Unsubtle references ahead, of course! ^^ As always, I hope you enjoy!

By the end of their assault, the ships were going down. Whether they wanted them to or not. Each huntress was making up their own strategy to not be killed in the impact, Yang's being to jump off just before the crash and into the ground. The ground was far less risky than a potential explosion, after all. She can see Glynda and Coco off in the distance, both gripping their respectively crashing ships.

The blonde taps her communicator and looks over at them, gritting her teeth a little. "Guys, what're we gonna do? There's a forest down there… Where do we meet up?"

Glynda immediately responds. "I will turn on my tracking beacon. Both of you follow it to me and we will travel to the town on foot. It isn't that far from our current position. It may be dangerous, but we have little choice in the matter, now." She says, Yang able to hear the loud crackling of the wind through the device.

"Yeah, sounds good to me. Soon as I land, I'll try to find you guys."

"Miss Adel? Do you have any objections?"

"Two-hundred and fifty lien, that hat cost me! Now it's probably at the bottom of that swamp!"

"Very good. I shall see you both down below. Make sure to put on your masks before we head to the town. It IS a plague zone, after all. Goodwitch out."

As she says that, Yang finds the distance between them to be too tough to see. So, she focuses on her own escape instead of squinting her eyes to see if she can spot her partners. She sees the ground quickly approaching, countless trees littering a swampy area below. Countless places that this descent could go wrong. Countless ways to get hurt.

Oh, this was going to suck.

She braces herself as the plummeting ship enters the treeline, immediately sent veering off-course when it harshly strikes a tree. It spins for what feels like an eternity before nearing the ground, a very dizzy Yang releasing her grip on the ship and falling heavily to the ground. It knocks all the wind out of her, a sharp pain coming over her back as she hits the muddy spot.

Her eyes flare red, a few ragged gasps coming from her as the loud sounds of the ship crashing and exploding ring out in the distance. Yeah… She's definitely glad she missed THAT particular party.

She slowly sits up and holds a hand to her chest. Her wheezing slows a bit as more breath is allowed back into her lungs in a slow manner. "Whoo… Well, that could have gone worse, I guess."

She looks to her side as she hears a low croak, finding a toad to be sitting right near her face. It stares at her for a few moments, then bulging out it's throat as it croaks again. "What're YOU lookin' at?" She mutters as she gets herself up, groaning as she finds her skin, clothes, and hair to be mud-soaked.

"It's gonna be a hell of a laundry day, when I get back."

She stretches out and waits until she hears a satisfying 'pop' in her back before starting to walk forward. She takes out her scroll, flicking it on so that she can hear when her former teacher turns on her tracking beacon. Until then… She was pretty much unsure of where to go. She had to admit that some of her huntress instincts had left her, especially since she had been out of the business for a while.

Well, quite a while, anyway. Her pregnancy coupled with looking after Anna had certainly equated to a long time away. Not that she really cared.

Based on what she just went through, she was finding that she liked this decidedly less than she did in her youth. When she was a teenager, she probably would have been cracking puns the whole way down and living for the thrill. Now, she was just… hoping that she landed and didn't get too banged up.

To be honest, she's starting to wonder if she should have even taken the job again. Maybe it was just getting older, but she would really prefer to be at home and sitting in her comfy chair than slogging through this humid swamp.

"Sheesh, when did I turn into dad? Add a pair of fuzzy slippers..." She says to herself, grimacing as her boot makes a low, wet 'splurch' sound as she steps forward.

"Ugh. Had to be a swamp, didn't it? Why don't we ever fight someplace nice? Like a beach. I could work on my tan! Nope, always has to be… rgh… in forests… ngh… or slimy places." A few grunts come from her, having to pull her boots out of the muck with every step, only to plunge back in with the next. "No chance of me smellin' good after this, either. Yayy..."

She steps forward a little more, then quickly checks her scroll for any signs of the tracking beacon being activated. No signs at all. But, shouldn't she have landed, by now? She had to have… What was taking her so long? She frowns a bit, tapping at her scroll a few more times to rescan the area for anything. Still nothing. No blips, no beeps, and certainly no Glynda. Nada, zip, zilch, and the big goose-egg. "C'mon, Glynda… What're ya doing? We've gotta head out, here."

Her head rises up quickly when she hears the sounds of gunfire in the distance, it sounding quite a bit like… "Coco?"

