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Chapter 32: Atlas Bugged

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Jaune and Pyrrha waited patiently for their friends and teammates to finish packing. Today was the big day! They were finally going to Atlas! They still didn't know exactly why they were going to Atlas, but McDiarmid and Tonar had mentioned something about being needed there. Jaune distrusted Ozpin, but he still had faith in his uncle. Atlas presumably, also had a Vault within it as well, yet another Relic to be secured and kept away from both the Ozluminati and Salem. He pulled Pyrrha out the front door.

"Hey, so this is going to kick off. I have a sneaking suspicion...", Jaune said.

"What makes you think that?", Pyrrha asked.

"I just do. There's something in the air, I can feel it.", Jaune noted.

As Jaune said that, a huge purple beam of pure energy shot across the skies. It missed the city and the mountains as it arced over the land. He jumped back for a moment as the sky turned purple.

"What in the hell is that!?"

XXX

Ilia and Sienna began to walk towards their airship. They were flying together out of Mistral City and back to Menagerie. Ghira Belladonna had sounded excited for a meeting between the Fang and the Knights. It would be a new future. Ilia and Sienna recoiled in horror for a moment as the sky turned purple and a beam of pure focused hatred shot across it. The beam missed Haven Academy by a few meters and continued across the sky.

"Oh good gods! What is going on here!?", the two Faunus exclaimed.

XXX

In Patch, Taiyang could hear Zwei barking at something. He didn't really care. It was probably nothing. His entire house shook violently as the skies suddenly turned purple. His hair stood on end and he quickly ran outside just in time to see a huge purple beam of energy streak through the trees. He grabbed Zwei and fell to his knees.

"Oh god!", Taiyang exclaimed as he watched the beginning of the end.

XXX

Peter Port stood outside of Beacon Academy. The school had been mostly rebuilt. There was just one little problem. The huge Grimm that was still frozen at the top of the tower. The campus had been cleaned up and new students were to arrive soon, but until the Tower was repaired and the Grimm was dislodged, nobody wanted to even come near the place. Hundreds of Huntsmen were on guard to defend the school from the still incoming Grimm that were drawn by the massive dragoon.

Port sighed and just stared upwards. He hoped that something would happen. Anything. His eyes shot wide open as the sky suddenly turned a horrific purple shade. Clouds were blasted away as a beam of pure focused energy slammed into the Grimm at the top of the tower. An aether greased fist of fury pounded into the massive Grimm and exploded it. A thousand fragments of stone quickly turned to ash as the monster turned to smoke, just like all the other Grimm.

Peter Port blinked a few times. He made sure he wasn't dreaming. Several of the hired Huntsmen looked up at the Beacon Tower. The Grimm was gone. Repairs could be started. Port walked towards the Tower. It was time to clear out any remaining Grimm! He gripped his axe-gun and walked towards the front doors. An elevator crashed down in front of him, the doors opening and spilling a very confused and disheveled professor down into the dust alongside several hundred cans of beans.

"Glynda!?", Port exclaimed.

"Elevator... Stuck... Trapped...", Professor Goodwitch groaned.

The blond-haired custodian of Beacon Academy had been declared dead after the Fall of Beacon. Judging by her current appearance, it appeared that she had actually been stuck inside the tower for the better half of almost two years. She had survived on rainwater and cans of beans. Port was actually glad that Old Ozpin had bought those nearly six thousand cans of beans, otherwise Glynda Goodwitch would've been gone forever.

"It's alright, Glynda. You're going to be fine...", Port said as he ran over to her aid.

Glynda Goodwitch just stared at Peter Port in confusion. What exactly had happened since the attack on Beacon? She had no idea at all.

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Meanwhile, in Atlas...

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"Boo yeah! Three points, ya dirty whore!", Tassiter Arc shouted. Merlot was less than pleased.

"Do you have any idea where that went!?", the Doctor exclaimed.

"Probably just into the atmosphere... I can guarantee you, it didn't hit anything important.", Tassiter Arc noted.

Tassiter Arc jumped back into his chair. His new 'Eye of Helios' had worked flawlessly and it didn't blow up and kill them all, not that it would've happened. He was about to pop the champagne bottles when the door of his office flew open and a red-haired and rather irate young woman burst in.

