I added some extra bits for this chapter, and uh... might have accidentally deleted it, so I have to put it up again. Sorry!
I'm back with the third chapter. This might just become my main project until more in Volume 2 is revealed, because I want my other story to follow the canon for the main part. Anyways, here is chapter 3 :D.
Yang had just sent an Ursa flying, but heard a sickening crunch and a howl. Whatever the sound was, it wasn't good. She turned around, and her fears were confirmed when she saw a Beta-Grimm crushing Jaune's Titan. However, she saw that Grimm was howling in pain, and that the sickening crunch was that its arms had literally snapped off. She saw a white barrier surrounding Crocea Mors and her eyes widened in surprise. Jaune must have had a lot of aura to protect himself and his Titan.
The Beta-Grimm, unable to do anything without its arms was sent flying from several hits with Nora's hammer.
Ruby turned, and saw Jaune's near destroyed Crocea Mors, and feared the worst. She decapitated an Ursa Major, and then quickly rushed over to Jaune. There were no Grimm left, so Ruby jumped out of Crescent Rose, rushing over to the downed Titan. Pyrrha did exactly the same, and the two of them removed the glass of the Titan, before reaching in to pull Jaune out. He was badly beaten, and blood was leaking from a nasty gash in his forearm, caused by a piece of metal breaking off.
"We need a medic, now!" shouted Pyrrha.
Blake reacted quickest and immediately dashed further into the city in Gambol Shroud.
"Jaune, you didn't have to do that," said Pyrrha with a sad smile.
Jaune smiled and coughed. "Anything... to protect you Pyrrha..."
"So cute!" said Yang with a grin, and Nora was also madly grinning.
Pyrrha and Jaune both blushed bright red, as a medical helicopter approached from above...
Chen and Ren (Hehe) were sitting in the waiting room next to each other, waiting to hear if Jaune was alright. He had seemed fine when he was whisked away to the medical wing, but you could never tell if there was internal bleeding. On the other side, Pyrrha had fallen asleep, resting her head on Nora's shoulders.
Dr. Grey, a young woman with long blue hair walked out of the medical room.
Immediately, Chen got up.
"Is Jaune okay?"
"Your friend is fine. He has several bruised ribs, but the gash on his arm wasn't infected luckily. Apart from that, he should be completely fine. He'll be out in no longer than five days, to be safe. You can see him now if you want."
Chen nodded and sighed in relief as he thanked Dr. Grey, who walked back into the med-bay. Ren walked in first, followed by Chen, and Nora nudged Pyrrha to wake her up, and the two girls quickly followed.
Jaune lay on the bed, propped up against several pillows. His forearm had a bandage wrapped around him.
"How are you doing pal?" asked Chen, sitting down on a chair near the bed.
"I'm fine, Doc says I'll be out by the end of this week," replied Jaune with a smile.
"Thank you again for helping me Jaune," said Pyrrha with a grateful grin.
"Ah, it's no problem. My father always told me to help others in need," said Jaune with a slight blush.
"You broke its arms!" said Nora cheerfully. "You could have broken its legs too!"
"Nora..." said Ren, keeping his excitable red-headed best friend in check.
Jaune just laughed though. "I'll try to keep that in mind for next time Nora."
"I'm glad you're okay," said Ren with a smile, patting Jaune on the shoulder.
"Thanks for visiting guys," said Jaune with a genuine smile. "It's good to know I've got such good friends."
Chen growled as Vengeance was battered away again. This Beta-Grimm was pretty tough; it was a lot quicker than a normal one. Chen charged again at the monster, bringing up his right arm with a vicious swipe from below. The Grimm didn't notice this and lunged at Chen directly. Chen had expected it to block his blow, but was caught off guard as the Grimm's swipe connected with his Titan, sending him flying back once again. Chen looked back up, and saw that the glass had cracked on his Titan. He cursed and stood back up. The Beta-Grimm stood up on its hind legs and let out a massive roar.
"Uh, need some help here!"
As soon as he said that, he saw a black blur darting in and slashing at the Grimm, and then quickly darting away. Even this unusually fast Grimm could not keep up as the black blur did the same thing several times. Eventually the creature was defeated, and slumped to the ground in defeat.
Gambol Shroud turned to face Chen, and he could see the smirk of the pilot inside it.
"How many times have I had to save you now?"
"Oh, that might be like, the third or something."
"Sure..."
"What? I don't keep count!"
"You don't keep count, or you lost count?"
"Shut up Blake."
Suddenly, there was the sound of a weapon charging up, then a blast, and then a howl Blake looked behind her and saw that Neptune had saved her from a Beta-Grimm that she failed to notice.
