"You know I think we shouldn't have picked the place to have a nice and calm talk to be a meatery." Jaune said in a slightly joking but mostly terrified voice as he and Ruby walked down a dark hallway. Ruby sighed at Jaune's negativity.
"Oh come on Jaune I've never been in a meatery before." Ruby tried to lighten the mood but Jaune's mood clearly didn't change. 'Although I guess I've never been in a meatery before…' Ruby told herself silently. 'How would I know if it's a place to have a nice and calm talk?' Ruby just shrugged the thought out of her mind as they continued to walk forward.
Jaune and Ruby followed the hallway to a large open room that had one large rectangle table in the middle and several large hooks hanging on the opposite side of the room the way they came in. The only light source came from three large holes in the celling. The light illuminated the table perfectly but made the hooks look like claws with the light bouncing off them.
The two hunters saw Coco standing at one of the far sides of the table. With her sunglasses still on and her hand bag was lying in front of her on the table. Coco broadcasted an aura of power that would make an Ursa flinch. She was looking forward at Felix and Locus.
On the other side of the table Felix had found a chair to sit on and he was looking around the meatery thinking the same thing that Jaune was, only not voicing it. Locus was taking up almost the exact same position as Coco and projecting the same aura of power. Locus' Railgun was on his back but still looked interesting to Ruby and terrifying to Jaune.
Jaune and Ruby looked between the two's staring contest, they worried that they could set off some kind of explosion or something if they moved. Felix finally looked over to Jaune and Ruby just standing there and grinned under his helmet.
"Well what do you think about the meatery?" Felix asked breaking the serious mood in the room. His question was clearly pointed towards Ruby.
"It's… pretty roomy." Ruby said walking over towards Coco's side of the table. "But I don't think it's up to standards." Off in the darkness a rat could be heard running over the support beams that held up the hooks.
Felix chuckled slightly and sat strait up now looking at Coco. Felix knew that they weren't here to chat. Unless that's what they wanted, then it would be a great idea to chat. "Well… ask away." Felix said nonchalantly as Jaune started to move to Coco's side of the table.
Coco stood there for a second silently studding the two men. "Who are you?" Coco asked with no weakness in her voice.
"That's not what you want to ask." Locus instantly replied in his filtered tone. Ruby and Jaune glanced back at Coco whose expression didn't change in the slightest. She just kept looking forward. The two hunters looked at each other and gulped.
Felix quickly tried to make up for Locus' response. "Sorry for my partner's words. You already know my name, Felix and Mr. Deep voice here is Locus." Felix said in a joking manner. 'Why couldn't you just stay outside?'
"Well um… it's nice to meet you guys." Jaune said very timidly. "My name is Jaune Arc this is-" Jaune was about to continue introductions but was instantly stopped when Coco's shades moved in Jaune's direction.
Jaune put his head down as Coco redirected her attention back on Felix and Locus. Ruby pat Jaune on the back reassuringly. "Need to work at your first impressions…" Ruby said supportively.
"That's not true." Felix said nodding at Jaune. Both young hunters looked back at the relaxed man in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Jaune asked with a clearly confused look.
"Well you show up with some of our best men knocked out and floating in the sky." Felix continued to praise Jaune. "And you guys are only kids; I'd hate to see what the adults could do."
Jaune smiled at Felix's comment but Ruby held her confused look. "Why did you say it like that?" Ruby asked Coco's question for her. Jaune raised an eyebrow not at first getting what Ruby was asking.
Felix sat there as he silently cursed in his head. 'Shit, Note to self don't underestimate the cute ones.'
"Who are you people, and this time I want an answer." Coco now demanded trying to press Felix's moment of weakness.
"We are visitors." Locus said as he took a step forward clearly challenging Coco.
Ruby scratched the back of her head still confused. "Like from another Continent?" Ruby asked trying to block out the clear rivalry between Coco and Locus. Felix needed to make this girl his secretary or something.
Felix quickly recomposed himself as he didn't want Locus to do all the talking in a peace conference. "No um…" Felix didn't want to drop the whole visitors from space card but at this rate they were going to get somewhere that Locus gets to use his guns. "Are you familiar with the term… aliens?" Felix asked after searching for the right words.
Ruby nodded. "An alien is something from an unknown land that moves to another land." Ruby remembered that some of the first stories of Grimm called Grimm alien to the natural world. Ruby's eyes then widened. "Wait are you guys aliens?!"
"Well not… exactly like how you descried them." Felix tried to think of a way to explain it.
"Were your men or yourselves born anywhere on Remnant?" Coco asked looking right at Locus, their wills still clashing.
"No." Locus responded. Ruby gasped as her mind tried to process what Locus meant.
"Wait…" Jaune was clearly confused. "So you guys are from an unknown continent." Jaune had clearly lost track of the conversation at this point.
Felix sighed as he sifted in his chair. "Do you want the quick answer or the long answer?" Felix asked again trying the nonchalantly angle.
"Quick." Coco said crossing her arms. Felix sighed and motioned to Locus who grumbled as he hated explaining things but would give the most 'quick' answer.
"We came from a planet called Earth; we were assigned to come to your planet. You call Remnant, because this planet has a possibly planetary destroying device in or on it." Locus explained which only got looks confusion from the hunters.
"Maybe the long one… but told quickly?" Ruby asked as she scratched the back of her head. Jaune still had a confused face but Coco nodded to Ruby's comment.
Locus and Felix glanced at each other for a second and Felix sighed. "Well… are you familiar with the concept of space?" Felix eventually asked as Locus looked back at the three hunters.
"Like empty space?" Jaune asked still confused at what everyone meant. Coco on the other hand had a good idea on what Felix was talking about.
"Uh… No." Felix looked at the roof trying to think of a way to explain to an alien raise on the concept of the universe. "Well a long time ago there was nothing-"
"Jaune." Coco cut off Felix now turning to look at the leader of team JNPR. "He means that they are aliens from a world similar to Remnant but have a different outlook on the world as compared to us." Coco said with a slightly uneasy tone that made Ruby curious.
"So your people are familiar with the idea of space." Locus said with a slight mix of dominants and a bit of confusion. Ruby looked at Locus then Coco.
'How does Coco know about space?' Ruby marveled for a second but then tried to refocus on the word planet. Ruby was sure she heard of the term somewhere but couldn't place it. "I've heard that word before." Ruby nodded at Felix who was slightly shocked that Coco knew about space and possibly much more.
'Did she know the whole time?' Felix asked himself silently. 'What kind of planet did we stumble across that its native inhabitants are rapid beasts and super powered teenagers? That knows how to speak English!' Felix would need to right himself a note to see a therapist or something later.
"I'm not familiar with that term." Jaune said quickly but was just as quickly he was ignored by the other 4 as each person had multiple ideas running through his or her heads and didn't have time to deal with the blond.
Ruby kept the word planet in the back of her mind and decided to focus on something else. She looked more curiously at Locus and Felix trying to imagine what they looked like under their helmets. 'I wonder if they have strange heads.' Ruby asked herself as she looked at Locus' helmet. 'That thing doesn't look like it would fit on anyone's head…' The other 3 stood at the equivalent of a western stand off as Ruby started to ponder much more trivial things.
"So…" Felix took a more relaxed position in his seat glad that the space card was out of the way. Felix could tell that the idea that they knew about space was hard to grasp but he figured that they could talk about it out later. "Next question?"
Coco still looked to the other side of the table. "What are you doing here? And I'd like the full answer." Felix mentally sighed thanking Coco for the full answer and he started to get ready to speak when Locus took a step forward.
"We are on a mission to investigate a temple that is located in this area." Ruby gave again a confused look at Locus' words and tried to think of any double meanings.
"I assume that this temple is somewhere in Vrale." Coco moved so she was leaning on the table. She had one hand on the table and the other hand was next to her bag.
Felix tilted his head slightly. "Well I assume you saw that huge mountain on your way in." Felix said to Coco's neutral expression.
"I did." Jaune nodded trying to get back in the flow of the conversation.
"The temple is inside the mountain." Locus shifted and reached behind his back. Ruby followed Locus' movement with her eyes mostly curious. Locus pulled out what the hunters guested was his equivalent to a scroll.
Coco loosened her grip on her bag but chose to keep eye contact with Locus. The younger hunters watched as Locus pressed a button and the scroll expanded and he slid it down the long table until it stopped about half way between the 2 groups.
"This," Felix activated a program from inside his helmet and the scroll glowed and a hologram image of a strange… thing appeared over it. "Is the temple we're investigating. Or at least what it's supposed to look like if it didn't have a mountain around it." Felix said with a touch of distain.
Ruby scratched the back of her head. The thing didn't look like a traditional temple or any building that Ruby knew for that matter. The thing looked like a skyscraper… if Ruby tried really hard to compare it to a building but it didn't look anything like a temple. 'But then again,' Ruby asked herself. 'What is a temple? I mean if you think about it…'
Coco had a very similar opinion of the temple but Jaune started to look even more confused. "So…" Jaune tried to whisper out of the corner of his mouth. "Did you know that was in Vrale?" Coco didn't answer Jaune and Ruby's mind looked like it was going a thousand miles per second.
"This place." Locus spoke, again quickly getting the attention of the 3 hunters. "What is this… Vrale to your people?" Locus asked in his demanding tone.
Coco was silent; it was almost like she was either challenging Locus or ignoring him. Jaune glanced at Coco then to Ruby who was looking at Locus but it looked like she was thinking a million things a second now.
Jaune looked back at Locus' intimidating silhouette, and choked under the demanding silhouette. "Well Vrale was a place… that was made in… with uh…" Jaune was stopped by Coco putting a hand on Jaune's shoulder.
"It's just an old town." Coco said in a tone that mixed boredom and intimidation almost perfectly. Locus growled a bit not at all satisfied with that answer, just as Coco hoped.
"What Mr. Grump is asking is…" Felix paused trying to think of what to say. "The reason you're here is because…" Felix motioned back to the hunters.
Ruby bit her lip and glanced at Coco. Ruby had forgotten why they were supposed to do in Vrale in the first place. 'I know we took the mission to see if this was a White Fang base. But now…"
If Felix and Locus were from some far 'planet land then they couldn't have known about the White Fang. 'And I we never told the others,' Ruby felt a slight pain in her heart that she had kept a possibly huge detail secret from both teams. 'Maybe I should tell-'
"The original reason we came here was because the Grimm in the area have seemingly disappeared." Coco said again in the same tone as before. Jaune nodded in agreement and after a second Ruby nodded silently sighing.
Felix and Locus glanced at each other almost like they were having a conversation without saying a word or even reading each other's faces. The 2 men stayed there for a few seconds and eventually looked back at the other end of the table.
"What are Grimm?" Felix asked in a slightly serious tone and Locus watched Coco closely.
"The other 'people' of this land." Coco said with a small smile that clearly got on Locus' nerves.
Felix on the other hand only slumped his shoulders at Coco's response. "Ok that's it." Felix got out of the chair in a calm manner but clearly agitated. "What have we done to you that's making you antagonize us?" Felix asked as he stood on the other edge of the table next to Locus.
