Retribution, Pt. 1
-XXXII-
The lone airship hurdled through the late hours of the night, still a few hours away from its destination.
Twelve students silently waited inside the cabin for the promised medical results of the injured by phone, each pair sitting in their usual places. Except this time, Ruby sat with her distraught sister while Seul sat with Velvet in another row.
In the isle between the rows, Jaune had placed his scroll on top of a bench which had been pulled so that the group could easily gather around it when the news came. It was the only condition by which the remainder of Team VNDS would leave Davin's side to join the fight.
Finally, the scroll began to buzz. Reaching out, Jaune put it on speaker mode as he answered.
"Hello?"
'Hello? Yes, this is chief medical officer DuFresne.'
"Do-what?"
'DuFresne. Like rain, or train. Hank Du-frain.'
"Yea... I think I'll just call you Doc. Do you have any news?"
The students came together around the small bench from their respective rows.
'Yes, we're happy to inform that thanks to Miss Scarlatina's rapid response, Mister Ylvis is looking to make a full recovery!'
The healer smiled weakly, but the rest of the room remained silent on the most part.
"...and what about Vin?"
The students glanced sullenly at the dejected brawler who had spoken up for the first time since leaving the young man at the infirmary.
'Mister Rosfield?... Oh, yes. That one was a little tricky, as our equipment was soon completely unable to work on him after trying to diagnose his condition. BUT, we successfully managed to stabilize him, and he's currently completely healthy!'
The students were finally able to breathe a little easier.
"Has he woken up yet?" Jaune asked in curiosity.
'No, not yet. But if his vitals remain this strong, it surely won't take much longer! If anything, the physical readings we were able to get, like pulse and tissue samples, show that he's stronger than ever!'
"Thanks, Doc!" Ruby cheerily responded, "Please let us know when he's up and walking!"
'Not a problem! We will keep you posted!'
As the line hung up, the white knight smiled at team JNPR while Sun reassuringly hugged the rest of team VNDS, Neptune in one arm and Velvet in the other. Yang returned to her seat by the window without another word.
"Yang? You okay?" Ruby spoke up softly as she sat next to her sister.
The brawler merely stared out of the window into the dark night. She sighed before finally answering.
"It's funny, I guess I got used to taking these flights with him right here with me," she confessed as she continued looking out the window, "I just want him to be okay, y'know?... I want him to be back with us..."
"I know, Yang... me too. You heard the doctor, Vin's getting better!"
Yang remained silent. Ruby rested her head on the puffy shoulder sleeve of the blonde's jacket.
"He'll be fine, Vin's one of the strongest fighters we know! And I know he's got something really good to fight for... I'm sitting right next to her!"
Yang turned to her sister and smiled for the fist time in several hours as she pulled her in for a hug with one arm. She knew Davin could recover and was sure that he would want her to be where she was now.
And right now, she needed to be there for her friends and the people. Yang Xiao Long needed to be a Huntress.
"Thanks, Rubes," she began softly as she turned to look at her sister with a warm smile, "Dad would be so proud of you, ya know that? You've come a long way since your first day at Beacon!"
Her grin widening, she playfully tightened her hug on her sister, essentially putting Ruby in a headlock.
"Gack!" Ruby cried out as she tried to wrestle herself free from her big sister's grasp, "You're welcome!..."
Finally breaking free, both sisters laughed and relaxed, each knowing that they'd need their rest for whatever was to come.
But as she rested her head against the window, looking into the pitch black night, Yang felt a nagging memory that was trying to fight its way into her consciousness, a piece of the Headmaster's conversation that she had been present for during the night when Davin's semblance had gone off in Ozpin's office.
As the nagging died down, the memory unable to become clear, the brawler dismissed it as she decided to let sleep overtake her.
On another part of the ship, Neptune, Velvet and Sun sat across Weiss, Seul and Blake as they regarded the impressive bladed grenade launcher.
"That's a really big aperture," Neptune began with a tinge of awe in his voice, "Definitely custom, though I'd say the ammunition that it can handle is pretty universal."
"It's the kind of thing a White Fang leader can afford..." Blake mused in response, an emotionless expression on her face.
Velvet however couldn't be any more the opposite. Barely controlling her excitement, she reached out and grabbed the weapon.