"Sloppy," said the blue-haired guy with a grin. "How many times have I had to save you now?"
"Shut up Neptune."
Ruby and Yang formed a deadly duo, with Ruby slashing at the Grimm, which weakened them, and Yang smashing them away as they were vulnerable. To their right, Nora was firing grenades left and right, stunning the enemies, before coming in with her hammers and smashing them all away. The three girls had no trouble taking care of all the Grimm, and before long, dead Grimm littered the outside of the base.
The base had come under attack from Grimm. Nobody knew how they could get so close without being detected. However, the Titan crews were well up for a fight, and the threat had been taken care of immediately.
"Ugh, I'm beat," moaned Yang. "I can't wait to get back to base and have a nice long sh-"
"Yang," warned Ruby.
"What? I was gonna say shower!" said Yang indignantly.
"Oh..."
The mess hall was filled with the quiet buzz of activity as Chen sat down at the table between Ren and Jaune, who had fully recovered from his injuries.
"Have you got any missions lined up for today?" asked Ren.
Chen sighed and nodded. "Defending a military convoy on the way to the western border of Vale. They're increasing security there after Grimm amounts in the area had almost doubled. Should be easy, but boring. Someone so high up on the leaderboard should be doing something more than just an escort mission," he said with a sigh.
"Don't get too cocky," said Yang from across the table, but she gave a smirk to show she wasn't being serious.
Chen looked up at the leaderboard.
1. Ruby Rose
2. Pyrrha Nikos
3. Lie Ren
4. Chen Xiao Long
5. Blake Belladonna
6. Neptune Vasilias
7. Yang Xiao Long
8. Weiss Schnee
9. Jaune Arc
10. Nora Valkyrie
11. Sun Wukong
12. Edward Azul
13. Blanc Neige
14. Sapphire Moon
15. Cardin Winchester
Only the top fifteen names were shown in the mess hall. Chen didn't really agree with it. Although everybody did take it as just a little bit of fun, no doubt others lower down on the leaderboard were upset. Chen understood. It was practically seeing who was the best and who was the worst.
Then again, that was probably expected if you were fighting under a military officer. Ozpin wasn't put in charge because before the Beta-Grimm appeared, he was running a school, not organising a military who were meant to fight. He had objected to his students being used in the war before they had graduated, but with Hunters and Huntresses spread far and few, they needed more firepower. There was nothing Ozpin could really do though. They stood a better chance in their Titans anyway.
The leader of the 'Titan Project', as it was unofficially caused, was James Ironwood. His breakthrough in inventing and creating Titans was a turning point. No doubt he was a genius, but Chen wasn't sure he was one-hundred percent legit. He must have known that this leaderboard may create riffs between the Titan pilots.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when an announcement rang out.
"Chen Xiao Long and Ryan Verte, please report to the hangar for your final briefing."
Chen sighed and stood up. "No rest for the wicked, eh?"
Ren shrugged. "See you tonight."
At least the day would end well. It was Friday, and every Friday night, some of the Titan pilots would get together and have a 'Games Night'. This was normally poker or some kind of gambling, obviously without real lien, just the chips. It was a good chance to wind down and just take a break from fighting. Very rarely was their 'Game Night' interrupted, where one or more of them had to go on a mission.
Five minutes later, Chen was fully suited up and moving into the loading bay of the hangar. He rolled his eyes as he was briefed by one of Ironwood's lieutenants again. He was meant to escort a military convoy! What else was there to know? He was being told about the convoy and where everything was in it. He didn't need to know about all that. As long as he protected it! If it was a more complicated mission, he would have paid more attention.
"-derstood Xiao Long?"
"I got it, I got it..." said Chen half-heartedly.
"Xiao Long..."
"Sorry, yes sir," he corrected himself.
"Good luck."
And with that, the lieutenant was finally gone.
"Thank Oum!" said Chen with a relieved sigh. "And saying good luck... It's not even a very big mission where nothing will happen."
But oh, how wrong he was.
Chen sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. It couldn't get more boring. Ryan and him were just walking on either side of the convoy. Several troop carriers. The two shared a look, as if to say: 'What the hell are even doing here?'.
Chen had talked with Ryan quite a few times, and he was quite a nice guy, although he did seem to be one of those guys who just ran in without thinking.
They had been going for several hours now at snail pace, as the troop carriers couldn't go at high speeds, and Chen felt like he could doze off and still be able to catch up after half an hour.
Then, things went wrong. So wrong...
Chen had been paying little attention to his surroundings, but groaned when it started raining.
"As if this day could get any worse..."
