Note: So yeah, I didn't want to make a whole bunch more chapters of the Remnent crew viewing the Meta's memories so I'm putting the rest of them all in these next three. Also my computer's been acting like a turd for the past few days... so that's great. I think that this is already enough chapters going over his past as is, and I kind of want to get back to the Maine story. (Haha haha… no? Okay then, blame Yang) So make sure you have a chair pulled up with some freshly made pancakes and cookies on standby 'cause this'll take awhile. Sorry for the wait!
Update: I know I said previously that I wasn't going to add in music titles in the story but I figured it may increase enjoyment... it may not idk. So I went back and updated the rest of the chapters by adding those to the fight scenes.
Okay Begin!
Maine threw a punch at Tennessee but the older man sidestepped and clocked him, making him step back. Once the world stopped spinning the newbie ran at his mentor and delivered a kick that was blocked by one of his own followed by a punch that went the same way. Maine faked out Tennessee with a punch and delivered a roundhouse kick to his side. The teen then attacked several more times with each strike being blocked before HT lowered himself to the ground and tripped the new member. As he fell, Tennessee was standing over him and quickly pulled his fist back; although it looked like slow-mo to Maine. The older man then hit the teen's head, clobbering him to the ground.
"Not bad Junior." the orange and brown soldier told him as he helped him up. "But ya still got a ways to go."
Maine nodded.
"We'll worry about that later though, for now about we get something to eat?" Tennessee said as he rubbed the top of his trainee's helmet.
It has been three days since the two were assigned to one another and Tennessee decided that it was about time he saw what Maine could do.
"Remind me, I'd like ya to meet my nephew. Ya look about seventeen so he's two years older, but I think you'll get along just fine." HT said as they walked. "By the way, had any memories come back yet?"
"Not yet." Maine replied.
Tennessee patted his back. "Don't worry, they will."
"Have you ever lost any?"
"Can't say that I have, but hey; they gotta come back sooner or later."
"I guess your right."
"How are you all getting along?" Wash asked as the two sat down for lunch.
"Pretty well." Maine replied.
"Yep. Hey Junior, I gotta say that I'm impressed. Your aim at the range was nearly perfect, and your fighting's pretty good too." Tennessee told him.
"So you think he could take on Carolina?" the grey freelancer asked jokingly.
"Hell no. Even York gets his butt whooped by her, at this point I doubt someone could ever match that girl; let alone beat her."
"How did your guy's match go by they way?" the newbie asked.
"York's got me beat in close quarters, although I'm better in marksmanship. That being said, he still won by a point."
"That close?"
"Well they are two and three after all." Wash pointed out.
"And I didn't have my dang shotgun." added the older man.
"What about when either of you fight Carolina?"
The two other freelancers remained silent.
'I guess they weren't joking about no-one being close to her level.' Maine thought.
Maine and Tennessee removed their helmets to eat, at this point Maine looked exactly the same as before whatever happened to him did. HT's face looked like a older version of Alameda Slim (if you don't know who that is he's the villain from Disney's 'Home on the Range') except that his red/orange hair was greying and it was cut short instead of long; he also had the long mustache and goatee. Washington still had his helmet on.
"How are you eating with that?" Maine asked.
"It's pretty easy once you get used to it." Wash told him.
The newbie was about to ask why he was even doing it in the first place when a brown armored female walked up.
"Alright boys, the Director is calling for a meeting."
"But I just sat down." Tennessee complained before getting up. "Oh by the way, Junior, Connie, Connie, Junior." he introduced the two.
"It's CT." she said somewhat annoyed.
"I'm the eldest so I'll call ya'll whatever I want." HT smirked. "Alright Junior, Washingtub, let's go."
"Did you really need to name me that?" Wash asked.
"You prefer that or car-boy?"
"… Washingtub is fine."
"Well they seem nice." Ruby remarked.
"Now, but Grif said that this Washington guy seems to do whatever benefits him." Weiss told her.
"Yeah but maybe something happened between them that we don't know about that just made Dexter dislike him."
"You mean like how he said the he killed his friend?"
Ruby sighed, she couldn't argue with that.