"Sooo... now that he's dead..." the bunny-faunus began with contained mirth, "Does that mean it's up for grabs?"
The students looked at each other with some confusion. Neptune shrugged.
"Sure."
She grinned from ear to ear as she hugged the lethal weapon to herself before both bunny ears shot up with a question.
"But what should we call it!"
Sun held up a hand to his chin in thought.
"Hmm... why not call it... a Grif Shot!" he proclaimed with a snap of his fingers.
"Don't you mean Brute Shot?" Neptune tried to correct.
"Nope, Grif Shot! It's perfect!"
Blake glared at Sun as she caught on to the reference.
"Seriously, Sun. At a time like this."
"Oh you and those weird looks again! And of course, the name's awesome."
The cat faunus sighed as she facepalmed. "Second worse sense of humor. Ever..."
Weiss deadpanned at Blake as the raven-haired girl finished.
"...Of all time!"
Seul looked at Blake somewhat quizzically... her favorite phrase was a reference to the same source as the Grif Shot... but he decided to remain quiet as he usually did.
And Blake couldn't exactly be blamed. She had gotten it from Davin.
"I like it!" Velvet called out. The students turned to face her as she slung the huge weapon on her back with impressive ease.
"Grif Shot it is!"
Interestingly enough, the students noticed how recent events had begun to affect Velvet, her confidence growing as well as her fighting skill. Even her voice had begun losing its persistent stutter.
"Isn't that a little... big... for you, Velvet?" Weiss asked somewhat incredulously.
"Oh of course, Weiss-senpai!..." the elated bunny-faunus began, receiving a somewhat quizzical look from the group.
For Velvet, her night was taking a very pleasant turn for the better... First, she had acquired an incredibly lethal weapon with a blade that she could finally use in close combat like her teammates, and second, she was now actually getting attention from her personal idol, Weiss Schnee!
"...But I can handle it!" she continued gleefully, "Watch!"
Jumping up, she took up the Grif Shot and started twirling it around and above herself with dangerous speed, impressing the students by how she managed to do it with just one arm. Transferring it to her other hand seamlessly, she swung it up and around her back as she resheathed her weapon.
"Velv," Neptune joked with a respectable measure of seriousness in his voice, "remind me to never spar against you... like ever."
The students laughed lightly, each however still taking a mental note agreeing with the blacksmith and to take the bunny-faunus seriously from now on.
"Not bad..." Weiss finally commented on the grinning healer's strength, "You'd surely be able to give Davin a difficult match if he ever recovers!"
The students glared at the heiress, who shrunk back just a bit at the combined staring.
"Too soon?"
"Too soon, Weiss," Blake calmly replied.
"Al-right... but I really do hope he recovers..." the snow-haired girl unexpectedly admitted meekly.
"We all do," Neptune stated, reaching across and placing his hand on her shoulder, "But in the meantime, we should get some rest."
Weiss let out a small smile at the blue-haired student as the group returned to their respective seats.
As Sun and Blake passed a few rows, nudging each other playfully as they had grown to do often in Sun's attempts to divert the catgirl's glares, neither noticed the third team was still awake trying to identify every loose end in their current situation before getting some rest.
"So do you think Davin's okay?" Ren asked the pensive knight.
Jaune and Pyrrha had gotten on their knees on top of their seats, poking their heads over the back of their row so they could chat with Ren and Nora. Jaune exhaled sharply.
"For the last time, I'm not sure..."
"But you've been saying yes or no for the past few minutes, Jaune," Pyrrha glanced sideways to her leader, her chin propped on her crossed arms on the back of her seat, "Did you notice anything different than the medics did?"
The team eyed him with intense curiosity; they had also been trying to find out how the white knight had pinpointed the young man in the forest earlier that day. Frankly, not even Jaune had the slightest idea.
But as to Vin's current condition, there was more to be said.
"Well I believe Doc," he began slowly, "Davin can take a hit and we all know that, but something else is going on..."
"Like what?" the redhead inquired.
"When I was in the room next to him, he didn't exactly look calm. I could feel something different in him, like if he were fighting something!"
"Well that sounds like something we won't be able to clear up until he wakes," the stoic curtly concluded, sitting back in his seat in need of rest.
Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other for a moment, reluctantly agreeing with their green-coated teammate, and were about to settle into their own seats when Nora spoke up.