She was getting a bad feeling about this. Coco wouldn't be letting off rounds unless she was being attacked, as the ammunition for her gun was a little expensive for just using it as an intimidation tactic. Whatever she was firing at was clearly no accident. Glynda would have to wait. Right now, she had a friend in possible danger to help out. "She must be in trouble. Better follow the sounds. Maybe it's those people who attacked the ship..."

A slow clap rings out in the silent air, Yang freezing before looking behind her. A very large man is standing a distance away, clapping his hands together slowly. He has rather large gauntlets on his hands that is accompanied by a set of light armoring, oddly colored in a bright red. He's wearing what appears to be the… bone mask of an Ursa? She narrows her eyes a bit, on her guard nearly immediately. Any sort of looney who decides wearing a Grimm mask is okay obviously has something wrong with them.

"How astute of you." The man says slowly, a black tail carefully swishing behind him. "But, I would be more concerned with yourself, at the moment… Yang Xiao Long."

Yang's eyes widen, then narrow even more. "Who are you? How do you-"

"Know your name? That isn't important, is it? Let's get to know each other on a first name basis before we go into matters like that. My name is Ursa. And, I believe we are on equal grounds of knowledge now." The man begins to walk forward, form seeming to grow taller as he comes closer. "You're the brawler of the renowned team RWBY, right? Why don't we test how good you really are?"

Yang brings her fists up, growling lowly. "You want a fight with me so bad? I'll give it to ya. But, it's your funeral, buddy. And, once I'm done with ya, you're gonna tell me who you are." She gives a little smirk, cracking her knuckles and taking a fighting stance.

"We'll see." Ursa replies, Yang almost being able to hear the smirk behind his voice as he gets in his own battle stance. A few moments of silence comes between them before they both charge forward, displacing mud and muck in all directions.

A blast of air rushes around when their fists connect in a single punch, though Yang quickly strikes upward with her opposite hand. It's quickly caught by her opponent and the two exchange powerful strikes between each other that never quite manage to have impact. Well, not to them, anyway. The exchanges rock the area with their strength.

Switching her focus, the blonde sweeps the larger man's leg with her own, catching just enough off-balance that she's able to line up a shot. A further blast from Ember Celica sends him flying with her punch. He crashes through several trees with a resounding 'crunch', mud splattering upwards around him. He slowly rises to his feet, clutching his ribs and growling lowly.

"The stories don't lie. She's strong." Ursa says, seemingly to himself, Yang running forward to take advantage of him still trying to get up. However, he punches his hand upward and a large slab of ground rises up and smacks her right in the face. The impact sends her backwards into the mud, hand rubbing her jaw as the slab sinks back down.

"But, I know you can be stronger. Show me your true power!"

"Go screw yourself, you crazy bastard!"

"Defiant, huh? Of course you are. Given what you are, I'm barely surprised." He says, pushing into his ribs with his hands. Another crunching rings out from what is likely broken ribs. Though, considering the way this crazy guy is acting, she doesn't really feel that sorry for him. He walks forward as Yang is getting to her feet, still feeling her jaw carefully.

"This comin' from the guy with an Ursa mask on his face." She replies as she spits out a bit of blood, with it splotching into the ground with a wet sound. Her eyes flash with just a little bit of red, though it doesn't stay there long enough to dominate her usual lilac. "You talk an awful big game. How 'bout you back it up?"

Two pairs of eyes meet and narrow, as if daring the other to make a move. The two run at each other again, clashes of fists smashing into each other once more.

Yang punches high, only for him to duck under it and hook her arm with both of his. He moves behind her and bends her arm into a painful hold. She can feel the muscle tensing as it's yanked, gritting her teeth tightly together. With her free arm, she brings it around to smash her elbow right into his injured ribs. He growls in pain, letting his hold loosen just enough for her to wrench her arm free and smash her other elbow into his face.

He stumbles back from the two shots, allowing her to spin around and send another blast from her gauntlets into him. That shot is followed by another to the face and two more to his ribs, with an uppercut finishing the combo off. Clutching his jaw and moving to a more defensive position, he uses his arm to block the next couple punches. Once his other hand is free, he clenches and twists it.