"Arc! Ironwood wants you. Immediately!", the woman exclaimed.

Tassiter Arc glanced at the woman. She was tall and slender with red hair held up in a long ponytail. She had vibrant green eyes that seemed to pierce him with a steely gaze. She wore Atlas military-grade armor in a garish teal color. He casually rolled his eyes at her.

"Ah, and if my eyes are deceiving me, you're not really here right now. You're actually that Pumpkin Pete's mascot and not who I think you are...", Tassiter Arc mused.

"Unfortunately, it's me. Come on, Arc...", the woman said.

"Just let me finish my champagne...", Tassiter Arc complained.

"No. Now!", the woman exclaimed as she walked across the room and grabbed the CEO of Hyperion.

"Alright, fine! Why do you have to be such a bitch, Carolina?", Tassiter Arc noted.

"When, I deal with asshats like you, I have to be. Now move it, Arc!", Carolina goaded.

Atlesian Special Agent Carolina escorted Tassiter Arc out of his own corporation. Today was going to be a fun day. Doctor Merlot simply sat down on Tassiter Arc's couch and helped himself to the champagne. Today was going to be a very fun day!

X

"Here he is, General.", Carolina stated as she shoved Tassiter Arc though the doors. General Ironwood just stared out of his office window.

"Good. You are dismissed, Agent.", Ironwood noted stoicly. Carolina turned on her heel and left the room.

"Hey, I can explai-"

"Arc! What the hell was that!? I explicitly told you there weren't to be any more testing unless you had properly sent notice! We never recovered Adel's pod after your last 'test' went awry.", Ironwood shouted.

"Nobody died! This time... It was just a simple little test firing of our new long-range plasma cannon! I calibrated the aim myself and it certainly didn't hit anything important!", Tassiter Arc reassured.

"For your sake, I hope it didn't. If there are any casualties from this 'test', I'm holding you accountable for every single one of them!", Ironwood declared.

"Can I go now?", Arc asked.

"I don't know Arc, can you?", Ironwood glared.

"Okay... May I declare departure from Atlas and the continent of Mantle starting immediately?", Arc asked.

"You may. And I approve of your departure.", Ironwood stated.

Tassiter Arc left Ironwood's office and went back to his HQ. He quietly kicked Dr. Merlot out and began to prepare to leave Atlas itself. He was leaving. Officially and most-likely permanently. Ironwood had been too angry and had ignored the fact that Tassiter Arc's corporate HQ was currently flying adjacent to Atlas' upper city. He also didn't notice as the docking cables of the massive H-shaped structure were released. He did notice the giant H slowly floating away from the continent and across the ocean.

"Arc! What are you doing!?", Ironwood screamed into his Scroll.

"Leaving. Just like I asked.", Tassiter Arc responded.

There was a cry of frustration and the sound of breaking glass as Ironwood's Scroll cut out. With Helios now moving across the ocean towards Anima, Atlas would be without their strongest and most popular weapons manufacturer.

James Ironwood cursed loudly in his office. He knew Tassiter Arc was a trickster. He shouldn't have even bothered with having him brought in. He probably should've approved his request for independence from Atlas. He probably should've done a lot of things differently. He could rally the air force and forcibly bring Helios back to Atlas. Then he remembered the ridiculous weapon that he had just witnessed and sighed. Nothing would bring Arc and his company back except for a very specific thing he vehemently did not want to do under any circumstances. He sighed even harder and thought about that very specific thing for a moment. Dignity... How much did he have left? Not enough. He slammed the intercom button.

"Bring in Doctor Polendina. We have lost Tassiter Arc and Hyperion.", he said stoicly.

XXXXX

Back in Argus, Team JNPR and RWBY began to make their way towards the military base. Cordovin was expecting them. Adam, Sun, Qrow and Ozcar followed behind. Rhames had left earlier and noted that he would meet up with them. There were things he needed to take care of. The air was abuzz with some kind of chatter. Something felt off for some reason. As they approached the base, they could see tiny old Cordovin pacing around. The sound of their arrival perked her ears and the older woman turned to face them.