He was caught so off guard, he was completely helpless to stop a Beta-Grimm ram into a troop carrier, sending it and its passengers flying into a building, and probably to their deaths.
"Looks like my day just got worse..." sighed Chen, as he readied and spun his blades.
He went straight for the attacking Beta-Grimm, but what happened next surprised him. The Grimm started to turn away and run back in the direction it came in, back to the forest. Chen saw Ryan charge after the Grimm.
"Ryan! Stop!" said Chen frantically into the radio. "Our objective is to protect the convoy!"
His words fell on deaf ears as he saw Ryan continue in pursuit after the Grimm. Chen yelled in frustration. He quickly got onto the radio with the commander of the convoy.
"I know I'm meant to protect the convoy, but I can't just let him go in there by himself! It could be a trap."
"Understood Xiao Long, but if I radio for help, you come back immediately."
"Yes sir! Thank you," said Chen, relieved, and he swiftly went in the direction that Ryan went.
"I will kill you when I find you Ryan," said Chen under his breath. "Unless they get you first." He shuddered at the thought.
He hadn't managed to get a hold of Ryan. All Chen had got was static. He was starting to worry as he ventured into the forest. He easily took out a few curious Beowolves, who had gotten too close to Vengeance for their own good.
As Chen looked around more, what he saw next chilled him right to the bone. He saw Ryan's Titan lying on the ground, with the glass smashed open, with blood tainting the remaining shards of glass. What was the most disturbing though, was that Ryan was actually no longer in his Titan, which became apparent when Chen got a closer look.
Chen, now starting to panic, looked around nervously, and his fears of being ambushed were confirmed when at least ten Red eyes, hungry for a kill, staring at him from the darkness of the forest.
It had been an ambush. All of it. The lone Beta-Grimm was meant to draw them in. It worked. For Ryan anyway... Chen cursed the idiot again, knowing that he was pretty much certainly dead. It was all his fault. If only he hadn't charged off like a complete... dick, maybe they would have both gotten out of this alive.
The Beta-Grimm stepped out of the shadows, having Chen's Titan completely surrounded. He saw one walk out with a bloody corpse impaled on its long claws. Ryan... Every time it took a step, there was a horrible crunching sound, because Ryan's already mutilated body was being crushed. He didn't even look human any more.
Chen fought the urge to vomit, but he had to stay calm. He could freak out about Ryan afterwards. Right now he needed to get out. Even he could not take out so many large Grimm. Not without getting severely hurt anyway.
He quickly called into his radio. "Commander... Ryan's dead, and I've walked straight into a trap. At least ten Beta-Grimm. There's no way I can get out by myself."
He heard him curse under his breath. "You were meant to help us Xiao Long," he said with a sigh. "Hold on, I'm sending help. Try to hold them off, and if you can, get out of the forest as fast as you can."
"Thank you sir," said Chen, who was eyeing up as many Grimm as he could, with the monsters doing likewise to himself.
Two lunged at the same time, and Chen knew it was foolish to stay and fight. He rolled out of the way of the two attacks, instead causing the creatures to crash into another. There were angry howls, and Chen knew that he had well and truly pissed them off.
He began to run, slashing at one Beta-Grimm blocking his path, and this forced it to fall to the right. Chen took the opportunity to escape through the gap, and he was promptly running through the forest, as fast as his Titan's legs could carry him. The Beta-Grimm weren't every far behind, as Chen could hear their growling.
Chen kept running, never stopping, and was relieved to find several armoured vehicles approaching. He looked behind quickly, and saw a Beta-Grimm getting cut down by machine gun fire. Chen stopped and turned, catching the Grimm closest to him by surprise. It failed to stop and protect itself, and Chen reached forward and impaled it with his right blades.
Another Grimm was rapidly approaching a machine gun truck, the crew unable to stop it. Chen saw this, and charged, just managing to knock the Grimm off course literally metres away from the marines. He finished it by stabbing it with both his blade arms into the Grimm's exposed stomach. The marines gave shouts of appreciation.
A rocket mounted turret on another vehicle sent another Beta-Grimm to its death, and by now there were only five left. Two were cut down with concentrated machine gun fire from four different vehicles.
Chen blocked a lunge from above, holding up his Titan's right arm. This managed to deflect the blow, causing the attacking arm to slide off, leaving the Grimm off balance, and Chen slashed at the Grimm with his left arm, causing a deep gash near the monster's chest. It howled in pain, and it was swiftly finished off with machine gun rounds.
Two Grimm remained, but the killing of the majority of their pack didn't deter them from attacking. As Chen went to deal with one, the other one, which seemed quite fast, had managed to avoid the majority of machine gun fire, and even a rocket. Before Chen knew it, it had smashed into a vehicle, sending it flying against a tree, before exploding, killing everybody on it.
