Feast of the Soulless (Public)

[Avaria Umbra]

The cold of the night barely registered to Avaria's metal limbs and synthetic skin. She only knew it was cold because her external thermometers were telling her it was ten below freezing and a thin coat of frost had started to line her joints, which she had kept absolutely still since she had first arrived. The target was finally in sight, and she knew her task; diversion. The gigantic freighter filled with military hardware, Dust, and most importantly, robotic soldiers was just about to set sail. Her allies in the White Fang would then commandeer the ship while she held its security at bay. She was the perfect person for this task, being well-suited to combat and highly resistant to damage in all forms. Besides, the main objective was to try and limit civillian casualties if possible. At least, that was her one condition for taking part in this operation.

She marked all non-threatening personel including crew members and bystanders as non-combatants, initiating Curse Bearer's thermal function. The electrical current coursed through the heavy double-edged axe, quickly raising its temperature to one thousand degrees farenheight. The air around her began to shimmer and steam, and her joints almost instantly thawed, the ice coating them subliming into vapor. Avaria rose from her crouched position, preparing herself for what was supposed to be a short conflict. The silvery-haired girl hefted the axe onto her shoulder, and started at a sprint towards the enemy. Her accomplices would know this was the signal, and would move to take over the ship while she did the heavy lifting. The flat surfaces at the bottoms of her legs that she had instead of feet tore into the ground, leaving a perfectly circular hole with every step.

She charged directly for a security guard making his rounds, his back turned to her. She made no attempt to hide the rather loud sound of her footfalls, and he swiveled with a surprised look on his face. "Hold it right there, missy!" he shouted, reaching for the pistol holstered on his hip. Before he could draw it, she made it to him and baseball slid next to him on his left side, snapping her left arm into his leg and effectively shattering the knee, sliding back up to her feet in one fluid motion. He yelled in pain, dropping to the ground, calling the attention of every other living thing on the dock to her position. Everything was going as planned. "Hey, who's over there?" called another voice, "intruder! Get her!" Avaria's lips curled into a disturbing smile as the promise of a fight solidified, even though she was excercising restraint.

Bullets started to rain down on her, and she ascertained the positions of all the hostiles by judging their trajectory. There were two guards standing in a nearby tower, one swiveling a spotlight towards her and the other rushing into the canopy that stood atop it, presumably fetching a weapon. She hurled Curse Bearer at it, and the thick edge cleaved straight through one of the tower supports, making the tower groan and wobble. She sprinted towards it, scooping up her weapon before it toppled to the ground, turning to see where other security guards were.

She saw White Fang members storming the ship and gathering the crew members, making them disembark at gunpoint. Avaria decided further violence from her would no longer be necessary, with most of the enemy force scattered and retreating. The smile on her face died, returning to its normal neutral expression. The android planted her axe into the ground by the blade, supervising the rest of the operation and making sure no others would come to stop her White Fang allies from achieving their goal. Leaning against the handle of the axe, she crossed her arms and looked at the crumbling moon, and exhaled in a mock sigh. No vapor escaped her mouth, and no vapor ever would, a fact that she lamented. She wondered what the next step after this would be, knowing the White Fang would undoubtedly want to make their move sooner rather than later.

[Casia Rabt]

'"And of course the one time I offer my service to overwatch this shipment is the time we get attacked." a man speaks up as he rolls off his back and falls down from ontop of a shipment crate into a crouching position. He'd been up there freezing his ass off waiting for the time to come so he could happily get on his merry way home and pretend to sleep too bad tonight seemed like it was gonna be a lot longer than he expected. Taking his time to round a corner and lay his eyes on the troops of white fang members storming the ship and with a sigh he went back into a crouching position and stuck close to the shadows of the freighters blocking out the moon's light. With quick steps Casia made his way onto the ship along with the White Fang and a few workers being shoved off the ship. Reaching to his back and palming each hand around a Sai Casia decided the time to strike was now at least this way he'd lower down their numbers. Springing forwards with only the sound of his light steps Casia locked his wrist as he passed the longest prong of his sai across the skulls of two unaware Fang troops. One dropped like a sack of brick while the other cried out in pain as he ducked and held the back of his head. "Well that was supposed to go smoother." Taking another crack this time at the faunus' exposed neck before kneeling into the troops spine to make sure he could retaliate. Too bad for him faunus have great hearing it seems so when one more masked trooper dashed from around the corner Casia could only offer a small weird smirk before rolling out of the way of oncoming fire.