The ground around Yang swallows her feet with the next step, causing her to sink down into the ground to her ankles. He takes a few steps back before stomping the earth and bringing chunks of it upward. The chunks quickly spin around in front of him, punches sending the debris flying toward Yang in quick succession. By the time the first one hits her, she's gotten one foot out of the muck.

Each successful shot of the spinning debris works toward offense, with the last knocking her out of the mud she was trapped in and sending her rolling across the swampy ground. She's sure she's going to have bruises all over her face from the attack, groaning as she gets to her feet as quickly as she can.

Without another word, Ursa lifts his hand quickly and causes the ground at her feet to shoot upward. Gritting her teeth, she jumps out of the way of the displaced ground and blasts off a few rounds from her gauntlets. They hit his armor heavily and he has to take a step back with every forceful shot. With a grunt of effort and a swish of his hands, he sends the ground flying to the side. Yang spins around to punch into it and cause as much of it to crumble as she can.

She grins and brushes herself off dismissively. "That all ya got? I'm a lil' dirty, now, that's all."

She's got to admit that she was a little surprised over his seeming control over the ground. Must have been his semblance. But, it was nothing she couldn't handle. Not with all she'd been through. But, that really wasn't as much the point as her wanting to know just how he knew her. As well as what he was rambling on about with this 'what you are' shit.

More determined, now, she charges forward and connects a few heavy punches from his stomach to the bony mask on his face. One particular shot to the eye smashes it, sending a large crack up the head. He's able to mount a bit of an offense from her high shot, going low and smashing her stomach with his knee. She grunts in pain, doubling over just enough for the next attack to connect. His heavy hands clap her ears on either side of her head, causing her to yell out and take a few steps back as a ringing loudly enters her head.

By the time she's recovered a few moments later, she's able to see him raise both his hands up over his head with a growl. The gauntlets are humming with energy, with her too late to stop him before he brings them down to connect with the ground.

She really wishes she hadn't been.

A loud sound splits through the swamp, rumbling the area as his shot warps the ground. The mud and earth shoots downward, knocking the blonde into a crater of sorts. Before she can even think about getting up, he's leapt into the air. Only, this time, the humming gauntlets slam into her rather than the ground. The force drives her deeper into the earth, with him soon grabbing her by her jacket to yank her to face him.

"So, this strong image you put around yourself… It's all just as inferior as the rest of you. I should have known. You are just a waste of time and life!" He says in a low growl, pulling her to look at his masked face. "Just like your relationship with that faunus… We've had to stoop so low as to treat humans as if they were special, to let you into our lives and accept it despite our superiority… But, that is too much. You polluted the gene pool to bring that hybrid abomination of yours to life-"

Before he can even finish his sentence, her forehead slams into his. In an instant, the tone of the battle changes completely. He is caught off-guard, enough that his hands are taken off her jacket… and for her to now be lifting him. His eyes widen as he looks down into hers, two hard spheres of blazing red staring right back at him. She's scowling deeply, bringing her fist slowly up.

Her plan had been to let him talk, that being about the only reason she let him hold onto her that long… But, with the pain from that last shot welling up inside her and the sudden rage from the words he had started venomously spurting… There was no way she could keep listening.

"Don't you DARE talk about my family." She growls lowly, hair flowing hotly as her hold begins to heat his neck. Her other fist connects into a punch that sends him flying out of the crater he had made. It hits him hard and cracks his mask further, splintering down the eye. He lands in the mud, getting on all fours as she climbs her way out.

Steam comes from the heat her body is making, boots hissing as she touches them to the mud. He tries to crawl away, only to be grabbed by the tail harshly and yanked back to her. He is turned around to face Yang as a hand grips his throat tightly. Rage is burning her eyes and all through her veins, controlling the fist she raises up and brings harshly down on his face.

A series of loud, painful crunches ring out in the swamp.

She stands up when she's finished, raising him up and throwing the large man over her shoulder. He lands on his back heavily, a sort of gasping noise coming from the faunus as the wind is completely knocked out of him. Unbeknownst to Yang, he has somehow managed to tap a small spot on his gauntlet by the time she walks over and presses her boot to his throat threateningly. "Now, you're gonna be a good lil' boy and tell me a story."

His heavily cracked mask is all that stares back at her, a raspy laugh coming from him as his glowing eyes look up at her. "You… really think… it'll be that easy? Don't… make me laugh..."

