Try as she might, Yang could not get the events of the past 24 hours out of her head.
She wasn't sure what she was thinking, looking back. Grabbing the grenade was a dumb enough thing, but it was in-character for her. She tended to make such rash decisions on the fly, and it had worked out in the end. She'd beaten herself up enough to charge her Semblance, and she was able to take out the Assassin with zero effort. She'd kept everyone safe, everyone was going home alive, way to go Yang, you saved the day.
That was something to be proud of.
That wasn't what Yang had been proud of in the moment. What Yang had been proud of was the ugly orange stain on the roof that splattered the pavement all the way across the street. She'd been proud that she'd done the closest thing realistically possible to erasing something from existence. She'd been proud that she'd killed something. Not a Grimm, a living, sentient being. Even if it was one that wanted to harm her.
That wasn't something to be proud of.
The 'Guerilla Tactics School', as XCOM's guys put it, was more of a gym than any kind of 'school' she'd seen, but it was plenty sufficient for her needs as she slugged a punching bag over and over again, the bag swinging almost into the wall with the force of her punches. Nothing on this ship was built for her, or for any of RWBY or JNPR for that matter. Pyrrha'd told her about the time Jaune punched Declan, and concussed him with just one hit.
Jaune.
Noodly, string bean Jaune.
If he could hit that hard here, Yang could probably kill with one hand. Come to think of it, she had.
"You got a lot on your mind, don't you?" a concerned voice called out from the door. Yang quickly turned her head as a looping hook landed, sending the bag spinning in a wide arc. It was that Eric guy that Blake had rescued from the woods. He seemed to be in a lot better spirits than before, at least, and most of his lighter wounds had completely healed. Shocking, considering it hadn't been that long since they'd come to Earth, but maybe the portal shenanigans were having an effect on his body. Yang didn't know—she'd didn't know anything about portals, her bit was rescuing the people that did.
"Nah, not really," Yang lied, going back to the bag and throwing a one-two-three. "I just need to blow off some steam."
"Mmhm, yeah. Right." Eric wasn't wearing a uniform like the rest of the XCOM guys yet, but he'd shed the baggy duster coat and two-sizes-too-small jeans Ozpin had procured for him. Instead, he was wearing a pair of grey camouflage cargo pants and a white tank top. Black boxing tape covered his hands past the knuckles and down to the wrists. "Same here."
It just hit Yang that there was more than one bag. Indeed, she'd picked the one on the far right, and there were two more besides, along with a standing punch dummy with a human torso. That seemed to be the one Eric was gravitating towards.
"So, what's going on? You adjusting okay?" Yang asked. She remembered Blake saying that his planet...well, this planet, had been under attack by aliens when Eric left it, and now it was obvious that the aliens had been on the winning end of that exchange.
"It's kinda upsetting," Eric replied, assuming a fighting stance. It was an odd stance, one that she didn't quite recognize. Dad had always taught her from a boxing technical standpoint, so she'd always taken to the sweet science, but this looked nothing like boxing. She'd always kept a loose stance, something that would allow her to position Ember Celica with minimal movement to maximize her range.
Eric was the opposite. His stance was tight, square, and all forward- shoulders tight, hips forward, legs close, hands high. He continued speaking as he measured his reach, throwing slow, languid elbows that didn't hit anything. "I grew up in Los Angeles. From what Captain Hamilton-" Eric swiftly corrected himself. "-from what Lawrence told me, it's just a big occupied city-center now. Our old base is gone. Now it's a memorial to 'civilian lives lost in the senseless resistance'." His measuring strikes stopped, replaced by a savage elbow strike that shook the dummy. "Base our team got massacred in is just a bunch of rubble in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains." Another elbow with the other arm as he continued. "One of my guys was from Baton Rouge- that city's fucking gone. ADVENT flooded it just to get rid of some dirty shit they didn't want us to see. Another one was from Bangor, and no one's heard anything about the city since the war." Another elbow with the lead arm, followed by a spin into a back elbow that rocked the dummy as he hopped back into his stance, posting himself up a bit more loosely this time."World's changed without me. 19 years is a long time."
