Y'all mind if I post a chapter? (I'm rusty as fuck)

"So the two of us are going to stop this ambush?" Weiss asked, her face still covered in dust and grime. She could feel that her hair was disheveled and falling out of her ponytail. The cuts all along her body stung, she could feel some blood still trickling from a few of her wounds under the makeshift bandages, but she would have to wait until she could deal with them. The adrenaline that flowed through her refused to let her give into the pain.

Jaune loaded a round into the chamber of his machine gun, and flipped the safety off on his sidearm. "Yup, that's the plan." Straight and to the point. "Now you can either come with me and save the day, or you can stay here and nurse those paper cuts."

Weiss sat there in disbelief that just the two of them would be able to turn the tides of this whole firefight that broke out literally a few minutes ago. She knew that they needed to do it or else everyone on the outside could very well get hurt, or worse.

Her hearing was slowly coming back, she was able to hear the gunfire outside and Jaune talking perfectly, but there was still the ringing that refused to leave even as it faded.

Weiss looked down at the weapon that she had strapped around her, the heavy rifle was now scratched in multiple places, the paint on the frame dropping in quality.

Flexing her right hand and gripping the pistol grip of the combat rifle, she looked right into Jaune's eyes.

"I've got your back."

Jaune nodded with a smile. "I'm glad. Now, let's see if we can find a staircase to the upper floor. I haven't heard anybody above us, but that could change. Last time I was in a situation like this they broke holes in the walls to get from building to building with ease." Jaune started walking towards a doorway at the back of the bakery.

"Last time?" Weiss asked as she followed him. She couldn't help but glance at the glass cases that would normally hold sweets that were freshly baked in the morning. But with most of the civilians either evacuated or hiding out in bomb raid shelters, there were no sugary snacks.

Weiss couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to be back in the life of a civilian, enjoying snacks in a bakery with someone close.

"Of course," Jaune replied as he opened a door that read 'STAFF ONLY', "back when I was in the military we were mainly trained in urban combat. And when it came to be deployed, we got just that. I've encountered the strategy plenty of times even during my time with H&H."

"So a long hallway with possibly dozens of guns around every corner we go past." Weiss guessed as Jaune found the staircase leading to the next floor.

She watched as he peaked his head around the corner that led up the stairs. His head didn't instantly get blown off, so that was a good sign.

"Alright, let's head up."Jaune motioned for her to follow as he shouldered his weapon again. "We're gonna take it nice and slow."

Jaune took the first few steps with the utmost caution. His eyes darted between his feet and the top of the stairs. He looked for fishing wire that could lead to a booby trap or someone appearing with a weapon at the top of the stairs. When he determined that there were no trip wires on the stairs he increased his pace.

Weiss watched as he swung his weapon to check the gap between the stairs leading to the next level and their current floor. He kept moving forward, which meant that he spotted no threats.

What threw Weiss off was the silence. There were still gunshots ringing outside the building in the street, no doubt their teammates were still being engaged. But inside the building it was fairly quiet. No gunshots, no footsteps, nothing.

That could either mean that the building was empty, or the people inside were keeping themselves hidden, waiting for the right time to strike on the soldiers and mercenaries in the streets below.

"Let's pick up the pace." Jaune said as he reached the top of the steps. Weiss quickly made her way up behind him as he swung his weapons barrel down a hallway. "Yup, just as I thought." He said as he moved forward. Weiss quickly knew what he meant when she walked into the hallway behind him.

The hallway was long, very long, and most of the doorways looked like they were made with a sledgehammer.

"Check every corner, even after I pass it." Jaune whispered. "Hand signs only for now."

Weiss nodded as he stuck up to fingers from his right hand and waved them down the hallway, while also gesturing for them to walk slowly.

Jaune swung his weapon through a doorway, scanning the room. No gunshots were fired. Jaune gave her a thumbs up and he turned his attention back to the hallway.

He moved forward as they both quietly stepped to the next doorway. Weiss swung her rifle past the first doorway, making sure that nobody tried to pull a fast one on her vanguard. No threats still. She took that as a good sign, maybe this building was actually empty.

Jaune raised his fist in front of her. The signal to stop. The next hand signal was him pointing back at her and then signaling to go around him. She did just that and saw that the door next to them was closed. When she pressed herself against the wall, she looked to Jaune for the next move. His next orders made her quiver in her boots. 'Five voices inside, I breach, you enter'. Weiss knew that this was probably going to be a regular thing. She enters a room, she gets tackled to the ground and is saved by the person with her. She didn't want to, but she was ready anyway.

