Disclaimer:
The works of Rooster-Teeth and their characters are their own and that of the mighty Oum. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...
Oum Damn It!
Date Published: 24th March 2020
Chapter Title: Hammertime Part 2
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Scene 1
He had done it.
He had finally cornered the enemy that had dogged his steps for many decades.
He had outwitted the accursed creature that had given him quite a few nightmares for the past month or so.
He had at his mercy the monster that his fellow headmasters, General James Ironwood, politicians and bureaucrats would understand the torment of and would greatly cheer at his conquering of the creature.
He was moments away from dealing out the final blow to an enemy that in his opinion was second only to Salem in all of her horrifying glory.
With that thought and somewhat vindictive pleasure, Ozpin raised the weapon in his hand, paused to savour the moment, and sent it plunging into the heart of his enemy.
'Thud!'
And with that, the final document had his stamp of approval, thus ending his month and a half's worth of paperwork and granting Ozpin that rare moment of euphoria for having completed the paperwork, thus giving him the chance to relax for the next few days.
"Hah~ finally" Ozpin let out a tired sigh as he rolled his shoulders, wincing as his joints popped from the stiffness. After getting them nice and loose, he looked to the elevator to see if anyone was coming out of that. Satisfied that no one was arriving yet, he pulled open the drawer by the desk, flipped over the false bottom and reached inside to grab a thermo-flask containing his special blend of cocoa, poured a generous amount into his cup and taking a sip of the beverage with almost deliberate slowness. "Oh yeah, that is good."
Let it be known that Ozpin may like his coffee, but he absolutely loved his cocoa-beans, especially if it was not from Atlas. No offence to James but the Atlas beans absolutely tasted worse than Vacuo beans, and they were considered one of the foulest food items to touch the taste buds around Remnant!
With that thought in mind and the soothing flavour of the cocoa down his throat and into his stomach, Ozpin stood up from his chair and made his way to the window to peer outside while letting his thoughts wander listlessly, idly frowning at the gathering clouds above the academy and Vale as the sound of thunder rumbled in the area.
'Those are rather dark clouds gathering above us. Like the calm before the storm, I am not sure if this is coincidence or not.'
It had always been a bit of a struggle to get paperwork done, but this particular batch had to be given special attention due to Jaune Arc's unique situation. Cardin's father Beaufort was relentless as he had been pushing to expel and arrest Jaune for harming his son on trumped up charges, and Ozpin did not need his years of wisdom to know that that man would be trying to find leverage of any sort. It was lucky for himself and Jaune that he had already started on some of the paperwork in the beginning of the semester to keep Jaune safe in Beacon by ensuring he had proper credentials to his resume as opposed to the false documents he had entering into the academy. It was also just as well that he maintained a somewhat low-tech method of handling his students' information as this would minimize the risk of hacking; it did not take long for the servers to be bombarded by those people and there were already early indications of files being scanned in the process for Jaune's name. All he had to do is to make sure Jaune's documentations were done right by hand before he considered uploading to the servers with a few misdirections added for safety.
At least he has something to be smug about towards Glynda, she always berated him about using old school methods of handling the students' resumes and documents, and kept pushing to get them digitized to speed up the processing. He had given his opinion about the possibility of people hacking and even having a Semblance that allowed people to access files remotely, which she only agreed reluctantly.
He was a few thousand years older than her after all, so he had the experience. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was 'old-school' that he wanted to do things with the old and true method.
Ozpin's fingers tightened around the handle of his mug as he pondered on the last video conference he had with the council. Beaufort had tried to use this incident as an excuse to remove Ozpin's influence, claiming that he was abusing his powers to let such blatant violence to go rampart and casting Jaune as the villain that attacked his 'law-biding' son. Ozpin had lightly snorted at that statement and at the suspiciously accurate timing when every screen in the room got hacked and started displaying information regarding Cardin's actions during his time at Beacon and supposed dealings under the table by Beaufort to move certain laws in place or to keep his son out of trouble. That definitely pushed Beaufort's plans, legislation and petitions back by at least a few months as he burnt through his favours and political clout to keep his son in Beacon and himself in the seat. It was a close deal as a vast number of the Vale Council members wanted nothing more than to throw them both into a cell and the keys into a ditch. Even his supposed allies were reluctant to be seen helping Beaufort out due to the evidence, and it was only through heavy fines, concessions and possibly a fair bit of bribery with a serving of blackmail that Beaufort hung on tenuously. The common folk were not happy with this and had expressed their displeasure very clearly, though thankfully not too levels that would attract the Grimm early on.
Ozpin would not lie; he had greatly enjoyed the man's suffering for all the crap he kept giving Ozpin regarding his academy and teachings. 'Selective entries', his pompous arse!
