Chapter 26: "Judgement Day" Pt. 5
Woo, new chapter people! And BOY, were my calculations wrong. We are still close to the end but not close enough. But hey, at least we're all having fun, right? Right! I also have some news that I didn't notice before: we're close to 1,500 for favs & followers, over 900,000 views, and I'm in 9 communities now, which is awesome :D Never thought this story would be so popular, you guys are the best. Now then, reviews HO!
Lord Dominusautem Tempus: I'm glad you picked up on that. Yeah, this was my original intention for Penny. And it was gonna be even more devastating for her since in the original script, she wasn't human yet. Can you imagine the identity crisis she would have after seeing her future self exterminating Humanity and Faunus kind? Oh man, the heart clenching sorrow she would express. So many would try to comfort her, but to no avail as she would not feel like they were safe around her. That in turn would've had Jack make her human so that the chances of her becoming Skynet would be nonexistent. Since she's human ahead of schedule, I had to switch it up a bit, then the crash happened… Her reactions now are my way of keeping a small bit of my possible future alive.
Henry Townshend1: Here you go XD
sniperbro1998: I've never watched Halloween. Or really any of those old horror movies (the only one that I did see was Freddy VS Jason, but I'm not sure it counts). Didn't even know they made a new one. Seriously, 2018? Had to Google that one to make sure you guys weren't pulling my chain. Imagine my surprise when I found out. I don't think I'll be doing this movie though, sorry, but I just don't know how to make reactions for movies I myself didn't even know existed. My parents didn't what to traumatize my brother and I, so we never watched those old slasher movies when we were younger (born in the 90's); and my friends and I never cared enough to watch them when we were old enough to do so (too busy with sci-fi stuff). If I tried to do the movie I'd be going in completely blind, and the reactions won't be as good as compared to those I've got at least some inkling to.
BagusJoy: Because I need something to progress the story after Jaune's past is done and the Brother Gods are defeated; and Stargate is one of the shows I'm actually pretty knowledgeable about. There are only a few episodes I haven't watched yet, both in SG1 and Atlantis, and those aren't really plot relevant anyway so who cares? Plus, there is a lot of potential for me to create new scenarios. Actually, I'm already in the process of making two scenarios that have Stargate elements in them. I love Stargate, and this is a way for me to still have new material so that my story doesn't get boring.
Argus456: Oh man, now I can't stop thinking of Chibi-Penny drinking motor oil from a baby bottle! Glad you liked how Klein maneuvered around that clusterfuck. I had the same thoughts. Jacques is the perfect how-to manual for NOT being a good husband/father, or a cheat sheet XD
Dragongod54: Wanted to do that one, first crash deleted it. Though I think I'll try again, the movie is just too funny not to at least try again!
Kasix-K: Thank you, I'm glad you gave my story another chance. I'll admit, my writing style wasn't the best when I started out, but that's to be expected as this is my first story. But as I got used to writing, my work started to show improvement. And I'm happy that my story isn't boring, that's one of my fears when writing this as I know that reaction fics are getting pretty common nowadays and having new material can be tricky to do. Hope my work continues to be interesting for you :)
Guest: Actually, I'm already working on 300, but it's slow-going as I'm working on something else first that's gonna be a sort of prequel, and I want to make sure that I'm not reprising the same people for different roles.
X3runner: iRobot is already on my new list, it's just gonna be posted later as I still have my own schedule to do. Not to mention that I only got a few of the characters done so far (but that's fine, I got time anyway to think of that later).
KAPfan9876: "Just Monika" scared the crap out of me. I love it, and funny enough I asked God Emperor Penguin if I could react "Ruby's Addicted to Kisses". Which they agreed to, but I didn't have the time to with the crashes going on. "Just Monika" reminded me of the story, so I'll have them back-to-back.
sammykordy10: Tried to do "Day of the Doctor", deleted by the crash :(
Man, so many of you still like my story, this is so awesome!
Disclaimer in the prologue.
In extreme closeup, we see Winter's eye at the night-scope. Tight insert on her finger as it tightens on the trigger, taking out the slack. She takes a deep breath and holds it. Adjusts her position minutely. The laser dot jiggles on the back of Dyson's neck and then rises, centering on the back of his skull.
