This is a work of fan fiction, created for entertainment purposes only and with no claim to the characters depicted. Ownership of RWBY characters and concepts belongs to Rooster Teeth. Ownership of Iron Man characters an concepts belongs to Disney.

Chapter 50: Symphony of Destruction

A battalion of ragtag White Fang troops rolled over the churned earth where once had stood the gates to the Arc Compound.

Every member of the Fang left in Vale and its surrounding villages had come. These were not the elite, those with unlocked auras or Dust. They were the rank and file, armed with whatever weapons they could grab and sent to fight a foe they knew for a fact outgunned them by an order of magnitude.

But a million ants can strip the bones of an elephant clean.

Over three hundred men, women and even children had come to strike a blow for faunus rights against a human they were told offered the world with one hand while holding the same lash as the Scnhee in the other. After all, hadn't Jaune Arc flown to the aid of human supremacists against Adam Taurus?

And so they broke into groups and trooped through the wooded, park-like interior of the compound.

The main group; the best armed and most experienced fighters, headed for the main house which they assumed would obviously the best defended. The others; the young, the elderly and infirm or even just those with no weapons to speak of, were directed to the outbuildings.

Which is how it came to be that a mixed crew of young teens and old men and women found themselves shambling in an awkward squad formation up the concrete main path toward the full scale fabrication shed.

Perhaps if they'd know that's what the featureless concrete block of a building with a hangar-style shutter entrance was, they might have decided to send some stronger warriors.

In retrospect for everyone, that might have been for the best.

As the group approached, they became aware of, of all things, music. Sharp, rough electric guitar licks that sounded like some feral beast scratching its way out of a sheet metal box. There was a chunk sound and the shutter started to rise.

You take a mortal man.

Calm, growling lyrics spilled out from under the rising door. The Fang irregulars stumbled and rushed to cover in the foliage on the side of the path.

Most of them at least. One girl who couldn't have been more then thirteen froze. Her hands quivered as she struggled to raise the old, rusted revolver toward the threat behind the door. Her woolly sheep's ears dropped in terror.

And put him in control.

Like a rising curtain, the rising door slowly revealed a jade giant. Almost as large if not larger than an Atlasian Paladin, the powered armor bristled with more weaponry than the White Fang had even brought to the compound.

Watch him become a god.

The panic fire was immediate. Shots struck the armor en masse, but they didn't even ricochet. They simply struck the strange, glowing green lines on the armor and simply... fell off as if they'd lost all momentum.

Watch people's heads a'roll. A'roll, a' roll!

Not everyone in the little group was poorly armed, however.

For example, one man, whose now-white hair had once been a luxurious and quite leonine mane, had held on to a single-use rocket launcher his father had brought home from the Great War. "For the Faunus!" He screamed as loudly as his raspy voice could manage.

Then he fired.

Inside the Hulk armor, it didn't take a genius to realize that the blast radius of said rocket would catch the still-petrified lamb girl. He knew immediately what he had to do.

The repulser banks in the Hulk's feet activate on low blast, allowing the titanic machine to skate along the ground with surprising speed for its size. Jaune had to make a herculean effort to ignore the screams of the girl as he skirted around her and dropped to a knee with his back to the incoming rocket, his massive armored frame completely blocking her as the weapon exploded against it.

Concrete cracked and chunks were sent flying in all directions, but the vibranium Dust absorbed the shockwave that otherwise would have liquefied the girl's organs.

Jaune cut his music and, as the din and roar of the rocket faded, looked down, checking the girl for injuries with the Hulk's sensors. "Are you okay?"

She looked up at him, disbelieving at what she was seeing.

"If you can make that face, you're okay." Jaune decided aloud. Then he stood up and turned toward the man with the now-empty rocket tube. The other members of the White Fang had stopped firing in order to take cover from the explosion, but now some of them were back to training weapons on the Hulk.

"What were you thinking?!" Jaune demanded. With his mounting anger made the vibranium glow brighter. "You could have killed her! And for what? Has anything you've seen or heard of me made you think I couldn't tank a what—seventy-year old rocket? Pro-tip: If you want people to think you're on the right side of history, try exploding fewer little girls."

Silence had fallen over the path as the gathered faunus had no reply for that. They couldn't even bring themselves to fire on their hated enemy.

Jaune huffed. "I don't have time to for this. Vale is under attack. All of Vale. The people Adam Taurus sold your cause out to are sending a horde of Grimm the likes of which the world's never seen. Grimm don't care what kind of ears you have or whether you've got horns or a tail."