It was not just Beaufort that got him to do this paperwork quickly. It would appear that Jaune's actions and speech towards Cardin were heard by a lot more people than anticipated and with far-reaching consequences to deal with. Chatter from his contacts have confirmed that the news had reached to the other continents and there were plenty of people who were fans of Pyrrha Nikos and were officially pissed at Cardin Winchester for his choice of words or his intentions. The hacking being one of the examples, they had managed to uncover everything, including crimes that Cardin had done while abusing his huntsman rights, some of which Ozpin was not aware himself. And honestly speaking, Ozpin was seriously considering chucking Cardin into the Emerald Forest and keep him there to teach him some humility.
Mistral was perhaps the most vocal of the continents in mentioning their displeasure to the situation. Miss Nikos's agency had been haggling at him for comments while suing the Winchesters for their actions and words. At the same time, they have shone the spotlight on Jaune who was her partner, making her fans try to figure out who he was, and for some, see if he was 'worthy' to be at her side. There have already been a few pot-shots aimed at him but those were quickly doused by the support for Pyrrha and in turn Jaune.
Those were really scary fans of hers.
But the one that gave him the most headaches came in the form of Leonardos Nikos, the father of Pyrrha Nikos and a particularly, pardon his language, 'hard-as-fuck' huntsman who was bulldozing his way to get answers about the incident. Ozpin may not like the man much, but he was more than willing to point him at Beaufort and watch the carnage happen so that he could get a breather. The mother however was more worried for her daughter and her partner, so Ozpin had a greater time placating her. Her worries were soon replaced with curiosity which Ozpin gave her answers by granting her transcripts, documents and videos of their interactions.
Ozpin wondered if he should start putting money on a possible wedding date given the amount of giggling the woman was letting out as she watched her daughter interacting with Jaune. Peter was already betting that Jaune would pop the question around a few months before the end of their education.
In Atlas, the situation had brought into focus the extreme divide between the Faunus and the humans. Sadly, there were plenty who shared the Winchester's views on Faunus, viewing them as animals that could only be useful in the mines, with Jacques Schnee at the forefront of it. At the other end of the divide, the majority of the Faunus, all of whom were studying to be huntsmen, and a few of the humans were on Jaune's side, believing that people were ostracizing the Faunus too much, and this could likely escalate to an open war. This divide was only getting wider and more tensed as the days gone by; James Ironwood had to deploy some of his robot troops to ensure that there was not going to be any riots or attacks towards the populace by the Grimm, though he admitted that could be a fool's errand since the huntsmen were likely to bulldoze their way if required.
James also recently contacted Ozpin that the White Fang was actually showing some signs of fracture, where there were those who had used Cardin as the example that they had to muscle in on the humans to get their ideals through, while others had used Jaune as the example that not all humans were bad and there could be some dialogue or at least humans who they could fight alongside with. There seemed to be a fair bit of commotion that no one knew what was about to happen with the peace group turned terrorists. There were unconfirmed recordings that Sienna Khan was also confused by Jaune's actions and started looking into his history to understand his position. Ozpin had a bit of regret requesting some of his older students to keep an eye out for Jaune and any Faunus that might approach him, he really did not want to be prejudiced but this was really getting dangerous if you have the head of a terrorist group interested in a person.
Vacuo was silent with the situation, then again of all the continents it was the one that was most tolerant with Faunus, since the environment was so brutal that no one in the area bothered to be biased with one another, it was along the lines of survival of the fittest. They were more likely band together to beat Cardin up before going back to their business. And knowing the headmistress of Vacuo, she was likely to wash her hands of the matter since it was 'not her god-damn problem'.
Lucky woman.
Oddly enough, the one group of people Ozpin would have to placate had yet to make an appearance. Considering the amount of coverage, he would have thought the parents if not Jaune's elder sisters to have come running to Beacon or at least make a call to him within the first week alone. Ozpin was not sure if this was indicative of Jaune's home situation considering what he gathered from the eldest and his uncle or grandfather. But from what he understood, the two eldest sisters who were active on the field were currently on missions out of range, while the uncle and grandfather were semi-active around their hometown. He would wait a little longer before considering to contact them.
As for the parents, he was still holding out his opinion on them. If they were as bad as some said they were towards Jaune, he might consider having words with them, and perhaps bring Peter along. The portly huntsman was becoming very fond and protective of Jaune, he might see to it that the boy got proper parenting in his own way, hopefully without the showboating.
A loud beeping broke his thoughts and prompted him to grab his scroll to check the message, prompting a quirk of his eyebrow.
For the past few days there had been some unusual brain activity from Amber Autunno, the current Fall Maiden slumbering in the Vaults. She had been unresponsive for the past three years, yet recently she seemed to be stirring quite a fair bit and on occasions almost opened her eyes before reverting back to unconsciousness. Glynda and James had been unable to figure out why although they were hopeful that she was actually recovering faster, and he was considering drafting in Oobleck to research on this.
Ozpin did have one theory in mind.
And again, it went right back to the young man that had been on his mind for some time.