"Oh that's just how Coco acts around everyone…" Ruby said quickly already used to stopping possible violent situations from starting. "Think of Grimm like the monsters under your bed or the thing that hides in your closet only a million times-" Ruby was cut off by Coco putting a hand over her mouth.
"Your men attacked my team and Jaune's." Coco glared at the 2 and Jaune rubbed his arm where he was shot when he ran to grab Nora's grenade launcher.
"They only attacked because they saw the flare, which they used when you attacked them." Locus clenched his fist and Felix worried that Locus would destroy another table again. Coco only laughed which threw Jaune and Ruby off a little as they had never heard Coco laugh before.
"That's something else that bugs me," Coco stopped laughing and her face now had a confident grin. "How is it that people from another planet use flares? Seems pretty out of date stuff to me." Coco said with her voice dripping with superiority along with a bit of sarcasm.
Locus was visibly enraged at this teenager who was walking over them. Just before Locus could move Felix put his hand on Locus' shoulder.
"We use the flares because the radio's start to fail around this time of day." Felix quickly responded trying to get back on track. Locus didn't calm down at all but at least it looked like Felix had some kind of way of holding the living weapon back.
Ruby (who still had her mouth covered by Coco) glanced back at the temple that was still in the middle of the table. 'If the temple is something from their… world. But they can't get into it. So…' Ruby continued to think as Coco moved her other hand to her bag.
"So, if you use flares because your technology sucks then what's this?" Coco pulled something out of her hand bag. Both first year hunters looked at the unknown object. It looked like a metal spike that you drive into the ground to help hold a tent down. The only diffrence was that it had tons of lights on it.
"Oh," Felix looked at the object surprised that Coco was holding it. "That is a long range motion tracker. It basically scans the nearby area and tells us that something is in the area." Felix saw a rat run by his feet. "Well… within reason."
"Now how come your radios fail but this thing is able to transmit just fine?" Coco finally took her hand off Ruby's mouth and handed the motion tracker to Jaune. Jaune held the device like a baby afraid that it might explode.
Before Felix could say anything Ruby spoke her idea that she was forced to hold in because of Coco. "It's because of the temple, right?" Ruby looked at the temple then at Felix. "The temple throws of some kind of…" Ruby racked her mind to find the right word. "Thing that messes with your radios every so often and you get… strange messages through the radios."
Locus didn't seem to notice Ruby's idea but Felix slowly nodded. "About every 5 or so hours the communications devices we have get some interesting messages or calls." Felix shook his head at remembering the first time it happened. 'Did not expect to pick up that pizza call.'
Locus looked at Ruby startling the girl a little. "How did you know that our radios picked up lost signals?" Locus asked in a voice still holding back anger. But before Ruby could say anything Coco turned to Ruby getting the girls full attention. This didn't help Locus get over being ignored by someone who should fear him.
"Speaking of which…" Coco pushed up her sunglasses so she could look Ruby eye to eye. "Where is the radio I gave you?"
Ruby almost died under just those words.
"Um…" Ruby remembered Blake cutting the radio Coco's radio in half. "Blake has it!" Ruby yelled thinking Blake could handle Coco's gaze a lot better than she could. Coco nodded and put her shades back over her eyes and was about to turn to Jaune to ask the same question.
"So Jaune-"
"ENOUGH!" Locus yelled slamming his fist into the table and again punched a hole through it. Luckily this table despite being centuries old could take the punch and not crumble to pieces like the one this morning.
Jaune and Ruby had jumped back a little at Locus' outburst but Coco and Felix didn't even seem effected in the slightest. Locus knowing that he had the floor to talk shook off Felix's arm that was still on his shoulder and started to move around the table so he could grab Coco's throat and make her listen to them.
But before Locus could even move from his side of the table Coco grabbed the table and threw it sideways so it went sailing through the air. It crashed into the wall making the foundation of the whole building shake. Little cracks started to form along the wall.
Now nothing was stopping Locus from walking strait to Coco.
"Well…" Coco made clear her challenge. She wants to see if Locus will out right attack her. "If you have something to say. Say it." Coco dropped all emotion in her voice and started to take steps forward.
Felix looked at Locus who started to walk forward taking his Railgun off his back and started to charge it. The Railgun started to give of a blue glow that illuminated more of the room every second. Coco smirked as she also started to walk forward. Her bag was in her right hand.
"I am a trained solder!" Locus' voice boomed through the large room again making Jaune and Ruby jump a bit. "I fought on the front lines of a galactic war! I complete missions no matter the cost! And I don't let a teenage girl TREAT ME LIKE I'M NOTHING!"
"I train everyday pushing both myself and my team past new heights." Coco said in a still loud voice but much calmer tone. "I learn from the people before me… and I learn their mistakes." An image of a closed coffin flashed in Coco's mind for a second but just as quickly flashed out of her mind. "I dedicate my life to my mission and I finish it, no matter the cost."
"But do you know the difference between us." Locus and Coco now stopped exactly half way between the 2 groups. Locus' Railgun was fully charged but he hadn't pointed it at her head yet.
"What?" Coco hit a button on her bag and the black bag changed into its Gatling gun form putting Ruby, Jaune and Felix in shock. Coco held the gun in her right hand like it was the exact same weight as her hand bag.
"What the fuck…" Felix said under his breath. Jaune held on the motion tracker like if he dropped it Coco would turn the gigantic gun and unleash it on him.
"So cool…" Ruby had stars in her eyes as she had wanted to ask what Coco's weapon was from the moment they started this mission. 'So worth waiting a few days for.'
Coco and Locus stood there looking at each other. Even with Locus having a whole extra foot in height over Coco they had the same aura of power. They both wanted to know who would blink first.
"I don't fight the monsters under the bed. I kill the demons that attack from your nightmares."
(-0-) Valhalla Kinda…
Tucker's day started with Wash shooting him up in bed. Then Wash forced him to run laps around Blue base for an hour. Next they were attacked by 3 huge wolf monsters that some lady and Simmons called Beowolfs. And now after barely killing 3 of those thinks Wash wanted to go a hunt a pack of them.
It made perfect sense to Caboose, go figure.
The tracking bit wasn't too hard as the things claws left huge marks in the ground. After they followed the prints they ended up next to a downed Pelican. Next to it they found 3 huge craters.
So logically Wash decided that the next thing to do was to climb up the 2 mile high wall. Instead of you know going off to kill the gigantic Raven on top of Red base. So after about 3 minutes of climbing Caboose, Tucker and Wash where standing on top of the cliff wall.
They could see the whole canyon from here. In Tucker's opinion it looked… ok from here. Not as cool as all the stuff they had to carry with them up the wall.
Wash had his Battle Rifle in his hands and a Shotgun on his back. Wash didn't stop to admire the view as he started to look over the snowy area for more prints.
Tucker had a Sniper Rifle even though he did fell like he should worn Wash that the last time he was given a Sniper Rifle he shot Tex in the back. But what you don't know won't hurt you. Plus he had a Sniper Rifle and his sword this time.
Caboose was even given a working gun aside from the one that normally has. Of course Wash had the ammo for the gun and said he would only give it to Caboose when Wash was about to die. A very wise choice.
Unlike Wash, Tucker and Caboose looked out over the view of the canyon. Tucker kicked some snow of the cliff as he considered something.
"Hey Caboose."
"Yeah?"
"How long have we been here?" Tucker asked in a slightly sad tone.
"About a week, Feels like 7 months though." Caboose completely missed Tucker's question.
"No, I meant how long have we been doing this stuff?" Tucker looked over the canyon again.
"What do you mean?" Caboose asked now a little curious.
"Well… Before these Beowolfs there was the Meta. And before that there was C.T." Wash stopped looking through the snow and started to listen to what Tucker was saying. "And before that there was Wyoming and Gam-"
"Actually it was the Meta before C.T. and then it was the Meta." Caboose quickly corrected Tucker.
"What? No. We only fought the Meta after Church killed C.T. remember?" Tucker then wanted to slap himself for thinking Caboose could remember something that would match reality.
"No… Silly Tucker, You weren't there but Agent Washington got Church and I together to fight the Meta back when he had all his power." Tucker looked at Caboose who returned Tucker's empty look.
"You're saying that the Meta was even tougher then when we killed him?" Tucker had a slight quiver in his voice.
"Well… Yes but anyway I just wanted you to know the right order of everything." Caboose said in a happy tone. "But you wanted to talk about time or… time circles or… stuff…"
Tucker sighed and just decided to give up on the example all together. "What I mean is… how much longer do we have to keep on going on all these adventures?" Tucker looked down at the gigantic Raven sitting on top of Red base looking over the ocean. "If those are kind of things we have to deal with in the future then I think I'm done after this one."
"Well now I know who to use as the bait." Wash stood up after pushing some snow away and finding the 'prints' under the snow. Both Blues looked back at Wash.
"Is it black worms?" Caboose asked thinking that Wash was talking about the Raven.
"Nope. Alright I found the prints, let's get moving." Wash started to walk in the direction of a weird looking mountain with Caboose following closely behind. Tucker only sighed but quickly ran past Caboose so he was walking side by side with Wash.
"Wash." Tucker said in a clear 'I need to talk with you' tone that a father would use if he was talking to his kid. Wash cringed at the thought of Tucker being a father but figured that it would be a bit of walk and everyone would need to be focused on the Beowolfs when they found them.
"Yes Tucker?"
"Can I ask why we are going off on some hunt to find huge killer wolfs because some girls and Simmons told us to." Tucker said in the most sarcastic voice he could muster. "I mean if some girls asked me to go off and kill some wolfs for them I would-"
"I think that those 'girls'," Wash said in a surprisingly calm tone. "Are the people that are supposed to monitor this Red and Blue bases outpost just like the other base you were station at before."
Tucker was silent as he processed what Wash said but Caboose quickly pushed Tucker out of the way so
Caboose was next to Wash. "So we find other Wolfys, then we use the Wolfys to sniff out the girls… and we through them a huge surprise party!" Caboose said triumphantly.
"Ignoring all of that…" Tucker said now a little farther away but still within talking distance. "Why do we need to go after huge wolfs?"
"I think it's some form of blackmail directed at me." Wash said in a slightly serious tone.
"Why does it always have to be black males?" Caboose said in a low tone.
Tucker wanted to hit Caboose but just ignored him "Ok Wash… Let's say they are blackmailing you. How and why would they do that?" Tucker asked in the same tone Wash used on him earlier today.
"First don't talk to me like I'm a kid. Second you didn't call me Church." Tucker looked at Wash for a few seconds as they continued to walk through the snow.
"Are you seriously bringing that up again?" Tucker stared in pure disbelief. "No one who lives here cares if we call you by your Freelancer name or… not…" The gears turning in Tuckers head.
"Exactly." Wash nodded seeing Tucker was having the same realization. "You Red and Blue solders took me in and left my original armor on a dead body. So the UNSC believes that I'm dead, until the people watching this outpost saw one of the many conversations where you mentioned Freelancer code name."
"Wait a second, why do you just assume it's my fault? Caboose could have…" Tucker then remembered that Caboose constantly called Wash, Church. "Well… any of the Reds could have mentioned that some Freelancer is the new leader of Blue base!" Tucker failed his Sniper Rifle around a bit as it was the only thing he could do to vent some anger.