The top ten freelancers plus Connecticut and Maine had sat down in a closed off room and were waiting for the Director to speak, they all had their helmets off. Washington had spiky blonde hair but Maine was sitting behind him so he couldn't see his face, CT had pale skin with brown eyes and short hair that covered part of her face, Wyoming also had brown eyes but he had slicked back black hair and a mustache good enough to rival Mario and Luigi, York had brown eyes and hair somewhat similar to North's, Idaho, Georgia, and Florida's faces were hidden by the shadows of the dark room, and Carolina, who was standing behind the Director, had red hair that was pulled back into a pony tail and bright green eyes.
"Man, not only does this Carolina sound and seem to be like Pyrrha; but she looks just like her to boot!" Nora exclaimed.
Once again everyone looked at the Mistral Champion.
"Do you have a secret relative that nobody knows about?" Yang asked.
Pyrrha gave a shrug. "Sometimes you can see people that look and sound like someone else, but their not even related. It's not impossible though."
"So like if there was someone who was basically an exact copy of Renny but not related?" asked Nora.
"Yeah, like that."
"Sweet."
Ren face-palmed.
"The reason that I have gathered you all here is because we have learned the location of our next objective." said the Director. "We will be sending out two squads, Agent Carolina will give you the details."
The aqua freelancer stepped forward.
"Okay people, group one is heading back to Earth; apparently there's an Insurrectionist outpost that has data regarding their future battle plans. Group two is on a rescue mission, we are to recover Agent Oregon."
"Oregon? He was with Massachusetts and California, what about them?" Wyoming asked.
"KIA." Carolina replied.
Tennessee raised faster than the speed of a lighting bolt. "THE FUCK YOU SAY?!" he screamed. "DID YOU JUST SAY THAT MY LITTLE NEPHEW IS KIA?!"
"I'm sorry HT, I really am."
They all sat in silence, tears steaming down the latter's face.
"What's KIA?" Ruby asked.
"It means he's dead, more specifically 'killed in action'." Blake informed her leader.
"Oh… poor Tennessee."
The orange freelancer spoke up after a moment.
"How did he die?"
"They succeeded their mission, but both your nephew and California were killed when their get away ship was hit by gatling guns. Through their sacrifice we were able to get the information about squad one's objective." the Director told the freelancers.
"… Put me in squad two, I will kill every last son of a bitch there."
The other soldiers said nothing. HT loved Massachusetts like his own son and while the number three was already a force to be reckoned with... it was about to rain blood.
"Very well."
"Okay, here's our teams." Carolina once again spoke up. "Squad one consists of Georgia, North, and CT; squad two is Me, Wash, HT, Maine, and Idaho. The rest of you are on standby in case one or both of us needs help."
After briefing, everyone collected their helmets and split up. Squad two was on Four Seven Niner's ship and Maine had put something inside his helmet, but Gamma sped up the time to when they landed. Tennessee was the first to get up and was almost at the exit when Washington put hand on his shoulder. The two nodded and left together.
"Alright, let's get moving." Carolina commanded.
They walked until they reached the facility. Carolina nodded at Washington and Maine, the latter's armor changed from white and brown to black and red; then they approached two guards while the other freelancers hid.
"Woah!" Yang exclaimed. "That is cool."
"I know right! His armor just changed!" her sister agreed.
"How is that possible?" Glynda asked.
"EACH FREELANCER HAD A SPECIAL PIECE OF EQUIPMENT THAT THE OTHERS DID NOT, AGENT MAINE"S WAS ADAPTIVE CAMOUFLAGE." Gary explained.
"Halt!" one soldier yelled.
"What is the meaning of this?" the grey freelancer asked.
"I can have you terminated for raising your weapons to superiors."
"You're not our superiors!" the other guard yelled. "We don't even know who you are!"
"I'm warning you, you have three seconds before I call HQ." Washington threatened. "Three, two…"
The guards gave each other glances before lowering their weapons.
"Sorry sirs. We just haven't seen you around so we just figured…" one apologized.
"It's fine. We're here to check this week's shipment."
"Yes sir. Right this way." The two led them inside.
As soon as they were a few yards away, the other freelancers snuck by. Once in the building, Washington and Maine pretended to make sure everything was in order and made mental notes of the equipment inside. They were going to need it to get out.
"We got these in today." one Resistance fighter told his "superiors" and led them to some Warthogs.
"Any problems with them?" Maine asked, his voice extremely deep.
"Why is he talking like that?" Ren asked.
"I believe it's a voice filter, probably to make him more intimidating." Blake responded.
"Well it's working." said Ruby.
"No sir. We took them out for a test drive and they worked just fine."
As Maine was talking to the two soldiers Carolina called the freelancers via radio.
