Chapter 9: The Flood

Team RWBY waited in their room for their Assassin counterpart to join them on their weekend adventure. "What do you think Angel will be wearing?" Ruby questioned as she sat on the edge of her bed. "Probably that Dust awful suit of hers." Weiss exclaimed. "She's worn that or her school uniform all the time." Blake, who was laying in her bed, lowered her book and replied "I've seen her wearing normal clothing." Yang hung from her bed and questioned "Really? You think she looks hot?"

Blake rolled her eyes and admitted "She is a very attractive woman, I will admit that. But I'm not really interested in dating." Ruby exclaimed "Right, you're more interested in Pyrrha."

Blake dropped her book and barked "Ruby!" Ruby cried "I'm sorry! I thought everyone should know since we are your teammates!" Blake dropped her face into her hands and sighed "I was going to tell all of you when I was ready."

"Sorry Blake."

"It's fine."

Blake turned and sat on the edge of her bed, announcing "Pyrrha and I are dating. We have been for a bit of time now." Yang dropped down and sat next to Blake, questioning "Why did you keep this a secret? Did you think we wouldn't support you?"

"I… I didn't know how any of you would react. I just wanted to know if any of you might disapprove of our relationship."

Yang patted Blake's shoulder and exclaimed "We'll support you, no matter what." Weiss chimed in "As long as Pyrrha makes you happy, we'll be happy." Blake sighed with a smile on her "Thanks guys that really means a lot to me." There was a knock on the door and Weiss answered it to see that it was Angel. She was wearing a blue long sleeve shirt that barely hung on her shoulders and white jeans with flats.

"Hey guys." Angel greeted in a cheery tone. It was much different than the usual calm and nearly monotone demeanor Angel usually carried. She smiled a wide smile, more than any of them had seen in… ever. "Hey there Angel." Ruby greeted as she jumped from her bed. "What's got you in such a good mood?" Angel looked at Ruby with a confused look before a look of realization jumped to her face.

"Oh! No, this is just how I usually am. The whole 'dark and brooding killer' look is just an act for work. I'm off the clock at the moment so I can act like, well, me." Angel explained. Weiss was a little surprised at the 180 degree turn Angel did from work to social life. Yang stood up and exclaimed "Well then, now that this is out of the way. We have a day to have fun!" Everyone got up and headed out of the room and to the airship pick up point. They passed Deathstroke in his armor, but his helmet was tucked under his arm.

His hair was grey and combed back with an eye patch over his right eye and the other blue. He had a grey mustache/ beard combo to match his grey hair. "Angel, we have an operation today. Why are you in civilian clothes?" Deathstroke questioned. "Because, I'm taking a personal day." Angel responded.

"Personal day? We don't have personal days. We're mercenaries."

"Correction, you are a mercenary. I am an Assassin. Don't bring me down to your level."

"You arrogant child. I'm not allowing you to take a personal day."

Angel put her hands on her hips and stated "You are not my employer, there for, you cannot tell me what I can and cannot do. I have already cleared it with my employer." Deathstroke's scowl deepened and he growled "Well I want to speak to your employer."

"He's your employer too. So you can call him."

Deathstroke pulled out his phone and the sound of a large bird landing followed. Everyone looked to Angel's right to see Narrator sitting on the ground with a blanket wrapped around him so only his face was showing. "What the?" Narrator questioned as he looked around. He looked to Deathstroke and Angel and barked "WHAT THE HELL!? I WAS GETTING READY FOR SUPERNATURAL! I ALREADY ASSUMED THE POSITION!" Deathstroke raised an eyebrow and started "Angel's day off…"

"APPROVED! NEXT PERSON WHO CALLS ME IS GETTING PUNISHED!"

Narrator vanished, leaving the group in a confused state. "Well, there's your answer." Angel stated. "Now please step aside. I have a personal day to enjoy." Deathstroke stepped aside, clearly unhappy with his answer, and let the group pass. They all left and boarded an airship for Vale, Angel practically having her nose pressed up against the glass. "This is so cool!" Angel cheered as she watched them fly over to Vale.

Ruby stood next to Angel and questioned "You don't have anything like this where you're from?" Angel shook her head and replied "We have Buzzards, but they are pretty shitty in condition. Nicki is working on improving the schematics for them so we have an Air Force." Weiss questioned "So you are an assassin and your boyfriend is… an engineer?" Angel finally removed her face from the glass and answered "Yep. He was taught under my Auntie Gaige, plus he has a badass cyborg stalker named Zver… and he just so handsome." Angel sat down and questioned "So what about all of you? Any romantic interests? Other than Blake and Pyrrha."