All the heroes and thieves gave a silent prayer to the poor man and his family.
Danny's Bigfoot truck roars toward us and… Thump. It hits Flynt's foot. He jerks, startled, and looks down as - POP! His monitor screen is blown out, spraying his with glass.
"Holy shit!" Yang and Coco shouts in shock, not expecting a toy car saving him from having his brain smeared all over his computer. The others sighed in relief, at least for now he's alive.
He jerks back, utterly shocked... and spins to see the huge hole blown through the window behind him. This saves him as K-THUMP! - the second shot blows the top of his high-backed chair into an explosion of stuffing an inch from his head (Roman: "Guy's the luckiest SOB on the planet!"). Instinctively he dives to the carpet as -BLAM BLAM BLAM - rounds blast through the window, tearing into his desk and computer, blowing his keyboard into shrapnel. With the monitor screen blown out, the room is in darkness. Winter can't see Flynt now, down behind his desk. She puts round after round into the heavy desk, blasting one side of it into kindling. Flynt, scared out of his mind, has his face jammed against the carpet, terrified to move. He sees his kids in the hall.
"Run, kids! Go! Run!" Flynt yelled.
In all the commotion, the new mothers unblocked their children's view.
Roman felt that this guy was very lucky to have the paramilitary miss him thus far.
And through it all, Winter felt conflicted. On the one hand, she was glad that her other hadn't killed Flynt yet. On the other… 'You missed! How could you miss, he was 20 feet in front of you!' Yeah, her pride as a soldier apparently didn't like how her other's military training failed her.
In the hall, Neon rounds the corner at a dead run. She sees the kids running toward her and grabs them in her arms. Down the hall, in the dark study, she sees Flynt on the floor amid the splinters and shrapnel of the continuing fusillade.
"Flynt! Oh my God!" Neon yelled.
"Stay back!" Flynt shouted.
On the floor, Flynt flinches as chucks of wood and shattered computer components shower down on him. He looks desperately toward the door, but knows he'd be totally exposed. He'd never make it.
Winter's rifle empties with a final CLACK! She throws it down and draws her .45 smoothly from a shoulder base. She starts toward the house, snapping back the slide on the pistol, chambering a round. She is in a fast, purposeful walk, keeping her eyes fixed on the target. She is utterly determined to kill this man.
Winter's family shivered at the look in her eyes.
From under the desk Flynt can see a sliver in the backyard. He sees Winter's feet as she strides toward him. He tenses to make a break for the door.
Winter raises the pistol, eyes riveted ahead, controlling her breathing. Flynt springs up in a full-tilt sprint. She tracks him. He hooks a foot on the cord of a toppled disk drive. BOOM! Her shot blows apart a lamp where his head was. He hits the floor hard, but keeps moving, scrambling forward. Crunch of glass behind his as Winter's dark form is framed in the blown-out floor-to-ceiling window. Flynt leaps toward the hall. BOOM! Her second shot spins him. He hits the floor in the hallway. Neon is screaming. Flynt struggles forward, stunned. There is a .45-caliber hole clean through his left shoulder. He smears the wall with blood as he staggers up. Looking back, he sees the implacable figure behind him, coming on. He topples through a doorway as - BOOM! BOOM! Shots blowing away the molding where he just was.
The heroes look on in horror at the shot to the man's shoulder, knowing that the chase was over, and Winter would end it soon.
Advancing with Winter we enter the living area. Neon has Blythe and she's screaming at Danny, who has run back to his collapsed father.
"Danny! DANNY!" Neon yelled to her son.
"Daaaaddddyyyy!" Danny cry out.
Danny is pulling at Flynt, crying and screaming, as his father tries to stagger forward. Neon drops Blythe and runs back for Flynt, grabbing him. Winter looms behind them with the pistol aimed.
The parents felt their hearts clench at the sight, holding their children close. Winter was in tears, wanting her other to stop before she does any more harm to this family.
"Don't fucking move! Don't FUCKING MOVE!" She swings the gun on Neon, "Get on the floor, bitch! Now! Fucking down! NOW!" Winter ordered.