Jaune was certainly making headway with his training, a lot faster than most students Ozpin might add. He did get some idea of it from the videos sent by Jaune's eldest sister, but to view it himself and from discussions with Glynda and occasionally Miss Nikos, Jaune seemed to be absorbing the lessons at a rate that some would consider almost impossible. Glynda actually went to the nurse to get a check-up on herself and Jaune to see whether either of them was under the influence of drugs. Poor Jaune looked a little lost at that answer.
But as stated, Ozpin had a theory. While Jaune certainly had an accelerated learning talent of his own, something else was giving him the boost and skills required to get him stronger.
That something came in the form of the sword and the hammer he had acquired.
Ozpin had taken the time to check on said weapons during Jaune's probation period and he was correct in his assumption about their presence. There was living aura permeating the weapons and unless he was much mistaken, there were actual souls bounded to it. In some odd manner, they reminded him a lot of the relics that were hidden at the academies, and interestingly enough the one in Beacon was actually resonating with one of them. Both weapons were clearly sentient enough to choose whoever wishes to wield them and display their displeasure in different manners, such as cuts from Crimson Blitz and the abnormal weight of the hammer.
But the more important bit was the bleeding effect they were having on Jaune; Ozpin had taken part in one of Jaune's training sessions and watched with his own eyes the odd glow that swirled around the boy. Jaune was clearly gaining some knowledge and memories from them and it showed in his fighting style that seemed to be evolving on the go, mostly from the blade named Crimson Blitz, but his latest acquisition Mjolnir was also showing some effects when Oobleck asked Jaune to wield it to see its potential.
A lightning charred room was certainly quite the eye-opener. Ozpin had to pity the boy as he got his ears chewed out by Glynda for making such a mess.
The weapons were certainly gaining his interest and if Oobleck's reports on the cavern were true, Mr Arc was most likely going to be a worthy knight piece on the board. The more weapons he could potentially obtain, the stronger he would get. And if Ozpin was getting the right idea, Jaune may also be the key to getting Amber on her feet again, especially with the timing when the hammer was brought to Beacon.
But that also meant that Ozpin had to make sure Salem would not get to him. If she were to find out of his ability, Salem would likely try to recruit Jaune, failing that would see him destroyed to avoid being an obstacle. Ozpin shuddered at a memory of one individual who had a semblance which allowed him to copy the semblances and body movements of his victims at a single touch, thus allowing him to copy every fighting style known in Remnant and making him a literal one-man army. It was only because it had the unintended side effect of aura poisoning that stopped the man enough for him and the maidens of that period to take him out and depriving Salem of a strong soldier.
Ozpin was not going to let the same issue happen with Jaune, that much was clear.
A very loud alarm rang out of his scroll which nearly caused him to drop it. He lifted it again to find the distress beacon was activated by Glynda who was currently in Forever Fall chaperoning teams for a class assignment for Professor Peach. She should be able to handle the situation if it went south...
He pressed the call function to open the channel only to be greeted by her voice blaring through.
["Ozpin, we are currently experiencing an incursion in Forever Fall."] Glynda called out from the scroll, calm but visibly annoyed with whatever was attacking her amidst the screams of the students and the howling of the Grimm. ["I have managed to get the majority of the students back to the extraction point but there a still a few teams out of range and our pilot is injured. We could use some immediate assistance."]
Before Ozpin could reply, a thunderclap brought his attention back to the window, only realizing that the thunderstorm had appeared above Beacon and was currently throwing about a lot of lightning that lit up the area and thunder that made the windows shake from the vibrations. He found it quite disconcerting that he was so distracted to not notice the storm.
'BBOOM!'
Ozpin shut his eyes instinctively at the bright bolt of lightning that struck the campus grounds and nearly lost footing from the ground shaking from the impact. He opened them just in time to see another bolt of lightning appear on the ground, only this one was coming up from the ground instead and seemingly merging with the lightning at the top. When the lightning display finally stopped, Ozpin dared to open his eyes and stare at the war hammer that was hovering before him in mid-air with the electricity surrounding it and if he was not mistaken, actually absorbing the lightning bolt. The same was happening with a certain sword in the distance, only with the addition of red sparks arcing over the area. Then with another clap of thunder, both weapons shot off into the air, their direction apparent in the trail of light left behind.
"You will have the assistance in ten minutes time, hold on until then." Ozpin gave his reply while pressing a button which immediately called for available teams in Beacon to assemble at the Bulkhead Port for sortie. Hanging up the scroll, he looked back to where the weapons were last seen.
"... Well, this is definitely going to be interesting."
Scene 2
Jaune could honestly say that this day absolutely sucked, just as he sliced off the arm of the Beowulf before bashing it in the face with his shield with enough force to push it back for Nora to play 'Wreck-a-Grimm' with her hammer.
Jaune and his team barely had seconds to get themselves ready when the Grimm descended upon them like a plaque of locusts that had once descended on his hometown a few years ago. Jaune had never been so grateful for Crocea Mors as the shield was able to withstand the full impact of the Boarbatusk that rammed into him before his sword was introduced to its head afterwards. After that it became a contest of slashing and bashing where Jaune's reward would be to get out of the forest in one piece and hopefully in his bed by the end of the day, while the Grimm's would be his corpse.