The other three shook their heads and Ruby exclaimed "I haven't really found anyone." Weiss replied "We have more important things to do other than look for a relationship." Yang shrugged and exclaimed "I'm not really a relationship girl." Angel nodded and was about to say something when the airship began to land. The group exited the airship and headed into town, Angel looking out at the city in wonder.

"So, Angel. Do you have any siblings?" Ruby questioned. Angel spun around and began walking backwards as she answered "I have a 'brother', but that's it." Everyone raised an eyebrow since Angel put air quotations around brother. "Why did you air quote brother?" Yang questioned.

"Well, he isn't exactly my brother, but more a clone of my dad. But I treat him like my brother."

Ruby questioned "What's he like?"

"Pretty jokey, doesn't really take much seriously when he's just out and about. But if you threaten him or his friends or family, he's one of the most dangerous people around. Uses two swords like Uncle Wade…"

"Uncle Wade?"

"My bad, Deadpool. I've known him all my life as Uncle Wade."

Ruby was about to ask another question when thunder echoed through the city. Everyone looked up at the clear blue sky, nothing signaling that it was going to rain. "What was that?" Yang questioned as she readied Ember Celica. "I don't know," Angel proclaimed as she drew her blade, "but I don't like it." The group looked around and saw dark clouds moving in fast from their left.

The clouds practically covered the sky as something flew out of the clouds and towards the southwest. "That can't be good." Ruby exclaimed as the group began moving. They followed the smoky path of the foreign object, determined to investigate. As they ran, the sounds of an airship grew close to them, the air blowing at them like it was trying to land on them… which it was. They looked up to see a small airship moving in front of them and practically landed in the streets with Deadpool in the passenger section.

"Come one! We sure as hell aren't going to miss this!" Deadpool cheered as the group boarded. The airship took off and flew towards southwest Vale to see the path of destruction. They finally arrived at the source of the destruction, a strange looking purple ship. Deadpool pulled out his scroll and proclaimed into it "Yeah, we found it… Covenant… 100%... got it." Blake questioned "Who were you talking to?"

"Everyone. If this is Covenant… or worse… we're going to need back up."

Weiss questioned "What's the Covenant?" Angel answered "A group of alien races that tried to wipe out all life in the universe because they believed it would lead to their enlightenment. It fell apart when the Sangheli, or Elites, rebelled and joined humanity. The Arbiter along with Master Chief took the fight to the Covenant leaders and ended the war. If anything, this is just a rogue Storm Covenant ship."

Movement was seen on the ship and everyone readied their weapons. Deadpool approached first towards a hatch that was being pushed on by something big. Gabriel and Deathstroke jumped out of the cockpit and slowly approached with him, both with automatic weapons pointed at the hatch. Deadpool pulled out two SMGs and had them pointed at the hatch with his fellow mercs. Deadpool did things in his usual unorthodox manner… and unloaded both SMGs into the hatch, riddling it with bullet holes before even thinking about opening it up.

After the hatch was filled with holes and no movement was detected, Deadpool approached with newly reloaded weapons. As soon as his hand touched the door, it exploded open by small creatures that looked like large potatoes with legs and antenna. "FLOOD!" Deadpool proclaimed as the creatures swarmed him. Gabriel and Deathstroke began firing at the small creatures, even though they were all over Deadpool. Angel began to throw ice spikes at the creatures while Team RWBY stood in confusion about what was happening.

"Fuck this shit! I'm going out in style!" Everyone heard Deadpool shout as his hand punched through the creatures. Everyone backed off when they saw what was in his hand, a grenade. "Bring the noise!" Deadpool declared just before the grenade went off. Everyone looked at the smoke pit and saw Deadpool walk out, brushing the soot off of his suit. "Well… that was unpleasant." Deadpool sighed.

"You really couldn't have found a better way to get rid of the Flood?" Sane questioned. "But it was awesome!" Crazy cheered. Deathstroke exclaimed "Focus. If this is the Flood, we're in way too deep." Blake questioned "Now what is this flood?"

"Not a flood. The Flood. It is a parasite that takes over the host and uses it like a suit. The only way to truly stop the flood is to destroy its food source, multicellular organisms."

All of Team RWBY gulped at the thought of a parasite like that getting loose in Vale. "So what can we do to stop them?" Weiss questioned. "Torch the place." Angel proclaimed, clearly back into work mode. "Exactly. So… where can we get enough fire power?" Gabriel questioned. "I've got it!" Ruby cheered as she pulled out her whistle.