Winter is crazy eyed now, shaking with the intensity of the moment. The kill has gone bad, with screaming kids and the wife involved... things she never figured on. Neon drops to the knees, terrified as she looks into the muzzle of the gun. Blythe runs to Flynt and hugs him, wailing.
"Don't hurt my father!" Blythe begged.
The mothers silently cried as they imagined their babies in the little one's place. Their hearts shattered at the imagery their minds created for them.
For Salem and Ozpin, it was like watching their little Oma from that other timeline all over again (1). The memory nearly brought them to tears.
"Shut up, kid! Get out of the way!" Winter shouted.
Flynt looks up, through his pain and incomprehension. Why is this nightmare happening? The black gun muzzle is a foot from his face.
"Please... let... the kids... go..." Flynt said while gasping.
"Shut up! SHUT UP! Motherfucker! It's all your fault! IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Winter yelled in anger.
Flynt, confused to what she's talking about, says "What?"
Winter was feeling sick to her stomach. Not only was she about to witness her other murder an innocent man, but seeing her other devolving into crazy rants as she did so, made her feel that her other had gone completely insane. 'My other really did deserve to be committed.' The look in the other woman's eye certainly didn't help.
Roman meanwhile winced. "Man, can't help but feel sorry for the guy. He's going to be killed, in front of his family no less, and he won't know why other than some crazy lady who shot up the place shouting 'It's all your fault'." Neo nodded, trying to wipe her tears away as she holds a tearful Lucy.
She's psyching herself up to pull the trigger... needing now to hate this man she doesn't know. It's a lot harder face-to-face. She is bathed in sweat, and it runs into her eyes. Blinking, she wipes it fast with one hand, then gets it back on the gun. The .45 is trembling.
Tight on Winter as the forces at war behind her eyes. She looks into the faces of Flynt, Neon, Blythe, and Danny. Winter takes a sharp breath and all the muscles in her arms contract as she tenses to fire. But her finger won't do it. She lowers the gun very slowly. It drops to her side in one hand. All the breath and her energy seem to leave her. She weakly raises her other hand in a strange gesture, like "Stay where you are, don't move". As if, should they move, the fragile balance might tip back the other way. She backs away from them slowly, panting. It's as if she's backing away in terror from what she almost did. She reaches a wall and slumps against it. Slides down to her knees. The gun falls limply from her fingers. She rests her cheek against the wall.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The heroes relaxed as they know that they won't see an innocent die in front of them, while the villains let go of the tension that was building up.
No one was more relieved though than Winter. As she saw her other lower the gun, she felt like she could cry. 'My other isn't insane!' When the gun fell to the ground, she thanked the gods for her other snapping out of it.
Jaune and Finch leap from the jeep, sprinting toward the house. Finch, seeing the destruction, simply said "Shit, we're too late!"
Many of the people deadpanned at that. "No shit kid." Mercury said after facepalming.
The front door is kicked in. Jaune steps inside. Finch grabs his sleeve and pushes past him. He scopes out the situation in two seconds... Winter, the gun, the sobbing family. Finch moves to Winter while Jaune checks Flynt. Finch kneels in front of his mother. She raises her head to look at him. He sees the tears spilling down her cheeks.
"Mom? You okay?" Finch asked.
"I couldn't... oh, Oum." Winter said.
"Uh huh." Finch agreed.
She reaches out and takes his shoulder suddenly, surprising him... drawing him to her. She hugs him and a great sob wells up deep inside her, from a spring she had thought long dry. She hugs him fiercely as the sobs wrack her. Finch clutches her shoulders. It is all he ever wanted.
"It's okay. It'll by okay. We'll figure it out." Finch said.
"You... came here... to stop me?" Winter asked.
"Yeah." Finch replied.
Winter, with tears in her eyes, said to him "I love you, Finch. I always have."
"I know, Mom. Me too." Finch said.
The mothers "Awed" at that, grabbing their children in another hug at the cute scene, needing it after the turmoil they witnessed a few seconds ago.
This time, the children just accepted it, needing the embrace just as much as their moms did.