"Hey, does anyone know what happened to the big scary Faunus guy?"
Her team momentarily traded looks of uncertainty.
"Maybe the coroner picked him up?" the white knight theorized, "I'm sure people saw the dead guy."
"We don't have a coroner."
"Well we have medics..." Jaune continued, "I'm sure someone picked him up or something to rest him in a cemetery."
"He's right," Ren finally responded with a bit of an edge in his voice, "No way that Crudus fellow gets out on his own. Dead people don't walk. But speaking for us as the living, we need to get some rest in these seats."
Heeding his advice, Nora got comfortable on her grumpy neighbor, falling asleep almost instantly as her usual soft snores began. Jaune and Pyrrha got down in their seats.
The Spartan, however, couldn't help noticing that her partner still had more on his mind. She decided to do her best to lighten up the situation.
"Jaune," she began as she took off her circlet, flooding the knight's senses with the relaxing scent of jasmine as her hair came down, "Are you alright?"
"You did that on purpose..." he quietly mumbled in hazy satisfaction, correctly guessing the purpose of her alluring action. Pyrrha grinned sheepishly as she slowly responded.
"Mayyy-be..."
"Al-right," the knight relented, "I'm just thinking about home..."
"I'm sure there's an explanation for what happened to Cipher. Dorme is practically a kingdom in itself, and it'd literally take an army to defeat it."
"Well-"
"...And in one day? Quite doubtful."
Jaune sighed.
"I guess you're right... I just hope Cipher isn't as right as he sounds he is."
The Spartan watched her partner squirm, wrestling with the possibility of Cipher being as right as he sounded, and decided to change the subject.
"So, I suppose your family must be safe at least... you're all Arcs, after all!" she said with a light chuckle.
"Yea," the knight let out a small smile, Pyrrha's statement bringing him out of his growing gloom, "And we're rarely all at home at once, but I'm sure they can handle themselves either way!"
The knight's confidence in his family further warmed Pyrrha's mood, her grin growing wider.
"I'm sure if they were all there, we wouldn't be needed!"
Jaune warmly laughed at the light-hearted joke. Whether it was due to their linked auras or not, the two students doubtlessly shared a deep connection both in perception and in humor.
And that connection would only serve to make them stronger in battle, something Jaune realized as he responded to his gorgeous partner.
"Hah! I guess you're right, Pyr!"
Taking a more serious tone, she continued, "You know, Jaune, you've never told me much about them... what are your parents like?"
"Well..." the son of Arc began, settling into his seat as he was thinking of where to begin, "My dad's name is John. He's a big guy, a very good Hunter in his day, and protected Vale and the rest of Remnant from some of the biggest Grimm insurgences in his generation."
"I've heard of some of those," the Spartan replied, "his battles were one of the reasons for my wanting to become a Huntress! And how did he meet your mother?"
"Mmm, he was doing a stint in Dorme taking out a large infestation of Grimm," Jaune continued, "when he met her, Jane Smith. She was a Huntress from a rival team. They duked it out for a while, each trying to outdo the other, and it even got to the point that one group put out a hit on my dad, and the other on my mom, to eliminate the competition! My parents were literally supposed to kill each other!"
Pyrrha's eyes widened at the surprising little-known facts about the family.
"What happened then?"
"They got married instead."
She deadpanned at the grinning knight.
"Seriously! After that, they teamed up and took on the other hitmen hired by each group to eliminate them while taking on an entire invasion of Grimm at the same time!" a smiling Pyrrha moved closer and closer to Jaune as he continued speaking, finally cuddling onto his side which caused him to blush slightly.
"And then?" Grinning, she wrapped both her arms around his arm like a pillow, his blush getting deeper.
"A-And after neutralizing practically every one of their enemies, both clans finally left them alone. They settled in Dorme and had us!"
"That's a good story," the redhead commented as she looked up to him from his shoulder, "what are they like together?"
The knight smiled at his girlfriend, remembering how much she enjoyed physical contact, "They're a great team, for starters. You see, my dad's like an aura powerhouse, but my mom... my mom was creative. She had a way of planning things out that made her the best at what she did. She says that my dad's face was priceless when he found out she had more Grimm kills than him! But after a while, both stats were forgotten compared to their kill stats as a team." A moment passed in silence.