Carefully stepping around the faunus girl, he strode off toward the forest. "No more speechifying. Just go warn your friends that the lab will self destruct if they manage to breech it. Let's try to keep the bloodshed to a minimum—there's going to be way too much of it already today."

He didn't hear what if any reaction they had, just kept walking. Frankly, he didn't much care what they thought in the moment. The world was falling apart, everyone he cared about—as well as the rest of an entire city—were in danger, and he didn't have time to argue with fanatics.

Despite what he'd said, the Damocles directive would demolish the interior of the house before anyone got inside. No one would die form it; it was just his last ditch effort not to lose his home on top of everything else.

But he really was needed elsewhere. Calling up the list of tourtorials Pyrrha had helpfully left him, he searched for the flight system that had so far eluded him.

He was greeted by Pyrrha's voice, but not her usual cadence. At some point, she'd used the same voice capture program he'd used to give computer-Glynda Professor Glynda's voice. It sounded like the person, but the fact that it strung syllables together to create words still gave off a stilted, unnatural feel. Hearing Pyrrha sounding like that made him shiver a little.

"The Hulk is actually too heavy for real, sustained flight. But I think you'll enjoy the alternative." A mini screen flashed up in front of him showing a ballistic trajectory, alongside another showing controls for the foot and leg-mounted repulsers. "That's right: it's the super-jump you wanted—only significantly scaled up. You might notice that your seat is infused with Vibranium. That's so you survive the G-forces."

Jaune felt himself starting to grin just a little as Pyrrha's voice went on to explain how to execute the jump.

Moments later, the Hulk was in a full-out sprint across the compound. Panels in the legs opened to extend racks of repulser arrays as those on the feet started to power up to full.

Several White fang troops spotted the green giant and tried to give chase only to be bowled over when over three dozen repulser banks fired as one, leaving an expanding ring of blue repulser energy that uprooted small trees and blasted the larger ones into so much kindling.

Jaune found himself several hundred feet skyward arcing gracefully toward Vale. The view would have been breathtaking under normal circumstances: Vale was surrounded by lush grassland and rolling hills on one side and majestic foothills and mountains on the other with the twin forests of Forever Fall and Emerald flanking it.

But at the moment, green was marred by black scars of tens of thousand of Grimm bodies tearing across the terrain in all directions as the monsters crawled, skittered and thundered their way toward the city, heeding the call of the Grimm lures.

Directing his sensors toward Vale, hoping against hope and found exactly what he feared. The Atlasian fleet that had come to Vale for retrofitting wasn't responding and neither were the Arc Industries Helios units nor the Minerva drones. Worse, the gates were wide open and the Grimm horde nearest him was only about a mile out.

Mighty though the Hulk's jumping prowess was (it looked like he would cover more than half the ten mile span between the Compound and Vale once he landed), the repulser banks needed to recharge for a short time between leaps. Time that the Grimm could use to reach the gates.

That wasn't something he was about to remotely let happen. Luckily, the Hulk came with more weapons than an Atlasian battalion. With a gesture, Jaune called up a carousel-style menu of all vast arsenal at his disposal. Another gesture selected and armed a complement of missiles equivalent to half a Jericho missile's loadout.

Four panels along the Hulk's back opened and belched forth a torrent of missiles that corrected in-air to rain down among the Grimm, blasting them apart by the dozens and churning up the ground under their feet in a bedlam of fire, smoke and dissolving black miasma.

The younger Grimm didn't even stop running. Driven by naught but instinctual hatred and a drive to seek out negative emotions, many more were annihilated simply by charging headlong into debris and shrapnel. Many more simply continued on toward Vale, relentless.

Among them, however were older things; more intelligent and deadly than their brethren. These realized that something dangerous had attacked the horde from behind—something that needed to be dealt with. They turned , going against the tide of more numerous but less intelligent Grimm to face whatever it was.

For one unfortunate giant creep, said danger was the last thing it ever saw as four tones of adamantium and protective fury landed on it with both feet. The creature exploded into a cloud of dark miasma, obscuring what hit it from the other creatures with it.

Wisdom made them shy back instead of rushing in.

That... was a mistake.

Grinding music stared booming out of the cloud and through the inky darkness, they saw lines of emerald light. Then a hulking shape surged forward.

Just like the pied piper

A Berengal Silverback had no time to react before a jade fist punched its head clean off its shoulders.

Not wanting to be next, a Beowolf Alpha led it s pack to try and jump the assailant from behind. It was met by a pair of over-sized assault shotguns to snap around, track them with accuracy only an AI was capable of, and blasted the entire pack to so much smoke and ash in a series of staccato booms.