Neon looks around at the bizarre tableau. Jaune has wordlessly ripped open Flynt's shirt and examined the wound.
"Clean penetration. No shattered bone. Compression should control the loss of blood." Jaune says as he takes Neon's hands and presses them firmly over the entrance and exit wounds.
Roman grumbled. "Again, luckiest SOB on the planet. Bullet should've dealt a lot more damage when exiting his body just by the caliber the crazy woman was firing."
Neo shrugged, "I'm just surprised that the bullet didn't hit bone." (2)
Ruby didn't want to, she really didn't, but she had to agree with the two criminals. 'Even if she wasn't using a Dust round, the fact that the impact sent his body spinning towards the ground is proof that the force is still considerate, and that alone should've done more internal damage to the body than what Jaune mentioned.'
Finch disengages from Winter. She wipes her tears, the instinct to toughen up taking over again. But the healing moment has had its effect, nevertheless.
Finch walks toward Flynt and Jaune.
"Who are you people?" Flynt asked in pain.
Finch draws the Biker's knife from Jaune's boot and hands it to him.
"Show him." Finch said.
Jaune grab the knife and takes off his jacket to reveal bare arms, causing a few to drool. Finch takes Blythe by the hands and leads her down the hall, away from what is about to happen.
Tight on Jaune's left forearm as the knife makes a deep cut just below the elbow as Neon whimpers at the clearly crazy man cutting himself. In one smooth motion, Jaune cuts all the way around his arm. With a second cut, he splits the skin of the forearm from elbow to wrist.
"What the fuck are you doing you idiot?!" Saphron shouts as she sees her robot brother mutilate himself.
The children were not taking the sight well. Most covered their eyes, trying to forget what they just saw.
The heroes, and a few villains, felt sick at the sight. His nonchalant face as he does it didn't help.
Penny ran over and grabbed Qrow's flask, much to his complaining, and began to chug the whole thing, before throwing it back up on his lap. "What the shit?!"
Ruby ran over and pulled her friend away from her now smelly and pissed off uncle, "Penny, stop!"
Winter was next to her, trying to pry the flask from the girl's grip, "You don't know how to drink, young lady!"
"I can freaking try!" Penny shouts, in tears, as she kept the two from taking the flask back. She knows what Jaune is planning to do, and her mind couldn't help but replace him with herself again. This universe is just torture for her, and right now all she wants to do is forget; and from the research she's done in the past, she knows that alcohol can offer a solution if consumed quickly enough and in large amounts. She took another swig, much to the other two's protest.
Jaune grasps the skin and strips is off his forearm like a surgeon rips off a rubber glove. It comes off with a sucking rip, leaving a bloody skeleton. But the skeleton is made of bright metal, and is laced with hydraulic actuators. The fingers are as finely crafted as watch parts... they flex into a fist and extend.
A few people threw up with looks of horror on everyone's faces. They knew that he was a machine, but knowing and seeing are two separate things. Up to this point, no one really knew what he looked like underneath the skin. After that, they felt they could've happily lived their whole lives not knowing.
The moving metal skeletal hand and arm underneath with the blood coating the thing just added to the gruesome sight.
Penny used the distraction to peel away from her friend and Winter and ran over to her seat to drink 'till she either forgets what she just saw, or is blackout drunk and would be spared from anymore horrors.
Jaune holds it up, palm out, in almost the exact position of the one in the vault at Cyberdyne. Flynt begins reacting to the servo-hand in front of him. He's seen one of these before. Neon is screaming now, but he doesn't hear her.
"My God." Flynt said.
"Listen to me very carefully." Jaune said.
After that, Jack paused the viewing so that everyone can calm down after that new display of unholy terror and for the droid to clean up the mess and air out the place so that the smell wouldn't linger.
Winter puts out her fifth cigarette. She's sitting on the counter. Finch, Jaune, Flynt, and Neon are at the kitchen table, under a single overhead light. Flynt looks like that guy on the Sistine Chapel wall, the damned soul... eyes fixed and staring with terrifying knowledge. His shoulder is bandaged. Jaune's arm is wrapped with a blood-soaked bandage below the elbow. The steel forearm and hand gleam in the harsh kitchen light. The screen tracks around the table as Jaune speaks... no words are heard. Instead, Winter's voice could be heard over the conversation.