Now with every Fang member surely alerted to him being on the ship Casia had to keep on his toes and that he did very well. Springing off the floor to avoid more bullets and fire off both of the sai prongs into the deck just in front of the trooper who caught him in his act. The trooper stumbled back out of surprise which gave the purple haired hunter just enough time to sprint forward and slam the hilt of one sai into the fang members chin and stomping on the toe of their boot to keep them grounded from the uppercut. Following up his strikes by activating his semblance and transforming his body into the metal of his sai's handle and headbutting the trooper dead in their nose ensuring that would knock the Fang member out.
"Alright three down now if only I remembered how many more there was to go." Casia spoke to himself as his masked assailant fell back unconscious into the railings. With three of the criminals unconscious the purple haired hunter decided it best for him to head somewhere a little less cramped and not dead center of where all the white fang are soon to end up.

[Avaria Umbra]

The chatter of small arms fire inturrupted Avaria's thoughts. She turned to see where it was coming from, and saw that the White Fang soldiers that had been dispatched with her were engaged in combat. She rolled her eyes, doubting a substantial challenge was giving them trouble, but it was her job to make sure they acquired the cargo, so she knew she should check anyways. Lifting Curse Bearer out of the pavement and hefting it onto her shoulder, she trotted to the edge of the dock where the freighter was at rest, bending her legs and preparing to make the 80 foot jump onto the main deck. She made it up all but about 5 feet, slamming her hand into the metal hull to catch herself, throwing herself up the remaining distance.

She landed heavily on the deck, raising her eyes to see what the source of the trouble was. The White Fang members were all heading to where most of the cargo was piled up, so she started walking in the direction. She stopped, somewhat surprised when she saw a purple-haired Hunter engaging her forces. She let her signature cruel smile envelope her face as she watched the Hunter dash away to put space between the soldiers and himself. She followed slowly, noticing a Schnee company logo on a stack of cargo containers. She walked up to it and punched the lock off, then swung the doors open. She was greeted with exactly what she hoped to find in the container; Dust. Grabbing a single violet crystal from a wooden crate, she left the container and continued to where the Hunter had gone.

Weaving through the shipping crates, she found the assailant waiting to ambush what he probably expected would be more White Fang. She got a good look at him from this distance: purple hair, unkempt stubble, and a pair of sais for weapons. She let her smile grow as she anticipated the rush of fighting a fully-fledged Hunter, hoping for a real challenge. Avaria slid the violet crystal into the port on Curse Bearer's handle, and its blade started to glow and pulse. It became significantly heavier, and the servos in her arms had to compensate for the extra gravity. Without a word to her opponent she ran forward, and feighned a horizontal swing, swiveling her torso to the right, and turning the momentum into a frontal stab at the last second, reaching far with her right arm and thrusting the heavy axe all the way out. It was an unconventional attack, but it would tell her a lot about her opponent when he reacted.

[Casia Rabt]

"Ahh just one then, I'm fine with that." Casia spoke as his eyes tracked the un masked girl's movements. She was very off putting from the moment Casia laid eyes on her, the smile of a killer was normal but she didn't wear a mask all white fang members wear them what made her so different? Casia's mind fell back into the moment as the heavy looking blade was cocked back and looked about ready to take his head off. With a push from his heel Casia rolled back away from the blade just in time to dodge getting what seemed like a gut check seeing as there was no sharpened tip in between the two blades. A blow like that wouldn't kill but it'd damn sure hurt, maybe she wasn't trying to kill him just incapacitate him that'd be a weird change of events. Planting his feet flatly back on the ground after his evasive roll Caisa took a moment's pause to assess his new assailant a bad habit of his when in battle. "So you're a new face care to tell me why you're working with the White Fang? You don't seem to be a faunus so what do you get out of this?" Casia stood casually as ever placing a hand on his chin and one on his hip in a questioning manner, back still hunched over as usual with his head slightly tilted as he continued examining the girl in front of him. "My personal opinion you're way too young to be disposed in a life of crime, maybe baking you look like you would like baking." Casia continued to ramble on nothing seemed to dangerous about this situation yet but then again he had a hard time keeping his mind on danger everything was more like a case by case study for him and tonight was a very intriguing one.