She snarls, pressing her boot harder into his throat. "You son of a bitch! Tell me why you know my family! Why are you coming after me?!"

"It doesn't matter, now. Not yet. But… don't worry, human. Your… rgh… your day of reckoning is fast approaching… and, when that day comes..." A humming begins to ring out, Yang glancing up as the large, shimmering form of a ship slowly comes down from the sky.

She's given barely any warning before it un-cloaks, a loud whirring coming from it before it begins to fire a hail of bullets toward the blonde. She has to step off Ursa in order to effectively block the fire, metal clanging off Ember Celica loudly as Yang growls.

She can see him slowly rise to his feet, pressing a hand to his splintered mask. Black hair has spilled out of where the mask is fractured and a glowing eye stares back at her. "I will greatly enjoy watching your kind suffer."

The cockpit of the ship opens as it lowers to the ground, keeping a steady stream of bullets smashing into her gauntlets to force her to not pursue. He moves slowly to the ship, just barely getting himself in and slumping to the seat. The fire stops, but the ship blasts away from the earth before she can run to it and do any further damage.

That doesn't stop her from blasting at it as it leaves.

With rage still pulsing through her, an unfortunate tree is the target that helps her release some of the frustration. She let him get away. She let him get away with some manner of knowledge of her family. But, what context was it used for? Did he just know her from public image and use it to try and psych her out? What was this whole fight about?

He seemed less like he wanted to kill her and more like he wanted to study her. That would explain the whole 'show me your true power' crap.

But, what about the mask? And, the red armor?

Too many questions were floating around in her head. Far too many that she didn't have answers to. As she wipes the blood pooling at her lip, she's further convinced that she wasn't made for this anymore. She was sick of the crazy people, the power-hungry assholes that gloated while they attacked… She just wanted to go home.

Because things like this had to happen, whenever she was out.

She glances down when she suddenly hears a small 'beep' come from her scroll, bringing out to find that Glynda's tracking beacon is finally working. "About damn time."

After making sure to stretch her body out, getting all the aches and pains relieved for the most part, Yang slowly begins to walk toward the sound. Long way to go.

Weiss is beginning to notice something that is greatly disturbing her, as she and Ruby go from block to block. These people were showing signs of Grimm blood poisoning, but there were no signs that a Grimm attack had occurred. Setting aside the fact that the poison had somehow gotten into the lungs of the victims, the only signs of conflict was the fighting between bandits, humans, and faunus. No claw marks, no black fur, and not even a single lingering Grimm. They had also yet to see the mutilated corpses that came with said Grimm attacks.

"Ruby, something about this isn't right." The pale woman says slowly as they walk, scanning this block for survivors or fires.

"You caught onto that, too, huh?" Her wife replies as her eye glances to Weiss quickly. "This is crazy. This whole 'plague' thing just… doesn't seem natural."

"Precisely what I was thinking. This plague did not come from a mere Grimm attack. While it may contain the poison found in the blood, the Grimm are not the primary cause. It would be impossible. This had to have been… engineered."

"Engineered?"

"Yes. I'm not sure for what reason this is, but this had to have been created by intelligent life. In order to test that hypothesis, we would need someone who has been here since the plague started. If this disease was truly engineered, as I think it is, then there would have been some manner of suspicious activity before it spread. Someone tampering with wells, an airship drop, strange persons of unknown origin… Something."

"Call in to Pyrrha, maybe she can talk to the leader of the town?"

"Perhaps. That would certainly be an option. We need her to see if she's gotten any word for our transport ships to land, yet… as well as if the other transports are on their way. This town is in too much chaos for just two huntresses to handle."

"Yeah, and the sooner we know Glynda's gonna be here, the better. She can start fixing up the buildings and stuff." Ruby replies with a quick nod, though bites her lip slowly. "Still doesn't answer who would wanna do this, though. Why test it here? I mean, it's a decent population, but..."

"We'll just have to see once the smoke clears."

Weiss brings her scroll up and taps through a few screens, soon contacting Pyrrha. It takes longer than it should… before the sound of her coming in is crackled with static. "Weiss?! Is that you?"

"Pyrrha? Yes, it's me… What's…?"

"The bandits are making another run on the upper half of the city."

"Do you have the leader with you?"

