Remnants of the Dust - RWBY

Legends.

Stories scattered through time.

Mankind has grown quite found of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains....forgetting for easily that we are remnants...byproducts of a forgotten past.

Man, born from Dust, was strong, wise and resourceful...but he was born into an unforgiving world.

An inevitable darkness, creatures of destruction....the creatures of Grimm, set their sights on man and all of his creations.

These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence...to the void.

However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in-time man's passion, resourcefulness and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds.

This power was appropriately named....Dust.

Nature's wrath in-hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly.....life.

But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker....and die....

And when they are gone...darkness will return.

So you may prepare your guardians...build you monuments to a so-called "free world"...but take heed....

There will be no victory in strength.


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The City of Vale was quiet on most nights....

It was not most nights.

"Get her in the truck! Boss is waitin'"

A large man growled as four others dragged a woman, head covered in some form of black bag, across the street toward a waiting vehicle. He scowled looking across the street, harassing his men as their progression was stalled by their victim's struggling and then scanning the street once to see if the coast was clear.

"You can keep on screamin', lady! Nobody's gonna hear ya!"

But as so many scenes from ill-fated performances go, that phrase leaves out one crucial detail: someone always hears them.

Someone always comes.

"What the fuck."

Bombs dropped in the night, both explicatory and literal. The front and tires of the kidnapper's getaway vehicle lit up in a burst of flames and noise, preventing them from any chance at escape and likely alerting those in the area to something going on. Screams could sometimes be ignored — explosions often could not.

Saphron McKeyy, shifting her weapon from ranged to melee, knew that perhaps too well.

Normally one would ask questions rather than shoot first, but there were really no questions to ask other than the one she already had, so Saph just dropped down from the rooftop she'd happened to catch the scene from and slammed her morning star into the nearest bad guy's face.

So much for a shortcut.

"Uhhhhhhhhh....." the larger man droned, eyes slowly darting between the getaway truck now turned into a flaming effigy and his underling sailing across the street and crumpling into a heap on the asphalt. It wasn't that his mouth was slack and ajar...or that the rest of his gang had done the same.

It was the fact that no one.....NO ONE....was doing a thing.

"Can you gut her, please? Or should I?"

"Oh, uhh, right away sir!"



The underlings, about seven in count and dressed in uniform dark jeans and white-collared shirts and black vests with green carnations on the lapel, reached to their sides, brandishing the hatchets that they had carried on their belts. While more anxiety than courage, they charged the newcomer with the morning star, ready to swing wildly as they could.

"Whoa there!"

PUH-CHOW!

A hatchet scattered from one of their hands, clattering onto the ground five-feet from its owner.

Steady, measured steps entered into the fray, and if the smoking barrel of the gunmetal gray revolver in his hand wasn't off-putting enough, the casual half-grin beneath the black, tightly-curled cowboy hat did the job just fine.

"Y'all are about to team-up on a lady? That ain't right."

And in his moment of sly, heroic banter...the cowboy stopped, breaking his "confident" form before motioning to Saphron, face stretch in a way only a child who'd broken the cookie jar could make.

"That was mighty misogynistic! I apologize. What I meant was the numbers weren't right and them roughnecks were fixin' to...y'know, nevermind, lemme just...."

He took aim, firing again at another hatchet of a thug charging him during his tirade. This time, the attack swung, but when there was no blade to make purchase on the cowboy's body, the thug had never been more confused. He scanned his weapon, now just a stick in his hand, the blade flung off and dug into the wall behind him! He sighed, turning back to the gunslinger who stared him down with that grin and black eyes.

"Howdy."

BANG! BANG! BANGBANG!

One to the foot, one to the shoulder, and two into the thigh. After a boot to the side of the head for good measure, the gray gunslinger let the casings of his spent shots clatter on the ground as he loaded six new shots.

Onyx Gainsborough had been waiting for a moment like this.

Woman to the side with a couple of kidnappers. Seven thugs on the offensive. One disarmed. One down. One...ally.

Alright.

"Go save your damsel," Saph told the boy, not waiting to see if he'd heard her at all. Either he had or he hadn't, and if he wouldn't she would, and someone needed to take out the bulk of the riffraff to reach the lady anyway. That someone might as well be her.

Saph dropped to one knee as her weapon switched back to ranged from melee, firing at the man farthest away from herself and Onyx. Instead of explosives, it fired a spiked ball and chain...and instead of connecting, it flew past the thug to embed itself in the wall behind him.

When the baddie turned back to look at Saph, he got a wonderful view of her heels before they slammed into his face, introducing the back of his skull to the concrete.

Five.