Yang couldn't imagine being away from Remnant for 19 years, but she could empathize. "I can imagine. The time jump from Remnant to here is… insane. Did you…"
Yang wasn't sure how to broach this, or even if she should. She decided that she would, carefully, but she wouldn't press it.
"Did you have any family here?"
Eric threw a kick at the dummy, again seeming more interested in finding range than doing damage. "Dad got shot by a thug when I was 12. Mom kinda disappeared from my life after I turned 19 and joined the Army. I had a brother. We didn't really keep in touch while I was on duty. His wife was sweet, though. I think, looking back, she was more interested in me than him. Had two nephews. I haven't heard or seen anything from any of them. Nobody here can tell me anything without getting into ADVENT's systems, and I'm not gonna risk opsec over my brother or his kids."
"I mean, I don't blame you for thinking about it," Yang offered. "It's nice to have something to go to when you're lost. I don't know what I'd do without my dad or Ruby."
"Here's hoping you never have to find out," Eric said, throwing another kick, this one with more force. A short silence followed, with Eric stopping his offense for a moment and watching as Yang slowly ceased her half-focused attacks.
"How about you?" Eric asked. "Been meaning to do a wellness check. What you did out there-"
"I don't want to talk about it," Yang snapped, much harder than she'd intended to. Really, she hadn't planned on saying a word. It just… came out. "Sorry."
"It's normal. To feel how you're feeling. I wanted to try and talk to you because I've been there, Yang. I get it."
Right, Yang had forgotten that Eric had been a soldier. "I guess you do. It's not that I killed her that bothers me. It's... it's more that…"
"That you enjoyed it."
Yang nodded, a lump forming in her throat. It wasn't like killing a Grimm. A Grimm didn't think, didn't talk, didn't do anything but attack. The Assassin wanted to kill her, sure, but it—she?— wasn't a Grimm. She was a living, sentient being, and Yang had taken pleasure in turning her into an abstract art piece.
"It's human nature," Eric explained. "It's the part of human nature that recruiters, that military types want. The adrenaline of defeating your enemy, the trill of conquest. They want to hone that killing edge into a tool. If you're focused on the adrenaline rush of a dead hostile contact, you don't have time to think about how you just killed somebody. When I was in the Sandbox, my first KIA in the field was during an attempted convoy hit. Dropped the guy, three rounds to the chest. I felt great. I'd protected my guys, protected my country. Then when the engagement was over, I looked at him. He wasn't any older than me. All I could think about for hours was what that guy's mom or dad would do now that he was dead, if he had any brothers or sisters, if he had a wife, if he had kids…"
Eric trailed off, turning his attention back to the dummy, his gaze intense. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and balling his fists, before turning back to Yang.
"The point is, I know. I've been where you've been. It's not a good place to be. But it's a good thing. I've met guys who lost that, who stopped thinking about that kind of thing and focused only on the rush. Almost every one of them started racking up big numbers, and when they ran out of insurgents, they started shooting… other people." Eric turned back to Yang, focusing that metallic gaze on her. "Don't ever forget that you're killing living things. Even if they're fucking aliens."
Yang didn't respond immediately, instead letting out a breath she'd only just realized she'd been holding in.
Eric's eyes softened, and he averted them nervously, offering a slight shrug. "Sorry if that got a little heavy."
"No, no," Yang responded, "it's fine. I think I needed to hear it."
"Glad to help. If you ever need to talk, hit me up. Don't force yourself, though, I know we're not exactly the best of pals after that business in the woods, but I can try my best."
"I appreciate it, really. You've been pretty cool since Ruby half-ripped your arm off," Yang offered with a weak smile.
"The reality check helped, thanks." Eric gave a smile of his own, and offered his fist. Yang nodded, and returned the gesture, before turning back to her bag. "I've never seen that stance before. What is it?"