Led rats through the streets

Two giant Creeps and an Elder Deathstalker charged him; the scorpion Grimm from the front while the Creeps flanked.

The Hulk stepped into the path othe Deathstalker's claw strike and caught it on a Vibranium-infused forearm. Then he grasped said claw, twisted, and ripped it off before hurling it into the face of one of the Creeps. Pivoting, he caught the other creep by the sides of its head and swung it around to shield him from the Deathstalker's stinger.

Dance like marionettes

Seconds later, the Creep jerked as the stinger entered its gut. When it started disintegrating, Jaune took the opportunity to thrust his arms through the smoke and grab the stinger itself. Hauling hard, he whipped the monster up off the ground and into the head of a rapidly-approaching King Taijutsu.

The snake's other head hissed and lashed forward only to be hammered into the ground with the body of the still-struggling Deathstalker. A blast from a the repulser banks in the Hulk's left palm finished them both off.

Jean turned to face the worst of the elder horde: a trio of Goliaths.

Again, he didn't have time for this: the lesser Grimm were still bearing down on Vale's open gates. The two miniaturized Helios units spat golden-yellow beams and raked the legs of the lead beast. A full-sized Helios would have annihilated the creature, but the compact, mobile version still cut the monster off at its front knees.

Trumpeting in panic born of only of its advanced age and intellect, the Grimm crumpled to the ground, desperately trying to rise on legs that were no longer there.

Swaying to the Symphony...

The other two Goliaths were not about to let the crippling of their brother go lightly. They trumpeted fury and stomped around the fallen one to get at Jaune.

Jaune, in the Hulk, stood firm. "Divert all excess power to chest RT." He threw his arms wide and the chest plate of the armor opened to reveal that the suit was power by now one, not three, but five miniaturized arc reactors. Pyrrha's comments in the schematics joked that he would call it the 'penta-beam', but right now, he called it just right for the situation.

The blazing blue beam exploded out into a veritable wind of repulser energy. The elephantine Grimm were stymied in their forward motion, slowing until it was all they could do to keep from being pushed back. Then their bodies started to come apart, splintering, cracking, and evaporating until there was no more strength left in them to fight and they were literally blown away.

Swaying to the Symphony...

To follow it up, Jaune took off again, running up the trunk of the immobilized Goliath. From the hump of its back, he vaulted into the air. The repulser banks in the hands and arms of the Hulk realigned as he came down, and in the process, brought his hands together as if he were clapping.

He landed in the midst of the lesser Grimm and the repulsers fired as one, their energy rebounding off one another again and again, redoubling until they became a mighty shockwave that annihilated swathes of Grimm and overturned the earth beneath scores of other, burying them in rock and dirt.

Of Destruction!

The horde bearing down on the gate had been reduced to scattered stragglers and a few elder Grimm that, despite the Grimm Lure, were starting to rethink their attack.

Jaune, however, had eyes only for the gate. With ground-eating tread, he barged toward the locked-open gate and fired his foot-mounted repulsers to jump up to it. The raw weight of the Hulk made the motors in the portcullis grind. Then he reached up with one hand and pushed with every ounce of strength gifted him by the suit.

With a terrible din, the motors were ripped form their housing and the the Hulk rode the gate down until it crashed into place, denying the Grimm access.

Giving the amazed Hunters on the wall a thumbs up, he turned his attention to other more pressing matters.

"Gate control and the defenses are still down. That means... Glynda, find me a comm to Pyrrha right now."

"Easier said than done, sir. Emergency channels are flooded with the news of the Grimm attach and the failure of the defenses to activate. Strategic channels are similarly jammed with Hunter traffic and the Vale police."

Jaune grit his teeth. "Then hack the Vale CCT. Piggyback on SHIELD's comms. Do whatever it takes, just get me in touch with her!"

"Wouldn't it be a more efficient use of time and resources to contact P—"

"If Pyrrha hasn't finished her mission, then that means Cinder has someone or something that can take her on. I'm not revealing my ace until I'm confident Cinder's revealed hers. And the one who can tell me what's going on there is...?"

"Is that really the reason you want to contact Miss Nikos?"

To busy himself, and because he'd interrupted the jump repulsers' recharge cycle bringing down the gate, Jaune started climbing the wall. "I didn't program you to be my therapist. I programmed you to be my assistant. Now assist me."

Despite the suit doing all the work, Jaune felt himself huffing nonetheless. "Besides, I've made certain the rest of Vale has backup. But no one else is on the way to back Pyrrha up."