"Do you think Donut mentioned it?" Caboose asked with real concern.
"Caboose seriously!" Tucker shot into the snow to vent more anger. Wash sighed as he looked between Caboose and Tucker. Wash looked back at the mountain and saw they were only bit away now. But now Wash had a question he wanted to ask.
"So… Tucker…" Wash eventually said in a relaxed tone trying to get Tucker back to earth before their fight with more Beowolfs. "You said you fought someone named C.T. right? Care to tell me about it."
Tucker looked at Wash and his mood shifted from anger to overly confident. "Well if you didn't know I killed C.T. by slicing-"
"I actually wanted to know about C.T. and company." Wash cuts off Tucker and just as quickly Caboose jumps in.
"Well Tucker, Donut, Junior, C.T., 4 aliens and Mine all went to the temple of S-and. And then…" Caboose continued to ramble as the group found themselves at the base of the mountain.
Just like the area around it the mountain seemed to have a layer of snow on it. The mountain itself wasn't that large maybe a little bigger than the wall they climbed earlier. However the slope did seem to be rather steep for a mountain. One thing that was a little odd though was that looking straight up the slope you would only see the equivalent of a blizzard; only it looked like it was contained to the top of the mountain hiding the top of the mountain from view.
"Well…" Tucker started to look around the mountain as he talked. "Junior and me were sent to look over a alien temple and it turned out C.T. had other ideas. Like the… 'killing everyone and taking an alien relics and using it for evil purposes' ideas."
"Those are the worst." Caboose added as Wash crouched to push away some the snow.
"By the way…" Tucker directed his voice towards Wash. "Why are you interested at my time at with C.T.?" Tucker asked trying to ask in the most non shallot way possible. Wash sighed and stood back up turning towards Tucker.
"I was just curious when you mentioned C.T.; The Meta and I found her helmet under some sand and tried to figure out how she got there." Wash replied and started to move some more snow to see if he could find more prints that would give him a better clue to go.
"Oh…" Tucker was a little surprised Wash gave him such a straight answer. "Well ok th-". Tucker was about to look up the mountain with the Sniper Rifle but stopped when all of Wash's word hit him. "Wait Wash…"
Wash sighed and glanced back to Tucker. "Yes Tucker?"
"Well… I was just wondering how you knew C.T." Tucker tried to word his question as well as he could without asking his real question.
Wash looked at Tucker for a few seconds trying to decide if he should tell Tucker something or not. "Well C.T. and I joined project Freelancer at the same time. We did a lot of training together… But we didn't stay that way for very long though…" Wash held back something that was clear even to Caboose. Wash had some or felt some kind of regret towards C.T. in some way.
"Was she the other girl?" Caboose asked in a very serious tone that made both men look at Caboose confused. "Was she the girl you planned to marry?"
""What!?"" Both Tucker and Wash yelled in very confused tones.
"Oh- Ah- Sorry see you guys told me a while ago that Church wanted to marry some girl but then Tex came along… and then you couldn't marry. Because you're a cow." Caboose said quickly and Wash just looked at Tucker. Tucker stood there for a few seconds.
"Oh yeah!" Tucker snapped his fingers remembering that old conversation. "Man that was like ages ago Caboose, you have a very select memory."
"Well thanks but it was only 2 year ago." Caboose said a little bashfully.
"What? No it felt like 7 years or something like that… Right?" Tucker scratched his head trying to organize everything that happed from the he first saw Caboose to today.
Wash sighed not wanting to get mixed up in another pointless conversation and turned back to the base of the mountain. Fortunately Wash found exactly what he was looking for under a patch of snow.
It was another crater. 'These things don't like climbing down do they.' Wash said silently and he moved past Tucker and Caboose to see if he could find another 2 craters.
"Hey Wash." Tucker moved so he was trailing behind him. "So C.T. was a freelancer huh?"
"Yes she wasn't the best but she always tried her best." Wash moved some more snow and found another crater.
Tucker flinched a little at Wash's words as the former Freelancer moved this time closer to the base of the mountain. "Well see I wanted to know if… Um…" Tucker couldn't find the right words.
"Is the C.T. a woman!?" Caboose yelled again startling Wash and Tucker. "Sorry. Tucker kept on dogging the question."
Wash almost laughed at Caboose's question but when he looked at Tucker and could tell that Tucker was about to ask the same question Wash stopped.
"C.T. was a… pretty young woman." Wash said the words a little awkwardly.
"Well that makes sense." Caboose nodded at Wash's response. "If she was pretty young then it would make sense that she hit puberty and then got a deep voice."
Both Wash and Tucker looked at Caboose then at each other. Wash held up a hand before Tucker could say anything. "After this… we'll talk about it." Wash then moved towards the mountain wall as Tucker screamed in his head.
'C.T. WAS A GIRL!' Tucker then realized something else. 'IT'S JUST LIKE TEX ALL OVER AGAIN!'
Wash pulled out a combat knife and dug it into the mountain. Just like the wall in Valhalla it looked like the knife would help him clime the wall.
"All right you ready for another clime?" Wash 'asked' as he started his way up.
"I was born…" Caboose never finished his statement.
"Caboose?" Caboose looked towards Tucker. "You were born to do what?"
"That sounds about right." Caboose nodded and walked to the cliff wall. Caboose put his rifle on his back and punched clean into the wall with one hand. Caboose continued to do this until he was keeping pace with Wash.
"You know I keep forgetting how strong Caboose is." Tucker put his sniper rifle on his back and slowly started to make his way up the mountain.
The three blues where able to climb the cliff wall with little difficulty. Minus Tucker who tried to use his energy sword like how Wash was using his knife. But the sword effortlessly cut through all the mountain and Tucker ended up falling behind even more.
"HEY WAIT A SEC!" Tucker yelled as he furiously tried to get back up the wall.
Wash let out a sigh and looked over at Caboose. "Caboose can you go get Tucker?"
Caboose seemed to ponder this for a few seconds and started to climb back down the wall. When Caboose got back down to Tucker he grabbed Tucker by the back of the neck.
"WHAT THE HECK CABO-" Tucker screamed but was almost instantly pulled up to where Wash was catching his breath. Tucker grabbed onto the wall and Caboose let his grip go.
"Hey Tucker, How's your day going?" Wash tried to ask in a way that let Tucker know Wash was smirking under his helmet.
"Well now that I think about it Tucker must be having a pretty bad day." Caboose patted Tucker on the back.
Tucker held back his rage and decided to refocus it on climbing. Wash followed with Caboose close behind. In a few seconds they hit the controlled snow storm and lost long range visibility. Luckily their armor would keep them warm no matter the frost.
"So Wash…" Tucker's voice came over the radio in Wash's helmet because the blizzard was drowning them out. "How many other freelancers are there out in the universe?"
"What do mean?" Wash asked back as a heavy wind knocked a few rocks around him lose from the wall.
"Like are we going to find that these girls are really Freelancer West Virginia and Maryland?" Tucker asked somewhat sarcastically but with enough of a clear tone to show he was serious in the question.
"No. No Freelancers were given those codenames." Wash replied quickly.
"You sure? Not one Freelancer was trained in alien wolf breading and alien wolf training?" Tucker asked in his normal sarcastic tone.
"No."
"Yeah sure even if you didn't have a professional you could still have a file on it and someone could read it." Wash started to get a migraine.
"Like me?" Caboose was not helping Wash's migraine. Tucker was about to give some witty reply but before he could say anything Wash cut him off.
"The only Freelancers that are unaccounted for are agents Utah, Florida and Georgia." Wash started to pick up the pace a bit before the others could say anything. Wash soon disappeared in the blizzard leaving Tucker and Caboose behind.
"So there are other Freelancers…" Tucker said under his breath. "And with our luck their probably going to be like a million other things from Wash's past that were going to have to kill."
"Well you know what they say about the past." Caboose said in a light tone. Tucker looked at Caboose.
"No. What so they say about the past Caboose?" Tucker asked in a very Church like way.
"Well… if your past is what defines you, then isn't your future like a second meaning."
"I think you meant, 'If your past is what defines you then your legacy a second meaning.'" With that Tucker stared to continue up the cliff.
"Meh close enough." Caboose shrugged and started to follow.
Both blues continued to climb up the blizzard infested mountain. Tucker was even starting to find a rhythm to this wall climbing and eventually even the blizzard seemed to end making it even easier to climb. Tucker cleared some of the frost off his visor and could see the top of the wall.
"And… there." Tucker pulled himself up and Caboose soon followed. "Alright lets see if we can find these…" Tucker stopped talking when he looked around the top of the mountain.
The mountain top was mostly flat. Other than several large black rocks the only slope was at the other side of the flat landscape. On the top of the slope was a large pole of light. It seemed to be at the eye of the Blizzard as well. And when Tucker looked around the edge of the mountain top he could see that the Blizzard was still going on around the mountain. It looked like they were in the eye of a tornado, of ice.
"Don't… move…" Wash's voice whispered over the radio. Tucker started to look around for Wash and quickly found him crouching in the nearby snow partly camouflaged by snow.
"Why?" Tucker asked only slightly lowering his voice. "We're alone up here. But if I had to guess those Beowolfs came through that pole thing." It made perfect sense, they tracked the Beowolfs to this spot and here was a classic superhero movie type portal to another dimension thingy.
"You're wrong." Wash pointed his rifle over the snowy field. "Look again." Tucker glanced at the field and remembering he actually had the sniper rifle he used it to get a closer look around the field.
'Rock. Snow. Rock. Portal. Blah, Blah, Blah-' Tucker would have continued but stopped when he saw one of the rocks near the portal roll slightly. Up hill.
Tucker's heart almost stopped. "Wash…"
"I count at least 40." Wash continued as Tucker almost fell to his knees.
"Of what? Rocks? I didn't know you were a rock collector Church?" Caboose was completely oblivious to the amount of shit they were in.
Each one of those black rocks was a Beowolf, and Wash was right. Tucker could see at least 40 rocks all of different sizes the closest was about 4 or so yards away. Luckily it seemed to be trying to want to keep its self in a ball shape.
"Wash let's get out of here." Tucker quickly got down and pulled Caboose down in the snow to. "We could barely fight 3, we would need like an army of guys to fight 40 Beowolfs."
"I can't." Wash looked at the portal and as the blues looked at the pole portal again they could see something in it. "I need to stop these things. Or else I can't complete my mission."
"What things?" Caboose looked at the plans again and finally saw one of the Beowolfs heads poking out of its circular shape. "All my gosh! Wolfy!" Caboose yelled for the whole mountain to hear.
'Wolfy' instantly bolted up and looked right at the three blues. And the Beowolf charged right for Wash.
(-0-) Vrale
Weiss stood with her arms cross ranting about something. Yatsuhashi honestly didn't care what the small girl could be fusing about. The pair stood on the opposite side of the road looking at the entrance of the meatery their respective leaders had walked into; around an hour ago.