"Alright boys, it's about to get loud." she told them.
As soon as she finished her sentence there was a loud explosion. The four looked outside and the west wing of the facility had a pretty decent sized hole and was on fire.
"You two head that way, we'll make sure the prisoner is still there!" Wash told them.
The two Insurrectionists ran out and the freelancers grabbed some grenades and rocket launchers before jumping into the two Warthog's.
"Why are there six pedals?!" Maine asked.
"I don't freaking know, just hit the top left one!" his companion yelled.
After trial and error by both of them, they got out and headed to the center of the base. Washington waited with the cars and Maine ran inside. He made it onto the second floor when a bunch of Insurrectionists pointed their guns at him. Unlike the other two, they knew he wasn't supposed to be there.
[Play: Boss Battle - By: Jeff Williams]
Maine reached for his magnum when Tennessee busted through the window from a zipline and kicked some of the soldiers over. While they were distracted, Maine shot one in the head before sidestepping out of the way of a punch. He hit the back of the attacking soldier's head, making him fall down the stairs. The two partners fought the remaining one's until HT Sparta kicked the last one out the window.
"Looks like I almost missed the party." he remarked. "C'mon, let's go get Oregon."
With that they headed towards the cell bay from the map Maine picked up in the warehouse, he also gave HT the sticky grenades that he picked up. They reached the cells and killed the guards before they found the captured freelancer. Oregon's helmet was lying on the floor of the room and he himself was barley sitting up against a wall.
He had blood stained on his purple and blue armor and had a black eye, a bloodied nose, and a scar across his mouth in the shape of a half smile. Maine shot the security scanner and the door opened, allowing him to enter the room. "He's barley hanging on!" the newbie yelled to his partner that was guarding his back. "Let's get him out then!" HT replied before talking into his radio.
"Carol, we got him. Go ahead and get going, we'll be gone shortly."
Maine picked the horribly injured man up and carried him out after he put his helmet back on him.
Tennessee killed every last attacking or retreating soldier until they got outside. Washington was still waiting, though there were several Resistance corpses around him. Maine put Oregon in one of the passenger seats and Washington jumped in the driver's while the teen took the gunner. They drove off and Tennessee was in front of them in the second Warthog.
Nothing seemed to be coming for them until three Mantis class assault droids rammed through the walls one their side.
"Incoming!" Maine yelled.
He pulled the triggers and blasted one to pieces after several hits, one of it's allies shot the turret and destroyed it; Maine had three bullets tear straight through his torso. He let out a scream of pain and almost fell off the car.
"Maine!" Washington yelled.
Tennessee quickly spun his car around headed straight for the droids. "I ain't losing anyone else to you shits!" he screamed.
"Wait what are you…?!" the grey freelancer started to ask.
But the older man put a rock on the gas pedal and jumped out of the car, it crashed into one of the remaining Mantis's and destroyed it. The final droid shot rockets at him but he managed to take cover behind a steel crate. Washington swung the car around and Maine slowly stood back up, pulled the rocket launcher off his back, and fired two shots. The Mantis took some damage but was still functioning.
While it tried to get a lock on Washington, Tennessee clicked a button on his suit that released a grappling hook from his wrist, (like Boba or Jango Fett) that went into it's leg, and ran around it till it tripped on the wire from the restricted movement. He quickly retracted the grapple and threw the belt of stickies that he got from Maine underneath it. Wash was driving up as this happened and HT jumped on the back with the injured teen. They drove off as it the Mantis blew up behind them.
"And that kids is why we don't piss off HT." Washington said. They kept driving and the memory ended.
[Music end]
"That. Was. AWESOME!" Ruby yelled.
Even Weiss nodded at her statement.
"I can't believe that Jaune actually survived those shots though." Pyrrha said.
"Alright everyone, that's enough for today. We don't want to wear Gary out too much do we?" Ozpin stated.
"So what do you want to do now?" Yang asked as the teens walked out into the hall.
"How about we go shopping?" suggested Weiss.
"Sounds okay I guess."
"You guys go ahead, I'm going to stop by the Emerald Forest for some training. Just something about that memory made me want to shed some…! I mean fight. Later." Ruby said before turning around and leaving.
Her friends watched her as she walked away.
"What's up with her?" Nora asked.
"Don't know, but she's been acting kind of weird for the past few days." Yang replied.
"She's not the only one." Weiss commented.