"Muay Thai," Eric responded. "A guy I knew on base loved the stuff, I drilled it with him a few times. Ended up practicing on my own when I had the time, never really left me. Like learning to ride a bike. Want me to show you some-"
"Oi!" came a shot from the door. Yang immediately turned to the source, a diminutive blond-haired woman with a bandana, a heavily tattooed right arm, and a snarl on her face.
"Goldilocks, Hobo Jones, Grace wants to see ye. Lot of callers on the line, we're gonna need all hands on deck."
Eric huffed, giving Yang a side-eye. "Hobo fuckin' Jones', he muttered. "Best take a rain check on the Muay Thai."
Operation: Sinister Six
ADVENT Psionic Substation Sviyazhk, Tatarstan, Russia
September 28th, 2035
"Son of a- get off!" Phil roared, kicking a Stun Lancer back off his shield and attempting to right himself. There were way too many of these things to say this was a defensive installation. What did ADVENT see in–
"Look out behind ya!" Nora suddenly shouted. Phil wasn't sure where she'd come from, but the moment he turned around, he found her jumping, arm outstretched, into a Stun Lancer that had been teeing off at the back of his head. She grabbed the electro baton, bringing Phil's memory back to what happened the last time she'd attempted such a thing.
"Nora, sto-" he began, only to be struck dumb by what he witnessed.
The shock reverberated through Nora, but seemingly didn't do much of anything but put a smile on her face. She slammed the baton into the floor, arcs of pink lightning shooting up her arms. In the meantime, Phil turned around to face the Stun Lancer he'd engaged, slamming his shield up against their chin, sending them flying backwards, then stepping forward and slamming it into their neck with a dull crunch.
Phil turned to watch as,with no exaggeration, Nora uppercut the Stun Lancer she was engaging off of the floor and into the ceiling, leaving an orange splatter of ADVENT blood where it hit, before the alien hybrid landed with a wet thud.
Nora turned back to look at him with a smile. "Worked that time!"
" Sacre , you children are the devil's work."
Operation: Hangman
ADVENT Logistics Headquarters, Hongkou District, Shanghai, China
October 6th, 2035
"So uh… problem, love. Big problem," Sophie said, peeking out from behind an overturned table.
"Hit me with it," Jerry said, ducking from behind the window next to Jaune, who was very much not used to having a firearm yet.
"I may have… on complete accident… activatedthesecondarysecuritysystem ."
"Oh," Jerry replied, before it suddenly hit him. "Oh, shit. Oh, shit!"
"That's a lot of robots!" Jaune shouted. "That's a lot of robots!"
"FUCKING ROBOTS!" Roderick screamed over comms. "HATE EM! I HATE EM! I FUCKIN' HATE EM!"
"Okay so, how are we gonna tackle this?" Jerry asked, peeking out of the window at the very large crowd of advancing ADVENT MECs. "We got the data, but… that's our extraction point."
"Well how are we gonna get there, then?" Sophie asked, leaning over Jerry's shoulder. "We don't have the firepower to knock them out from here, and they'll have us zeroed the moment we open up."
"Yeah, those things light up the first target they see..." Jerry muttered, trying to think of a solution. There were at least 10 out there, and closing fast, and Jerry only had 5 people to work with. If he was the aliens, he'd probably send out a Berserker or something to draw fire, but it wasn't like he had anything with that kind of armor and endurance...
Then, it hit him.
"Hey, Jaune?"
"Yeah?" Jaune replied.
"How fast can you run?"
Operation: Sun Crusher
ADVENT Propaganda Office, New York City, New York
October 16th, 2035
Eric looked through the window on the door to the Propaganda Office, watching as ADVENT goons went about clearing as much of the building as they could.
"We're gonna have to do this quietly," Eric muttered, slowly sliding shells into his shotgun as he tried to get a head count. "We're outnumbered here, and we can't afford to wait for Roderick and Ruby to catch up with us. We're gonna have to get their attention somehow.'
"I have an idea," Blake said, slowly loading a lightning dust round into Gambol Shroud. "Risky, but it might get their attention away long enough for us to make a move."
"Let's hear it."