[Avaria Umbra]

The attempt at conversation during open combat annoyed Avaria slightly. Why was it that Humans and Faunus were so impractical and illogical? She momentarily considered answering, but decided that the less information she could give a potential threat the better. His dodge was expertly timed, though she could see a slight moment of surprise at her last-minute change of attack. She reasoned that this type of surprise wouldn't catch him off-guard again, but similar surprises could keep him on his toes and keep her less predictable. She let turned the collossal axe blade on its side, letting it fall onto the deck with a weighty 'clank!', shearing a hole into the steel deckplates where the weapon imbedded itself.

She pressed her palm against the end of the handle, lifting her entire weight over it, cartwheeling over and aiming both feet at her assailant's head. If this landed it would do a fair amount of damage, but the faster attack would probably force the Hunter to parry, unless he hadn't realized that he was stuck between her and a stack of cargo. His parry, or lacktherof, would dictate how she continued this fight, and it would help her force him off the ship so the White Fang could do their job and she could finish hers.

[Casia Rabt]

"Guess you're not much for talking then." Casia sighed as he watched the girl silently prepare for another attack waiting for her didn't take long but dodging this didn't seem like it'd be too difficult though it didn't seem like it was meant to be hard to dodge. With a quick assessment of his surrounding Casia decided the best way for him to handle this would be to try and detain this girl. Using his right hand Casia unraveled the scarf from his neck and hoisted it up just in time to catch her kick which to him was surprisingly heavy. With the scarf pulled taunt and flexing now with the added weight Casia had to alter his position slightly in order to let the full motion of her attack pass by him without getting hit. Stepping to his side Caisa ended up pressed into some cargo crates all while his scarf still wrapped around his assailant's feet.

Tugging on his scarf now Casia planned to pull the girl off balance and uses the rest of his lengthy scarf to subdue her entirely. With his grip tightened on the long fashionable scarf Casia rolled out past the axe stuck in the deck and pulled on it harder attempting to trip the girl up. "This really doesn't need to be so difficult So hows about you sit tight here and we can talk about getting you into doing something more productive ey?" The purple haired hunter spoke up as he started trying to pull her closer so he could properly restrain her.

[Avaria Umbra]

Avaria felt resistance against her kick and was sure that the awkwardness of the  parry was due in part to the fact that the hunter had no idea what she actually was. She felt her momentum slowing far faster than it should have, so she turned her side flip into nosedive towards the deck plates. Putting a hand out with her fingers closed tightly and pointed forward, she caught herself by slamming the hand through the metal. She snapped her legs appart, her mechanichal hip joints having no problem resisting the piece of cloth that was around where her ankles would be if she were a real girl. She slid one leg out, letting the scarf tighten around her left leg.

Using her new position as a lever to her advantage, Avaria pivoted her hips and put her whole shoulder into pulling on the scarf, trying to throw the light hunter off the boat and into the water. She let the momentum carry her to her feet, allowing the cloth to slide off her smooth metal leg with the attempted throw. The girl gripped Curse Bearer and slowly lifted the blade out of the deck, replacing it onto her shoulder. The extreme heat contacting with the air immediately around her made it steam and shimmer, the blade glowing a dull red in the shadow of the shipping containers. She stood and waited to see if her opponent could save himself from her maneuver or not, her smile widening as she considered the thought of the fight continuing.

[Casia Rabt]

This wasn't his first time being flung around, not even his first time being handled like this by someone smaller than him but no the less he was tossed overboard. With scarf still in hand Casia decided his approach mid air using his semblance to copy the cloth of his scarf and turn his body into the light fabric just around the time he reached behind himself to grab hold of his sai resting on his back belt loop and firing the grappling prong into the hull of the ship and using it to catch himself from landing off the ship but instead just on the side of the hull itself. With a soft landing Casia pressed the button and reeled himself towards the anchored prong and even further upward past the railing and into the sky a good 10 feet above the ship before he simply spread himself out and slowly floated downwards onto the ship again.