"Flynt listened while the Terminator laid it all down. Skynet. Judgment Day... the history of things to come. It's not every day you find out you're responsible for 3 billion deaths. He took it pretty well."
"I doubt that." Cinder says as she settled her stomach with some ginger tea. While she wasn't one of those who threw up, she was damn well close. 'Incinerating someone is one thing, flaying them alive is another.'
She felt bad for Emerald and her children that she gave them each a cup as well, earning a "Thank you ma'am" from the thief, and a quiet "Thank you Auntie Cindy" from the children. The last one melted her heart for some reason.
*Sigh* 'I want a child too. Preferably a daughter to instill all my knowledge to, and to have her become a Maiden like me.' The thought of having a mini her instilling fear onto the world as they rule with an iron fist, with Jaune as King and her as Queen, the thought brought a tear to her eye.
Jaune finishes speaking.
"I feel like I'm gonna throw up." Flynt said. (Cinder: "Called it.")
He looks around at them, clutching the table like he's about to blow away. His face, his posture, his ragged voice express soul-wrenching terror. This is a man ripped out of normal life into their grim world. His voice is pleading.
"You're judging me on things I haven't even done yet. Monty Oum. How were we supposed to know?" Flynt asked.
Winter speaks from the shadows behind them. Flynt turns to find her looking right at him.
"Yeah. Right. How were you supposed to know? Fucking men like you built the Hydrogen Bomb. You think you're so creative. You don't know what it's like to really create something... to create a life. To feel it growing inside you. All you know how to create is death and destruction." Winter says in a haunting voice.
"Umm, what's a Hydrogen Bomb?" Ruby asks Jack. Right now, she's sitting next to Penny as the distraught girl rested her head on her lap, slurring a bit as the alcohol starts to take effect.
"It's an immensely powerful bomb whose destructive power comes from the rapid release of energy during the nuclear fusion of isotopes of hydrogen, using an Atom Bomb as a trigger. It's one of the more powerful weapons Humanity has created." Jack says, sighing a bit at the end.
Saphron perked up when he mentioned an atom bomb, but only Jack noticed. Everyone else was just confused by the jargon, with many afraid of the weapon's power.
"Mom… we need to be more constructive here. We still have to stop this from happening, don't we?" Finch asked.
"But I thought... aren't we changing things? I mean... right now? Changing the way, it goes?" Neon asked, confused.
Flynt, seizing on that, said "That's right! There's no way I'm going to finish the new processor now. Forget it. I'm out of it. I'm quitting Cyberdyne tomorrow."
Winter shakes her head, "That's not enough to change the future."
"That's not good enough." Winter said coldly.
"No one must follow your work." Jaune explained.
Flynt, thoughts racing, nods. "Alright, yeah. You're right. We have to destroy the stuff at the lab, the files, disk drive... and everything I have here. Everything. I don't care." He has a sudden thought. "The chip. Do you know about the chip?"
"What chip?" Winter asks somewhat worried.
"They have it in a vault at Cyberdyne." He turns to Jaune. "It's gotta be from the other one like you." Flynt said.
"The CPU from the first Terminator." Jaune said to Winter.
"Wait," Weiss says, "you mean what we saw earlier, what the stuff inside that glass casing, that was a CPU?!"
Ruby was just glad that Penny was too incoherent to hear what her partner said. She'd probably lose her mind again. She glanced at the drunk girl, feeling sorry that her friend is being subjected to this mess. 'She's not ready to handle this.' She looks around, 'I don't think any of us are.'
"Son of a bitch, I knew it!" Winter said as she get off the counter.
"They told us not to ask where they got it." Flynt said.
"Those lying motherfuckers!" Winter cursed.
Weiss and Whitley sputtered at their sister cursing, even if it was a different version, while Qrow laughed.
Winter blushed at her other's swearing as Willow looks disapprovingly at her daughter, causing her to try and explain that it wasn't her.