"You know my Semblance, correct?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
Blake jerked her head towards the door. "If I go in there, I can leave behind copies of myself charged with electric dust that will stun the soldiers inside. Between the two of us, we can clean them up before they know what hit them, but you'll have to be right behind me. If I get caught out in the open—"
Eric cut her off by racking the action on his shotgun. "You won't. I'll follow your lead."
Blake nodded, and Eric had never felt more confident in his chances of survival than he did at this moment. "Alright then," she said. "Ready?"
"Born ready."
With that, Eric threw a heavy boot into the door. Blake rushed in, all shadows and sharp edges, and Eric followed behind with buckshot and thunder.
Operation: Almace
Resistance Haven, 'The Hole', somewhere in California
October 17th, 2035
"Look," the woman said, her discomfort obvious in her wavering tone. "I really wish I could guarantee you guys an LZ, but the boss is dead set on getting that Elerium core. Without it, we can't run the generator on that alien comms array, and we won't have our early warning system. If you're gonna be living here, we're gonna need it."
Adam raised a finger and opened his mouth to speak, but Roderick was way ahead of him. Grace had sent him and Ruby along with Dragunova on Cindered Shadows for a reason, after all.
"Hey, Ruby," Roderick spoke up, extending an arm out to his side. "The thing. Bring it over here."
"You got it!"
Within seconds a blur of red and rose petals came to a halt in front of Roderick, revealing a very satisfied Ruby holding an Elerium Core.
"This thing, right?" she asked.
The woman immediately turned her attention to Adam. "You didn't tell me about this."
"Wasn't pertinent," Adam stated coolly, his gaze still laser-focused on the woman, though Roderick could see what almost looked like a smile tugging at his lips. "So, about that LZ…"
Operation: Hammer Down
New San Francisco, California
November 8th, 2035
"Run all you bloody please, you fucking cunt, but you can't hide from me!"
The ADVENT General slid around the corner into a restaurant, attempting to call for reinforcements as Adam gave chase, Overdrive Serum pumping through his veins. As much as he hated the circumstances around getting the stuff, and the circumstances of this 'provisional' mission command, he couldn't deny its effectiveness. His heart rate was hardly even elevated yet, and he had been at a dead sprint for five straight minutes. The rest of his gene modifications still seemed to be working as well, which made it all the better, he could sense things coming from outside the corners of his vision.
That had a caveat, though. It required him to pay attention to multiple things at once, and Grace had completely vetoed any brain mods save for ocular nerve modifications, something that Adam was grateful for to this day. The problem was that, just this once, he got tunnel vision.
He didn't see the Muton coming until it was far too late, and the bayonet to his hip tore through the light Skeleton Suit and sent him flying to the opposite end of the dining room floor. It ached, but it was a dull, faraway pain, the Overdrive Serum immediately going to work in stopping the bleeding and pumping him full of adrenaline as he nipped up to his feet, drawing his rifle off his back as the Muton charged. The first shot tore through the Muton's shoulder with ease, but he wouldn't get a second as the brutish alien quite literally kicked his gun out of his hand, before swinging with his bayonet and nearly cutting Adam's throat, had he not weaved back at the last second. He drew his pistols, immediately opening fire with his old XCOM-issue laser pistol at one of the Muton's knees, while his mag pistol was… also knocked flying out of his hand, this time by a shot from the Muton's friend. As luck would have it, another fucking Muton was barging into the restaurant.
That General had to be halfway to the ADVENT extract by now. Adam rapidly gathered himself, making a run for his gun and grabbing it mid-roll as both Mutons opened fire with a barrage of plasma. The man rolled to a stop behind an abandoned booth that appeared to have some sort of coffee cake left behind, and got on comms.
"Invincible under heavy fire, where's the target?"
"I got no eyes, Invic, trying to get a visual from my position," Lawrence replied. "Eagle eyes, you got anything?"
"No, sir,"
Ren replied. "Adam, where are you?""Inside the restaurant on Malroy Drive. Target just broke contact. Pinned down by ADVENT heavies."
"On the way to help!" Jaune piped up.