Chen roared in rage. Enough people had already died. He'd be damned before anybody else did.
He ignored the original Grimm he was going after, and went for the one that had just killed the marines instead. The Beta-Grimm noticed and raised up its arm, ready to strike. Chen didn't care, and sliced upwards at the Grimm's attacking arm, severing it off completely, making its attack completely useless. Chen slashed up with his left arm, before slashing back down, and continued this over and over until the beast fell, and lay, not moving. Chen sobbed as he stabbed it time and time again.
"This is for Ryan... For the marines that you killed..." He eventually stopped and his Titan just sunk down onto its knees. He kept on sobbing, even after the last Grimm was killed by a rocket. The marines didn't have the guts to approach him in this state, so they just let him cry for a few minutes.
"Come on son... We're almost there... Then you'll be outta here..." The usually gruff voice of the commander was this time surprisingly comforting and soft.
"Yes sir... Sorry about this..." said Chen quietly.
"You don't have to be sorry for anything. You did your best son... You can't protect everyone. We all appreciate your efforts. We would have lost a lot more men if it wasn't for you."
Chen smiled at the words, and couldn't stop a cheeky comment from passing out of his mouth. "You're pretty soft for a commander..."
There was a snort. "Less of the cheek son, but at least you're cheering up."
Chen smirked and slowly got back up. He shed a final tear for Ryan as the smirk left his face.
"Sorry I couldn't save you pal..."
Chen was sat moping in his room. There was a knock on the door.
"Come on Chen, please try to have fun..." Yang stood at the door with a worried expression.
Chen just sighed.
"Look, we all wish Ryan was still here... But he's gone... You did the best that you could..."
When she didn't get an answer, Yang sighed and opened the door. She saw Chen lying down on the bed.
"Chen... Game Night's not the same without you..."
Chen sat up and looked at Yang. "I just can't..."
Yang sat down on the bed next the Chen and pulled him into a sideways hug.
"You even said it was Ryan's fault, not yours... He was just reckless and wouldn't listen..."
Chen sighed as he let Yang embrace him. "I guess I could join in..."
Yang broke into a smile. "Anyways, Ren's wiping everyone out at Poker, we need you to knock him off his throne."
Chen laughed. "I guess beating Ren in a hand of Poker would cheer me up."
"That's the spirit," said Yang with a laugh. She released Chen and got up. "I'll see you in the lounge then."
"Wait," said Chen as he stood up and followed Yang. "I'm coming now."
Chen had managed to beat Ren with a royal flush. Seeing as Ren and Chen had both gone all in, the former was now out of the game.
"Better luck next time," said Chen with a smirk, as he took in his winnings.
"You got lucky," said Ren with a shrug, trying to play it off.
Chen chuckled and took a swig of beer.
Most of the people there were drinking. It was the best way to unwind after a hard week. Of course you'd be left with a terrible headache in the morning, if you drank that much. Normally that was the case for Yang.
Of course, Ruby was just drinking milk and eating cookies.
Chen, Nora, Blake, Neptune and Sun were playing poker, with Blanc sitting beside Chen, and Sapphire and Ed watching, while Ren sat alone, mulling over his 'defeat' at the hands of Chen. Yang and Ruby were having 'sister time'. Jaune was, unsuccessfully, trying to flirt with Weiss.
Jaune was so oblivious to Pyrrha's feelings towards him. Everyone else knew except from him. Hell, even Ed, who was thicker than a (very thick) plank of wood, knew that she was head over heels for that boy.
Chen managed to get Nora out of the game too, and was feeling happy with himself. He was glad that Yang had persuaded him to come. He decided that, that night, he would just drink all his worries away.
You're a pretty snazzy guy man.
Okay, I didn't really enjoy writing that, but I guess I'm showing you that not everyone safe, even though it was only a character we knew for half a chapter. Anyways, Review to tell me what you think of the story, and Favourite and Follow if you like it :) I'd appreciate any feedback :) Until next time guys!
Name: Blanc Neige
Team: Delta Team
Titan Class: Assassin
Titan Name: Ange Blanc
Titan Colour: White with silver streaks
Modifications: None
Name: Edward Azul
Team: Delta Team
Titan Class: Commando
Titan Name: Orchidée Bleue
Titan Colour: Blue with orange highlights
Modifications: None
Name: Sapphire Moon
Team: Delta Team
Titan Class: Brawler
Titan Name: Clair Lune
Titan Colour: Sapphire with red vertical stripes
Modifications: Nunchucks