I Will Not Scatter

Chapter 52

Mountain Glenn Part V

Thousands of spider Grimlings were pouring out of the ruptured sacks, glistening as they screeched from tiny mouths. Summer was blurring next to Raven, her eyes tracing out a path through the encroaching madness. Barty had his grenade launcher braced on his shoulder, eying the Grimm through the sight.

Raven wanted to grab her girlfriend and dip out through the portal to relative safety. They couldn't fight all that, and frankly, Raven didn't think Becca was worth risking Summer over. However, Laura was already buffing the faunus, her aura shining brilliant white as she exploded into rose petals and rushed forward.

"Katay! Explosiveboltstotheleft! Concentrateyourfire!"

Katay started firing into the skittering masses that were running towards them. Summer had reached Becca, whose Semblance had guttered out as she was wrapped up. The Jorogumo was keening a strange, nearly melodic tone, almost like a question. The Grimm's razor sharp forelimbs lashed out at the faunus; Summer dodged once, twice, a dozen times as the spider queen rained strikes down at her. The Jorogumo was still reeling Becca in, but had slowed as she tried to skewer the pesky white petals before her.

Raven took up next to Barty, sending waves of ice into the oncoming horde to the right. The spiders were small, compared to their hellish mother anyways; Raven tried to build up spires that would hold them off long enough for Summer to finish freeing Becca and for them to all get the fuck away.

The Grimlings screeched, but for the most part, dodged around the ice and began to spit their own webs in retaliation. If all of them spat their dangerous strands at once, then the youths would be completely overwhelmed. Fortunately, they didn't seem to have the same range as their bitch mother.

In the meantime, Summer had reached Becca and transferred her Semblance to her, transforming them both into a cloud of petals that was moving away quickly from the Jorogumo. Barty was launching grenades to the left where the spiders were thickest, blowing holes in the concrete and showering the air with debris and Grimm alike. Laura was continuing to buff both Becca and Summer. The Jorogumo had watched this take place briefly, her monstrous face contorting in consideration.

Then she screeched and her children swarmed backwards, enveloping the cloud of rose petals like a black tidal wave; Raven felt her heart stop.

"NO!" shouted Barty, turning his grenade launcher at the spider queens face. A rocket fired outwards, burning through the darkness and crashing into the Grimm's face. A fiery wave blew backwards, lighting up the buildings around them as glass shattered from office windows. Raven was swinging frantically, slicing strands away, trying to spot some hint of white in the tide. She couldn't see a single petal, but she could feel the bond between her and Summer.

A portal cracked open behind her and over the mass of squirming Grimm. Raven nearly sprinted through it, when a glimmer of silver caught her eye. The silver light was pulsing under the black mass of Grimlings, which were falling away to the ground.

The spider queen was still standing, a crater gaping in the side of her skull from the grenade blast. However, the wound seemed to be swelling shut as black oozed out, dropping to the ground like…more spiders.

The silver light suddenly erupted like a fountain, blinding them. The Grimm were falling away, the black wave receding like the tide. Summer was standing up slowly, her entire body blazing with silver light as she supported an injured Becca. The Jorogumo was screeching in outrage, her forelimbs striking outwards at the light as she waddled backwards.

Raven took that as her cue, spinning and running into the vortex leading to Summer. The blasted wasteland was dim, the weird structure in the distance still gyrating over the mountains. Raven ignored these trivial details, bolting through the other vortex, sword high. The silver light nearly blinded her as she leapt out. Eyes watering, Raven turned her face; she felt a strand of webbing slice through the air nearby, cutting her cheek.

"Summer!"

Her partner looked nearly ethereal, standing in the pulsing waves of light that almost seemed to sing. Summer had a hand outstretched towards the Grimm, her eyes completely white. The Grimlings were circling them, chittering but staying out of the light.

"Summer, let's go!"

Raven moved forward, trying to reach her partner. The light seemed to be a wave of force that pushed against her as she took a sluggish step. The Grimm were growing louder. Raven could see the immense, slashing arms of the Jorogumo as she retreated further, warbling in distress. Raven raised a forearm to shield her face as she pushed closer. Her very bones were humming from the energy, her aura flaring automatically.