"...Would you say you and I are as good a team?" the redhead asked with a inquiring grin. The knight smiled back.
"Comparing you and me to my parents? Well you know what they say... records are made to be broken!" His reply made the Spartan giggle warmly.
"You make a good point, Jaune Arc!" She rested her head on his shoulder to let him continue.
"And you know, it was funny... at first some people argued whether or not they were an Arc couple, or a Smith couple. Some of our family friends still call them 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith', heh!" The white knight paused for a moment before continuing his narrative.
"But as a mom, my mom was the best... she taught me about how to be a hero - courage, kindness and duty - and she would always believe in me even if I didn't believe in myself..."
"Oh?" the Spartan replied, "what about your father?"
"My dad..." Jaune began with some hesitation, "my dad taught me how to fight... or at least tried to. I was the second youngest, only nine months older than May, my sister. And I was pretty scrawny... I never really caught on to using Crocea Mors very well before Beacon. He uh... he always went hard on me to make sure I could be tough enough for it..."
"Well..." Pyrrha responded with a yawn, fatigue finally taking its toll on her, "You'll sure show him when you get back..."
"I guess so..."
"And your sisters? You mentioned them at the dance..." she mentioned slowly in what she felt would be her final effort in keeping her leader's thoughts on positive subjects before falling asleep.
Jaune yawned, "Let's see, there's Joan, she's the eldest and best fighter of us all... and the only Huntress other than my parents. Then there's Rowenna, she's a writer but I'm not sure of what... then Yssa, the explorer of the family who managed to map out all the forests around Dorme on her own. And then... Anne, she's a designer who works in Vacuo, and Gabriel, our technologically savvy sister. Then it's Catherine, our financial expert; then me, Jaune Arc, yours truly; then May, our resident fighter-to-be and expert cook! Now you have my family history in a nutshell! What about yo-"
He cut himself off as he looked over to see that Pyrrha had fallen asleep on top of him.
"Maybe next time then... gnite, Pyr."
He softly kissed her on the head before relaxing on the cushion of his seat. With a small smile on his face, he drifted off to sleep, confident that the teams could handle what was to come after reaching Dorme in a few hours.
Boom.
Boom... Boom.
The cat-faunus stirred at the foreign sounds, her head leaning against the window.
Boom.. Boom.. Boom.
Boom, Boom.
Her cat-ears perked up. The sounds were multiplying, and they seemed to be getting closer. She looked out the window and saw nothing but sky above and fog below them.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
Noticing the fog suddenly shifting around, the raven-haired girl squinted at what now looked like fireflowers blooming in mid-air around the ship.
"Are those explo-?"
BOOM!
The last one shook the airship, a sudden blaring of an alarm jerking every passenger awake, followed by an ever-enthusiastic electronic female voice.
'Good morning! It is 6:47 AM, and my Logical Data Analysis sector indicates we have begun taking enemy fire. To avoid loss of auto-piloting functions, immediate evasive action is recommended!'
"Alright, alright!" Neptune shouted annoyed as he walked towards the cockpit, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he took the keys from Jaune's outstretched hand before entering.
A minute or so later, he stepped out again to the group of waiting students, wide awake.
"Okay, people! I got good news and bad news, which one you want first?"
Ruby began to raise her hand.
"Good news first, then! Good news is that we won't crash and die even though we're under anti-aircraft enemy fire!"
"Uh, what's the bad news?" the somewhat groggy brawler asked.
"Bad news is that we can't land while under anti-aircraft enemy fire!"
Ruby raised an eyebrow, "Uh-"
"That's right, Ruby! Which means we're gonna have to jump!"
The students stared incredulously at the flustered pilot. He continued.
"So, any ideas how we can do it?" Neptune winced as he offered the next bit of info, losing his cool just a bit, "cuz we're like, five thousand feet in the air!"
The students instinctively looked at Jaune. Jaune looked at Pyrrha. Pyrrha looked at the exit.
"Wait!" the blonde leader exclaimed, armed with an idea, "Everybody grab your weapons!"
He walked over to the surprised Pyrrha to elaborate.
"Your semblance! If we jump and aim for anything with a metal roof, we should be able to slow our fall, right?"
The Spartan's brows furrowed in thought as the loud explosions continued around the ship.