Blake, Ren and Fox went up to the more sturdy buildings to keep look out for anything… or anyone. Nora was still helping Zachary patch up some of Felix and Locus' men. Pyrrha, Yang, Velvet offered to help but Zachary seemed too uneasy with just one hunter helping so the 3 were more or less just standing around.
"I mean sure you guys handled yourselves against these people but we don't know who they are or why their here." Yatsuhashi didn't answer, his gaze locked on the empty door way. "But I think we need to prepare for the situation of having to fight our way out Vrale." When Weiss finished her idea with a slight smile she looked at Yatsuhashi to see what the bear man's thoughts where.
Weiss got the equivalent of the arctic shoulder. She was about to say something but Yatsuhashi placed a hand on Weiss' shoulder making her stop before she could let out a peep.
"Check on Velvet for me." Weiss blinked as it was the first time she ever heard him speak before. Weiss stood there dumb founded. "If anything happens to Ruby or Jaune you can blame me." Yatsuhashi said with an undertone that made Weiss nod and walk a little down the abandoned street towards the 3 huntresses.
When Weiss walked up she saw that a few of Felix and Locus' men had woken up and they were glaring at the 3 huntresses. They were probably angry at the fact that they got beaten up by the equivalent of teenagers.
Velvet, Yang and Pyrrha were doing their best to return the angry looks. The only one who could effectively scare with her stare was Yang. Velvet just ending up looking away and Pyrrha would just move her hand every so often and the men that attacked team JNPR instantly grabbed the ground afraid that they would lift off it again.
Nora and Zachary were actually doing a good job helping the wounded. Nora would tear of the section of armor that had a wounded part and Zachary would patch them up. He even offered to fix up the wound in Nora's shoulder but the girl only laughed at Zachary's stupidity.
'Had the guy ever heard of an Aura before?' Nora chuckled.
Weiss walked up to the 3 huntresses after Pyrrha did another wave motion which brought a grin to Yang and even Velvet's face.
"Well good to see you still had some tricks in your tool box." Yang complemented as the men moved in fear of being slammed into the ground again. Pyrrha blushed a little at the complement.
"I think you only made it worse though…" Velvet commented as the solders realizing she wasn't going to lift them in the air their glares only intensified.
"Ahh let them sulk." Yang shifted her weight and looked over to see Weiss walking towards them. "Hey frosty fencer how's the meet-ery of peace?" Velvet gowned not believing Yang could joke about a meatery.
Weiss blinked for a second snapping out of the daze Yatsuhashi's voice put on her. "It's the same as before… now then Velvet how are you doing?" Weiss asked very formally and politely.
Velvet's ears perked up in surprise. "Um… I'm fine thank you for asking." Velvet replied a little confused as to why Weiss asked her specifically. Weiss nodded a small smile on her face as she turned to Pyrrha.
"And how are you doing Pyrrha? I was worried that you pushed yourself by using you semblance on such a large scale." Weiss motioned to the solders and at least one flinched not knowing what Weiss could or would do to him.
"I'm actually doing quite well." Pyrrha spun her spear with a simple flick of the wrist. The spear stopped its point embedded into to the ground. "Thank you for asking."
Weiss gave the same smile as with Velvet and turned towards Yang. "I'm good Weiss." Yang gave a thumps up at Weiss. "Although I'm a little sad that I haven't gotten the chance to punch anything yet." Yang slammed her fists together making all the Solders jump back at the sudden shock wave.
Weiss had a slightly irritated expression but almost instantly her face changed to an expression Yang recognized from Blake the night before. "So… Yang…" Weiss said each word slowly as Yang's face started to drain of its cheery attitude.
"Don't say it Weiss." Yang took a step back. Pyrrha looked confused and Velvet smiled as she remembered Blake doing the same thing to Yang the night before.
"How's Oobleck's paper goin-"
"NO!" Yang yelled cutting Weiss off.
"I mean you aren't doing anythi-"
"NO!" Yang turned to get away from Weiss but Yang tripped knocking her backpack and herself on the ground. The backpacks context spilled out. Yang looked at the books that spilled out and saw her journal facing her. "NO! GET AWAY FRO-"
Yang was cut off when Blake seemingly jumped of one of the roofs and put a hand over Yang's mouth. "Yang stop yelling." Blake looked up at Weiss. "Weiss… don't traumatize my partner."
Weiss crossed her arms and glared at the solders. "You started traumatizing her..." Velvet chuckled a bit glad that her team never went through the constant bickering that team RWBY seemed to have.
'But we still need to communicate a bit better to with other…' Velvet thought as she looked absently at the afternoon sky.
Blake moved away from Yang and picked up the books that spilled out of Yang's pack and started to repack everything much neater when compared to Yang's packing system. When all of the books were back in Blake pulled out a small journal and carefully put the journal into Yang's pack.
Zachary watched the whole exchange and wished Locus had stayed outside with them. "What kind of crazy planet did we stumble on here?"
"Hey!" The solder that Zachary had been patching up snapped him back to reality. "Don't get distracted when you're patching someone up!"
"Shut up Ross!" Zachary put a hand over Ross's helmet as he set Ross's dislocated shoulder.
"A—F-K-U—O!" Ross shouted as Nora walked back over to the two and knelt down so she was at eye level with them.
"Ok all the spare armor pieces and other guys are over there sulking." Nora chimed with a smile.
"Thanks you're a really good battle medic…" Zachary nodded and eventually realized that Nora was waiting for something else to do. "Oh do you think you can carry Ross back to the others. Then you can go back to your friends." Zachary tried for a friendly tone.
Nora smiled and Ross laughed. "I don't need a 4 foot tall girl to carry me somewhere." Ross got up but instantly felt a very strong hand on his shoulder.
"It's ok." In one swift motion Nora was carrying Ross bridal style. "I've lifted things much bigger than you could ever hope to be." Nora turned and started to walk towards the other solders.
"I think she just said your small Ross." Zachary chuckled as he started to follow Nora.
"Shut it."
Ren watched from the nearby rooftop as the three walked back towards the other group. Ren waited until Nora rejoined the other girls. As Nora walked back to the girls she looked over at his rooftop and waved with a grin. Ren calmly waved back and walked back to the center of the roof.
As Ren walked away from the edge of the building Fox jumped from another nearby roof. After Fox giving a thumps up he sat down cross-legged, clearly Fox was just as board as Yang. Ren watched as Fox started to spin his gauntlet blades around his arm in boredom.
Ren was a little surprised as the roomers he heard of team CFVY never mentioned how ADHD Fox could be if he isn't doing or concentrating on something. The same thing happened when they were hunting last night making it very hard for Ren to fish.
To be fair Ren couldn't blame Fox as Ren also had a hard time staying and doing nothing. Ren sighed and looked over the buildings to see if there were any threats approaching that Fox could have missed. 'Of course there aren't.'
Aside from the two groups on the street, Vrale was dead. No sound, no breeze, no smells, barely any wild life in the streets, but tons of seemingly immortal skeletons. Ren couldn't understand it. 'Why did we have to come here?'
Ren didn't mind the fact that he was forced to go on mission over the brake. He didn't even mind that he was told night before he went to sleep. What bothered Ren was the teams for the mission.
'Team CFVY is one of the best second year teams in Beacon so it makes sense for them to be in charge.' Ren looked at Fox as the older teen was now bobbing his head back and forth. 'But the rest of us haven't accomplished that much at our time in Beacon to get that much attentions… have we?'
Ren tried to think back to all the things team RWBY and JNPR had done in past few months. Killing a Deathstalker and a Nevermore was the first thing that came to mind. True it was what most of the other first years thought when either team walked in a room. But any higher year classes would only see it as a good first impression for the teachers.
Ren listed a few other things that the teams had accomplished during their time at Beacon. Weiss fight with a Boarbatusk, Jaune standing up to team CRDL, and Blake and Ruby's run in with Roman Torchwick were the only things that Ren could think of.
The one thing that made the most sense as to why team CFVY even gave the teams a chance was because of Jaune stopping Cardin and his team from picking on Velvet. 'It could be some form of repaying Jaune for helping velvet, but that doesn't explain why they would bring team RWBY. Unless beating Torchwick-'
"Hey Guys!" Ren's thoughts where cut off as loud and cheerful voice called from the street. Fox and Ren both knew the voice and started to head down to see how the 'nice calm talk' went. As both Ren and Fox jumped down they saw Ruby and Coco walking towards Yatsuhashi. The other girls had started to move towards the mini circle.
Ren looked at the empty door way and saw a slightly pail Jaune walk out followed by Locus and Felix. Locus and Felix walked back over to their men and Felix started to shake his head when he saw the pile of destroyed or torn up armor. Jaune stopped next to Coco he was holding some kind of metal spike in his hands for dear life.
"So how did it go?" Weiss was the first to break the ice when all 12 hunters formed their now fairly large circle.
Ruby shrugged. "I mean we were all a little angry and confrontational at first, but we worked it out." Ruby said in her light tone with a bright smile.
"Well who are these people then?" Velvet tilted her head curiously. The other hunters looked back at Ruby who started to look up at the sky.
"Well see… they said they were… um…" Weiss shook her head at her leader. Ruby frowned at Weiss' action. "Hey ask Coco she knew the word of the top of her head." Ruby quickly shifted the focus of the conversation to Coco.
Coco sighed and shifted her weight. "Locus, Felix and their men are… aliens." Velvet gasped but the other hunters just looked confused.
"They're a what?" Yang looked at the group of 'people' now talking with Locus and Felix. Blake silently racked her mind for the familiar term but couldn't remember where she heard it before.
Velvet recovered from her slight shock at Coco's words. "You mean like the ones from that Book we read last year?" Coco nodded. "Oh… when do we kill them?" everyone (even Yatsuhashi) looked at Velvet with a pail face similar to Jaune's.
Coco face palmed. "Not… exactly like the ones we read last year." Velvet sighed in relief.
"Well just for current reference…" Nora stepped in. "Would you care to be clearer with what you mean by aliens… In this case." Nora never heard the term Aliens before but she would never strait out ask such a question out loud.
"Last year ALL of team CFVY," Coco's shaded flashed at the two boys of the team. "Had to read a set of novels covering Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Culture and Science fiction." Fox looked up at the sky while Yatsuhashi crossed his arms and glanced at the dirt.
"So… Aliens have shown up in Remnant before?" Yang didn't understand where this was going. Velvet shook her head.
"No, the Si-Fi book Coco and I had to read," Velvet flashed a look at Fox and Yatsuhashi with a look of pity instead of anger. "Had a creature the author called an alien. Basically the creature came from space and started to kill everyone in a village." Everyone shuttered a little at how casually Velvet was with talking about murder and death.
"So minus the killing us… Well killing us now." Blake looked at Ruby as she started to piece things together. "These guys came from outer space?"
"I know crazy right?" Ruby shook her head still trying to understand it all. "Makes you feel like your apart of a bigger universe we never knew existed."
Coco nodded. "For the most part yes and they will leave and go back to space under one condition."
"I don't like where this is going." Ren crossed his arms clearly displeased.
"Oh you'll love it Ren." Ruby said clearly excited. Jaune just shook his head as Ruby continued. "So they came here to investigate some other alien's temple that's in a dust mineshaft under that mountain." Ruby pointed to the mountain overshadowing Vrale.