She skid as the chain finished pulling her, yanking it out of the wall only to twist and use it as a makeshift flail, smashing it into the ground in front of the only kidnapper quick enough to react to her sudden assault. She pinwheeled her arms, trying to keep balance when the ground worked against her, but Saph didn't allow it, leaping over and twisting so that her boot connected with the side of her head in a powerful kick, then another when the woman tripped on the chain and faceplanted into the asphalt.

Four.

Two more finally got the memo, coming at Saph with hatchets raised. In a line, conveniently enough. Saph retracted the ball and chain into her cannon only to fire it off again, catching the first in the stomach which sent him flying into the second, which sent them both flying into a wall where they peeled off into an open dumpster. The jolt shut the lid with a satisfying bang.

Three. Two.

In one smooth motion Saph shifted her cannon into a morning star and tossed it into the air. The baddie who was on her way stared incredulously at the apparent abandonment of the weapon — only to get a painful reminder that one should never their eyes off their opponent when Saph slugged her in the gut. She doubled over, and Saph used the unfortunate woman's back as a springboard into the air, where she caught her weapon and spiraled down, sending the kidnapper to the floor just as she was trying to get back up with a spinning blow to her crown.

One.

The last came running towards her, making no attempt at subtlety or subterfuge. His hatchet was poised high, gleaming with the light of the broken moon...and Saph let it, let him until her was close enough to touch, blade swinging down with every intention to kill.

The mace of her morning star opened up, and she raised it to catch the axe, and it closed so hard that even from a distance one could hear the metal snap.

The thug paled.

Saph grinned.

His nose made a very satisfying crunch as she decked him in the face.

Zero.

Saph shook the shrapnel out of her weapon, and she turned, feral-eyed, to Onyx and the rest of the audience, waiting, watching, assessing.

Eager.

There's something about watching your employees fail that tends to rile up a man. The larger man surveyed the battered and broken henchmen around his feet like litter in the street, arms out at his sides in a way that only someone who wasn't mad, but just really disappointed could be.

"Why, why, whyyyyyyyy...do we hired bodyguards....that CAN'T PROTEEEEEECT......A FREAKIN' BODY?!?!?!"

He towered over the others that had been there and the others who were still on their feet, almost double the size. He rolled the sleeves of his own button-up shirt up his muscular arms, casually walking over to the still-covered woman. He reached onto his back, pulling from it a large machine, blades roped together along it's curvature. He gripped the sword-like handle in one hand, ripping back the chord and roaring the weapon into life! With his chainsaw ready, he whipped the woman up by her waist in his other hand like she weighed nothing.

He snarled, and the fangs that protruded out from his golden mane of hair and beard glistened like the streetlights.

"Uhhh....reach for the...." Onyx aimed his gun, sighing as he did so, "ain't gonna work, is it?"

The faunus giant shook his head.

"And I got about....three choppers comin' in soon....so let's make this fun."

Saph's eyebrows jumped at the villain's unveiling. A fanged faunus with a chainsaw. That was certainly unique, separate as much as together. Now she just needed to figure out what to do with that, and him.

One arm held the weapon while the other arm held the kidnapped woman. Saph couldn't fire any grenades or the like without risking hitting her, so that went right out. But an up-close attack wasn't likely to work either, because the man had better range and again, a hostage. Separating him and her took first priority, but how could Saph do that?

Ugh, whatever, was what she eventually decided. Planning was not her strong point.

She charged forward, morning star at the ready, and swung at the man hoping something would connect in her brain before any blows connected with her.

"Yeah!" the large faunus roared, swinging at Saph not with the saw, but with the now shrieking woman in his hand! Without a second thought, Saph sprung back, dodging the hostage, taking aim with another strike with her mace! It struck, a spike sinking into the man's arm! Before she could pull it free, however, she was pulled herself....up into the air, to look eye-to-eye with the unamused behemoth.

"That's my favorite arm!"

Like a machine, he swung wide, sending Saphron and her weapon sailing off into a wall! He charged, blade up! As he swung down, a shot rang out, smacking into the blade that cut into the wall next to Saphron's head in a burst of sparks! He turned, growling at the gunslinger.

"Ohhhhh.....tarnati-UH!"

It's not often you see a giant lion man use a kidnapped woman as a projectile to attack a cowboy, but those in the alley sure got that treat! Before she could be comfortable as a heap on the ground, she was picked up again by the ferocious beast of a man, who swung at Onyx with a wild saw attack, missing by only a few inches, followed by another, and another still! Taking a window of opportunity, Onyx fired another shot that grazed through the golden hair of the attacker.

"Well....that sucks."

The headbutt that crashed into his chest sucked more.

There.