He was so not going to be in the prize for the Grimm, damn it!
"This little piggy went to the market!" Nora smacked a spinning Boarbatusk hard and sent it into a group of Beowolves, killing them instantly with the force of the hit alone while the Boarbatusk kept on spinning with the momentum and hitting a second Boarbatusk in the air, giving Weiss the chance to fire bolts of ice at them to finish them off.
"This little piggy went home!" Nora fired off a grenade that went straight into the mouth of another Boarbatusk, with the projectile pulling it along right into the mouth of a King Taijitsu, blowing one of its head off and leaving the other disorientated enough for Ren to cut it off.
"And this little piggy!" Nora spun hard and hit a third Boarbatusk high into the air before directing her hammer downwards as more Grimm surrounded her.
"Went Wee!" A twitch of her trigger finger fired off a grenade straight into the ground, launching her straight into the air while the Grimm got blown away, the vast majority killed off by the blast while the remainder were too injured to get away from Nora's teammates.
"Wee!" Nora slowed down to the same height as the now airborne Boarbatusk, its eyes widening in response to Nora's maniacal smile being the only indicator of its shock to seeing her with it. She performed a somersault by throwing her hammer forward and smacking the hammer head right at its head as she pulled the trigger again.
"WWWWEEEEEE!" The pink explosion that appeared in the sky was nothing compared to a Nora Valkyrie comet coming back down to Terra Firma with the full force of said explosion and Aura pushed to the highest level possible. The resulting crash was enough to throw up a dust cloud and shake the ground to the point that everyone and everything in the area had to pause their attacks to regain balance. When the dust settled, Jaune had to wince at the amount of destruction Nora had unleashed on the pack of Grimm, there was hardly anything left around her! Even the Grimm attacking Jaune and the others had paused to look at her briefly before seemingly made up their minds to avoid the pancake-obsessed, hammer-wielding woman at all cost.
'Note to self, never piss Nora off.'
"Woohoo, that was great! Where is the next lot of Grimm!" That comment seemed to have scared off the Grimm that was at first surrounding her, now they were actively hightailing back to the edge of the forest or going after the others. "Hey come back, I want to make Grimm jam out of you lot!"
"Ren, your girlfriend is nuts!" Yang yelled as she pummelled an Ursa Major multiple times in the face.
"She is enthusiastic." Ren commented as he spun on the spot and fired off shots at the Grimm surrounding him, filling them with lead and Fire Dust. "Also, she is not my girlfriend."
"Right, she is not." Yang rolled her eyes as she delivered a final punch at the Ursa that brought it down on another Grimm behind it. "Sometimes I wonder if her exuberance is a sign of frustration at this stalemate between them." She muttered just out of ear-shot from Ren.
"I should be scolding you for that idea, but then again, that would be quite the explanation." Weiss commented as she wiped the blood from her rapier, having heard Yang's comment. "There is a little too much energy in her to be just from all the sugar intake."
"We can discuss and bet about their relationship later, what is the status?" Jaune managed to not sound too frustrated at the Grimm pouring in at all sides and asked that question to anyone willing to answer, pausing for a moment to cut down a Boarbatusk that streaked past him, splattering its insides all over the area.
"Miss Goodwitch has been alerted to the situation and has sent out the distress beacon back to Headmaster Ozpin." Blake swung her weapon by the ribbon, cutting down the pack that was about to leap at her. "From what I can tell, majority of the teams have already evacuated to the extraction point, with us, CRDL and a couple of other teams still out here."
"Then we should make our way back while the going is good." Weiss gave her view. "As it is, I am already running low on Dust and the Grimm are not thinning out anytime soon."
"We need to regroup now." Jaune looked around for his team only to frown. "Has anyone seen Pyrrha?"
"No, we haven't." Yang looked around with her smile replaced with a worried frown. "Ruby is missing as well."
"I think the two of them were dealing with the batch just east of us, a few feet away." Weiss answered her.
"Wait a minute, is that not where Cardin and his crew were when they threw that jar?" Yang turned to them with eyes glowing red and her hair starting to catch fire. The others also taken on grim frowns at that reminder.
"Better find them and get out." Jaune paused before sighing. "And I suppose we should get Cardin out as well." Yang groaned loudly at the remark while Weiss and Blake grimaced as one, Nora grumbled while Ren maintained a stoic mask. Sometimes it sucked being the good guy.
"Hang on, let me check on them just in case." Jaune took out his scroll and checked the app that allows him to check the Aura levels of his team, something every leader of a team was required to have at all times. Jaune however managed to make it for everyone in his team and extended the invitation to Ruby who had accepted it quickly so that they could keep track of each other even when separated. At a glance, all of them had taken a few hits to their Aura but none were in the red. Looking for Pryyha's and Ruby's readings, the young man sighed in relief at the gauges as they were still relatively in the green.