"It was scary stuff, radically advanced. It was shattered... didn't work. But it gave us ideas, It took us in new directions... things we would never have thought of. All this work is based on it." Flynt said.
"It must be destroyed." Jaune said.
"Can you get us in there, past security?" Winter asked Flynt.
"I think so, yeah. When?" Flynt asked as Jaune stand up.
Flynt looks at him, then at Winter, then Finch. He sees his answer.
"Now?" Flynt asked.
Pavement rushing at the screen, lit by headlights. Beyond, darkness. Winter's voice is heard once more.
"The future, always so clear to me, has become like a black highway at night. We were in uncharted territory now... making up history as we went along."
"Ominous." Blake says with a shiver.
It changes to a door in front of Cyberdyne, as Flynt's hand zips his security card through a slot in one motion. There is the sound of a servo-lock, and Flynt enters into a spacious lobby, followed by Winter, Finch, and Jaune last of all. In a frontal angle, the others block Jaune from view. The guard at the front desk, Gibbons, looks up as Flynt moves toward him. Flynt is pale and sweaty, but smiles warmly at the guard, speaking well before he reaches the desk.
Many wondered how they were going to explain Finch being with the group.
Glynda hums. "How will they explain young Finch's presence there? Mr. Coal works there, and Winter and Jaune he could explain as added security he hired after an assassination attempt on his life. He has the wound to show for it after all, flimsy an excuse that may be."
Ozpin nods, "True. And even if they went with a different cover story, it would still be somewhat believable. But Finch is a child, and it is night. He would have no reason for being there, and would have many questioning his being there."
The students gulped, hoping that no one stops to question the group just why they brought a child into a secure scientific facility in the dead of night.
"Evening uhm Carl, right? These are friends of mine from out of town, I just thought I'd take them up and show them around." Flynt said.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Coal. You know the rules about visitors in the lab. I need written authoriz-" Gibbons said but the interrupted.
K-CHAK! Gibbons is staring down the barrels of Winter's .45 and Jaune's MAC-10.
"I insist." Jaune said.
"Right. Terminator." Glynda deadpans. 'Honestly, why did I expect any different?'
Yang muttered "Badass." With Nora and Coco nodding.
The guard is too stunned to move. We see that Jaune is wearing his jacket and black gloves. Gibbon's eyes go to the silent alarm button on the console.
"Don't even think about it." Winter said.
Gibbons nods. He stays frozen. Jaune circles quickly and gets the guard out of the chair. Finch pulls a roll of duct-tape from his knapsack and tears off a piece.
Elevator doors open, and Jaune leads the group warily into the corridor. They have a cart piled high with gear in nylon bags. Flynt motions down the corridor to the right. As they walk, he continues to fill them in…
"The vault needs two keys to open. Mine," holds up a key, "and one from the security station. It's in a locker but my card should access it. Here we go." Flynt said.
James facepalmed at the ridiculousness of the man's solution. "Why is a scientist's key sufficient enough to open a locker from a security station?" It just didn't make any sense to him, really no one who came to the same conclusion could make sense of it either. "Security should have keys exclusively for their own use, same for scientists. That way, civilians won't be able to access locations such as the weapons arsenal."
Winter scoffed at the dumbasses in charge. "If by some miracle this plan did work, then the facility's security measures are complete garbage."
The General groans, "It's a wonder how no one has stolen from them already."
A roving guard, Moshier, strolls down the long corridor from the first-floor office block. A punch clock swings at his hip, and he's just completed his circuit of the building. He passes the back of elevators and rounds the corner to the front desk, calling out…
"Honey, I'm home." Moshier said.
He sees the desk is deserted and frowns. 'Figures Gibbon's must be in the can.' So he checks that first before getting alarmed.
He goes to the restroom around the corner. "Gibbons, come on man, you can't leave the desk like that."
Over his shoulder, past the door as he pushes it open, reveals Gibbons handcuffed to the urinal.
"Pfffff-hahaha!" Roman and Neo laughed, along with Raven and Vernal, at the sight of the guard in that position.
Moshier spins on a dime and sprints to the desk where he slams down on the silent alarm button.