She blew into the whistle, dropping it and waiting for a second. Loud thuds started to echo through the forest, and it sounded like they were getting very close. Grimlock charged out of the forest and skidded to a stop in front of Ruby. "Grimmy!" Ruby cheered as she hugged Grimlock's snout. "I have a job for you." Grimlock replied in a low grumble. "What little girl want me do?"

"I want you to burn everything that isn't any of us. Okay?"

"Me Grimlock do."

Grimlock stood up and proceeded to patrol the crashed ship, leaving everyone to watch the behemoth leave. "You still have yet to explain why he listens to you." Weiss pointed out. "Maybe later, we have another issue right now." Ruby exclaimed. "Ruby is correct. I have an idea on how to rid ourselves of the Flood." Angel exclaimed. "We detonate the Slip Space Drive. Send this frigate to oblivion." Everyone nodded until Gabriel questioned "Does anyone know how to cause a Slip Space Drive to detonate?"

"If only we had a writer's convenience!" Deadpool shouted into the sky. Everyone looked up to see four small objects falling at extreme speed. The group moved out of the way as the objects crashed down, revealing themselves to be steel pods. The front of the pods opened to reveal four men that stood as tall as Gabriel with similar armor. The lead one, whose armor was black with yellow stripes, walked up to Deadpool and saluted "Sir, ODST squad KAP, reporting for duty."

Deadpool saluted and replied "At ease soldier. So! You four are the ones who will help us with the Slip Space Drive and the Flood?" The yellow one cracked his neck and replied "You know it. KAP is notorious for breaking enemy shit." The yellow ODST took a shot gun off his back and exclaimed "Team Leader, Code name Omega." He gestured to the black and green striped one with a sniper rifle and introduced "That's Halo, sniper and team medic." The team looked to the final two, who looked like they were in a bit of a scrap.

One was blue and the other red, the red ODST pushing the blue ODST and the red ODST pushed back. "Knock it off dumbasses!" Omega snapped, the two jumping to attention. "These are Chief and Demonic, our heavy weapons and CQB experts. Chief is our tech support and D3m0n1c works demolitions." The red ODST pointed to himself and introduced "Chief." The blue ODST pointed to himself and introduced "Demonic."

"Let's get this show on the road." Chief exclaimed as he returned to his pod. "The Slip Space Drive isn't going to detonate itself." Demonic thumped his helmet and chuckled "Almost forgot! Thanks for the reminder." Demonic went to his pod and pulled out a large machine gun, like one that belonged on the top of a military grade vehicle. Chief pulled out a strange looking blue weapon that was as big as the machine gun. "If it wasn't for me, that head wouldn't be on top of your shoulders."

"Or you would be the one to take it off."

Chief reached to his belt and pulled off something that resembled brass knuckles and squeezed it, causing a strange blue blade appear from the sides. "One day brother… one day." Chief chuckled. Demonic reached into the pod and pulled out a large hammer with a blade on the back, laughing "And one day I'll send you to orbit." Team RWBY looked at the two arguing brothers with confusion until Halo exclaimed "You'll have to forgive these two, sibling rivalry and all." Omega barked "GET SET YOU IDIOTS!"

The three quickly moved into a line as Omega paced in front of the group and briefed "We are dealing with Flood, again. So you all know the rules… you get infected, you die. Plain and simple. We get to the Slip Space Drive and force detonate it. Understood?" All three replied "Hell yes sir!"

"Good. Deadpool will be taking the lead on this mission, so listen to him."

Demonic raised his hand, prompting Omega to question "Yes?" Demonic responded "Sir! May I ask Deadpool for an autograph? Sir!"

"Permission granted."

Demonic moved over to Deadpool and held out a marker to him. "Um, what do you want me to sign?" Deadpool questioned as he took the marker. Demonic held up his chain gun and questioned "My gun." Deadpool shrugged and signed the chain gun, Demonic returned to the line, giggling like a little girl the entire way back. Demonic leaned towards his brother and whispered "Deadpool signed-." Chief interrupted "I'm aware."

Omega joined the line and exclaimed "Ready on your order Deadpool." Deadpool cheered "I have my own ODST group to order! This is great!" Gabriel grumbled "Why don't I get my own squad of guys?" Deathstroke growled "Focus. We have a planet threatening parasite on our hands that we must deal with immediately." Deadpool pointed at Deathstroke and declared "Correct! KAP! Lead the way since you know where the Slip Space Drive is!" Omega nodded and ordered "Chief! You got front! Demonic! You take rear. Halo! Take center and monitor for movement. The sooner we know these bastards are coming at us, the better."