RWBYRWBY

There were those would would describe Cinder Fall as beautiful.

But in the harsh light of the white ring, her features were thrown into harsh, predatory relief; the mad glint in her eyes a veritable star shining in the night. Towering over PYrrha, who seemed to only just be able to keep on one knee under the gravitational assault, she sneered like a cat playing with its dinner.

"Before you go, I'm going to impart some wisdom. Do you know why I thought you might come around to our way of thinking?"

"Because you thought I might be a sociopath?" The effort to breath and talk was evident even through the distortion the Hematite helmet provided.

Ignoring the barb, Cinder just kept talking. "In this world where there is an entire class of people necessary to fight monsters, you got put on a pedestal—because of how good you were beating the Aura out of your fellow humans. And then when you decided to fight those monsters instead? They forgot about you.

"This world is rotten to the core; the people in it savage, selfish beasts that need to be culled. Search your feelings: you know it to be true."

Pyrrha took a few more deep breaths. The heels of her armored boots had splintered right through the concrete under the carpet and she knew for a fact that one false move would allow the weight of the armor to crush her. Only her shield, braced against her right side was keeping her from total collapse. "Thank you for your wisdom, Cinder. In return, I'll tell you something."

One dark eyebrow rose. "Is this going to be one of those cliched heroic speeches in defiance? Don't bother if you're just going to bore me."

"Nothing like that," Pyrrha wheezed. "Just something about me. Do you know how some Semblances are passed down through family lines?"

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"My family is like that," Pyrrha continued, undaunted. "I inherited my Semblance from my mother."

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Are we going somewhere with this?"

"Only... the family Semblance isn't Polarity. It's more of a theme." Pyrrha seemed to lose her battle with intense gravity, slowly shifting to the right as her shield slipped from where she's planted it. "Universal Forces." The collapse turned into a roll as she let herself land on her shield and used it as a fulcrum. Weight turned into momentum and she found herself rolling out of the circle of white energy that marked the gravity well.

Coming up with incredible speed, she hurled her shield, bouncing it off the wrist of the hand with the white ring and from there straight into Cinder's face.

"I've been training in high gravity since I was seven!" She didn't press the advantage. Instead, she used Cinder's distraction to produce the data stick Jaune have given her and use her Semblance to guide it into the computer.

A progress bar flashed up on her HUD. 'Paragon protocols uploading. Estimated time to completion: five minutes.'

Five minutes. That's all he time she needed to buy to Vale.

With that in mind, she returned her attention to Cinder...

And froze in the face of an intense purple light from the ring on Cinder's left ring finger. All thought of attack, of saving Vale, of... anything... ebbed away.

Fury burned in Cinder's eyes and she practically roared as she spoke. "I was going to kill you quick. Just an arrow to the heart and that would have been it. But now? Now I'm going to make you suffer, Nikos. Kneel." The power of the ring made her voice reverberate into every cell of Pyrrha's body and despite herself, she felt herself returning once more to a knee.

Cinder grinned a murderous grin. "Face the window."

Pyrrha turned despite herself. The window out of Jaune's office afforded an unrivaled view of Vale—and Beacon Academy on the cliffs above.

"So many students there. So fresh, so young and full of determination to save this forsaken world. Some of them are fans, I'm sure. They're only there because they believed in you. Oh, and then there's Arc's sister. Is she back there by now? I'll be sure to look. Maybe I'll kill her last. Watch."

"I'm not just going to sit here and let you get away with this," Pyrrha struggled to stand from kneeling, finding that he body just... wouldn't.

Cinder knelt beside her, looping on hand over her shoulder while the other practically pressed the ring against Pyrrha's helmet. "Shh. Shh. Of course you will. Just one more order. You'll see. You'll see." Leaning in close, making sure she had the same view of Beacon as her victim, Cinder spoke two more words. Give. Up."

RWBYRWBYRWBY

AN: HULK SMASH!

God there was a lot in this one.

So, obviously, Hulk. I hope it was worth the wait.

I originally planned to have Jaune run roughshod over the White Fang, but I feel like this way shows more of his character in still wanting to help these people.

Setting this whole thing to Symphony of Destruction just came from my phone playing that once a day for the last week. I think it's really fitting though, seeing as this is Jaune's ascension into a full on powerhouse.

Pyrrha gets the short end of the stick the last two chapters. I hope I at least gave her a badass moment to make up for it. But really, this arc is about Jaune. She'll her her time to shine in the sequel. And in the next chapter, but EVERYONE gets gets their time to shine.

This fic is not long for this world, folks! Hope you're enjoying the ride!