"Like a real temple?" Yang looked at the mountain trying to picture a full sized temple inside. "I'm not going to lie… I don't see how that's possible, and wouldn't it be like completely destroyed by rocks? Or something?"
"More importantly… what's so special about this temple that they couldn't have explored the temple yet?" Blake directed her question to Coco who raised an eyebrow at Blake's question.
"What makes you think they had time to explore the temple?" Coco countered in a clearly challenging tone. "They could have landed today and felt like we were just some aliens wanting to kill them so they came to deal with us first?" All of team JNPR and RWBY had a shocked expression on their faces. No one ever talked back to Blake like that. Ever.
For 5 seconds Blake glared at Coco and Jaune thought it would be a repeat of Locus and Coco in the Meatery. Then Blake rolled her eyes as her dimeter switched to be much calmer. "Well I bet some kind of Grimm is keeping them out of the temple and the one condition it that we help them kill it." Blake voiced her theory.
Coco grinned breaking her own imposing dimeter. "Didn't answer my question, but yes some kind of Bat like Grimm has made its nest inside that mountain and we have to kill it."
"Then we should leave." Weiss instantly had all eyes on her. Most notably was Ruby's tearing filled eye.
"Whhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy…" Ruby grabbed on Weiss shoulder. "We haven't found or done anything interesting sense we started this mission." Ruby wined. "And you took my kill with the Boarbatusk!"
"Get off me!" Weiss flailed her arm until Ruby let go and Ruby ended up just drooping her head on Yang's shoulder with tears still in her eyes. Weiss sighed. "Can I at least give the reason why we should leave?" Ruby nodded wiping tears from her eyes. "First, let's say we do go and help Locus and Felix. Then we go up into the mountain and try to hunt down some Bat species of Grimm-"
"Actually Felix was calling the Grimm Roadkill, because it reminds him of things he would see in the road that was run over by a car." Jaune cut Weiss off and almost instantly realizing he spoke out of turn darted to the other side of the circle and behind Yatsuhashi.
"Right. So if the 14 of us go and try and hunt this 'Roadkill'," Weiss shook her head at the stupid name. "We wouldn't know what kind of traits, skills or even how strong this kind of Grimm is. We could be walking right into a slaughter house."
"Had to say it right in front of the meatery didn't you?" Yang joked as Coco nodded both at the joke and at Weiss' point.
"You make a fair point Weiss, but we can't let some unknown Grimm stop us from completing our mission." Coco completely shut down Weiss' argument. "Besides, Felix said that the temple has somehow reactivated and that nothing good can come from that."
Weiss sulked but she was out of her depth here. 'But how is Coco not out of her depth?' Weiss silently asked herself as the other hunters continued to talk.
"What about Locus and Felix?" Ren shifted the point of the conversation to much more known topic.
"Felix is like a much cooler Jaune and Locus is just like uncle Qrow." Ruby said very nonchalantly.
"What?" Jaune poked his head from behind Yatsuhashi and looked at Ruby with confusion and a slightly hurt look.
"Really?" Yang looked at her sister with the same confused look. "You and I remember Uncle Qrow a lot differently."
"Nah. Remember when Qrow took you out into the forest and made you train until your bones felt like jelly and then he took you to get some cookies?" All of team JNPR, the rest of team RWBY, and team CFVY looked at Ruby with a raised eyebrow. "What? That's basically Locus… he just hasn't found his cookie shop yet."
"So he is a kind guy on the inside?" Nora scratched the back of her head.
"Totally!"
"That makes sense." Nora nodded but almost instantly whispered to Pyrrha when Ruby wasn't looking. "I don't think Locus is really like that." Nora whispered and Pyrrha only shrugged.
"So," Pyrrha turned to Coco. "Our mission now is to help Felix and Locus, kill a powerful Grimm and deactivate an Alien temple?"
"About sums it up." Coco nodded and moved so she was looking at all of team RWBY and JNPR. "But one more thing before we start." everyone looked at Coco thinking there was some important last detail that they needed to know. "I wanted to say good job."
"Huh?" All first year hunters said at once. The rest of team CFVY glanced at Coco in a similarly confused way.
"While I haven't seen all of you in action yet." Coco glanced at Ruby for a second. "I do think you all have taken a senior level mission very well." Coco nodded as the 1st years looked back at their group leader.
"Wow! Thanks!" Ruby had big stars in her eyes.
"Wait you took a senior level mission and you brought 2 first year teams?!" Weiss looked slightly pail and Coco only chuckled at the heiress.
"Like I said I think you guys handled it very well. Well at least so far anyways…" Coco grinned at the 8 hunters as she started to turn towards Felix and Locus' group. "And now I theirs no more questions lets go find this Roadkill… and kill it."
(-0-) Red Base's hologram room
"So you're telling me that thing is from Dungeons and Dragons?" Grif asked Simmons from his new Hologram bed.
"Not D&D Grif! Something much worse!" Simmons yelled in a panic walking back and forth while Sarge and Hologram Donut watched from a few feet away.
Sarge wanted to run out of red base right now and see how tough this Nevermo-thing really was. Unfortunately Simmons practically dragged Sarge back down to the hologram room to think up a plan.
But only one plan came to Sarge's mind. "Well how do we kill this Knot sore?"
"Nevermore!"
"Yeah Neverhore, How do we kill this Nererclore then?" Sarge's question only made Simmons more jumpy. "Come on Simmons I need to know!"
"I think the better question is how did Simmons know about the Nevermore?" Donut asked cheerfully while Simmons continued to pace around in a panic.
Grif turned in his hologram bed so he was towards Donut. "Donut the only place Simmons would learn anything is from a book. You should know this by now." Grif scorned in a half asleep voice.
"The internet is rigged!"
"Shure it is." Grif pulled a blanket over his head.
"Simmons! I demand as your commanding Sargent that you tell me how to kill the Heaven's Lenore!" Sarge ordered.
"Sarge its Nevermo-" Donut was about to correct Sarge but Simmons cut the hologram off.
"Donut activate program 4T." Simmons ordered and Donut instantly disappeared and what looked like a huge hologram ball appeared in the center of the room.
"What the-?" Sarge tried to ask but was cut off when Grif was thrown out his hologram bed by Donut.
"What the heck Donut?!" Grif complained as Donut started to pull Grif over to the center of the room. "At least let me get up!"
"But Grif its program 4T!" Donut exclaimed as he continued to drag Grif. Sarge turned to Simmons who was now walking towards the hologram ball.
"Simmons! Explain! Now!" Sarge could barely hold back his anger and confusion.
"Yeah and get Donut of me!"
"Oh come on Grif I'm barely on top of you."
Simmons walked over to the holographic sphere as Sarge, Donut and Grif stood in a row to see Simmons no drought boring presentation.
"Alright Simmons start up your boring talk." Grif said with a minor grown as he put his armor on.
Simmons grumbled a little but cleared his throat and pointed at the sphere. "This," A mini Nevermore appeared in the clear sphere. "Is a Nevermore, The thing I believe is on top of our base right now."
"You aren't sure?" Donut looked questioningly at Simmons.
"Well I didn't go out side of the base to look."
"Well what about a bird call?" Sarge said seeming to interested in the subject of Simmons being possibly wrong. "Does it have a specific call we can use to track it down?"
"Yeah Simmons," Grif started to say sarcastically. "What's a Nevermore's call sound like?"
"I don't know!"
"Well that's nothing like the call I heard." Grif continued to tease Simmons. But before Simmons could create a Meta clone Grif looked to the hologram Nevermore. "But this does look like he thing on our base."
Sarge looked at the hologram bird as well. "Well now that we got teasing Simmons out of the way," Sarge looked at Simmons. "How do we kill it?"
"I'm still more interested in how you learned about a gigantic species of Raven!" Donut cut Simmons off before he could speak. Simmons grumbled again but realized that this was the chance he had to talk about what he did for the past week.
"Well I read about it in a book." Simmons said with clear confidence.
"Like we didn't see that coming. Didn't we address this already?" Sarge and Grif shook their head's, Donut on the other hand seemed way more interested.
"Which book was it?"
"The History of Hunters." Simmons materialized a text book thanks to the hologram room. Donut looked at the book with a mesmerized expression. Sarge on the other hand quickly grabbed the book and stated to flip through it.
"Now then where are the Nervefloor-" Sarge stopped as he realized that each page was blank. "Simmons… books suck."
"Preach."
"Sarge that's just a hologram version of it." Simmons sighed.
"Well what does the REAL book say about them?" Sarge glared at Simmons.
"Actually I'm more interested in how Simmons got the book-" Grif was cut off when a flying Donut slammed into the back of his head.
"Simmons! Kill info! No yore! Now!" Sarge loaded his shotgun. Simmons quickly pointed back to the sphere and parts of the Nevermore started to highlight when Simmons pointed to each one.
"The weak points are its mouth, claws and eyes! But a Nevermore at the size we think it is…" Simmons remembered the pictures of seeing a nevermore tearing out some guy's organs. "Well it would be suicide to-"
"That's all I needed to here!" Sarge ran away from the group as Grif pushed Donut of him for the second time today. Sarge started to walk around one of the pillars and out of Simmons' point of view as Grif walked towards Simmons.
"Thanks a lot Simmons." Grif grumbled as the two started to here an engine roar to life. Grif and Simmons instantly looked back over towards the pillar.
"Uh… Sarge?" The two Reds traded worried looks as a brand new warthog drove around the corner and stopped so Simmons and Grif could get a good look at the vehicles tusks. Sarge jumped out of the warthog's driver seat and looked at Grif and Simmons.
"Men I'd like to introduce you to the red team's brand new Warthog." Sarge looked up at the vehicle he had been saving for his final battle with Wash. "Now with a light weight chain gun so if we get hit be another Meta we can tear it off and unload it right into our enemies throats. It also has a small Concussion Bomb so if another Meta lands on top of our hood they'll find a nasty surprise."
"Now that sounds good to me Sarge." Donut said in his normal cheerful tone but then lowered his head. "To bad I'm just a hologram and can't drive out with you guys into battle." Donut looked back at Grif and Simmons who was still looking at the front of the Warthog.
Simmons looked at Grif and Grif looked back at Simmons. "You can have shotgun Simmons." Grif started walk back to his bed.
"Grif you're driving! Simmons you get the chain gun." Sarge walked over to the shotgun seat and jumped in. "I'm on killing duty." Grif's shoulders slumped.
"Sarge wouldn't it be a good idea to call the blues…" Simmons stopped when he saw Sarge turned to look at his and just silently stared at him. "Right…"
"Well good luck you guys." Donut said back in his happy tone as he pulled Grif back to the Warthog screaming and flailing.
"We don't need it." Sarge loaded his Shotgun again dramatically.
"I swear if we die don't make a hologram copy of me." Grif complained as he was thrown into the driver seat.
Simmons turned to Donut before he got onto the back gun. "Donut if we don't comeback in 48 hours start up program 3D."
"Alright." Donut nodded and instantly disintegrated into hologram particles as Simmons got on the main gun.