She swallowed down the complaints about having to do it, and she nodded, gripping her rifle even tighter than before.

Jaune responded with his own nod and stood in front of the door preparing to kick it open. "I'll be right behind you." he whispered.

And with that, he lifted his leg up and kicked in the door. It had almost no strength so it flung open easily.

Weiss entered through the doorway instantly with her rifle raised, scanning the room for anything that could be labeled as hostile activity. Guns, knives, someone charging at her, someone throwing a brick at her, anything. But instead, what she found sitting before her was a family of five, sitting on the ground while eating what looked to be a late lunch.

All of the windows in the room had been boarded up with anything they could have found. A table with its legs removed, a random piece of sheet metal that Weiss was pretty sure had the label of a garbage collection company on it, and other assortments of wood and metal covering it other windows.

One of the two males of the household stood first, slowly. He looked like he wanted no trouble at all. "You don't look like the average White Fang grunt." he noted.

"We're not, just stay here and keep your heads down," Jaune said in a hushed voice, "there's a firefight going down on the end of the street. We're here to liberate the country from the White Fang's hold."

The man seemed to scoff. "Were it so easy, it would have been taken care of the first day this all started."

"That's nice, sir, now please stay in here and keep your voices down, things may get nasty. Do you know where any fighters may be hiding in this building?" Jaune asked.

"Two rooms down and the rest of the buildings after that. They have been using it as a hotel so-to-speak."

Jaune nodded and backed up out of the doorway, leveling his weapon further down the hallway.

Weiss was left there still stunned at the exchange that just took place. She wasn't sure what just happened. Weren't they supposed to check the house for weapons? Make sure that they all weren't a part of the White Fang as well?

Looking around the room once more, she noticed that all of the occupants were still staring at her expectantly, waiting for her to leave them in peace once again. Another look made her notice that everything in the room was practically picked clean, save for a few blankets acting as mattresses, water jugs and food rations, there was nothing for the two mercenaries to check. Everything had been taken. More than likely taken by the White Fang fighters for the good of the fight, or something like that.

Weiss gave them a hushed apology for their door and left the apartment, closing the door as best as she could behind her.

She tapped the back of Jaune's body armor, letting him know that she was now behind him and ready to continue.

The two quietly continued their previous pace down the hallway, making sure that their feet didn't make the floor creek beneath them.

The two walked past the next apartment without hearing any noises from the inside. At this point, Weiss didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The good side had her hoping that there was nobody in there, or there was a civilian family doing their best to stay as silent as possible, unlike their neighbors. The bad side could have been that there were sleeping fighters in there, or fighters who were completely aware of their current position.

Jaune took another few steps forward. In the distance they could hear the gunfire from their comrades firefight still being exchanged. Weiss hoped that everyone was still alright, the last thing she needed was to hear that one of them got hurt, or worse.

The floor then creaked below Jaune, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Weiss stood behind him, her rifle pointed to the side of him. The two of them couldn't hear anything. No changes so far.

Weiss then noticed a glint on the ceiling at the end of the hallway. Squinting her eyes, Weiss tried to confirm her fears on what was there. "Jaune… Is that-?"

"It is, I see it too. We're being watched."

A door quickly opened and slammed shut in front of them. A frag grenade rolled into the hallway. Jaune quickly turned around and slammed Weiss to the ground.

The grenade went off and windows all around the hallway shattered. Weiss' ears rang as she heard fragmentation land around them.

"You good!?" Jaune shouted as he got off of her.

"Yeah, you?" Weiss asked back.

"Fine, that was close." As he stood going for his weapon.

Weiss caught a door opening down the hallway with someone emerging with a weapon in hand. "Gun!" She shouted as she swapped her weapon to full auto. As she was still on her back, she fired half of her magazine down the hallway towards the door where the fighter was exiting. The door quickly closed once more as the person didn't dare get out again.

Jaune was now fully standing and had his weapons trained down the hallway once more."Get up!" he shouted as he fired a few small bursts of gunfire to deter any fighter from poking their heads out from their hiding places.

Weiss didn't argue at all as she jumped to her feet. She knew she had half of her magazine left in her rifle, but now wasn't the best time to go for a quick reload. The two of them could hear footsteps all around them, running to join the fight that just broke out in the building. They both knew they were heavily outnumbered.

"We need to push forward, now!" Jaune said. "We're going double time now, stay behind me and take out anybody that dares try to hit us from behind."

"Got it!" Weiss agreed as Jaune already started a light jog with his weapon held high, the most heavily equipped jogger on Remnant.