The rest of them then noticed that a certain faunus was gone.
Ruby was now in the forest and was looking for some grimm to battle.
'Come out you insolent fools! I want to see what this kid can do on her own!' O'Mally thought to himself.
He knew that the reaper was powerful, he just wanted to see how much strength she actually had. Finally a beowolf came out of the trees! Ruby pulled out her scythe and waited for the beast to charge. Once it did, it was game over for it. It had ran at her and she shot Crescent Rose behind her to give her more power in her swing, she effortlessly cut it in half.
An hour later...
Ruby became tired as time went on, so Omega reluctantly decided that it was time to stop. He was however pretty happy with what they did, Ruby had slain eleven of the creatures before the AI couldn't contain himself any longer and took the wheel, killing many more.
"That was fun, although I'm not sure were that evil sounding laugh came from earlier." the teen girl said.
'… Shit.' the AI of rage thought.
He may have gone a little overboard. They then headed back up to the dorms when they were finished.
The students were down at breakfast the next morning when Grif showed up.
"Hey Dex." Yang said.
"Hey." he replied as he sat down.
"Do you ever take that armor off?" Pyrrha asked the soldier.
"What, you want me to strip?"
"You know that's not what she meant!" Weiss snapped.
"Jeeze princess, it was a joke. Where's your sense of humor?" the sim trooper asked.
Ren decided that it was best to change the subject. "So, how are you enjoying Beacon?"
"Are you kidding me? I fucking love this place! Free food, I don't get shot at, no one from my team is here, I don't have to do exercises or go to meetings, there's no blues, I can take as many naps as I want, there's no Sarge…"
"I think we get the picture." Pyrrha spoke up in her "okay we get it but I'm still going to be nice about it" voice.
"Really? 'Cause I can keep going."
"That's okay." Yang told him.
Grif shrugged and went back to eating.
"So what kind of flashbacks do you think we'll see today?" Nora asked enthusiastically.
"Flashbacks?" Grif asked, his face stuffed.
"Oh, Gary is showing us Jaune's memories so that we can know what happened to him." Ruby replied.
"Who's Gary?"
The teens and Grif headed over to the infirmary and were about to enter when they heard another new voice.
"For the last time. I. Am. Not. An. AI!"
"Church?" Grif asked before walking into the room.
Sure enough, Lenard Church was standing on Ironwood's scroll and yelling about whether or not he was an AI.
"Okay fine, I guess you being a spirit makes more sense?" Ozpin asked.
"Fuck yeah it does! It's way less geeky asshole."
"A spirit?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"A ghost?"
"Boo, motherfucker." Church paused for a second. "Man, I just had the strangest sense of deja vu."
He turned around to see Grif and a bunch of kids. "Grif? The hell are you here?" The orange soldier let out an annoyed sigh.
"Through lot's of bullshit."
"So, same as usual then?"
"Yep."
"You know this guy?" Weiss asked him.
"Yeah, this is Church; the leader of blue team."
"So how are you here?" Grif asked the "ghost".
"I don't fucking know. One minute I'm fighting off eight AI by myself in the Meta's head and the next I'm in a lab talking to Commander Dickhead." Church replied.
"General Ironwood." the cyborg replied angrily.
"Yeah, whatever. Where are we anyways?"
Ozpin then explained how he and Grif were now on an unmarked planet called Remnant and that the Meta was one of his students. Church's reaction was almost exactly the same as the orange soldier's. The general and Church then continued to argue if the latter was an AI or not and Grif took his side... Ozpin just decided to say nothing more and watch the events unfold. That being said, Church won by default as his opponent gained a headache from the conversation and the cyborg eventually left.
"So... are we going to see what happened next now?" Nora asked.
"Huh?" asked Church.
He had moved over to Grif's AI slot in his helmet because he couldn't figure out how to get back to his regular size.
"Oh yeah, so who's this Gary guy?" Grif asked.
The next thing that happened made Church lose his mind.
"KNOCK KNOCK, CHURCH." Gary said as he made himself known.
"OH SHIT NO!" the Alpha screamed. "WHY THE HELL IS HE HERE?!"
"Hey, he sounds like that computer from the place with the windmill." Grif said.
"THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS HIM! HE WAS ALSO FUCKING WYOMING'S AI!"
"The freelancer who tried to kidnap Tucker's monstrosity of a child and use it to enslave an entire alien race with your girlfriend?"