"You are much stronger than you look but guess that comes with the job." the hunter spoke as he let his feet hit the ground without making any sound as his semblance was still active. Taking steps forward Casia still held his poor posture though he did walk slowly towards the girl who has yet to respond to him. "Look I get it if you rather not talk to an old guy you're fighting against but at least let me know you're doing this stuff free of mind control or some shenanigans cause I rather not fight kids if I don't have to. Casia came within an arm's reach of her and awaited a response mostly eying the giant axe she wielded that was causing the air to simmer around the blade.

[Avaria Umbra]

Avaria's smile faltered as she considered the huntsman's words. Was she free of mind control? Of course she was. She had decided that fighting was what she did because she enjoyed it, not because she was made to. Or that's what she had rationalized, anyway. The ship shuddered beneath her legs, and she would have nearly toppled over were she not gyroscopically stable. She shook her head to clear the sudden miniature identity crisis that the human had unknowingly put her through, letting her smile come back to life.

"Of course I'm doing this on my own, though I'm hardly doing it purely for the White Fang's sake. They and I have an agreement of sorts," she put her hand on her forehead and sized up the huntsman once again. "Don't tell me you've been going easy on me because I look younger than I am," she started to laugh, the very notion of this human's irrationality was so humorous to her that she couldn't help but let it out.

"Listen," she said, "the Fang have already cast us off. If you want to leave here alive, I suggest you get ashore while you can." As if to punctuate her words, several dozen White Fang foot soldiers lined the upper deck of the ship, each with a weapon trained on her opponent. "I prefer to keep casualties to an absoute minimum. The others don't see things the way I do, but nonetheless," Avaria hefted her axe, readying herself for another attack, her artificial eyes flashing, casting a dull yellow glow on the skin of her face around them "I have my objectives, and I can't let you get in the way."

[Casia Rabt]

"Ahh so it seems I was too slow to stop you lot." Casia spoke calmly with small smirk brimming his face. Glancing around the deck at all the masked goons pointing firearms at him and began to walk over to starboard side of the ship casually before speaking up once more. "Well then I guess I'll take you on that offer to leave but hey kiddo don't get too caught up with this whole crime business thing in the end it doesn't pay too well anyhow. But if you ever wanna get outta here feel free to drop by Beacon we can definitely get you on the right track there." With that said Cassia took a step onto the railing and pushed himself off by his feet. Crossing the distance was no problem for him but he had to leave a little parting gift so he wasn't completely exposed.

With a sharp pang of metal hitting metal a blinding bright light broke free from it's canister and hopefully made a decent enough diversion for Cassia to tag the ship with a micro tracker and gently float over towards the docks. The hunter was used to making what he declared tactical retreats as he knew well enough when he was beaten and this would be no exception. However his mind would not leave the axe wielding girl for a long while and maybe that would give him a bit of a project now that he was finally not headmaster anymore.

[Avaria Umbra]

When the man had finished talking, Avaria suspected trickery and was ready for another attack. To her relief, it seemed he was going to back down after all. She lowered her weapon a bit, but was surprised by the sound of something hitting the metal deckplates in front of her. 'A grenade!?' she thought, before being momentarily blinded by a bright flash of light. Her ocular sensors immediately attempted to compensate by tinting her vision, but by then the man was already gone. The White Fang members around her were rubbing their eyes or clutching their ears, but nobody was injured. 'So it was a flashbang.'

She checked over the edge of the ship, but saw nothing. The Hunter must have jumped the distance to the dock and gotten away. She knew it was more than likely that they would meet again. What he had said before leaving, however, was slightly confusing. "But if you ever wanna get outta here, feel free to drop by Beacon." She replayed the words over and over in her memory banks, trying to discern any other meaning. When she came to the conclusion that he had been entirely genuine, she was even more confused.

Come to Beacon? Could she really lead a normal life like that, after all she had done? Would they accept her if they found out what she really was? Her smile died, replaced with a confused frown that was contorting to anger with every second that passed. She punched through the nearest shipping container, and felt not for the first time jealousy of the Human ability to cry. She leaned her head against it, angry that she was so uncertain, and angry that she didn't know what to do. Avaria looked to the sky for the second time that night, at the shattered moon that resembled her certainty that what she was doing was the right thing.

[EXIT AVARIA, END THREAD]