Ignoring the laughter, Weiss winced. "That is so not good." Her friends and brother nodded, praying that the group would hurry faster.
The security station is a pass-through area with a counter, behind which are desks and a bank of monitors, showing boring movies about empty corridors. Flynt crosses quickly to a locker behind the monitor area. He swished his card repeatedly through the scanner on the locker. Nothing happens. The light on the locker is blinking red. Winter notices Flynt's alarmed expression.
"What? WHAT IS IT?" Winter asked worried.
Flynt whips around, staring at a light flashing on the console behind him.
"Damn it, silent alarm's been tripped. It neutralizes the codes throughout the building. Nothing'll open now." Flynt said, much to the horror of many. The audience can see his nerve snapping "We should abort."
"NO! We're going all the way! You got that, Flynt?" Winter shouts right in his face. Somehow, it works for him. He nods, getting some resolve from somewhere.
James smiled, memories of when he had made similar orders when training new recruits coming to him. Of when he was a rainbow himself (3). 'Ah, those were the days.'
Moshier's gotten Gibbons loose. He's on the phone to the cops.
"... multiple armed subjects. Look, I think it's the guy from that mall shootout, and the woman... yeah, her. Pretty sure. Just send everything you've got in the area –" Gibbon's said.
Flynt leads Jaune and Winter to the main lab doors. Another servo-lock. He tries his card. Nothing.
"No good." Flynt said.
"Let me try mine." Jaune said.
He unslings the M-79, pulling it over his shoulder in one motion (Nora: "Ah yeah, the only way to open doors!"). Winter grabs Flynt and drags him back down the hall. Jaune opens the breach and slide in one of the fat 40mm H.E. grenades. He flips the thing closed with a snap of the wrist.
Winter, as she's running, yells "Finch! Fire-in-the-hole!"
Finch drops what he is doing, and covers his ears. Jaune fires at inhumanely close range. The door explodes into kindling. The concussion blows his jacket open, and flying shrapnel whizzes all around him. Before the thunderclap has faded, Jaune walks into the fire and smoke. Finch goes back to work without missing a beat. Winter and a stunned Flynt walk through the burning doorframe into the Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Nora was cackling, her dad joining soon after. Ren and Frigga facepalmed at the same time. 'I just know s/he will want to do that.' The two bemoaned over the property damage they'll have to cover.
Glynda rubbed her temple as a headache started to form, knowing that her student's laughter just meant more work for her. 'And damnit, Penny grabbed the only item filled with alcohol.' She didn't even need to look at Ozpin to know that he would be of no help here. 'As usual, the paperwork will go for me. Oum, I need a drink.'
A siren is sounding. The halon fire-control system has been triggered. The invisible gas roars in, putting out the flames. (Winter: "Well, at least fire suppression is up to standards.")
Winter is about to continue forward but Flynt stops her. "Wait, Fire's set off the halo system! We have to wait a minute for the gas to clear."
Ruby scratched Penny's head, trying to keep her calm as she asks "Wait, what's that mean? Why's the gas so dangerous?"
She, and the others looked t Jack for the answer as they never really heard of this system. Mostly relying on Ice or Water Dust canisters to help with fire suppression.
Jack shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. Halon gases are low-toxicity, chemically stable compounds that leaves no residue and is remarkably safe for Human/Faunus exposure. It's actually some of the safest, clean extinguishing agents available on many universes. The stuff is actually a liquefied gas which, when discharged, leaves the nozzle in a stream that is about 85% liquid and 15% gas. Ranges of 9-15 feet. Its only real danger is its potential for damaging the o-zone layer, however a newer version of the gas has been made to be an environmentally acceptable replacement." (4)
Barely anyone understood what Jack said (Roman: "What the hell's an o-zone?"), but what they did get was that the gas was very effective, and safe, against fires.
James leaned over to Winter, "Specialist Schnee, make a note of this gas. This should help us limit our dependence on Dust fire suppression if we can replicate its effects." Winter nodded as she took down some notes on her scroll, knowing that if they succeeded then tons of Dust would be freed up for other uses.
Watts was already taking notes, as was Terra.
Oz tried to do the same by asking Glynda, but a glare from her stopped that. 'What'd I do this time?'