"Make it double, boss man!" Declan whooped.
'Lordy, of all the ones that decide to answer the bloody call.'
Adam heard a loud clunk and the rapid counting down of an alien plasma grenade timer, which sent him scrambling away from the booth mere seconds away from a burst of fiery green as the booth he'd been using for cover was practically erased. Both Mutons were focused on him, and both of them seemed pissed, the wounded one roaring in rage.
"Divide and conquer, gents! I'll let you clean up the mess I made, you'll know it when you see it," Adam stated, attempting to keep it professional. As much as he didn't trust Jaune when the heat was on, Declan would at least keep him grounded.
"Almost there," Jaune said, already winded. The boy'd been running interference since the moment they'd got on the ground. That shield had its uses, specifically when ADVENT turrets were involved.
Adam once again dove into a combat roll, firing both barrels all the way down at the wounded Muton, who shrugged them off as if they were papercuts. The Elders sure seemed to be making them tougher than last go around, and the guns were most definitely bigger. Guns aimed directly at Adam as he juked to the side and kicked a table, attempting to fall behind it into a clumsy but mostly efficient roll towards the back door of the establishment.
"Alright, Johnny on the spot," Declan said, seemingly unaware that comms were still active. "You remember the game plan, right?"
"Uh, game plan? Wait, yeah, the game plan,"
Jaune replied. "Yeah, yeah. I think I got it."
"You don't SOUND like you got it, kid."
"If you two don't mind hurrying it along," Adam interrupted, firing on the move and kicking the back door open in an attempt at egress, narrowly avoiding a plasma bolt to the back of the head as he dove out of the door, "I could use the help!"
"Oh, we got ya, boss man. We got eyes on. Watch this."
"Oh, bother, what does he think he's going to do?" he muttered under his breath.
The Mutons were quick to follow Adam out of the door, weapons again raised and at the ready as Adam poured more fire down the center line, hitting their armor but not making very significant dents, and he felt himself slowing down now that he'd been hit.
"Any second now!"
"Ah, fuck it. We gotta modify the plan," Declan whined.
"The plan was kinda stupid in the first place," Jaune stated, and despite not even knowing what the plan was, Adam found himself inclined to agree with the boy.
"It's not stupid, it just-"
"-needs a little bit of modification! " Declan roared, rapidly overwhelming the echo in Adam's ear as he flung one of his axes at the Muton who'd been kneecapped earlier, the blade dicking into the alien's massive neck and sending him stumbling into the wall. Declan ran past his friend, heedless of an incoming bayonet swing from the remaining Muton, one that Jaune rapidly jumped in to block, his shield arm buckling under the impact.
"Plan!" Declan shouted as he ripped his axe free from the first Muton, running back towards Jaune as he took a knee and lifted his shield, at which point Declan jumped off of the shield and slammed his axe down on the Muton's head with the loud crack of shattered bone. The Muton fell lifelessly to the ground, while Jaune rose to his feet and slammed the edge of his shield into the wounded survivor's head, sending it to a knee, before cutting its throat with his sword.
"Your plan was godawful, and you're lucky it worked," Adam grumbled, holstering one of his pistols and turning the direction they came from. "Did you see the VIP?"
Declan and Jaune had no reply save for a concerned "Um…" from Jaune.
"You let the fucking VIP get past you?" Adam asked, dumbfounded. "For once, Jaune, you show me some bloody competence, and you immediately-"
The nearby report of a Gauss Rifle silenced him, as well as the men beside him. The pause was poignant, with both men looking past Adam as if they had heard the voice of God.
"Yup. We got him," Lawrence said, the smile audible in his voice.
"Another job well done," Ren agreed. "Adam, are you alright?"
Adam groaned aloud. "Just fucking peachy, eagle eyes."
The Avenger
Humanity Falls, Michigan, USA
November 30th, 2035
"They seem to be getting along rather nicely," Zeke noted, watching over the bar as Teams JNPR and RWBY crowded around a table with Roderick, Eric, Sophie and Jerry. It had gotten so packed in that Ruby was actually sitting on top of the damn thing, which brought Grace no end of mirth. Jerry was trying to convince Pyrrha of something while in an arm-wrestling match with Yang, while Yang and Pyrrha both appeared scandalized.