'BEEP!'
At least until both of them suddenly dropped a fair bit into the orange and just stopped at the point before the red...
Jaune immediately moved to the direction where they were last seen with Yang firing off her shotgun gauntlets at full blast and the others following in quick pursuit. They did not have to go too long as a loud scream from Ruby gave their position, making Yang literally go up in flames and blast off in the direction where she was heard, making her the beacon for the others to follow. Crashing through the bushes, Jaune took a moment to assess the situation before a growl came out of his throat at the scene.
By the nearby tree, Ruby was being restrained by Sky Lark holding her arms above her head, Crescent Rose being on the ground at a distance. With his arm length and her short stature, Ruby could not kick him as much as she would like to. A few feet away, Dove was oddly restrained by his own teammate Russel Thrush with a bleeding lip and a bruised eye as he yelled at Sky to let Ruby go.
And then there was Cardin who was leering over Pyrrha on the ground with her head bleeding and weapons away from her as he was reaching for the clothing that was covering her chest, her chest plate seemingly removed roughly and thrown to the side carelessly.
In that moment, Jaune saw the repeat of the vision that got him in probation, with the man in the fur coat replacing Cardin and Pyrrha looking more bloodied from the assault.
In that moment, Jaune felt unadulterated rage.
"WINCHESTER!" With his leg pumped full of Aura and a stomp that cratered the ground beneath his foot, Jaune shot forward like a rocket and used his shield to ram Cardin off his partner and sent him flying a few feet into a tree, providing a good enough distraction for the others to come forward and deal with the other members of CRDL, Yang proving to be too much for Sky as she broke his wrists from gripping alone, tossed him to the ground and proceeded to unleash a torrent of punches for touching Ruby. Jaune paid no attention to them and focused on the bully who got back to his feet and scowling at him.
"That's it, Arc! I am so sick and done with you, fucking loser!" Cardin growled as he raised his mace and activated the mechanism to show its Fire Dust ore in all of its burning glory.
"That makes two of us." Jaune gripped his weapons tightly as he glared hard at the guy, Crocea Mors seemingly sharing his rage as it vibrated lightly. "You really screwed yourself by attacking the girls that way."
"Like I care what a pussy you are about girls like them, you and that bitch ruined my name and my family!" Cardin leaped forward and delivered a hard blow to the shield, forcing Jaune to his knees while the ground cracked beneath them. "I will enjoy wrecking your skulls for what you have done!"
"Not before getting your own ass kicked!" Jaune pushed back at Cardin before tripping his legs, giving him time to get back to his feet and begin hacking away at Cardin's Aura so that he could be subdued. But it seemed that Cardin was running on rage alone as he let out an almost bestial roar and randomly striking the ground with his mace, destroying the earth around them and forcing the others back.
"He has lost it!" Yang yelled as she avoided a particularly nasty explosion that send shrapnel into the tree she hid behind with Ruby in her arms.
"We need to calm him down or knock him out, the Grimm will come at us at this rate!" Weiss called out from behind her wall of ice.
"I got this!" Nora fired off a round at Cardin only for him to smack it back at her. Giving a rather slasher fearing smile, Nora used that projectile to her advantage by letting it blow up on the ground to send her flying into the air and over Cardin to get to the other side. Landing neatly on her toes, she used the momentum to swing her hammer to blindside him, hitting him hard in the legs and sending him crashing into another set of trees.
"YES! I finally get to break his legs!" Any other time, Jaune would be palming his face, but as it was, he had a big smile on his face.
"FUCK YOU BITCH!" Cardin roared as he pressed something on the handle of the mace and directed it at Nora, unleashing a giant bolt of electricity that hit her hard and sent her crashing and thrashing to the ground. "Eat that!" Jaune was about to rush forward only for Ren to place a hand on his shoulder with an uncharacteristic smile on his face.
"Wait for it." Ren's odd choice of words gave Jaune pause just in time to hear Nora giggling with glee as she stood up with the electricity gaining a purplish pink glow to it and with a particularly scary smirk on her face. Without even picking her weapon up, she kicked off the ground and delivered a huge hay-maker at Cardin that had him crashing through another tree and through a boulder.
"What the?!" Yang gaped at the sudden strength exhibited by the hammer queen, temporarily distracted from her task of checking over Ruby.
"Her Semblance is High Voltage, specifically the ability to produce and channel electricity to her muscles and gain more power into her attacks." Ren explained as the others caught up to them, with Pyrrha a little behind them. Jaune made his way to her while Ren continued his explanation and Nora proceeded to manhandle Cardin before tying him up with a lot of rope. "The more electricity, the greater her strength."
"Well, that's shocking." A moment passed before those around Yang groaned at her pun and timing. Even the other members of CRDL shook their heads while bound, with Dove being the only one loose and so had his hands covering his face in shame of her pun. "Ah come on you guys." Jaune ignored her for now and focused on Pyrrha as she was shaking her head with one hand covering her chest.