"Alright men let's kill this giant raven so it's," Sarge paused dramatically as Simmons and Grif looked at each other and back at Sarge. "No More." Both solders groaned. "What?"
"Just… not your best one liner." Grif grumbled as he put the Warthog into gear and started to drive up the ramp and past their rooms.
"Oh wait a sec Grif." Simmons got off as the warthog. Sarge saw Simmons run towards their rooms and out of their point of view.
"Simmons this is no time to go cower in your room!"
"Yeah Simmons if I die out there I don't want it to be with Sarge. No offence."
"None taken and ditto." Before Sarge and Grif could go track Simmons down Simmons ran back in the main room with his rocket launcher and something Sarge couldn't quite make out on Simmons' back. Grif recognized it instantly.
"SIMMONS NO!" Grif jumped out of the Warthog and ran over to Simmons and tried to pull him away from the Warthog.
"Grif get off me!" Simmons tried to flail Grif off him without activating the rocket launcher. Grif pulled Simmons far enough so they were out of ear shot.
"What are you doing with the weapon of Grif!" Grif whispered very angrily as Sarge jumped out of the Warthog. "Do you have any idea what could happen if Sarge found out that I had that!"
"Like what?!" Simmons yelled not trying to angry whisper like Grif. "What would happen!?"
"Both of you stop fighting!" Sarge yelled and Charged through the two knocking them to the ground. "Reds can't fight each other at a time like this. We have to stand, and fight together." Sarge was about to take up a heroic stance to continue talking but he saw the Meta's weapon on the ground.
"Sarge…" Sarge looked at Grif with an aura of pure silence. "Dibs." Sarge grumbled and walked back over to the Warthog grumbling about the rules of dibs never working in his favor.
"Something was going to happen right?" Simmons joked as he walked past Grif and got back on the Warthog.
"Shut it Simmons." Grif put the weapon on his back and walked back towards the driver seat.
"Alright team now let's make this Raven roadkill!"
"Now see that's more affective because we're actually in a car."
"Shut it Simmons."
(-0-) Vrale Mines
"This is so cool!" Ruby giggled with stars in her eyes as she walked through the dimly lit cave.
"It is very interesting." Weiss commented as she felt a cold water drop hit the back of her neck. "Gah!" Weiss jumped forward and swatted the back of her neck.
"Oh come on Weiss." Yang patted Weiss on the back. "Nothing here is going to jump at you. Right Locus?"
Locus grumbled menacingly behind the girls. Ruby only smiled at the supposed to be scary and intimidating response. Thankfully Weiss and Yang took it as how it was supposed to be received and continued to walk.
"Well yeah… let's just keep an eye out for this Roadkill Grimm." Weiss stuttered and wondered why they were kept at the back with the guy who hated Hunter's guts.
From the back to front was Locus, Yang, Ruby and Weiss's group. The next group was a few yards ahead consisted of Blake, Nora, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Velvet following the leading group. This group was made up of Ren, Felix, Yatsuhashi, Fox and Coco.
Felix was trying to make some conversation but it was hard as he was stuck with the most anti-social hunters out of the 12 hunters. But every time Felix wound want to stop and wait for the next group to catch up Yatsuhashi would stop effectively blocking the passage so Felix couldn't turn around and the orange man was forced to keep walking.
The middle group was the most vocal of the three groups. But only because Nora kept refuting that Jaune didn't pick up her weapon. Jaune and Pyrrha tried to explain that he did and it ended up being a pointless back and forth.
Blake and Velvet walked slightly ahead of them so they could keep them moving forward in peace.
Velvet was frantic at every sound and Locus' growl was no different. She looked back at the back group and could only be amazed at Ruby's level of acceptance with Locus' terrifying nature.
'But,' Velvet thought to herself. 'It's not fair to be scared of this guy if what they said was true. But if he is really an alien then-' Velvet's thoughts where interrupted when she felt someone poke her arm.
Velvet almost jumped but it was only Blake who had a face of pure calmness despite Velvet's reaction. Everyone else around didn't seem to pay any mind to Velvet's small outburst ether.
'They might actually be used to me by now… I know everyone else is used to me being a coward.' Velvet shook her head and looked back at Blake. "Uh… yes… Blake, May I do something for you?" Velvet almost slapped herself in forehead. 'May I do something for you? Really? This is the one person that might sympathize with you and you go off and say-'
"What's her deal?" Blake again cut off Velvet's thoughts. Velvet just looked at Blake with a confused expression. Blake pointed at Coco who was walking through the tunnels like it was a marble palace and she was the queen.
Realizing that Blake wasn't going to repeat her question Velvet immediately responded. "Oh Coco?" Blake nodded. Velvet looked at a stalactite up on the ceiling trying to thing about how to answer. "Um… What do you want to know?"
Blake looked at Velvet for a while and Velvet almost tripped because she couldn't break eye contact with suck a serious gaze. "Why is she so reckless?" Blake finally asked and Velvet looked a little surprised at the question.
"What do you mean, reckless?" Velvet never thought Coco as reckless. Confident and determined were better words to describe Coco, not reckless.
"She accepted a senior level mission and brought two freshmen teams instead of senior teams that had much more experience than us." Velvet was about to say something but Blake cut her off again. "And now she's working with strangers who we shouldn't really trust."
"I agree." Ren seemingly materialized on the other side of Velvet making her bolt away in shock. "She allowed our teams to go on a mission we aren't ready for." Both Ren and Blake looked at Velvet from both sides.
"So… um…" Velvet would have called for help but she could tell that her team was busy watching Felix. Velvet gulped as she recomposed her thoughts. "Are you asking me if Coco's reckless or why your teams are here?" Velvet tried to challenge the two teens.
Both teens looked at Velvet. "Both." Velvet made a somewhat sour face that switched to a small frown as she looked down at the ground as they walked.
"Coco is confident… but she's also very interested in… legacies." Both Blake and Ren looked at each other quizzically but they looked back at Velvet as she continued. "Coco wants to focus on the hunters that came before her when she first enrolled into Beacon. She would push herself, and us, to be just as good as some of the greatest Hunters in history. You could say their her heroes…"
'Like Ruby…" Blake thought back to when Ruby told her about how Yang would read her stories about hunters and huntresses every night before going to sleep. 'I wonder if Coco's a preview of how Ruby will be next year.'
"So Coco wanted to see if we could be legend material?" Ren's question brought Blake back to reality. Velvet nodded but then shook her head.
"Coco wanted to prove that she could surpass both team JNPR but… mostly to prove that she's better than team RWBY." Blake looked at Velvet clearly caught between confusion and a bit of pride.
"Not that I'm offended you don't think my team is that good," Ren cut in allowing Blake a second to recompose herself. "But other than the obvious heiress. Why would Coco fell more of a rivalry with team RWBY?"
"Oh, well there's nothing wrong with team JNPR…" Velvet looked back over her shoulder and over Jaune's… torso for a second before snapping back to the conversation. "But Coco doesn't feel a rivalry with team RWBY, more like she feels they have the advantage over her and she wants to prove that they don't."
Ren furrowed his eyebrows trying to understand what Velvet meant. "You mean because of Qrow?" Blake asked and Velvet's face looked a little paler than normal. "I know Ruby was accepted early into Beacon because she was specially trained by her uncle."
"That's only the tip of the iceberg..." Velvet sighed. 'Can't back out now.' "Not counting Qrow, Ruby and Yang for that matter had access to 3 other instructors to help them become better hunters from childhood."
"So 4 in total?" Ren could guess 2 counting Qrow but 4.
"Yang's genetic mother and her genetic father; Ruby and Taiyang Xiao Long along with Qrow Branwen and Ruby's genetic mother, Summer Rose where all members of team QRTS. The members of team QRTS where one of the best teams that ever graduated Beacon and… Coco idolized them." Velvet explained with some curious looks from Blake and Ren as they tried to connect the family tree in their heads.
"So…" Ren had a genuine look of confusion. "Yang's mother was named Ruby Xiao Long…" Velvet nodded. "But Ruby's mom was named Summer Rose…" Velvet nodded. "And Summer named her daughter Ruby?" Velvet shrugged.
"So… Yang and Ruby are half-sisters." Velvet nodded, Blake glanced at her partner. 'That could explain a few things…' Blake silently pondered before looking back at Velvet. "What about me, what about me would make Coco interested in team RWBY?" Velvet's face went pail again.
"You where… the…X factor, we knew nothing about you… So Coco wanted to try and figure you out." Velvet tried to dance around the fact that they knew Blake was a member of the White fang. "And Weiss, like Ren said is the oldest heiress to the Schnee dust company and managed to become a huntress top of her class."
"You do your homework." Ren said in what sounded like a complement but Velvet couldn't be sure with that tone.
"Well that's all Coco would tell us before we set out. Know your team and all that." Velvet chuckled a little as her ears suddenly perked up. Velvet stopped right when she heard it and a few yards ahead Fox stopped as well.
"What the?" Velvet's eyes were instantly confused at what she was hearing. 'Is that a heartbeat?'
"What's the hold up." Locus saw Fox and Velvet stop and pulled out his S.A.W. and activated his motion sensor. 'Nothing.'
"Yeah! Velvet why you stoppin our hunter wagon of awesome-ness? Ruby crossed her arms trying to look cool. Ren and Blake looked at the girl Coco had considered better than her with slight frowns. "What?"
"Keep an eye on your surroundings Ruby." Weiss told her leader as she pulled out Myrtenaster.
"What?!"
"Hey Locus?" Felix said over the helmet radio so no one else in the mineshaft could hear him.
Locus grumbled but turned on his helmet radio and off his outer speakers so he couldn't hear Weiss and Ruby argue. "What."
"Get ready, I think where almost on." Felix said somewhat smugly as he deactivated his radio so Locus couldn't respond. Locus growled and started to move forward.
"Seriously guys what's with those looks?" Yang was slightly confused as to why Ren and Blake would be giving such strange looks at her little sister.
"Just… lamenting…" Ren grumbled quietly, Blake nodded with Ren's statement. Velvet chuckled a little as the rest of team RWBY and JNPR were clearly confused by Ren's words.
"What are you guys talking-" Ruby felt a push as Locus pushed past both groups and started to walk towards Felix's group as they walked into a more open space. "Hey Locus where are you going?"
Locus felt a pull slowing him down. "Get off." Locus continued to drag Ruby as her boots dug into the dirt floor.
"But you're supposed to stay back here with me- I mean us!" Ruby quickly corrected herself as Weiss face palmed along with almost everyone else except Nora who was silently laughing at Ruby.
Before Locus could turn around and shoot Ruby Coco's voice boomed through the shaft. "Come on there's a room up ahead! Bicker there!"
Ruby quickly let go of Locus. "Ok Coco!" Ruby quickly moved in front of Locus blocking his path. Again. Locus growled to get Ruby to try and move faster but Ruby only moved so she kept a happy pace.
"I can't believe Ruby's that brave for some one time crush." Jaune gave a sum what silly laugh.
"Yeah…" Velvet looked over Jaune again. "But she's a big girl and she can make her own decisions of who she can like."
"Not if others don't approve." Yang's eyes flared as she looked at Locus. "And I don't."
