though.” Weiss said, her eyes trailing along the panel of switches they’d added to the dash. “If one thing goes wrong we might lose the tech and then Ironwood gets it.”
“Then we let nothing go wrong. Remember we don’t want him knowing my speed yet but I need to show that his little explanation is a load of shit.” Ruby cracked her next and spun her rifle until it was a red box on her back. “This truck goes no faster than mach two until I get back in.”
“So we’re doing this? No more hiding, no more running?” Yang said as she stood up. “We’re fighting this on our terms?”
“Yes.” Ruby said, her posture seemingly relaxed. “We’ll still be going to meet Mama Raven and disappear but any damage we do to Ironwood will help other natura.”
“We’ll be condemned, made into villains.” Weiss said. “Everyone Ironwood goes against is.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Ruby said. The redhead climbed into her place in the truck. “Let’s get going.”
They pulled out of the yard they were in and drove down the road. The only chance about this was them getting pulled over. Once recognized they took off down the road, only minutes later Ironwood’s goons and news chopper’s were after them. Blake whipped the truck around a corner and flipped a series of switches.
“We’re coming up on the canal!” Blake said, her words starting to be drowned out by the Blackbird’s boosted engine. The four cracked and Ruby twisted herself around, her hands gripping the box at her back. As the truck hit the road Ruby briefly deformed. After a moment she kicked the back window open and fired a shot at one of the Redwings.
“Step one done, crack the barrier.” Ruby said, and felt the truck lurch beneath her as they accelerated through the sound barrier. Ruby stepped to the side and kicked one of the truck doors off, watching as it sailed back and through a lamppost. Leaning out she decided to give the news crew a show.
Ruby flipped up onto the roof of the truck and crouched low, one hand on the roof and the other holding her weapon by it’s elongated handle. The large curved blade of a scythe curving down the side of the truck. She kept her eyes on the news chopper for a moment and turned back to watching the sky.
“Two Greyhawks incoming. You ready Rubes?” Yang said, leaning out the window of her own seat, she barely caught sight of Ruby nodding before continuing. “Alright! Then go NOW!”
Ruby kicked off the truck and landed briefly on the trailer. Running to one end she launched off in a spin. While spinning she burst apart and swarmed up to the first Greyhawk. Reforming she swung twice, the hyper sonic blade cleaving through the wings with little difficulty. Spinning herself around she landed feet first on the other jet. Swinging down she cleaved into it and froze.
“What?” She stared in horror at the inside of the jet and crouched down to get a better look. “No.” Her voice was quiet. Looking up she slammed her balde down into the cockpit and grabbed the pilot’s radio. “Ironwood, if you can hear me. Run.”
Ruby kicked off and launched at the helicopter. Driving one foot into the windshield and turning she kicked off lightly back towards the truck. Once in the truck accelerated and flew onto a highway and out of sight.
“Ironwood, if you can hear me. Run.”
“What? That's a major deviation in attitude.” Marrow said, he looked back to Ironwood to see the man gripping the railing tightly.
“She just ripped the wings off a Greyhawk in a single swing with a scythe and that’s what you're focused on?” Elm said. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the monitor.
“She saw something that pissed her off.” Clover said, he looked up at Ironwood for a moment. “What did she see?”
“Nothing.” Ironwood said, his teeth grinding and his hands tightening on the railing. “She saw nothing. She may think she saw something but I know it’s not what she thinks.”
The operatives in the room looked to each other. They all felt like there was something off with that statement, something they weren’t being told. Looking back to Ironwood they saw the look in his eyes, a cold calculating fear, a desire to persevere and they decided not to push the topic.
“What the?” Marrow stared at his screen for a moment. “Their truck just broke Mach four, the Blackbird was only rated for mach four and they’re using one engine.”
“Someone clock Rose’s speed!” Ironwood called. “The combat exchange lasted two point one seconds discounting her message, how fast would she need to be going for that!”
“Uh, well the short answer is faster than us.” Marrow said and flinched at the glares sent his way. ”The less short answer is faster than Harriet and the long answer is I don’t know.”
“So she must have been above mach fifteen.” Clover said. He entered something into a data log and turned to face the others. “Have we thought of the possibility of them figuring out bio integrated technology.”
“We’ve spent years on that and made no progress.” Elm said. The woman scoffed at the idea. “Four teenagers figured out what we couldn’t, of course.”
“It may be possible. Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee have incredible engineering records.” Clover said, pulling a file up. “Both have maintained above a perfect score in any class involved and this was their recent entry into an engineering competition.”
“Is… is that a mini reactor?” Marrow said. The wolf was clearly astonished. “An actual nuclear reactor? Where did they even get fuel for it? Or the parts?”
“Oh you know, scrap yards, the internet, being rich.” Clover said. “They know what they’re doing when it comes to engineering.”