"Here." Jaune grabbed her chest plate while lightly guiding her to a boulder. "Let's get that head check."
"Jaune?" His heart clenched lightly at how groggy and weak she sounded. "What...?"
"Best not to talk for now. Focus on your aura."
"Pyrrha took a hit for me when we were dealing with Grimm." Ruby looked guilty as she spoke. "As she was recovering, Cardin attacked us from behind with his team. Dove was the only one trying to stop them from attacking, but he got knocked down hard. Pyrrha was dealing with the Beowulf when Cardin hit her in the head with the mace. I tried to stop him but Lark managed to hit my baby and pinned me to the tree."
"It's not your fault." Jaune tried to assure her. "At least you tried to help."
"Exactly!" Yang took her turn with her eyes still red. "It is Cardin who decided to bring the Grimm down on us and take cheap shots to be petty!" Before they could reply, a loud crash drew everyone's attention to the far end of the forest where one huntsman-in-training emerged out of the bushes with huge tears on his clothes, dented armour and a missing arm. He panted and coughed out blood before dropping to his knees and looking at them with pleading eyes.
"Help! You got to save me from the monster, it's coming!" He barely finished when a heavily armoured head of a particularly big King Taijitu exploded out of the ground beneath him and swallowed him whole in one gulp. It then turned its dark head towards Jaune and the others with a slow hiss issuing from its mouth.
"Holy mother of Oum, he just got eaten like some morsel!" Yang gaped at the head. "And that looks like an Elder Grimm, I have not seen one that big or with spiked armour before."
"At least it is only one so we should be able to~" Weiss was commenting when the earth rumbled again and the ground exploded as multiple heads ascended to the heavens and blocked out the sun momentarily. As the dust settled, the others saw to their horror what appeared to be an eight headed King Taijitu looking down at them like a Goliath would look at an ant.
"Okay. That's a big snake." Weiss weakly commented as she leaned back to the point of almost tipping backwards, her eyes wide and disbelief evident in her tone. The Grimm in question responded with a quick bash from one of its enormous tails that sent everyone scattering.
"What type of Grimm is that?!" Yang could not help but yelled out the question.
"It has to be a particularly old Grimm to look like that." Ren readied his guns as he looked at the serpent giant. "This has to be one of the extremes for the Taijutu."
"Well we are not going to sit around speculating." Blake gripped her weapon tighter. "We can't waste more time on this, we need to get to the extraction point now."
"Get rid of it quickly, then we move." Ruby spoke out as she cocked her weapon. "If we can kill it, it should scare off the rest long enough for us to get out."
"Right then… Nora and Ren will provide cover fire for us. I will focus on defence if that thing gets too close, Team RWBY can attack it." Jaune raised a hand at Pyrrha who wanted to object. "You stay put, focus on your Aura first then help by sniping at the eyes, no moving about. Nora, you make sure she stays."
"Got it!" Nora saluted before pulling a rope from somewhere and actually tying herself to Pyrrha, making sure she could not move away from Nora. Jaune blinked before turning to Ren. "Erm, Ren?"
"Don't ask. You can save your sanity that way." Ren merely spoke before moving forward to intercept one of the heads. Jaune merely sighed before using his shield to block a second head charging with its mouth open, slowing it enough for Nora to bash it with her hammer and Pyrrha to fire off a Dust Round to disable it. Elsewhere Team RWBY were busily removing the other heads of the Grimm, not an easy task as the heads were heavily armoured on the outside and kept weaving between and over one another to avoid the shots.
"Damn it, they just won't stay put!" Yang growled as she directed a hot at one head only to leap back to avoid getting swallowed by another.
"I am trying to cut the heads off, but the armour and skin is just too thick!" Blake demonstrated by swinging her blade only to bounce off the head. "We are only using up our ammo faster."
"Then we better find a weakness off this damn Grimm!" Weiss conjured up an ice wall to stop two heads from making a snack out of her. "I am about to reach into my reserves here!"
"Wait, I see something odd!" Ruby called out from her vantage point up in the trees. "At the base of their neck, there is one of those weird masks with some weird tentacles embedded in the flesh. I think that is a Grimm as well!"
"Can you hit it!" Jaune called out while taking a swipe at the head at his side.
"Keep the main body in one spot and I might!"
"Okay you heard it! Let's ground this bastard!" Jaune managed to stab his sword into the ground in time as the head came slamming into him with his shield stopping it from hitting him while his sword stopped the momentum enough for Nora to dump two explosive rounds into the mouth and set them off to blow the head up. At the other end, Blake had stuck her blade into one head and spun around to entangle it with another head to give Weiss a chance to freeze the two together and Yang to smash them to frozen bits. Ren and Pyrrha continued to provide cover fire for the group and to distract the Grimm enough to let Ruby take a clear shot at the oddity.
'BANG!'
"Got it!" Ruby called out as the last few heads screamed out in agony before twisting upon itself and imploding in a gory mess and issuing out plenty of black dust. "Phew~ good thing I am up here, I don't want to spend the weekend removing all of that!"