Summer still hadn't looked her way, staring at the behemoth spider. Raven's vision was blurring as she took another step, her head swimming with the sound of the music. As she squinted at her partner, she realized that Summer was crying.

Summer clenched her fist. A burst of light expanded from her fist, turning the world white. Raven covered her face. She didn't pass out this time; but her nose did start to bleed, and the memories that her brain kept dredging up were flickering inside her skull a mile a minute.

Gasping, Raven forced her eyes open. Summer had fallen to her knees, panting, the light starting to fade. Raven glanced up and stared at the street, awe and fear leaving her stunned. The Grimm were frozen. All of them.

The Jorogumo was covering her face, mouth agape; but a silver sheen glistened over her limbs and the thousands of spawn surrounding her. Coughing, Raven stumbled forward, finally reaching her partner and Becca.

Summer's arms were trembling, her ears flat against her skull. Becca was surprisingly conscious as well, kneeling next to the faunus as she gaped incredulously at the scene before her; her aura was broken, incapable of healing the thin slices all over her body. The ones on her arm had nearly cut through to the bone, and slices on her neck had come perilously close to sawing through to her arteries.

"Becca!" yelped Barty, stumbling out of Raven's vortex. He skidded to a stop next to his partner, taking in her injuries with obvious distress.

"C'mon, let's get them out of here," Raven said, reaching out to touch her partner's shoulder.

A flash of silver sparked between her palm and Summer, like an electric current. Raven yanked her fingers back with a yelp; as a force squeezed her head painfully, before relinquishing just as suddenly. The light faded entirely, and her partner choked as if she were about to vomit.

"See, this is the kind of shit I was talking about!"

Raven glanced back at her vortex, spotting Taiyang and Qrow as the boys leapt out; Tai jogged over to them, blue eyes wide.

"Never again, nope!" he shook his blonde head.

The ground shook again. With frustrated dread, Raven looked up. The light field encircling the Jorogumo was splintering; her multitude of eyes were beginning to rove about with malicious tenacity as the mandibles of her rotten mouth squeezed together slowly.

Barty scowled, raising his grenade launcher to his shoulder once more.

"Get them out of here, I'll cover you," said Barty.

"Don't be daft-" Raven started when she was suddenly scooped up. She blinked as she hung over Tai's shoulder; the boy similarly picked Summer up, before making for the portal.

"Taiyang what the fuck-"

"Nope! Nope nope nope!" yelled Tai.

The Jorogumo broke loose with a hair raising shriek, before charging towards them with her arms outstretched. Barty immediately loosed a grenade into the spider queens face as Qrow grabbed Becca and followed after them. Raven watched with stupefied wonder as she hung from Tai's shoulder as a ball of fire exploded, tearing the Grimm's head clean off; flames and spiders the size of grapefruits rained down around them.

"Nopenopenopenopenope-"

They leapt into the portal, a tidal wave of angry spiders chasing after them across the desert sand.

"What about Barty?!" shouted Qrow, catching up to them, literally cradling Becca.

"He'll be ok," Becca said. "I know what he's doing but-"

They jumped out of the portal and back to their previous location, where Katay and Laura still were, Raven dismissing the vortex and possibly trapping the Grimm in some other dimension. Laura had her staff extended as she buffed her team leader, and Katay was screaming silently as he rained explosive bolt after bolt into the endless wave of screeching Grimm.

"-We need to get clear! Katay! Laura! Fall back!" yelled Becca, straining around Qrow.

Raven was growing extremely perturbed with her teammate, who was about to carry both herself and Summer through the other vortex to the barricade. Summer was dry heaving from where she hung, tears still streaming down her face.

Barty's aura, which was a shade of orange similar to his partner's, was standing out in stark contrast to the black Grimm that were trying to overwhelm him. However, the spiders were literally bursting as they tried to get close to him. Raven realized she had never seen Barty's Semblance in action before, and the over caffeinated conspiracy theorist was surprisingly tight lipped about it.

Laura and Katay shared a panicked look before running towards them.

"Go!" yelped Laura. "Go go go!"

"What's going on? What's he doing?!" asked Qrow.

Raven wiggled, trying to get Tai to put her down, but the blonde's grip was like a bloody vice.

"Exploding! The guy's a walking napalm bomb!"

Oh.