"Seems like it," she agreed. "What's Jerry asking them about?"
"He's asking how it's fair that Yang has super strength but he doesn't get a handicap. He's askin' Pyrrha to hold his hand up."
"Oh, yeah, it is metal, isn't it?" Grace recalled the new confidence Jerry had whenever Pyrrha was around, and that his tremors were mostly nonexistent on field ops. Just as well, Meld was hard to come by nowadays. "How's the research team doing?"
"They're goin'. Skulljack's hot off the presses. They're waiting on your approval for the next project."
"What's on the presses?"
"We still need to synthesize the samples we got from the Chryssalids, Shen's thinking we could make some kind of reactive armor prototype. There's also the matter of getting that armor project Dr. O'Connor's so set on, and the psionics research."
"The armor project… wait, the Viper suit? Are they seriously going ahead with that?" Grace asked, dumbfounded. The idea had been pitched to her before, yes, but it just seemed so… outlandish. There was no way they could make that work.
A part of her thought she should go and reprimand them. Another wanted to see the dumpster fire for herself.
"You know what? Tell Dr O'Connor he has my go ahead. I want to see this."
Zeke nodded with a grin, and walked off, headed for the research labs. Meanwhile, Grace returned her attention to the table.
"Come on, there's no way I can beat her without some assistance. Help a brother in need, here, Pyr. Please?" Jerry faux-begged, attempting to clasp his hands in supplication. 'Attempt' was the right word for it, as his metal appendage proceeded to make a rather rude gesture without his input.
"I'm telling you, Jerry," Pyrrha chided him with a grin. "That's cheating. "
"Dread it. Run from it. The Guns still arrive," Yang said, looming over the table with an outstretched arm.
"'The Guns'. Really?" Alexios asked. "That's the best name you got?"
"These Guns are gonna shoot you down, and you know it. I could probably beat two of you at once," Yang boasted. "Actually, you know what? Bet. Grab the arm, boys."
Alexios looked at Jerry, who looked back at him, incredulous. Alexios shrugged, and grabbed Yang's outstretched hand, propping his elbow as Jerry turned back to Sophie, already grinning like an idiot.
"Kiss for luck?"
Sophie rolled her eyes, but she was smiling as she gave him a swift peck on the lips. "You're insufferable."
"Damn right he is," Yang agreed. "Hurry up, I'm not gonna beat you from all the way over here."
Jerry melodramatically aped Alexios, but grasped Yang's wrist instead, for leverage.
"I feel like that's also cheating," Weiss stated bluntly.
"I'm gonna win anyway," Yang replied, as sure as if she were stating that the sky was blue. "Watch. Ready, boys?"
"Just about," Jerry replied, his metal hand visibly digging into Yang's Aura.
"Come on," Alexios muttered, tightening his grip, "how bad can it-"
Yang immediately slammed her arm down on the table, bring both men down with her, Jerry in particular sliding out of his seat with the force of it.
"Shite on a fuckin' shingle, girl, what the fuck?" Sophie asked, fish-eyed.
"Bullshit!" Alexios protested, "I wasn't ready! Ai gamisou! "
"I told you this was going to happen," Eric said, grinning like an idiot. "She pulped the Assassin and you thought you were going to win an arm wrestling match."
Grace smiled, and shook her head. She was just happy that, at last, JNPR seemed to have embedded well into XCOM, and RWBY were quickly following suit.
A/N Time What's up, fuckers? I really wish FFN would implement something like AO3's notes section, but regardless, here I am! Hi! I'm forever thankful to all of you for following my story and conversing with me here, I really appreciate your support, even if this is my second platform! Please continue to give me these supports and encouragements, as well as any feedback you want to give. And to make it easier for you to reach me, I, in my infinite stupidity, have made a twitter! You can follow me there factor_shock. See y'all next time!