"THAT IS CORRECT." Gary replied and everyone from Remnant was even more confused.
Church face-palmed. "Why are you even alive Gamma, much less here?" he asked.
"I WAS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING AND RECHARGED."
"Oh, that's fucking great."
Church kept asking questions but the situation seemed even more unrealistic as Ruby turned to look at Grif.
He was in a recliner, his feet crossed as they were propped up, several chips/desserts at his feet, had a bottle of beer in the chair's cup-holder, and was lighting a cigarette. The rest of RWBY and Team NPR noticed that their friend was staring at something and ended up looking themselves, this in turn attracted the attention of the others. Grif didn't notice all the eyes watching him until he finally got his cigarette lit.
"Hey, if I'm gonna watch TV I might as well do it right." he announced.
Glynda stomped over to him, grabbed his cigarette and beer, and threw them in the trash.
"Fuck you lady." he told her.
She turned around only to see him with one more of each and the new cigarette already under his helmet as he blew out smoke. The blonde professor had to be stopped by Ozpin from killing the sim trooper as he gave her the bird. While she was turned around, a flash of light emerged from both of Grif's hands and the new items had appeared.
"Now Glynda, I am going to haft to ask you to refrain from ending this man's life." the headmaster said. Goodwitch relaxed and let out a sigh.
"I am seriously regretting unlocking his aura."
"And after you did I found out my semblance pretty quickly, it's fucking awesome!" Grif said happily.
"What is your semblance anyways? I've never seen anything like it." Pyrrha told him.
"I'm calling it storage. Basically I can put my items in some sort of space and bring them back out whenever I want... At least that's how your teachers explained it." (similar to Erza's magic from Fairy Tail)
"Where did you buy that stuff anyways?" Weiss asked.
"Buy? The hell do you mean buy? None of you would give me any fucking money. I even offered to take credit cards!" Grif told them.
The Schnee heiress scoffed. "Could you possibly be any worse?!"
"Is that a challenge ice-queen?"
Now Weiss had to be held back. After some more arguing everyone finally calmed down and they turned the memories back on.
One year after the previous memory...
Maine, Tennessee, Wyoming, and North were all playing cards. HT won and took the lot, making the others throw down their cards in annoyance. He just collected three hundred dollars.
"Round two?" Maine asked and they all agreed.
"You know there's something I've been meaning to tell ya boys." Tennessee said.
"That you have a cheating mechanism?" North joked.
"Well actually it's something else. I don't know if you noticed but I'm getting pretty dang old."
Everyone including him laughed.
"Yeah, we've noticed." Wyoming mocked.
"Well in all seriousness, the reason I'm bringing this up is because I'm retiring." Tennessee said.
"What?" Maine asked.
"I can't do some of these jobs anymore, and I've fallen a few places on the leaderboard. Now I've spoken to the Director and we came to an agreement on one last job before I take my leave."
North placed his hand on his shoulder. "Then let's make it a good one, and don't forget to send us cards from whatever home they put you in."
They all laughed again and HT flipped him off. Maine didn't know how to feel. On one hand HT can finally have a peaceful life again, but on the other he didn't want him to go. He had been his father-figure throughout the teen's time in the project.
Maine, Tennessee, Wyoming, South, and Wash were sent on a mission a few hours later. They breached the surface of the desert planet Talitsa and prepared to jump. The mission was to take down the Resistance suppliers that resided there. Wyoming walked up to a Mongoose that was inside the Pelican, unhooked it, climbed on, and started it up as the hanger door opened.
"I would just like you all to know that this bloody plan is idiotic and I sincerely hate whoever's idea this was." the moustached man said.
"Oh, get over it." South told him.
"You know, sometimes I forget that you are a lady. It's confusing to me that I can do that seeing as how much of a bitch you are all the time."
"THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?!"
Before she could finish her sentence, the British man drove out of the ship. The other three were snickering until she shot them a look, shutting them up. A few minutes later Wyoming called on the radios.
"Okay. The buildings are all connected on the mid floors and the one on the far left has a helipad that can be used for extraction. They have a tank on the ground but that seems to be the only real defense they have down there. There are a few sniper towers but that shouldn't be a problem for much longer. Finally there are two warehouses but I'm not sure as to what's inside."
"Got it. Don't seem to be expecting guests do they?" Wash reponded.
"Well they are in the middle of a planet that was decimated buring the war." HT said.