"Haha! Well, now! That's a rowdy bunch you've got there! Jaune wasn't kidding when he said he'd bring a lot of people! Now... who do we have here?", Cordovin rambled. "A bunch of fun Faunus, Mr. Arc and friends, Qrow Branwen and his hanse, and... wait. Wasn't there another one with you? A big scary guy?"

"You mean Rhames? He's supposed to meet us here in a bit. Prepare the airship while we wait for him.", Jaune noted.

"Oh alright! Geez. I baked you all some nice tasty cashew cookies, too. A friendly gesture to my most favorite person in the whole world, Maria.", Cordovin said somewhat sarcastically, before she held out a metal tin of cookies. Obeying Jaune's every word was very difficult as it seemed.

Alarm bells suddenly began to blare all over the base. A nubuck guard ran up to them, he was out of breath and panicked.

"M'lady! The radar! It's picked up hundreds... Perhaps thousands of entities incoming! We need to defend the city!", he cried.

Cordovin visibly jumped. She ran towards the base, seemingly in fear.

"Where are you going!?", Jaune exclaimed.

"I have a failsafe! All you need to do is cover me!", Cordovin yelled as she ran towards the bunker.

Both teams followed the tiny commander towards the bunker. Alarm klaxons continued to sound all around. It was absolute chaos. Pyrrha just sighed and followed everyone else. So much for an easy trip out of the city. Still, it beat trying to fight the guards.

Once inside the base itself, Cordovin ran down another hallway and disappeared into a smaller thigh-high door specifically meant for someone of her stature. Jaune just looked in her direction in disbelief.

"Okay, tiny door…", he sighed. "Anyone care to crawl into that?". Nobody moved. Nobody really wanted to see how far down Cordovin's rabbit hole went.

Team RWBY took to taking a peek at the radar systems, the nubuck guards ran around arms flailing whilst chanting 'Atlas'. It appeared that several large squadrons of Grimm were approaching from the mountains.

"Command, this is Alpha 33, come in! There… Appears to be some sort of new Grimm leading the assault. It's… human…", the radio crackled as another of the Atlesian guards called.

"Keep a line of sight on it and report back to us. Do not engage unless absolutely necessary!", another nubuck guard called back.

"They're swarming the city! We have to go and defend it!", Ruby called out. She pulled out Crescent Rose and made haste for the door. The rest of team RWBY followed behind her leaving Jaune, Pyrrha, and the rest of the mixmatched bunch standing alone.

The base suddenly began to shake, as if it was a small snowglobe in the hands of an unruly child. Jaune just stared up at the CCTV feed. It would seem that tiny old Cordie had a trick up her sleeve after all. A large door had opened on the seaside facing edge of the base and a large Mantle-era robot began to emerge from it. It had a large 'head' somewhat cylindrical with a tiny control pod in its 'chest'. Two large hydraulic arms and a pair of somewhat stubby legs. The whole machine was wearing Atlas-colored livery.

"Cordovin to base. Cherno-Beta is active. Preparing for defense protocols.", Cordovin called from inside the mech.

"What in all that is holy, is that thing?", Jaune asked to nobody in particular.

"That's Cherno-Beta, an old nuclear powered Mantle-era mech. It's a relic from another age. Unfortunately, it also irradiates whoever is driving it…", one of the guards commented back.

"Maybe that's why she's such a tiny little-", Maria began to say before she drifted off.

"She said defensive positions! Deploy the wall!", another of the nubuck guards called.

Despite the waves of Grimm approaching from the mountains, the guards deployed the 'wall', which activated a force-field out in the middle of the bay. Which was probably going to do absolutely nothing to help the defenseless city of Argus. It was a nice gesture though.

Jaune just looked around for a moment before grabbing his own weapons and heading for the door. Adam had left with Team RWBY, Rhames still wasn't back yet, and Ozcar an Drunkle Qrow weren't about to be of much use. Pyrrha, Ren and Nora quickly followed him out of the base as well.