All three of the ODST stood at attention and responded "Sir! Yes sir!" Chief went first and activated the light on his helmet, flooding the hallway with light and started making his way in. Yang and Blake followed with Angel (Now in her Digistructing gear and helmet) and Deathstroke. Next up was Halo, followed by Ruby and Weiss with Deadpool, Gabriel and Demonic taking up the rear. "So where did the Flood come from?" Ruby questioned as they walked through the dark hallway.

"No one knows." Demonic answered. "Originally, there was a race called the Forerunners. Masters of advanced technology, light years ahead of us. Until humans came to their planet, the two races almost immediately breaking into war. Thankfully, peace arrived but it was little too late. Humans weren't coming to conquer, they were fleeing. The Flood was chasing the humans and found the forerunners, nearly wiping out the race." Demonic caught movement in his vision and immediately started to light the area up until he was satisfied.

"Where was I? Ah yes! The remaining Forerunners built a set of massive space structures called Halos and the Ark. The Forerunners collected the DNA of every race in the galaxy and stored them. The Halo rings were meant to wipe out the Flood's source of food, multicellular organisms. Once all of the Flood had died out, the Ark was programmed to begin to repopulating the galaxy."

Weiss questioned "Then where are these Forerunners?"

"The programing in the Ark was a backup plan in case their first plan failed. They wanted to digitally deconstruct themselves into code and then reconstruct themselves. They only made it to deconstruction."

"Then why is the Flood still around?"

"Because the Forerunners wanted to study them. Learn about them. Discern where the Flood originated. We see how well that worked out."

The group stopped and Deadpool questioned "What's the hold up?" Halo answered "Movement, and a lot of it. My guess, but we're close to the hanger." Chief called "Demonic! Get up here! I'm gonna need some heavy fire power." Demonic moved up and the two started to count down "3! 2! 1! Go!" The two charged forward and the doors opened, revealing the hanger which was filled with a large number of creatures that looked like the first Flood they found.

Some were walking around on two legs with warped bodies, others barely seemed standing since their upper torsos seemed too large to support, and a few were massive beasts that looked like they were built to charge through walls. "FIRE!" Omega shouted, signaling for Chief and Demonic to unload. The machine gun twins began to fire, spewing hot let and plasma into the Flood abominations. Everyone moved out of the tunnel to face Flood head on, the abominations falling to the bullets. Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose as Halo pulled out his sniper rifle, the two taking down the flood that looked like they were filled with yellow spikes.

One of the behemoths charged and Yang, Omega and Gabriel moved up with Yang charging Ember Celica and Omega and Gabriel pulled out their shotguns. The three began to unload rounds into the massive Flood until it dropped to the ground, Omega pulling out a blue grenade and shoving it inside the corpse. "Gotta make sure it's dead." Omega exclaimed as he walked away. Weiss drew Myrtenaster and stood en guard against a Flood creature that had a sword similar to the one Chief had. She charged her rapier with fire Dust, since burning the creatures seemed like the only way to keep them down.

She shot forward and met blades with the Flood beast, the weapons clashing in a shower of fire and plasma. Weiss took on the Flood with a stern look on her face, focused on fighting her opponent. Unfortunately, Weiss wasn't paying any mind to her surroundings, oblivious to another sword Flood approaching her from behind. The Flood raised its sword, ready to cut Weiss down, but a hailstorm of bullets turned the Flood to hamburger as Weiss impaled and burned the Flood into ash. Weiss turned to see the hole ridden Flood and Deathstroke reloading his SMG.

"Be aware of your surroundings." Deathstroke advised as he pulled out his other SMG. He pointed it off to his side and unloaded, putting holes into another Flood. Blake ran through the crowd, slicing through the Flood as if they were nothing. Blake slid to stop to observe her work, but the Flood simply repaired their wounds and turned towards her with weapons raised. The guns were about to fire and tear Blake apart when a wall of ice formed between her and the Flood. Angel dropped down between Blake and the wall and exclaimed "Be careful with them. You must burn them to kill them. Or you can freeze them."

Angel's tattoos started to flare and she slammed her fist into the wall, pieces of it flying off and impaling the Flood. Angel then clenched her fist and the impaled Flood came together in a massive cluster, the ice encasing them in one large block. "Like so." Angel stated as she shook her Siren hand, snowflakes coming off of it like sweat. Deadpool jumped through the air and impaled the last Flood, slicing it into ribbons so it wouldn't reform. "Well that was fun!" Deadpool exclaimed as he put his swords on his back. "What's next?"

The ODST looked at each other and slowly shook their heads. "This was just the hanger. We still need to get to the Slip Space Drive, which requires getting to the Drive itself in the engine room."

"So we still have a ways to go?"