"Theoretically, yes," she replied, "But I'm not certain I could generate enough force to slow us all down on my own, Jaune..."
"Meh. That's where I come in..." He lifted an aura-projected hand to the side of Pyrrha's face. She instinctively cradled her cheek into the projection, its warmth against her skin causing her to smile as her eyes fluttered closed momentarily.
"You did that on purpose..." she muttered to her grinning leader.
He chuckled softly, "Mayyy-be!"
The students returning with their gear, Jaune stood next to Pyrrha, the semblance replication process complete.
"Okay, guys," he stated to the group, "In one way or another, we're all wearing metal, so that means that Pyrrha - and now myself - can at least control our jump. If we aim for anything made of metal, we can slow down enough to figure out our landings on our own."
"Now that sounds like a crazy idea from a totally insane video game... or a scene from a movie based on a comic book," Sun replied.
"...but it'll work," Blake replied calmly with conviction, "If we link hands, Jaune and Pyrrha should be able to control us as a single unit as we fall. It's our best chance."
"But we will only have a few seconds to link up after we jump," Pyrrha began, "After that, Jaune and I can take it from there."
Another jarring explosion prompted the return of the female voice.
'I am glad to inform that we have arrived at Dorme! Also, shield levels are at critical!'
As the side doors opened, Jaune craned his neck to look down at the thinning fog below.
"Time to go!"
Without another sound, every student jumped out of the aperture just as a string of explosions reverberated around the ship.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
For a moment, all sound ceased, a whooshing sound from the wind in their ears now muting the distant explosions from above. Pyrrha looked over at her falling comrades.
"Link up!"
All sound returning to its blaring intensity, the students managed to link up one by one until they had formed a circle with Jaune and Pyrrha at either end. Engaging their semblances, each student held the magnetized hand of the others, now locking each other in place as the circle of horizontal students approached the ground.
"Where's Seul!" Someone suddenly called out in alarm.
Jaune looked around to see his friend falling dead-weight several yards from the group, a piece of an exploding shell having knocked him out in mid-air.
"He's knocked out! I don't know if we'll reach him in time!"
The ground was approaching quickly... Jaune had little time to think. Whipping out his arm towards the falling boy, his aura glowed around his hand as he pulled in Seul by the metal in his weapon. Linking his hand in Seul's as Ren took the other just in time, Jaune looked over at Pyrrha as they dropped under a thousand feet in altitude over a derelict two story shack with a tin roof.
"Now!"
Straightening their legs underneath them, Jaune and Pyrrha engaged their semblances downwards through their lower limbs, completely crushing the small building to the ground with magnetic force before the group slowed to a stop about twenty feet from the floor.
"Good enough!"
Dropping down, Jaune caught Seul and placed him on the ground as Velvet healed the boy's minor head wound from the shrapnel.
"Well... that was different." the heiress idly commented as she brushed herself off.
Lifting a brow at her unamused partner, Ruby then turned to check on the downed boy.
"How do we wake him up?" the crimsonette asked With some alarm.
"Try taking his weapon," Ren shrewdly suggested.
Reaching for Gretel, Sun began unhooking it when the boy seemingly shot out his hand unconsciously to stop his weapon's retreat, the other hand shooting out in a fist straight to the faunus-boy's nose.
"ACK! Jeez, Seul!"
The boy's eyes shot open, Seul quickly realizing what he had done as the monkey-faunus angrily rubbed at his own nose.
"Sorry! Reflexes, man..."
Standing up, the boy rejoined the group, who had formed a small perimeter around the pancaked building. Jaune looked around at the hazy fog surrounding the area. It was quiet.
Too quiet.
Crash! Boom! Errrrk!
With sudden loud mechanical sounds surrounding the group, the students watched as six Paladins emerged from the fog around them. Ruby took the fore.
"Bumblebee, Ice Flower! We take out the two to the north! Arkos, Noren! The two to the east! VNDS, take the big one on the south! Seul, do you think you can handle..."
Her voice trailed off as the students gaped at the sixth Paladin which now stood buzzing with electricity and motionless, its entire top half suddenly sliding off with a clean slice from a single semblance-powered airblade strike from the boy who stood in front of it.
"...Right."
The other machines angrily charged the group with screeching machine parts, at which Sun shouted out in relish.
"Let's get some!"
The Valean War
TPS (c) 2014