They started passing by door after door. Each time they passed one, Weiss made sure to put a few bullets through each one they passed.

Hearing a click from her rifle, she quickly grabbed the magazine from the gun and replaced it with a new one, and placed the empty magazine in the now vacant pouch.

With a fresh magazine in her weapon she turned around while moving and saw someone emerging from one of the doors.

Lining up the shot, she fired three rounds for quick mozambique practice. The fighter dropped to the ground with the first two rounds hitting him square in the chest and abdomen respectively and the third missing his head by just a few inches.

Another fighter decided to try his luck and came out the same door as the first. Weiss, still having the shot lined up, was able to have another two bullets land home and take down the fighter.

She turned away quickly, and caught up to Jaune who had been leaving a path of destruction in his wake. A weapon that was a 100 plus round belt fed could cause significant damage to a small area if given the opportunity. Bodies were lying in doorways, shell casings were spent all over the ground, and bits of plaster and wood were spread here and there.

The amount of carnage that Jaune was able to create in just the short time it took for Weiss to take out two White Fang grunts behind them was astonishing. Weiss wondered how much he could do if he had more time and more ammo.

Seconds before Weiss caught up to Jaune, the door to his left burst open and a figure rushed out. Weiss came close to firing her weapons before she noticed that the two men were now close together in a struggle.

But it was the weapon that the assailant had was something Weiss didn't expect. The man had a shield! A thick ballistic shield that looked like it was tough to break through.

Jaune tried to push the man off but soon realised that the added weight of the shield was something that he would not be able to push off easily. A second later, he felt a searing, blistering pain in his arm. Jaune looked down to see a knife implanted halfway into his right arms bicep. "GAH!" He shouted. He let go of his machine gun and felt the knife twist around in his arm as he grabbed his pistol from it's holster. The assailant was about to pull the knife out of his arm and try again for the neck when Jaune fired two shots into the man's side. Then a third. And a fourth. Finally a fifth and a sixth.

The shield holder slumped down and the shield clattered to the floor.

"Knight! You alright?" Weiss asked as she held her rifle down the hallway, making sure nobody else was going to try anything.

"A papercut." Jaune said as he flashed Weiss one of his trademark smiles. He then looked down at the shield and decided to pick it up. "This gives me an idea." The shield has a bar on the side for a weapon to rest on. The end result was the shield being held in Jaune's left arm and his machine gun, with the front end resting on the side of the shield. The man was now a walking tank.

"Isn't that heavy?" Weiss asked. "And what about your arm?"

"Adrenaline doesn't care!" Jaune said as he continued on forward.

Just as Jaune finished saying this, he continued down the hallway with his monstrous ballistic shield and machine gun. He sprayed more rounds down the hallway, having to turn the shield in order to aim properly instead of aiming the gun itself.

Weiss thought the very thought of it was ridiculous. But if he managed to make it work out in the end, she would eat her voice modulator.

More doors attempted to open and were instantly closed again when bullets impacted and flew by.

Weiss heard a few shots ring and ricochet against the shield. It was actually working somehow!

But the success depended on how long Jaune could keep that hunk of metal up in the end.

Weiss turned around and finished off another grunt who was missing his pants. Must have just been woken up from a nap. Looking back to Jaune, she looked down the hallway and saw they were approaching the end, she could see a staircase leading to the floors below them.

A flash of red caught her on the wall to her left. "JAUNE! STOP!" The man instantly stopped dead in his tracks.

"What is it!?" he asked as he fired another burst down the hallway.

"Wall to your left! Explosive device!"

"I see it now. A laser trip as well."

"Back the way we came?" Weiss asked as she turned around. It was good she did at that moment too. Three White Fang soldiers were coming down the hallway with their weapons at the ready.

"Guess not!" Jaune said as he heard Weiss' weapon firing off behind him. Another few bullets came from down the hallway and suddenly Jaunes weapon stopped.

Weiss turned, fearing the worst, but saw that the man was still standing, his weapon laid at his feet, a bullet had destroyed most of the barrel. It was in no way safe to fire. Jaune lowered himself to the ground, planting the shield and retrieving his pistol from it's holster once more.

"Well that was fun while it lasted!" he said.

"Not the right time!" Weiss said as she fired more shots at the enemies advancing behind them. "We need to get out of here!"

"I'm thinking of a plan, we need to-" Jaune stopped as his eye wandered for a second. "Weiss."

"What?"

"The light on the explosive is blinking faster."