"Lucky you~" Yang gave a glare at her sister as she held up her black soot covered hair. "I am so calling dibs on the first bath."
"No Dibs!" Her team-mates unanimously rejected as one. Nora laughed at her end, not caring that she was looking like a miner fresh from the coal mines while Ren merely use his sleeve to wipe his face. Jaune merely chuckled while making his way back to Pyrrha.
"How are you holding up?" Jaune asked.
"Sore with a pounding headache, but I will live." Pyrrha answered while wincing and holding her head. "I made a very rookie mistake around Winchester, good thing my sponsor or my trainer are not around to see that. I would be getting an earful at it."
"At least you are alive, and in a few minutes, I imagine would like to repay Cardin for the bump on the head." Jaune remarked almost serenely.
"Indeed, I plan to do so with interest." The redhead spartan answered with a grim tone. Before any of the others could quip back, the sounds of howling drew their attention to the other end of the forest where three particularly big Beowulf Alphas and King Taijitu were gathering in large numbers, all snarling and glaring at them.
"Okay, that is a lot of Grimm." Jaune commented weakly as he readied his sword and providing some cover as she hastened to set her armour back in place.
"We are really going to need backup for this." Ruby came down from her vantage point and looked with a very reluctant expression. "I got a suggestion that you guys might not like."
"What would that be, pray tell?" Weiss reloaded her vials of dust into her weapon as she asked while keeping an eye on the Grimm.
"We will need CRDL's help with this." Ruby spoke a little louder over Yang's and Nora's objections. "I know that they are at fault for drawing the Grimm and attacking Pyrrha in the back, but really now may be a good time for them to pick up the pace. Not to mention Dove is the only guy of the group to try and save us." The lot of them looked at each other and then CRDL, whose members were nodding while the leader glared mutinously. The sudden drop in volume drew their attention back to the Grimm which had parted to make way for something to come forward on the ground or appear in the trees.
A whole load of something in fact.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Skylark yelled while trying to move away in his bound state, an understandable reaction considering the Grimm in question was something they had never seen before and somewhat wished they haven't done so. The closest one looked to be a small skull-like creature with pale tentacles sprouting somewhere underneath the mask which likely served as its body. For the supposed mask, a pair of horns pointed upwards while three pairs of eyes adorned it evenly with the usual dark markings linking them, giving it a decidedly devilish look with the glow of its eyes.
"That's the thing that I saw on the Grimm earlier!" Ruby took aim and fired quickly, only to have one of the Taijitu head's take the shot while the tentacle Grimm spread out quickly and disappeared in the group of Grimm, but not for long. The Beowulf let out a howl and snarled as tentacles wrapped themselves around them and pulled them together, slamming into one another roughly and seemingly tear their limbs off before getting conjoined unevenly. The same went for the serpent type Grimm with the heads hissing in pain as the armour started to sprout out spikes. All three teams could not help but gaped at the sight of the Grimm getting into some unholy orgy of body tearing and mashing, their respective masses getting bigger with the numbers until there were four uneven masses of dark 'something' that blocked out the sun with the eyes of the Grimm glaring at them at all angles. Jaune barely acknowledged the sounds of someone vomiting but understood the need as he felt like upending his breakfast from the sight.
The masses then shifted into rough shapes with white armour sprouting from them before odd-like heads sprouted out of them and let out loud roars that caused them to cover their ears to block out the sounds. The heads then formed themselves to either the heads of the Taijitu or those resembling the Beowulf, with their respective masses changing to better fit their nightmarish image. In no time at all, three more eight-headed serpents have been spawned into existence, followed shortly by what looked to one rarely seen Cerberus type Grimm from old legends. The latter had armour going along the spine of the back and limbs, and almost covering all three heads with thorn like decorations surround their necks and the middle head having what appeared to be a crude and lethal looking crown with horns decorating the top.
"Oh my Oum…" Weiss took a few steps back from the sight of the creatures towering over her. Blake was no better herself as she appeared to be hissing and unless he was mistaken, wanted to hunch down on all fours like a cat in a fight-or-flight situation. Yang was getting in front of a terrified Ruby and raising her arms in defiance to the Grimm, her body shaking being a good indicator of her mounting fear. CRDL were actively trying to move away in their bound state with Dove being the only free person torn between wanting to run and staying to fight.
Pyrrha was perhaps the more level-headed of their team, but her arms shaking and tight grip were a good indicator of her control being strained to the limit. Nora and Ren however had a more dramatic reaction in that Nora was whimpering like a lost child while Ren looked like he was about to lose his spirit.
As for Jaune, he was about ready to shit his pants as the creatures looked at them with glowing eyes that promised death to them all. As if to illustrate the despair they were feeling, there appeared to be a storm forming above them that gave the setting a certain 'death ending' feel to the situation. Not a good sign.