"A long ways. Better get moving. Back into position!"

Chief moved up to the next door, everyone falling into place behind him as they continued into the ship. "I don't understand how these Flood work. They are just parasites. How do they function so well?" Weiss exclaimed. Deathstroke explained "The Flood are a Hive mind creatures. The real threat is if a Gravemind has formed."

"A Gravemind?"

"A collective consciousness of Flood. Dangerously intelligent. If one has formed, then we are in more trouble than originally believed."

The group continued to move until they stopped at another large door. "We're at the engine room, and I'm getting a lot of movement. They must know what we're trying to do." Halo updated. Chief called "You know the drill." Demonic moved up to his brother's side and the two readied their heavy guns. The doors opened and the two were immediately pulled in and thrown to the side.

A mass of tentacles reached into the tunnel and proceed to grab everyone and throw them throughout the engine room. Everyone but Deadpool, Gabriel and the ODST landed on their feet seeing what a Gravemind looked like. It looked like a massive brown snake, but the scales were replaced by a brown slime and had no eyes. There was a mouth, but it looked like the smile had filled the toothless mouth as well. The Gravemind began to speak in a deep and grizzly voice "I know why you are here. You seek my destruction."

Everyone stood up with their weapons drawn, facing the vile beast before them. "This planet… is mine!" The Gravemind bellowed as it threw its tentacles, everyone jumping out of the way. Team RWBY stood their ground and slashed and beat away the tentacles that aimed to strike them down. The Gravemind hissed at them and sent more after them, grabbing them by their legs and hoisting them into the air. Weiss and Ruby both grabbing their skirts to keep their dignity as the Gravemind growled "Leave now, or the little ones get it."

"I've seen enough porn to know where this is going!" Demonic exclaimed. "Is now really the time for that?" Chief grumbled.

"Well I have."

"Yes but you don't need to point it out."

As Chief and Demonic were arguing, Halo and Angel whipped out their sniper rifles and each fired two rounds. The precision shots tore through the tentacles and releasing Team RWBY from the Gravemind's grasp. Everyone else began to fire their rapid fire weapons to distract the Gravemind as Chief ran for the Slip Space Drive controls. Chief pulled out his plasma sword and sliced any tentacle that got in his way, finally making it to the controls. He started typing as his brother ran defense for him and began swing his massive hammer, batting the tentacles away.

Deadpool covered Ruby, Gabriel covered Yang, Deathstroke covered Weiss and Angel covered Blake as they got to their feet and gathered their weapons. Each of them had their blades drawn, slicing the tentacles as they tried to strike them. Omega and Halo moved to assist Demonic in covering Chief as he set the Slip Space Drive to overload. "How much longer is this going to take!?" Gabriel cursed as he drew his machete to match his FLAAT blade. "Not! Much! Longer!" Chief barked as he continued to hit keys.

"Well hurry up!"

"Hey! I don't tell you how to do your job!"

Gravemind bellowed "You shall not stop me! I will consume this planet! The Flood shall rise again!" Chief lifted a fist into the air and barked "But not this day!" Chief slammed his fist onto the console and a female voice announced "Slip Space Drive malfunction detected. Detonation imminent. Please evacuate to safe distance in… 5, minutes." Everyone immediately made a mad dash for the exit, the Gravemind bellowing "You can't stop me! I can stop this malfunction!" Chief lifted a detonator in the air and exclaimed "Good luck without a console!"

He pressed the detonator and the console exploded as the Gravemind bellowed in rage. The group ran as fast as they could, shooting and killing any Flood that got in their way. The group exited the ship to find a Bullhead airship waiting on them with Grimlock next to it. Lilith's voice announced over the intercom "Let's go! We know you idiots set the Slip Space Drive to detonate!" The group jumped into the ship and it started to fly off with Grimlock beneath it.

Team RWBY looked out the side of the ship to see the Covenant ship become enveloped in a large purple orb, consuming the entire ship. There was a loud crackling sound until the orb collapsed on itself, nothing remaining except for a large crater where the ship was. "Well, that problem is sorted out!" Deadpool cheered as he looked out the side of the Bullhead. Angel sat down with her feet hanging off the side of the ship, removing her helmet and letting her black hair fall out. "I really can't just get a day off." She sighed.

Ruby sat down and exclaimed "Don't worry. The day is still young so we can still have our girl's day." Angel smiled and exclaimed "I would like that very much." The airship flew back to Vale so the girls could continue their day… only Grimlock decided to stick around with the girls.

A/N: Heyo! Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. Sorry it took so long, but stuff came up. PM or review any thoughts comments or concerns. Until Next time!

-Chief