"Yeah." Pyrrha put a hand on Velvet's shoulder making the Faunus girl jolt. "I mean Locus could have some sweet heart that he has back home." Velvet's shoulder started to hurt. "So maybe we shouldn't let Ruby get too attached."
"Love your train of thought Pyrrha." Yang nodded in approval and quickly followed her sister along with everyone else except for Pyrrha and Velvet.
The pair stood in the damp and dirty cave for a few seconds. Velvet coughed awkwardly.
"I guess…" Velvet tried to move but Pyrrha's grip was stronger than a snakes. "We should see what Coco wants…" Velvet pried herself lose but as soon as did she felt the snake made another grab.
"Hey Velvet…" Pyrrha said in a low but sweet tone. The two girls started to walk to Pyrrha's slow pace. "Mind if we talk for a second?"
'Why me?'
After walking into the room and looking at it Locus could tell that this was probably a part of the alien temple. 'If the room wasn't a big enough clue.'
The room had a radius of 7 meters and had large walls that formed into a dome at the top. Along with an overall circle design it was humming like a heartbeat. The temple was defiantly active, but how to proceed. The only entrance and exit was the way they came in.
Another thing that was kind of weird was the floor and walls. They were pure white with no marks from the cave or just anything in general. It was like stepping in a heated house on a chilly winter night.
"I'm thinking a secret door way." Felix's voice made a small echo in the dome room. Felix was looking over one side of the wall while the hunters stood closer to the center of the room looking at the Si-fi like room in amazement.
"Maybe." Locus walked over to the opposite side of the wall and studied the wall much more carefully then Felix was. He saw what looked like thin blue lines run all across the surface. 'Power lines…'
"Oh come on it's the only thing that makes sense!"
"I didn't say no."
"Well… at least say good deduction or something." Felix grumbled.
"And you guys say Ruby and I have a hostel relationship." Weiss said in a sum what smug tone.
"We never said that." Blake said absently looking over Gambol Shroud thinking over what Velvet told her.
"Yeah what are you talking about Weiss?" Yang looked over at Weiss with a flailing Ruby trapped in a headlock so Ruby couldn't run over to Locus.
"Yeah you two just need to talk out your interests more." Coco said offhandedly as her team walked over to Locus. Coco smiled as she could hear Weiss' blank expression but almost instantly dropped it when she stopped next to Locus.
"What do you want." Locus didn't turn around still looking over the walls glowing marks.
"Report." Coco demanded and almost instantly Locus did a 180 to get right into Coco's face.
"You are not my superior."
"But we are working for the same goal. Stopping this temple from activating and hurting my world." Fox would have traded a worried look with Yatsuhashi but he had no idea what his teammate's face looked like. "Now Report."
"…" Locus just looked at Coco for a long time. "It's already been activated for a few hours now."
"What?" Coco's expression shifted from a serious tone to a more scared one.
"You really think so?" Felix shouted from the other side of the room. "But none of our guys hit any buttons… and no one else came down here…"
"Wait what happened?" Ruby stopped her flailing so she could understand what was going on.
"We were too late." Coco wanted to punch the temple in frustration. Almost all of team RWBY and JNPR looked defeated at the knowledge that they were too late. The only two out of the 8 that didn't seem as grim were Ruby and Nora.
"Well if you can't save your planet, break the doomed parts." Nora's weapon changed to its Hammer form and Ruby transformed Crescent Rose to its scythe form.
"Couldn't say it any better myself." Ruby took aim at Felix's side of the dome while Nora jumped and was about to slam her hammer into the floor.
"Stop!" Coco yelled and while Ruby hadn't fired yet Nora couldn't stop her war hammer's swing. Everyone in the dome shielded themselves for what they expected to be a large explosion of alien electricity or something.
But nothing happened.
"Um…" Jaune slowly opened his eyes. "Wasn't there supposed to be a bang?"
"I think it would be more of a crash thing right?" Nora said a little disappointed. "But this guy just up and got in the way." Everyone looked at the bottom of Nora's hammer and saw-
"FOX!" Coco grabbed Nora's hammer and threw it of her partner. After a second of checking for his pulse she sighed and stood up. "You idiot!" Coco kicked her pancaked partner angrily and Fox groaned.
"Hold on I'm a really good battle medic! Zachary told me so!" Nora crouched down and slowly helped Fox to his feet. Fox seemed to blush as he realized who was helping him up and he bolted back over to Yatsuhashi.
"To be fair he did just save our lives." Felix pointed out. "And just to be clear you aren't too late to save your planet."
"WHAT!" Weiss stamped her foot. "Why tell us that then?!" Felix shrugged as Myrtenaster started to glow bright red in Weiss' grip.
"Hold on Weiss," Blake stepped between Felix and Weiss directing her attention to Felix. "What is the temple doing then?" Felix shrugged again.
"My best guess is that it's charged and waiting for some kind of trigger to activate." As Felix said that Velvet walked into the room with a face that resembled pure defeat. Velvet looked around the room and walked next to Yatsuhashi.
The bear man was trying to help Fox recover from his Hammer intercept and looked confused as to why his partner looked like she had seen the end of the universe. Everyone else just looked at Velvet somewhat passively.
Jaune realized that Pyrrha wasn't here and that she was talking to Velvet before they entered the temple. "Hey Velvet-"
"AH!" Velvet dashed behind her partner and slammed her forehead right into the back of Fox's head. Yatsuhashi now looked at his partner and teammate with pure confusion.
"Um…" Jaune lowered his waving hand. Yatsuhashi's gaze instantly shifted to Jaune and Jaune ran to Felix's side of the room. Coco sighed as she started to hear footsteps for the mineshaft.
'There's you girlfriend Jaune.' Coco thought absently as she tried to regain her thoughts. "So is this room a dead end? Because this was the only way I saw to get in." Coco said partly angry but mostly because she couldn't deal with Fox's stupid crush or Velvet freaking out about some arc boy right now.
"No." Locus looked back at the wall. "Our men walked through here and were ambushed in a large cave like room with large stalagmites and stalactites. So we haven't run into a room like that means-"
"It's like a maze!" Ruby cried with excitement.
"That only has dead ends and a monster in it." Weiss said in the exact opposite tone.
"Ah ah ah, Roadkill. Took me a lot of time to think up that name." Felix complained as he patted the still cowering Jaune on the shoulder.
Before Weiss could say anything the entire room flashed bright red effectively stopping all conversations.
"I didn't touch anything!" Everyone looked at the only exit to see Pyrrha. It looked like she had taken one step into the room and caused the temple to react.
"See." Felix pointed to a red dot under Pyrrha's foot. "Trigger."
With that a large red crack seemed to form on the dot and sped to the other side of the dome. The crack split right down the center of the room effectively cutting the room in two. Once the crack hit the other end of the wall what looked like a large wall of fire started to erupt from it.
"Nora move!" Ren yelled run towards his child hood friend. Nora looked under her and noticed that the Red crack was right under her.
'I'm going to die to alien fire…' Nora contemplated that realization for a millisecond as the wall of death rushed to her. "I'LL KILL IT-" Before Nora could swing Fox punched her off the crack and into Ren's arms as the Red wall zoomed by. Pyrrha rolled out of the way of the wall as well as Weiss and Yang dragging Ruby.
Everyone shielded their eyes as a blinding red light filled the dome room.
Coco was the first to recover from the dazzling light. "What happened?" Coco quickly looked around to see what happened.
All of her team was present albeit a little shaken up. Fox was slowly standing up and shaking his still probably concussed head. Yatsuhashi had leveled his sword as he was still blinded from the light and couldn't tell if they were safe.
"Yatsuhashi were good." Coco grumbled as she cracked her knuckles and neck.
"Where's Velvet?" Yatsuhashi lowered his sword and started to rub his eyes.
Coco looked around and spotted their Faunus. It looked like Velvet had jumped back when the wall blinded her and she broke through the wall slightly creating a small open hole in the wall. She was waving het feet from out of the hole telling Coco she was fine.
"Guess Felix was right about the trigger." Coco reached for her handbag on the ground. "Speaking of which…" Coco looked around the dome room.
The room looked exactly the same only slightly darker and the only entrance wasn't there anymore. But something a bit more demanding of a problem was the amount of people in the room. Aside from team CFVY it looked like no one else was in the room.
For a second Coco panicked that they were dead.
"No… I lost them…" Coco almost fell to her knees a spike of fear hit her heart. "no… just when…"
"Their alive." Instantly Locus had Coco's Chain gun right in his face.
"What happened to them!"
"Calm down!"
"NO!" Coco threw her Chain gun to the ground and grabbed Locus by his throat making everyone in the room on edge. "You explain what's going on! You know about this Temple! WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM!" Coco pulled back her fist.
Locus just stood there, ready for the punch.
"COCO STOP!" Velvet grabbed her leader's fist. Coco's anger stopped for a second so she could look at her teammate.
"Velv-" Coco was cut off by a strong kick to her gut. Coco slammed into the wall on the opposite side of the room. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" Coco was about to charge at Velvet when Fox dashed in front of her.
"You aren't Qrow!" Yatsuhashi's words stopped Coco cold. "Don't believe that your teammate's will die just because you aren't there for them."
Velvet took a step forward with both fists clenched at her side. The two girls stared at each other.
"I know you push yourself for the mission sake." Velvet almost broke in tears but held Coco's gaze. "And you didn't feel like telling us because we might not want to go after failing the last mission we were on." Velvet clenched her fist around what looked like piece of scrap metal as she talked.
"Velvet…"
"And you feel like it was your fault I got picked on without you guys there to protect me from bullies." Velvet forced the words out as Locus watched from behind her. "But I am strong enough to defend myself!"
Velvet swished her hand in front of her and the piece of what she thought was scrap metal from the wall reacted. The alien device powered up and what looked like a set of large blue blades sprung out of the alien metal.
"AH!" Velvet instantly dropped the alien temple's great key in a panic. The alien sword fell into the floor with a hissing sound as it tore through the metal.
Coco looked at Velvet's panicked expression and Coco started to break out laughing. Fox sighed in relief as he didn't have a clothes store to calm his partner down like last time. "Velvet… everyone…" Coco had a small smile as she talked. "I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted." Fox nodded agreeing with Yatsuhashi's words and Velvet let out a sigh of relief.
"Good you're done." Locus moved so he was in front of Velvet. "I can tell your friends are still alive because the bio-feed on Felix is still on line." Locus pointed to his helmet.
Coco looked back at Locus with her neutral expression again. "And you believe Felix is with team RWBY and JNPR?"
"Yes. I believe both groups were transported to different parts of the temple when that Red light blinded us." Locus pointed to Velvet. "And she is going to get us to them."
"M-me?" Velvet looked a little panicked but shook herself out of it. "What do you need me to do?" Velvet asked in a much more serious tone.
"That sword can access certain parts of these alien temples; unfortunately none have ever been recovered. Until now." Everyone looked at the still activated great key digging into the ground.
"So we just use this," Yatsuhashi picked up the great key Excalibur style. "And it will lead us to the others?" Just then the energy blades disappeared. "Huh?" Yatsuhashi looked absently at the piece of metal in his hand as he swished it threw the air for a few seconds.