But they could not falter for now, if they were to do so they would be a snack compared to the possible dinner the other teams and Miss Goodwith would be become if these Grimm abominations got past them. They would need to buck it up.
"Nora!" His shout got her attention. "Smoke cover now!" That got her to focus for a moment and aimed her weapon at the Grimm, firing off a few shots to cover the area with smoke. Jaune grabbed Pyrrha and dragged her back, grabbing Ren's attention to do the same with Nora. Between the two of them, they got Team RWBY and CRDL back to the forest line and past a rock ridge that provided some cover with the wind blowing downwards, thus negating their scents and preventing the Grimm from finding them.
"Shit, this is going to shit man!" Dove was cursing his breath away, panic clearly setting in now that they were away from the Grimm. "What the fuck type of Grimm would be able to do that to other Grimm?!"
"They are definitely not discussed in Port's classes." Jaune wiped his brow before turning to Weiss. "I don't suppose Atlas has any idea on that?"
"That is certainly not in the Atlas encyclopedic system as far as I can recall." Weiss shook her head as an answer and a manner of focusing herself. "I am not sure what species variant that is is, but it seems to be possessing the Grimm or something."
"Not so much of possessing as opposed to merging with Grimm." Blake answered, seemingly getting back to her state of mind. "That mask-like Grimm uses its tentacles to grab the others and do… something to them. Making them bigger and stronger."
"Now we have that Cerberus type Grimm to add to those eight-headed Tajitu. What do we even call that, an Emperor Tajitu?" Yang tried to raise the mood but failing miserably.
"Whatever they can be called, do it later. "Ruby." Jaune called out to the youngest. "Get the others to untie CRDL and prepare to fall back with running cover."
"What are you thinking?" Ruby answered while trying to maintain composure.
"Right now, we need to get back to Professor Goodwitch to get backup. Thing is, these fellows would certainly follow us which we can't afford, we need to make sure they are stuck in one spot." Jaune continued without letting them voice out the possible objections. "There is no way we can take them all on ourselves, so we need to delay them enough that we can either trap them around here or in the best-case scenario we get back-up from the other teams. How much ammunition we have?"
"We used up a fair bit with the previous one, and I don't think I have enough for the rest." Weiss commented, now calm and taking stock. "But if we ration the Dust and somehow boxed these creatures in the area, we might be able to get away quickly to the bulkhead."
"We would definitely need Team CRDL's help." Jaune looked to the one member that Ruby stated was helpful. "I am putting my trust in you guys, help us hold these Grimm enough to get back to Beacon and keep Cardin off our case, got it?" Dove looked at him, then his team, then to where the Grimm was in quick succession before nodding firmly.
"What can we do though?" Dove asked as his team members were untied.
"A very stupid idea, but it's all I got." Jaune answered. "We need to split them up so that we can take them down fast. Have 3 per Grimm in the worst-case scenario."
"That will limit our range of attacks and our Dust." Weiss warned grimly.
"There is that small valley at the far end." Blake pointed in a general direction. "At the least we can deal with one of the King Tajitu there easily since the valley is narrow and if not done right, we can remove a fair number of heads."
"Good enough. We will worry about the rest as we go on then." Jaune looked at the bag that he had carried without meaning to and reached inside to grab a jar of syrup. "We might need to use these to distract them for a short while. I am not sure how effective they can be but it has to be worth something if not an itch to them."
"No problem. Let's do this!" Nora raised her hammer with a bit less energy than normal but still willing to go forth and fight. Jaune nodded but not before turning to CRDL, more specifically Cardin.
"We don't have to like each other, but right now we need to work together. Can I count on you and your team to be handling one of the Grimm?" Everyone turned to Cardin who was glaring at him with a fair bit of hatred. It was clearly with reluctance that the big man nodded his head tightly to give his consent. With a sigh, Jaune looked to his team. "Okay then, we head out to deal with one of them, ideally one of the eight-headed Grimm since we have fought them earlier. With any luck we can all converge on the last one and head home in one piece."
"Right, good luck Jaune!" Ruby gave a quick hug before leading her team out, while Dove went to a different direction with his team following slowly. Jaune nodded and moved to a different direction to get his team help with distracting one of the Grimm, not noticing a certain Winchester pausing to look back with a particularly heated glare at the back of his head, nor a certain orb-like creature in the trees looking down upon them with its tentacles waving about in the air.
0-0-0-0
It's alive... It's Alive... IT'S ALIVVVVEEEE!
'COUGH!'
I know what you are thinking, where the heck was I?! I have been working a lot over the past year and I finally got time to work on this story, and I do have my other account with its own set of stories to write about. I hope to be writing more of this story and Arcadian Code in the near future.
Originally this was going to be a very big chapter, but the chapter ran away from me and got a bit bloated with a dash of writer's block. I want to iron out some portions, so I split this. Hopefully the next part does not take too long to put out.
Hope you guys enjoy the chapter. Make sure all of you stay safe out there in the world, especially with the Covid19 epidemic going on out there.
And I put my pen down for now...