Outside, on the bridge all hell was breaking loose. Grimm were attacking pedestrians left and right, more of the sensible folks had grabbed tools and pickaxes to try to defend themselves. Cordovin's robot was slowly making its was inland from the base. It was pathetically slow.

"Jaune! We have to find my mother! We have to make sure everyone is safe!", Pyrrha called. Jaune followed. They began to run back towards the park and the memorial. Ren and Nora split off to try to find Rhames, wherever he'd run off to.

"My, my. Some old friends! How are you do-", Jaune shot before he had a chance to finish. Roman Torchwick and his best friend stood stoicly in front of him.

"Did you do this, Torchdick?", Jaune asked menacingly.

"Nope! Not me this time. I'm afraid our old mutual acquaintance Cinder is behind this one. It was only a matter of time, you see…", Torchwick noted.

"Really? And you know this how? Cinder Fall is dead.", Pyrrha added, her eyes beginning to glow with Maiden energy.

"On the contrary, she survived. Somehow. It would seem that whatever kind of Grimm pact she made has taken over her mind and body. But I suppose survived is a somewhat loose term. She's not quite right anymore…", Torchwick rambled.

"Why…. Why are you telling us this now!? You've obviously been in town for a while, why tell us right now, instead of uhh… maybe… Finding us sooner!?", Pyrrha raged.

"And if I had, would you have listened to me? Knowing who I am and what I've got against the others in your little group? Or would you have just shot me dead on sight like your boyfriend?", Torchwick argued.

"I… err… Graaagh!", Pyrrha turned around for a moment hoping that Torchwick would take the hint and go away.

"Exactly. Now, if you don't mind me, I've got some drycleaning to pick up.", Torchwick concluded. Neo waved at the duo as they left.

"Great. Torchdick is alive and well too. What's next?", Jaune asked to nobody in particular again.

"Well, here we are, Jaune. Friends and enemies, Grimm… It's time to end this.", Pyrrha noted as she took to the air a few feet from the ground and began to hover off. Jaune followed shortly behind.

X

Across the city, Beowolves swarmed the docks. Rhames had his hands full as he conjured his Semblance and his wardrobe of weapons appeared. Without the rest of his own Team, he beat back several of the dark hounds alone. Local business owner and underworld boss, Junior Xiong stood nearby launching volleys of rockets, his own henchmen now trying to protect both the business and his clientele.

"Get to safety! You're not Hunters! I can handle this!", Rhames called to Junior. Junior and his lackeys began to step backwards. They slowly backed away and left Rhames alone with the horde of Grimm descending on him.

Rhames conjured a diamond bastard sword and swung, bisecting several Beowolves in the process. He eyed the skyline and looked for a way to get to his comrades. He suspected the park and its rather sad memorial would be a good holding ground for everyone. It was enclosed and large enough for them to make a final stand. He shuddered for a moment, perhaps not a final stand. He glanced down at the strange lamp from earlier and began to make his way towards the memorial gardens.

X

In the opposite direction of Rhames, Team RWBY and Adam waged war against the encroaching Grimm. Ruby with her own natural powers unleashed a blast of light that froze several of the Grimm in place. Her training was paying off, as it seemed, although she could only let off a few quick blasts before needing to recover. Blake's shadow clones distracted several Nevermore chicks as she and Yang tag-teamed the evil birds.

Adam just stood by, staring at the beasts of darkness as they descended on him. He stared at them, the mindless beasts of destruction and saw something. He stared at them and saw a rage, a black oily hatred. An animal, wild and unruly as it bared down on him. He saw a little bit of what he used to be in them; a hateful creature out for death. He raged. He partially unsheathed Exagora and absorbed the dozen or so blows from the descending Grimm.

"I'm not like you! I'm not an animal anymore! I'm free!", Adam thought. "I have a family now… I love them. I have to protect them…"

"Blake! Get the others to safety, I'll meet up with you, I promise!", Adam called.

"There are too many of them, Adam! You'll die!", Blake called back.

"I know. Please, Blake. Don't fight me on this… Take Yang and your friends and go.", Adam said softly.

Blake gave him a glance and grabbed her friends and left. Jaune had a plan before, to meet up at the memorial gardens. Everyone could meet up there and stand a final defense. It was ideal.