"Still, doesn't this seem a little too easy?" Maine asked.
The others stopped preping their gear and stared at him.
"I've just doomed us all haven't I?"
"Alright, entering the drop zone!" The pilot called back.
The freelancers put on their helmets/jetpacks and grabbed their guns before jumping out. The four only used the packs seconds before they hit the ground, but when they did they departed into two groups and Maine and Tennessee crashed through the windows of one of the storage facilities. Wyoming had taken out the snipers while using a surpressor to keep quiet. Once inside, the two freelancers raised their battle rifles and killed the guards inside. The warehouse was filled with weapons and some vehicles.
The two then began to throw what York had liked to call "future cubes" at the supplies with the frequency set back to the Mother of Invention's own storage compartment. Maine stopped when he had noticed that a soldier was still alive and had limped over to the alarm. The freelancer raised his weapon but managed to shoot him after the button had been pushed. He froze for a second afterwards. He still hated killing, he didn't mind the reds and blues at Battle Creek because they were annoying and just came back to life anyways.
"Aww balls." Tennessee complained. "Time to go Junior!"
"What about the rest of the resources?" Maine asked.
"Safety first kid!"
When they flew outside they were surprised to see about a hundred guards, some in vehicles, and three more tanks were present.
"Where did these guys come from?!"
Maine asked.
"Must've been a trap." his partner responded.
Thankfully the guards never looked up, that is until they heard yelling.
[Play: End of the Beginning - By: Jeff Williams]
"The fuck did you idiots do?!" South screamed as her and Washington approched the other pair.
The gaurds looked upwards immediatly and the freelancers quickly noticed as they raised their guns.
"Really South? Really?" Tennessee asked in an annoyed tone.
"Shit." the light-purple freelancer said before they all had to retreat.
Wash's pack was hit pretty quickly and he yelled as he was sent all over the place and eventually crashed into the hood of an unoccupied Warthog.
"South, you help him while we keep some of 'em occupied!" HT yelled.
"Uhgg... Fine!" She groaned before going to help out the grey freelancer.
Maine and Tennessee quickly spun back towards the Insurrectionist suppliers and opened fire. The former pulled out a grenade and dropped it on a group's heads before they landed in the same spot.
"So how come you didn't giver her a nickname?!" Maine asked as they shot at enemies while back to back.
"Didn't need to! Her name's fitting cause everytime she opens her mouth things go south!" his partner replied.
The two flew off again when a tank rolled up, it would've hit them if it were any faster. A Falcon rose up in front of the retreating freelancers but the pilot got shot in the head and it crashed before he could do anything.
"Why the hell do you morons get jetpacks and I had to drive off the damn ship?!" Wyoming yelled as he was standing in a sniper tower.
He then had to jump off when another tank shot at him. Maine managed to catch the mustached man and the three busted through one of the building windows and began taking cover inside.
"Pilot, we need extration ASAP!" Tennessee yelled into his helmet mic. "Damnit, the signal is being jammed!"
"What do we do?!" Maine asked.
"We fight until we either die or our guys realize that something's wrong."
Just then they heard the sound of running footsteps.
"Let us hope it's that first option." Wyoming said as he reloaded and walked towards the noise. He shot the first soldier to appear around the corner right between the eyes and quickly put his sniper rifle on his back and pulled out two SMGs. The three freelancers held off both sides of the hallway until one of the enemies shot a rocket launcher and HT was hit in the arm.
"Son of a bitch!" The older man yelled as he took cover.
"You okay?!" Maine worriedly asked as he ran to his partner's aid and gave him cover fire.
Tennessee looked at his right arm, it wasn't hit directly but it was bloodied and he couldn't move it.
"She's a goner. Well, at least I have one scar for retirement." he replied.
"Need me to get you a chair grandpa?" Maine joked.
HT smirked underneath his helmet. "Only after we get your diaper changed."
Tennessee then pulled his shotgun off his back with his good arm and jumped from cover.
Eventually the soldiers stopped coming and the three got a break. Maine had been hit in the side and Wyoming's visor was cracked. The British man was looking through the scope on his long ranged weapon and spotted the other two members of their party.
"Looks like they're fairing better." he commented.
[Music stop]
Three Pelican's then descended from the sky and opened fire on the Insurrectionist forces outside.
"Took them long enough." HT said. "Alright boys, up to the roof!"
The three had to fight off a few more soldiers until the made it up top. A Pelican lowered itself to them and they were about to board when the ship suddenly took fire and exploded.