"THAT EXPLAINS WHY THEY'RE RUNNING!"

Weiss quickly spun around with her pistol now in hand. Raising the weapon, she fired three bullets through the glass of the nearest window. Weiss grabbed the back of Jaunes collar and pulled him through with her. A second after they exited, the bomb went off.

And Weiss blacked out.

Her eyes fluttered open. Her head swayed like she was waking up from a night of heavy, heavy drinking. Vision blurred and she wanted to hurl. Definitely felt like she was drinking.

She coughed and coughed.

Dust filled the air around them. Bits of concrete, wood, glass and other debris scattered around her. She could hear voices shouting, probably from her radio. The earpiece is now hanging out of her ear.

She didn't feel anything else. No broken bones, no internal pain. She felt alright. Now she and Jaune just needed to- JAUNE!

She looked around frantically trying to locate the machine gunner in the debris field. After a few seconds of panicked scanning, she spotted, his hand peeking out from the top of a pile of rubble. She quickly made her way over to him and began prying large pieces of concrete off of him.

She began to see more and more of him as she continued to pull the pieces off. When she got to a piece that had a large bit of rebar sticking out, she heard a pained scream from below the rubble as she grabbed it.

Instantly, she dropped the piece of concrete and rebar. She traced the piece of steel to the center of the pile.

And saw that the metal had implanted itself in Jaune's abdomen. Weiss then moved other pieces of rubble, this time more carefully. When she got around to the head, she moved the final piece, and got the full extent of his injuries.

Starting with the first piece of rebar that was in his abdomen, it had a steady stream of blood flowing from it, obviously having done more damage from being tossed around on impact. When she removed the rubble from his head, she found multiple cuts. Across his face were numerous deep and shallow cuts, along with bits of glass in one of his cheeks. His right arm, the same arm where he was stabbed was broken after a large piece of wood fell on top of it, the bone inside more than likely being reduced to dust. And finally to make it even worse, Another bit of concrete landed right on his chest, causing significant internal damage. Weiss would bet money that he had broken ribs causing mass internal bleeding.

Weiss met his eyes and Jaune gave her a look. He wasn't going to make it much longer.

"Weiss…"

The white haired girl ignored him and grabbed the radio earpiece and shoved it back in her ear. "B-Beowulf, Goliath, t-t-this is White. Knight needs immediate medical attention. A bomb exploded! And- and-!"

"White this is Red! Slow down! Where are you?" Ruby responded instantly and calmly, speaky slowly.

Weiss took another breath. "Behind the building we went into, it looks like a courtyard or something! The side of the building collapsed! You can't miss it!"

"We're on our way. Most of the enemy scattered after the explosion."

"Weiss…" Jaune muttered out again.

Weiss' head snapped to the man who was bleeding out in front of her. She could tell that every breath was painful for him.

She knelt before him, her knees just inches away from him. "Jaune… If I, If I didn't pull you out of there…"

"Both of us would be dying instead." Jaune said quietly.

"But if we just ran from it instead like the White Fang were…"

"We have no idea what would have happened." Jaune said with another raspy breath. He sounded like he wanted to cough, but was fighting it, knowing it would hurt too much.

"But I get out of it without a scratch and you are… you are…" Weiss couldn't finish her sentence.

"No you didn't." Jaune said quietly.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Jaune looked to his left and grabbed a large shard of glass off the ground and handed it to Weiss. "I told ya, adrenaline doesn't care."

Weiss looked at the glass confused, but grabbed it hesitantly. She looked at herself in the glass and saw that almost three quarters of her face was covered in blood.

Weiss gasped quietly and then sharply coughed. She could now feel the large cut on her forehead. A new scar to add to the one already there. She knew that soon her head would begin to throb from the pain.

"Your decision was one based off of instinct." Jaune choked out. "Don't beat yourself up."

"How could I not!?" Weiss asked. "What about Pyrrha? Your team?"

"She'll lead them. And get them out of here. She may not have any true military experience, but she's a natural leader." Jaune spoked slowly, and took many breaths. "But. I want you to do me a favor." Jaune said as he raised his hand in front of her.

Weiss slowly and hesitantly grabbed his good hand. "Tell me."

"Make sure that she makes it out of here. Keep an eye on her. I don't want her meeting me so soon after our departure."

"You're going to see her, Jaune. She's on her way." Weiss said as she was fighting back the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

"I don't think I will," he replied. His grip was becoming looser in Weiss' hand.

"Don't talk like that!"

His eyes closed. And his arm went limp in her hands.

WASH THOSE HANDS!