"Er… Yes, he's present. And, um… hiding behind a desk." Pyrrha says slowly, the distant sounds of a shrill scream piercing the communication.

"Oh, no, is that lady okay?!" Ruby asks, worry showing on her face.

"Um… That was him."

"O-Oh."

"None of this matters!" Weiss interrupts, huffing out a cold breath and taking control of the conversation once more. "We need to talk to him about potential suspicious activity within the last few days. Whatever this plague is… it was done on purpose."

"What? Who would do such a thing?"

"That's what we need to find out. If you would kindly turn your tracking beacon on so we can find what building you're in, I would be very grateful."

"Very well."

As Weiss hears a small beeping signaling Pyrrha's position, she lifts a finger up in question. "As well, what is the status of our backup and clearance to land? We could really use Glynda, right now. The town is too far gone-"

"Well, we have the clearance to land and Jaune will be joining soon, but… he hasn't heard word from the other teams. Whenever he tries to get through to them, all he hears is static. Either something is blocking the signal… or..." Pyrrha starts, though her voice trails off in a worried manner. That, of course, makes Ruby very visibly nervous. "I don't want to assume the worst. It is probably just interference. Storms sometimes cause signal breaks."

"Storms that come sporadically out of nowhere?"

"I'm just trying to keep things positive, Weiss." Another explosion rings off from Pyrrha's side, a grunt coming from the woman. "Rgh. Can't talk anymore. If you want to talk, meet me here and we'll talk. You! Get ready to barricade those doors as soon as I exit the building! Don't leave until you're given an all clear! I've got to go, Weiss. Pyrrha out."

The connection cuts off, leaving Weiss to stare at her scroll. Ruby still hasn't lost that worried look on her face, eye flitting around the town nervously. "Weiss, Yang's team was closest to the town, in terms of range… What do you think… happened to them? What if-"

"Whatever happened, I'm… sure they're fine, Ruby. Yang can take care of herself. You know that."

"I know, I know. I just… I shouldn't have let her take this mission. She's got a family, Weiss! Little baby girl at home! She can't be going all MIA on a swampy battlefield!" Ruby says rather loudly, face scrunching up a bit. "Just like she can't..."

"Know about your little stalker?"

A lip is bitten. "...Yes."

"You know she's going to find out, eventually. That level of crazy doesn't go unnoticed for long. She's not going to be happy that you kept this from her, Ruby."

"That's why she's not gonna find out, Weiss." Ruby says with a bit of a hard edge, frowning at her wife and crossing her arms across her chest. "We're going to do this quietly and on our own."

"Ruby, you can't keep-"

"I can keep her out of it!" Her voice comes out much more loudly this time, surprised blue looking into the single eye of silver (the blank white not registering anything at all). "Weiss, I… I have to. She can't be dragged into craziness, again… Not when she's so close to having everything she ever wanted… If I tell her, she'll want to run in and help. Just like she always does. I can't have that happen."

Weiss is silent for a few moments, then sighs. "Let's just get to Pyrrha. She sounded like she needed help."

Ruby nods in response, following after Weiss as they take off for Pyrrha's location. It doesn't take too awful long for them to get there, though Weiss is a tad worse for wear by the end of it. She hasn't exactly been in what you would call 'in battle shape' for a while, especially when compared to her professional huntress of a wife. By the time they come around the block that Pyrrha should be on, the CEO is lightly panting.

"I vote… we don't run down any more blocks..." She says to deaf ears, Ruby already flipping Crescent Rose out into attack mode.

"C'mon, Weiss, there she is!"

In the distance, they can see their friend fighting a large group of faunus. For how ragged they look, they seem ludicrously well-armed. It's obvious that Pyrrha is waning just a little bit at the numbers, trying to both attack and defend the building at the same time. Ruby takes off immediately, Weiss groaning before taking off after her with the help of a glyph.

The amazon looks up as she sees Ruby slam into one of the bandits, a swing of the blunt end of her scythe sending him backwards and crashing into another. Weiss follows quickly after her, a graceful over a group resulting in them being frozen to the ground. The pale girl lands next to Pyrrha, giving her a nod as they move back to back.

"Any reason why they're targeting this building in particular?"

"It's the only one with worthwhile valuables left. A hostage in the leader and lien in the treasury. Seems like something worth stealing, rgh, doesn't it?" Pyrrha grunts, smashing a bandit who gets too close in the jaw with her shield.