Saph pushed herself halfway off the ground, kneeling and aiming with her weapon, now again a cannon. She fired, the ball and chain rocketing just above the ground until she yanked it, hard, and it skittered across the asphalt as it pitched to the right, wrapping itself around her target, the kidnapper's legs. Pulling as hard as she could, Saph willed the tree of a man to fall, and to fall the right way at that.

Never look away from your opponent, she thought to herself as she dug her heels in.

His leg held strong, sliding only a few inches before flexing into the ground like a stone column cemented into the alleyway. The faunus snarled at Saphron, reaching back once more to shotgun his victim at another target.

"HOLD UP, NOW!"

He couldn't move his arm, at least not by much. The cord around his arm held tight, holding his arm back, trailing back to the gun held by the damn cowboy!

"Not....gonna let ya....hngh.....toss 'er again!"

"You don't have a cho-"

Before another word could leave his mouth, the monstrous man was taken off of his feet and sent sailing out into the street beyond! Onyx detached his whip, running to catch the woman now free-falling. He dove, catching her on the way down.

The sound of clacking heels on the pavement steadily paced past his head into the street, the source of the feint-purple blast now snapping her riding crop into her hand. He adjusting her glasses, she gave a stern glare to the towering man who stood back to his feet.

"So Goodwitch comes out to play?" he growled as the whir of rotating blades came in overhead. Wind kicked up in torrential fashion, making standing nearly impossible for those without the power to do so.

The new woman, this "Goodwitch", didn't even budge as the three air vehicles came into view.

"I think I'll take my leave, now."

Saph, unfortunately, didn't retract her chain in time, and thus was partially dragged along with the kidnapper before she could get it untangled — only to be caught off guard halfway to her feet when the helicopters kicked up a galestorm and knocked to the ground again.

Clumsy.

She forced herself up as high as she could in the raging wind, taking stock of the new arrival — that was someone important, right? — and of where her weapon laid, thrown too far to be reached in any amount of time that would be useful  — clumsy, clumsy, so damn clumsy — and of the bad guy getting away, getting away when there was nothing she could do about it.

Saph grit her teeth so hard she felt her jaw crack.

The choppers ascended, the large man now standing in the open door way of the vehicle peering down on the four in the street.

Before the vehicles could turn, however, the creaking and turning of metal filled the night sky as the choppers froze in-place. The woman in the glasses held her crop up a similar glow radiating off of her as the energy that surrounded the vehicles.

"Oh, just give it up!"

The man clutched his chainsaw in both hands, the weapon converting and transforming into a large machine gun, the chain hanging at the side.

BRATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!!!!!

The bullets rained down on them all! Moving into quick action, the woman spun, waving her crop again as a force field projected around them, stopping the attack.

The choppers broke free, taking off into the night.

Saph breathed deeply through her nose, willing her body to relax as she watched the choppers sail off. The bad guy had escaped, but that was fine. They had prevented the kidnapping, and that was what she had wanted. Plus there were even a bunch of underlings that could be taken into custody now. It was fine. She wasn't helpless, hadn't been helpless, and everything was just fine.

Saph willed herself to believe that as she went to grab her weapon.

Now that she was armed again and wasn't in battle mode, Saph recognized the huntress with the riding crop. Glynda Goodwitch, professor and second in command of Beacon Academy. Where Saph had just enrolled. Huh.

Would they get extra credit if the lady was alive?

Speaking of.

"So uh...is she okay, or...?" Saph asked, gesturing to the woman resting in Onyx's arms, whose head was still yet bagged. What was the etiquette for this sort of situation...?

"I don't know," Onyx replied, removing the hood from the now rescued woman's head. The red head tried to shake cobwebs from her head that just did not seem to budge, but outside of a few scrapes and bruises along her face and arms, she seemed to be alright.

Shaken, but alright.

"Th...tha-thank you," she whispered, holding her head, "They would've....they would've hurt me a lot more."

"Why would they wanna hurt little ol' you?"

"That's what I'm going to find out," spoke the huntress that had arrived on the scene, a stern glare down on both the victim and one of the students under her protection.

"You'll be coming with me. We need some answers."

Onyx, concerned, looked up in confusion.

"You're gonna interrogate an injured girl?"

"Not just her," the riding crop in his face was enough to finish any additional thoughts before they even started, "you'll be coming along as well."

She looked over her shoulder to the girl with the rocket launcher mace thing.

"You as well."

"Shit, really?" Saph asked, slinging her rocket launcher mace thing into its holster. "Well alright then, if we have to."

It was unfortunate, but it did make sense that they'd need a statement. Those were a thing in crime dramas, right? They were in Lila's at least. Saph hoped at least it wouldn't take too long. They were supposed to be doing something important at school tomorrow, right? Or was she imagining that?

Ugh, she was so tired.

At least the woman was fine.

"Lead on," she said, gesturing forward.