“So we can’t rule anything out.” Ironwood leaned forward and rested his head in his hands. “Refocus our efforts, find that van. Hopefully they left some of that tech behind.”
Harriet flexed her arms, marveling at the exo-skeleton that wrapped over them and around her hands. She flicked her wrist back and the machine folded onto her back. Raven was right, it would be far more useful to her than a handgun could ever be. She heard something to her right and turned her head.
“Ms. Rose, you shouldn’t be out here.” Harriet rushed over to try and support the woman. “I know you're working on getting your strength back but I know you were asked to stay inside.”
“I know, I know.” Summer rose, smiled at her and laughed. “Look at me, the strongest warrior in the clan and I can barely walk outside.”
“You're recovering, I know it’s been long and hard but you’ll be back in top shape in a couple months.” Harriet said. She smirked and nudged the woman in the ribs lightly. “Besides, your wolf is unaffected.”
“I’m glad for that, I don’t think I could handle not going hunting.” The woman frowned. “Nox, I miss hunting with my daughter. You're going out there to protect her? To protect both my daughters.”
“Yes ma’am.” Harriet winced lightly though. “Ironwood knows they’re yours though.”
“Then I don’t have a couple months.” Summer said. Her eyes seemed to glow slightly, a deep silver tinted with purple. Harriet blinked, the old files back with the Ace Operatives said her eyes glowed pure silver. “Take me to my husband and wife.”
Harriet slung one of the woman's arms over her shoulder and led her through the camp. Several people milling about stopped and stared at the pair, the more they walked the less Harriet felt Summer’s weight until eventually the woman was standing on her own. One man tripped backwards as he tried to get out of Summer’s way.
“What are you doing out here?” Harriet froze at the voice and turned to find Summer smiling.
“Oh Rae, you know the scary voice won't work on me.” Summer said. She smirked at the other woman. “I need to restart training sooner than later.”
“Your not cleared-”
“I don’t care Raven. Our children are in danger and Ironwood knows they’re ours.” Summer said. Her voice practically growled. “I need to be ready to protect them when it comes time for it.”
“Fine, we start tomorrow at six.” Raven snarled at her. “We go until you can’t even walk anymore and we repeat the day after that, two days rest every five days for the first month then one ever six after that. We go until you can fight me for three hours with no breaks.”
“No more running, no more hiding.” Ruby stalked across the scrap yard they'd parked the truck in as she spoke. “No more pretending we don’t exist, none of it!”
“Rosebush what’s going on?” Blake said, she placed one hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “What’d you see.”
“Ironwood’s.. He’s.” Ruby paused to take a breath and calm herself. “Grimm.”
“What?” Yang said, Weiss felt the flare of heart long before she turned to see the flames dancing along the ends of Yang’s hair, the blonde’s eyes shifting to a furious crimson. “He what?”
“Grimm, he’s using them to power things, there was one in the Greyhawk.” Ruby wrapped her arms around herself and shook lightly. “He was using it as a battery.”
“That bastard!” Yang roared, her fist flew forward and straight through a sheet of what looked like old armour plating. Weiss flinched at the display of power. “How dare he?”
“We can’t let that continue, he needs to be stopped.” Blake said. Weiss stared in shock at the look in the cat faunus’s eyes, the contempt was beyond words to her.
“What-” Weiss said, nearly flinching as their gazes turned to her. “What is a grimm?”
“The grimm are…” Ruby trailed off. The redhead looked greatly saddened for a moment. “The grimm are soulless, monsters bent on the complete destruction of the world. Beings who’ve had their light stolen.”
“Say it like it is Rubes.” Yang said. She was practically snarling. “The grimm are corrupted natura, mindless, soulless, lightless.”
“They’re not natural, the choices and actions of others lead to them.” Blake said, her voice low. “If Ironwood is doing that to the natura-”
“Then we stop him.” Weiss said. The other three blinked at her, each of them looking surprised in their own way. “If Ironwood is doing this to people he needs to be stopped. Do you remember how we met Ruby? What you told me? When you stood up for me?”
“When you know something is wrong and do nothing to stop it you're just as guilty of the crime.” Ruby said, she stood in front of them after pacing for a moment. Once she turned to face them they were all sitting on piles of scrap around them. “So, what do we do?”
“Sir?” A blonde woman turned to face the elder grey haired man behind his desk. “Ironwood says that the newest group of natura he’s found may expose natura as a whole.”
“Hm.” the man drummed his fingers on his desk. “Tell me Glynda, which agents have been exposed?”
“Just Runner.” The blonde, Glynda, said. She was flicking through files on her scroll as she spoke.
“Inform Ironwood that I’ll be sending out my own team.” The man said. “Contact Mr. Arc.”