"Why did it do that?" Velvet asked as Locus walked over and after a second Yatsuhashi gave Locus the metal.
"Because only you can wield it, so when someone else tries to use the key it will deactivate." Locus threw the metal and Velvet caught it. "All other great keys we've found so far were destroyed or already imprinted on someone else."
"Ok…" Velvet nodded and held the metal in her hand. Everyone looked at Velvet as she looked at the metal in her hand.
"…"
"…"
"ON!" Velvet pointed the piece of metal in the air but nothing happened. "Um… how do I turn this thing on?" Locus walked over to Velvet and puts her hand over her power button. The sword activated and all of team CFVY looked with satisfaction.
"Now point it at the wall." Locus pointed it to a side of the wall that would have been the opposite side of the entrance that they walked through to get into the original room. "Now in most temples there's a room at the center that acts as a 'main hall'." Locus started to explain as Velvet walked over to the wall.
"And from this main hall we can try and find everyone else." Coco finished Locus' train of thought for him.
"Right. But…" Everyone looked back at Locus. "Remember why you're here."
"Roadkill. We still need to kill this Bat Grimm." Yatsuhashi actually liked the name for this new Grimm. It was an accurate name for what he was going to do to it. 'Minus the road part.'
"Right, and from the recording we have of it; it looked like it attacked the person in front. So keep that in mind." Fox stared blankly at Locus and at the same time Velvet realized if a door opened at the wall while she was opening it.
"You mean it will attack me first?!" Velvet looked at Locus slightly shocked.
"You have fast reflexes and I've figured out you're the reason your team was able to detect our men when they had their active camo on." All of team CFVY traded looks and Fox coughed slightly.
"Yep… all me…" Velvet scratches her ears but quickly gets back her courage. "Alright!" Velvet points the sword at the wall. "Open!" Velvet slashes the wall and a section of the wall disappears and a small door way appears.
For a second everyone tenses ready for something to charge out of the doorway.
But nothing.
After scanning the hall Locus lowers his weapon. "The hall way is clear. Let's get moving to the main hall, but keep on guard." Locus walked through the door with his S.A.W. pointing down the dark hall. All of team CFVY looked at each other and pulled out there weapons and followed Locus.
As they walked through the hall Velvet's new sword was the only light source for the group. As they walked their own shadows danced around them. Giving the illusion that clawed hands where trying to grasp them.
As Locus continued to walk forward his radio started to receive a weak signal. Locus picked up the signal as the 5 continued to walk through their own shadows.
"Felix this is Locus," This time Locus forgot to deactivate his exterior speakers so team CFVY could hear every word that was spoken. "We've found this temple's great key and are moving to this temple's main hall. Try to regroup-"
"DddddddUuuuuuuuSssssssTttttttt…"
Locus slowed down and activated his radar as the strange sound that was clearly demonic in tone continued. Team CFVY slowed their own pace as well as the voice continued.
"Lllllllliiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggggs…"
As the voice echoed again the hallway seemed to change its Si-Fi texture. The polish walls started to break a part as mud and roots started to take over. Soon it looked like they were walking through a destroyed and aged version of the alien temple.
"Hi."
Just as that last syllable hit the group's ears the floor under them clicked and became the equivalent of a super powered treadmill. Luckily everyone was able to stay on their feet as they quickly approached the end of the hall.
"Jump!" As everyone jumped and rolled they found themselves in a large room. "Keep on your guard!" Team CFVY quickly got to their feet and formed a wall in front of Locus who was as scanning the area for any movements.
As Locus scanned the large cave he started to take in every detail. The room they were in was a dome room similar to the one they were in before only gigantic enough to be a plague. That was the only similarity thou, as the only Si-Fi related material was a large beam of white that was the only source of light for the room.
However the rest of the room was covered with stalagmites and stalactites along the roof and floor of the cave. And with the beam of light on the far side of the cave the ites cast shadows across the group.
From the group's point of view it looked like they were looking into the mouth of a beast.
"I can't track any movements in here!" Locus focused his attention to the hallway behind him as the empty hallway closed behind them with a large slam, forming a stonewall. "And now were trapped."
"I wouldn't think of it like trapped… Soldier." A voice echoed through the large cave. Team CFVY pointed their weapons at the source of the voice a few feet in front of them. Locus slowly turned to the familiar voice.
Velvet was the only one who could see through the vial of darkness and she wished she didn't. She watched as another armored man similar to the armor Locus and Felix's men whore 'Hatched' out of one of the stalagmites and walked into view of everyone else.
"Who are you?!" Coco demanded with her Chaingun ready. Locus looked at the man with seemingly no reaction. The rest of team CFVY had their weapons pointed at the stranger.
"Why my name is-" Just before he could continue a blast of blue light hit him right in the chest. After a second of shock team CFVY looked back to see Locus holding his Railgun. "WhY tHat'S JuSt meeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnn…" As the voice drowned on the body seemed to disintegrate into black smoke.
'Just like a Grimm…' Coco thought as Locus moved so he was now standing side by side with team CFVY. "Who was that guy?"
"He was my commanding officer for 6 years. I killed him 2 years ago." Locus said ominously as he started to charge up his Railgun again.
"And you didn't even hesitate to kill him! I love that in a man." The same voice from over the radio half chuckled half echoed through the large cave. Then a blob of black slime dripped from one of the stalagmites and landed behind one of the stalactites out of view.
"But then again…" The voice started to change and this time everyone recognized the voice. The rock shattered and Nora stepped out from the ruble. The only difference between the real Nora and this one was its blood red eyes. "It's much more fun to mess with the young ones..." Fake Nora gave a kiss in Fox's direction. "Hey Foxy."
Fox charged the fake Nora and tried to slash of her head. But just before the blades could connect fake Nora's body seemed to morph down so it wasn't even close to Fox's claws. And he was left wide open to a punch through the gut.
Fake Nora laughed as a large black claw formed over her hand. "You'll taste delicious-" Just before she could kill fox Yatsuhashi's sword slammed into fake Nora. Just as fake Nora could land on the ground Velvet quickly charged and using her new sword slashed her into bits.
Velvet was about to catch her breath but she jumped back as a new slime crashed down right where she was standing. "You've got to be kidding me. What the hell is this! Who are you!" Velvet yelled at the cave as the slime started to form into a large humanoid.
"I'm just sifting…" The humanoid formed into a large male with a White Fang mask covering his whole face. "Through your failures…" A large black chainsaw formed in his hands and he leveled it at Yatsuhashi's blade. "We never did test which blade was stronger… Boy-"
"STOP IT!" Coco's Chaingun unloaded into the fake Lieutenant. The Lieutenant was torn to bits in seconds and only black smoke was left. "Now reveal your self! You can't defeat us with the monsters in our closet."
"Your right…" The demonic voice seemed disappointed. "And it wouldn't be any fun to just eat you all at once…" Just then 5 larger slime blobs crashed into the stalactite field just out of view again.
"Get ready!" Locus yelled as he pointed his fully charged Rail gun. "There coming-" Just then Locus' rail gun jerked back like it was hit with a strong gust. "Shit!" Locus saw bits of pulsating black slime eating through the weapon. Locus threw the gun and it exploded lighting up the whole cave; and reveling the real monster.
All along the top of the cave was the same kind of black slime creeping pulsating like a heart. In the split second for everyone to recognize this they saw the 5 silhouettes of different kinds of Grimm.
"What the hell is this?! What the hell are you!?" Velvet yelled as everyone took a few steps back so they were back in a group.
"Well now that's interesting… See it's been a long time and I kind off forgot my name…" The voice said in a slightly embarrassed tone. "But luckily you Dustlings gave me a new one."
"Roadkill." Locus said emotionlessly as he took his S.A.W. off his back.
"DING DING DING!"
"What!" Velvet was instantly confused along with all of team CFVY. "But you said Roadkill was a Grimm! Grimm can't talk…"
"Well little dustling I'm much stronger, smarter and better looking than any Grimm your going to see anytime soon." The voice chuckled as 5 humanoids jumped on top of a different stalactite. "But I'm afraid you'll be to dead to see me eat up those other Dustlings…"
The large Grimm started to get closer as the stone wall behind them started to slime over with the same black slime that eat through Locus' weapon like a worm through dirt. Only this time nothing was let of the gun.
Locus unloaded his ammo into the approaching man eating slime but it just seemed to make more of them. "No…" Even Locus knew this was a no win scenario along with all of team CFVY.
"Oh, but don't worry I'll bond your souls to your skeletons that way you'll be in eternal agony, you can see me eat you friends, and I get all the meat in your… Delicious… Mouth Watering… CORPSES!" The demonic voice laughed as the Slime started to surround them. "And the best part is there's never a mess… well aside from the dried blood. But I haven't gotten any complaints yet!"
They couldn't jump on to the stalemates because the silhouettes stood waiting for them. It looked like they were done for. Just then Coco had a realization. 'To eager…' Coco's eyes widened as a plan formed in her head. It would get them killed but it might give team RWBY and JNPR a chance.
"OH REALLY?!" Coco's voice boomed through the cave. "You aren't board?" The slime stopped and Coco grinned. "Listen I don't know what you are, but you seem a bit too eager to eat us up. I'm willing to bet my life you've been here for a long time with nothing to do."
"…" The Black slime continued to surround them giving the 5 no elbow room. And it was only getting smaller by the second.
"So how about this, since you can clearly kill us at any time. Why don't you fight us with as many Grimm, Ghost or unknown you can think up; and will fight all of them until we can't fight anymore." Coco's words echoed through the cave as the slime completely surrounded them.
Everyone held their breath waiting.
The slime started to crawl over there feet and Coco knew her bluff failed. But before she died she was at least going to give the order to try and destroy as much of this stuff as possible. Just then 5 Spikes jutted out of the slime and the points stopped right between each 5 pairs of eyes.
"Sounds fun…" The slime retreated back into the darkness and the Grimm jumped back a bit. "And if I get bored I'll just use my true form and eat you all up at once. But that's down the line… Let's start off with these 5." Just then the 5 Grimm changed to 5 humanoid silhouettes all ranging in height and body height.
Coco chuckled a bit. "Can't you tell, you can't beat us with our nightmares. Because if you copy one of our fears we will beat it together." Coco's confident attitude made the rest of team CFVY's Auras flare in determination. Locus scoffed and reloaded his weapon.
Locus pointed his S.A.W., Yasuhashi leveled his sword, Fox's claws gleamed, Velvet put her new sword in her right hand and took out her original weapon's case in her left, Coco pointed her Chaingun at the silhouettes.
"Oh but I'm not attacking you with nightmares, fears or even some petty crush…" Each humanoid materialized different weapons and red eyes burned in the darkness.
Not Taiyang Xiao Long drew a black long sword and flail. Not Summer Rose pointed a black 7-foot long staff like a sniper rifle. Not Ruby Xiao Long pulled out a long black Katana. Not Agent Washington pulled out a black Battle rifle and combat knife. Not Qrow Branwen pulled out a pure black scythe.
"I'm going to kill you with your heroes."