Raven's eyes widened as Tai sprinted through the portal, leading the charge of fleeing freshmen. They passed through the wasteland before exiting swiftly. Military personnel jumped, pointing weapons at them before turning their guns away as the students immediately started waving them away; Raven broke free of Tai's grasp as the blonde set Summer on the ground.

"Get back! Get a field up, fast!"

The military men and women jumped to it, apparently used to hunter shenanigans. Force field nodes were thrown down swiftly, encircling the vortex. In the distance, the sound of a hefty explosion went off, shaking the ground even as far away as they were. A cloud of smoke and fire filled the air in the distance; fire, ash, and burning gelatin roared out of the vortex and crashed against the force field.

Raven flinched, feeling the effects of the bomb roaring through her Semblance. It didn't hurt, but it was immensely draining to keep the portal to Barty open. Raven sat down, breathing heavily as the fires slowed.

Tai had laid Summer down, who still looked ill and was mostly unresponsive as he tried to inspect her. Qrow hovered as close as he dared, his Semblance hitting a hapless soldier and making her trip on the asphalt. The rest of BLK stood at the force field's perimeter, anxiously waiting for some sign of their leader.

Raven rubbed her face, smearing away blood from the cut she'd received. The force field had held against the onslaught, and the bubble it contained was filled with smoke. A minute drug by as they waited for some sign of the green haired boy, painfully slow.

Suddenly, a handprint pressed against the blue field. The sergeant in charge of the military personnel near them barked an order, and an entryway was formed. Sighing in exhaustion, Raven released her Semblance, and the vortex's disappeared.

A very bloody Becca was the first to reach the arch, pulling her partner free of the bubble, smoke rolling over her. Barty emerged, his outfit in scorched tatters. He looked exhausted, but his injured partner held him up as they staggered into the arms of their teammates.

Raven sighed, turning to her own teammates. Taiyang was sweating, his eyes shining with feverish desperation as he tried to treat Summer. Summer was mumbling, unconscious, her ears drooping. Qrow had scooted closer, his pale red eyes glittering in the half light as he tried to reassure his partner.

Raven pushed off the ground and knelt beside Summer, reaching for their bond to try to get some idea of what condition she was in. Sensations flooded her, which was technically a good sign. Summer could smell Tai's aftershave, her blood and fear, Qrow's sweat, the smoke from Barty's explosion; she could feel the ground beneath her, and hear the sounds of fighting half-way across the city. However, her head was hurting, she felt nauseous, and was exhausted.

"Tai," Raven started, stopping when he looked at her. The martial artist's eyes were intense.

"She's ok. I…I can feel that she's ok. She's just worn out from whatever she did."

Taiyang stared at her momentarily before turning back to Summer, brushing her hair from her forehead. The shouts of soldiers filled the air as the military continued fighting against Grimm at the barricade.

"STRQ, BBLK, this is HCC. Please respond."

Raven reached up to her ear, pressing the comm to answer Arc's voice.

"HCC, STRQ. We copy."

"…The next time you lot think you can ignore me, I swear to Dust, I will personally-"

"STRQ this is Ozpin," cut in the headmaster. "Fall back to HCC. That goes for all teams in sector 9 through 3. We are evacuating civilians to the underground. The skies have been overrun, and another section of the wall has been breached. Mountain Glenn is beyond saving."

Raven glanced at her teammates, whose faces were equally distressed. All of this had been for nothing?

"I repeat, all hunters fall back to HCC."

Several teams rattled off compliance before familiar voices sounded off on the net.

"JADE copies."

"ARSN copies."

"BBLK copies," said Laura, still focused on her injured teammates.

"…STRQ copies," said Qrow.

"Whoo, that's a big ole negative from us, Oz," sounded off Murt.

Raven and Qrow paused, pressing their headsets closer.

"Murt, that is an order," said Ozpin. "The King and Council has demanded all hunters to aid in the evacuation via the underground transit."

There was static on the line for a long time.

"Yea. Yea, I know. But ah, we're stayin. For now anyways."

"Aye, it's not personal, headmaster," said Ophelia's accented voice over the net. "But ya know how it is, yea?"

Raven turned towards Tai and Summer, her heart aching.

"People here need us. And the train got no breaks, afterall."