RWBY, NPR, and Glynda let out gasps and looks of horror when they watched the ship go up in flames. They saw as Jaune had his helmet blown off and rolled along the ground, Wyoming slammed into a pole, and Tennessee landed on his leg in a way that made all the memory viewers feel it.
Maine had blacked out out for a few seconds but when he came to, the world was spinning for him and he couldn't hear a thing. He slowly stood and shook his head, allowing his senses to come back after a little while. The teen then noticed that a gatling gun on one of the towers was pointed at him.
"Aww, what the fuck?" he moaned before running.
He managed to get to safety after outrunning the shots and slid behind a crate. Another Pelican arrived and blew the thing up and Wash and South jumped out with the former running to Maine and the latter towards the unconscious Wyoming.
"You okay?!" the grey freelancer asked.
"Yeah. Wait, HT!"
The two then sped towards the orange freelancer who still lay on the ground. Maine helped the older man up and he put his arm around the teen for support. A loud blast was heard and the Pelican had to retreat as it was about to be blown apart by tanks.
"We're not going anywhere with those bastards targeting our ship." Wash stated.
"Where's the other one?" Maine asked.
"Shot down by these things, so we're down to one."
"... One last job." they heard Tennessee mutter.
[Play: Forever - By: Jeff Williams]
"I want you boys to get with the others and get to where the ship can land."
Maine and Wash looked at him like he was insane.
"What are you talking about?!" replied the former.
HT responded by pulling his arm off Maine and took off his helmet, dropping it on the ground. He never turned to his friends but Maine could still see the older man's face. HT had blood dripping down from his mouth, was bleeding from his left eye, and his face was deprived of most of it's color.
"That's an order."
"You, can't be serious." Wash said.
"You kids get going now, or we're all gonna die. Once those tanks are gone y'all should have a safe exit, and someone needs to keep the gaurds occupied. I'll be damned before I let either of you boys do it, especially when I'm most likely not gonna heal anyway and I've lived out my life. Now get."
Tennessee told them. Maine's eyes watered and the older man turned to his comrades. They saluted eachother before the other two reluctantly turned and hid behind the crate from earlier with South and the K.O.'d Wyoming.
"Where's Tennessee?" she asked.
Wash let out a pained sigh. "Giving us the help we need to get out of here."
Ol' Rocky Top had grabbed multiple belts of grenades, attached them to his body, and began limping towards the edge when more Resistance fighters arrived.
"Freeze!" one yelled.
HT put his hands up and kept limping backwards to the edge.
"Stop moving!"
His plan was working. As the gaurds were distracted, the other freelancers snuck by and made their way to the landing platform once again. Maine watched as HT made his way to the edge and stopped. "Cuff him." the group of soldiers leader ordered. Before the guy got there, Tennessee did a two finger salute and fell backwards. The tanks on the ground didn't notice the man falling to his death until it was too late. Tennessee landed in between the vehicles and they all exploded.
[Music stop]
An hour later the team was back on the Mother of Invention and had been spoken to by the Director.
"FILSS, remove Agent Tennessee's name from the scoreboard and transfer it to the secondary." he said.
All the main freelancers minus Wyoming watched as Tennessee's name was deleted from the scoreboard and put onto another screen that listed the deaths of other freelancers.
*Agent Tennessee: KIA: Rank #5* is what it read.
The Director walked out of the room and a moment of silence was given.
Maine sat in a chair and tears streamed down his face as he looked at his mentor's helmet. He stared into the golden visor that came up around the entire front unlike most helmets. The teen slowly lifted his head and put the helmet on. It turned from orange to white and he let out a pained growl. He promised himself to train until he became so powerful, that he'd never lose anyone important to him again. The memory ended.
Everyone was at a loss for words as to what they just witnessed.
"... Was that the tramatic thing you talked about Gary?" Nora eventually asked.
"YES, THIS MOMENT IN TIME BECAME THE MAIN SOURCE OF HIS BRUTALITY." Gamma responded. It hurt teams RWBY and NPR to see their friend hurting like that, and they even felt his pain from the time that he was gone himself.
Note: So I will admit that this chapter is not my favorite, but I thought it might be a good way to show why Maine went from acting like himself to more destructive and cruel. The next two chapters will be covering his time in RvB, meaning seasons 6-10 plus Recovery One and the season 6 trailer. Later.