"Noted. These cretins are quite well-armed and numbered for a bandit group."

"They likely received weapons from an outside source. There's no way they could smuggle Atlas weaponry into a town like this, even as large as it is."

"And, so, the plot thickens."

"I wouldn't have considered it quite so heavily without your previous theory, Weiss. But, it's clear. Whoever did this… wanted this result." This time, the redhead's spear smashes across an unfortunate face at the same time Weiss lands a hard kick with her heel. "It's monstrous."

"...It could be the reason we haven't heard from the rest of the teams. Whoever they are could be cutting off signals, misleading the navigation systems, any number of things… We have to face facts." Gunfire rings out as Ruby begins to take expertly-placed shots toward her enemies, Weiss momentarily distracted by making sure she's okay. "We may be on our own."

"Let's… hope not."

The mask that Pyrrha wears gives a small hiss as she breathes outward, noticing that some of the attackers seem to be actually using their brains and trying to get into the building by going around. They were going to spread the huntress' thin. No matter powerful any of them were, or how little trouble they had batting the bandits aside, they weren't going to be able to be everywhere at once. Ruby seemed to be trying her best to be, whipping all around the battlefield and sending attackers flying.

"This is bad. They're going to get in, at this point. I wish we knew where our backup was!"

Pyrrha looks up with a start when she hears the humming of a ship up into the air, a smile immediately coming to her face as she recognizes that it's their transport. "Jaune!"

The man appears as the side door opens and he has soon leaped into the air, smashing his shield down into the ground and displacing quite a few opponents from attacking. "Sorry to keep you waiting. You don't know how hard it is to find a good parking spot, these days!"

Pyrrha grins at her lover and Weiss gives an appreciative nod, the blonde running in to join the two women in the battle. His shield sends many foes crashing into the earth, the hilt of his sword coming into smash any skulls unfortunate enough to get in his way. The amazon calls his attention to the bandits starting to move around the sides and he nods quickly. He taps a hand to his mask and looks up to the ship, which is performing sweeps of the area.

"Pilot, we need cover fire! Wide spread!"

"Gotcha, Mr. Arc!" The pilot replies back, a humming sound stirring up from the ship before a volley of shots blast from the front gun. The red beams smash into both the ground at the bandits' feet and into singular people themselves, displacing any attempts to go around. In the temporary confusion in the ranks of their enemies, the hunters regroup and take cover.

"They're not retreating… There's no way that the lien in there is worth the effort. It's a good amount, but come on!" Ruby says as she peeks out from behind a large piece of rubble that has been knocked violently from the wall. "This is ridiculous."

"It isn't like we can fight these guys forever. Well, we can, but I don't want to..." Pyrrha mutters, rolling her shoulders as she glances out toward the ship as it blasts at the bandits. "There's got to be a faster way to get them out of here."

"Seems like the ship's handling spreading them out pretty well." Jaune comments in response to her complaint, his eyes flitting around. "Hopefully that'll show them we mean business. Uh… If we didn't, already."

"That just might be the most intelligent plan I've ever heard." Weiss' voice comes out with a rather biting sarcasm. Her arms being slowly crossed over her chest only add to the effect. "I mean… just fight and hope they get scared off? I don't know why I didn't think of that. Sheer brilliance."

Despite the situation, Ruby can't help but let out a giggle when Jaune pouts at her. It really was like no time had passed at all between those two, to be honest. Well… with the exception of Jaune's beard.

"Well, unless you've got a better plan, Weiss?" He asks, his fingers coming to slowly tap on the bits of concrete they're hiding behind. "This is about the only thing we can really do, right now. Unless you see backup coming in at any time."

"What DID happen when you tried to get a message out to the other squads?"

"Like Pyrrha said, just static. Either that, or the signals wouldn't connect."

"Mm."

"Why?"

"The pieces are beginning to fit together, but not in the right way. Someone made this plague. Someone armed these vagabonds. And, someone cut off our communications to reinforcements. All of this was a deliberate attack or test. But, thus far, there have been no answers as to who this is. They want madness, whoever they are. Setting a plague out to kill the human population of a town that doesn't affect faunus, letting the completely faunus bandits have weapons, and not letting hunters and huntress's mitigate the situation… It's a definite agenda."