"I won't let you take them from me! All I wanted… All my life…", Adam swore as the Grimm descended upon him. There were dozens if not hundreds. He took the blows of many all at once. His aura began to wane under the sustained attacks. "Redemption…"

Blake glanced back towards where Adam stood as she left. A sudden blast of red energy nearly knocked her to her feet as she knew what Adam had done. He had saved them, but at what cost. She dearly hoped that the ragged Faunus would rejoin their group in the gardens.

X

Pyrrha and Jaune were the first to enter the Memorial Gardens. The whole place was strangely quiet. No Grimm were in sight. Pyrrha glanced around for a second before realizing that the huge bronze Pyrrha Statue was missing from its pedestal.

"Pyrrha!", Pandora called.

Pyrrha's mother, also gifted with the Semblance of Polarity, had animated the statue. It stood in defense near the far wall.

"Mom? What are you doing?", Pyrrha asked incredulously.

"I'm not dreaming. This is real. This is a nightmare. Grimm attacking Argus? I knew I had to do something. Even if seeing you alive was just a dream, I knew you'd be able to protect us. I did what I thought was right.", Pandora stated.

The statue of Pyrrha, eyes still closed, held out its huge bronze shield and a lamppost as a weapon. Large trenches of earth were shorn up marking areas where Grimm had once stood. Even in supposed death, Pyrrha was still protecting Argus.

Rhames and a battered and beaten Sun Wukong entered next. Sun had several large cuts and multiple bruises beginning to form. Rhames looked about the same condition.

"Where are the others? I found Sun in the middle of the street, he was beaten up.", RHames said as he laid Sun on the ground.

"Grimm?", Jaune asked as he looked at Sun's injuries.

"Not for him. He cheated at cards and got beaten up at Junior's club. Then the Grimm attacked.", Rhames noted.

"Huh…", Jaune sighed.

Team RWBY was next to arrive after Rhames. They all piled into the memorial gardens and took defensive stances. Yang glanced at the animated bronze statue and shook her head. Things had gotten a lot weirded lately. Now there were two Pyrrhas. Almost on cue, Nora came thundering into the gardens on top of an Ursa Major, the Grimm collapsing into smoke on arrival.

"Yaaay! Let's do it again!", Nora cheered.

"No… Way… You did it twice already, Nora…", Ren sighed as he sat down next to Jaune's feet.

Jaune surveyed the scene. Grimm were still enclosing on them. There were less now, but it was still going to be a fight. And if Mr. Torchdick was right, then Cinder Fall, now Cinder SomethingHorrible was coming for them as well. Wasn't payback a bitch?

"Well, we're beaten, bloody, and bruised. We're all here together, we've got the relic and this is going to be our final stand. Well, hopefully not final stand… But…. You know what I mean. We're all heroes here, let's not forget that. And they are the goddamn monsters! Let's kill these savages!", Jaune stated.

As Jaune was finishing his rally, Adam crept into the gardens. He slumped down next to Blake and Yang.

"I've seen her. It. She's not human anymore. More Grimm than human…", Adam wheezed.

"You what? So Torchdick wasn't making it up?", Jaune asked.

"Yeah. It was Cinder. But now, I don't know anymore. I tried to block her attacks, but… She has help. My brother…", Adam gasped before passing out.

"Oh great! Another Taurus! What's his problem? What's his name? Mustang Taurus? Escort Taurus? Fairlane Taurus!? What!", Jaune yelled at the unconscious Faunus. Adam didn't respond, since he was now unconscious.

"His name is Fjord Taurus. We should be wary. His Semblance allows him to run through walls.", Blake noted quietly.

It was at that moment, that the nearest wall suddenly exploded and the now raging bull Faunus revealed himself. Fjord Taurus himself dusted his clothing off and looked directly at them. His eyes were burning red in rage. He grunted a few times before he began to charge. Team RWBYJNPRR readied their weapons. If Fjord was here, then Cinder Grimm wasn't too far behind and the end was upon them.

Chapter End. Long Hiatus, but RWBY fans know of long Hiatuses. More weirdness to come. I promise you that.