Jaune's face looks rather grim at that prospect, especially in the fact that they still don't know the identity of such a person. Pyrrha seems to have a similar look, though is gripping her spear much tighter in comparison. "Well… When we figure out who would do this, and we will, we'll make sure that their desire for madness stops right there."

"That we will." Weiss says lowly, then glancing back at the makeshift battlefield that the streets have turned onto. "Come on, they're starting to use their brains and fire on the ship-"

Almost as soon as the words leave her lips, a flurry of rose petals spatter all over where they had been hiding as Ruby bursts forward and smashes the ranks that have joined together to try and take on the ship. Weiss' eyes narrow and she grumbles once more, jumping out after her wife with her friends right behind her.

Ursa is having a rather rough time of it, when he reaches the hanger to dock his ship. With what he is sure are broken ribs, a disjointed tail, and more than a few bruises, this is certain to be painful for quite a while. Taking off the splintered mask that covers his face reveals yet more bruises, his own narrowed eyes looking back at him in the glass of the cockpit. His cat ears are flat against his skull, as if daring anyone to make a move on him. Not that he needed it in the safety of their base, but he was filled with too much adrenaline for that to matter.

The 'fight or flight' instinct isn't something that wears off quickly, after all.

He hears footsteps behind him and his head turns just a bit to face whoever they are, eyebrows raising when he sees two forms. "Queens Taijitu. What are you two doing down in the docking bay?"

The two women grin in a rather snakelike fashion, their namesake suiting them rather perfectly. Beowolf had been quite correct in giving them that title.

The two women are a bit of an oddity. He trusts their allegiance to the cause, but… that doesn't mean he didn't have this feeling that there was something slightly off-putting about them. One was dressed in all black clothing with white hair and the palest skin he had ever seen, always holding or touching her partner. The other was dressed in all white, dark skin with black hair falling over her snakelike mask. Nero and Krem. The Queens Taijitu.

Krem speaks up first, her husky voice rasping out as she flips her dark hair back. As she speaks, Nero is leaning her body against her partner and playing with the dark locks that had been flipped, not seeming interested in the conversation. "Ursa, you poor thing… Looks like you got your ass kicked a little bit."

"A little bit. It was necessary."

"Oh? So, Beowolf sends their boy toy out to get a few scrapes for the name of research?"

"Watch your tongue, Krem. You're speaking about our superior." Ursa growls as he crosses his large arms across his chest, Nero gasping softly and holding a hand to her mouth as she looks back and forth between the two. Krem merely smirks and gives a small shrug.

"Take it easy, big guy, I was just joking. What's up your ass?"

"Well, I was just in a knock-down, drag-out fight with Yang Xiao Long. She's flattened a truck, before. Not something I liked getting hit with, exactly." He says, grunting as he takes a few steps past her. He stops, however, when another question rings through the silence of the hanger.

"...Can we use her?"

He's silent for a few moments, turning his head to look at Krem. The dark-haired woman is staring at him intently, eyes narrowed and expectant of an answer. Even Nero seems rather focused on his response, despite not having had any prior interest. "I… believe we can. But, she alone is not strong enough. I will need to discuss this with Beowolf before we continue."

"What's there to continue, Ursa? We have the targets, why can't we strike?"

"You're far too impatient, Krem. This is not something we can rush. We need to be certain everything will work so that we can make the most of it. You need to trust in Beowolf. Do you?"

Krem opens her mouth to speak, then closes it with a sigh. "Yeah, I do. It's just… This is taking too long. The longer we wait, the more clues they'll piece together..."

"Krem. We are superior to them. And, we will prove it. We will have the future that you seek. I promise you. Now, I want you to go to Nevermore and tell her I will be back with my findings shortly." He says firmly, the woman slowly nodding before walking off into the facility. Her partner stays behind, glancing up at Ursa.

Her voice is but a soft, eerie whisper when it finally slips out. "She is just eager for us to get what we deserve… We will get it, yes?"

He regards her carefully. "We will."

"Then, that is enough for me. Now, pardon my rudeness, but I must follow my Krem." She whispers, moving off into the facility's dark hallway. The white of her hair melts into the black, gone by the next time he blinks. He can't help but repress a shiver in response.

Definitely something off-putting about that one, in particular.

But, he couldn't linger on that thought. Beowolf was waiting for their information.