Salem looked at the two and couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.
Jaune comes back and has two gas masks for them to use.
"Put these on." Jaune said.
They looked at Jack again. He looked back, "What? It's still comprised of chemicals, and a child is with them. Better safe than sorry."
Jaune pulls two five-gallon jerry-cans of gasoline from his pack. Winter starts pulling out book-sized, olive-grab claymore mines, stacking them next to the gasoline. Flynt stares. Part of him can't believe they're really doing this.
Cardin moves slowly though the ravaged office, analyzing what has happened here. (Emerald: "Oh great, the chromed asshole's back.")
It walks down the dark hallway. The place is deserted. The police-walkie clipped on its belt, real, not simulated, blares to life.
"All units, all units. 211 in progress at 2144 Kramer Street, the Cyberdyne building. Multiple suspects armed with automatic weapons and explosives. First suspect: named Conner, nee Schnee, first name Winter, escaped yesterday."
Cardin sprints up and throws its leg over the big C.H.P. Kawasaki. Fires it up. It smokes an arcing scorch-mark on the pavement as it spins around and roars away.
The students groaned. "Oh come on!" Yang says as she dropped her face into her palms, "Why not just give him a missile while you're at it. Save him the trouble of going over there himself."
Roman sighed to himself. 'It's like the police are actively working with the bad Terminator.'
Tight on a large disk drive. State-of-the-art. Very expensive (Nora: "Ooh, pretty."). A fire axe smashes down through the housing, shattering the disk (Nora: "Booop!"). The screen widens, revealing a scene of high-tech pillage. Jaune beats the disk drive into junk and steps to another. WHAM. Same routine. He's already demolished half a dozen. Winter topples a file cabinet, scattering files. Flynt staggers up with an armload of heavy M-O (magnetic-optical) disks and drops them on a growing stack in the middle of the floor. He and Winter have their breathing masks hanging down around their necks, since the halon gas has dissipated.
Ruby was so glad Penny wasn't paying attention to this, not knowing if she'd lose her mind at all the destroyed equipment. 'Who knows, she'd probably recognize some of the stuff as her version of organs strewn about.' And like that, she just made herself sick.
To Winter, Flynt pants out "Yeah, all that stuff! And all the disks in those offices. Especially my office, everything in my office!" To Jaune, "These, too! This is important. (SMASH!) And all this here... that's it." Flynt looks around, directing them to which was the most important, and thus the first to go.
Jaune cuts a swath, under Flynt's direction, exploding equipment into fragments with his inhuman swings. SMASH! It's carnage. Millions in hardware, and all irreplaceable fruits of their years of research... shattered, broken, dumped in a heap for the big bonfire of destiny.
James, Winter, Terra, and Watts felt an itch in their brains. They didn't like seeing all that equipment going to waste. They knew why it had to be destroyed, they just didn't like seeing it happen.
Flynt stops a second, panting. He looks at a machine and turns to Jaune who is still cutting away.
"Uhhh excuse me?" Flynt asked.
Jaune, not hearing him, swings downward again destroying the still attached machine he's currently destroying.
"Excuse Me!?" Flynt asked again.
Jaune turns to Flynt and waits for him to continue.
"Can I borrow that thing for a second?" Flynt asked.
Jaune hands him the axe (Odin: "Oy, don't get between a man and his axe!"). Flynt hefts it one-handed. He turns to a lab table... on it is another prototype processor.
"I've worked for years on this thing." Flynt said.
Swinging awkwardly but with great force he smashes the axe down onto the processor prototype, exploding it into fragments. His shoulder is agony, but he looks satisfied.
'It's fortunate that Penny is out of it at the moment,' James thought as they see the man destroy years of his work, 'she would've no doubt replaced Flynt with her father, and envisioned herself being destroyed.' He sighed, waiting for the universe to finally finish and Penny to be at peace once more.
Dozens of police cars come on to the parking lot and surround the building. SWAT as well as a helicopter join them as well.
Finch taps away at his little lap-top, which is running code combinations into the card-key lock. Suddenly, the green light on the lock goes on and it unlocks with a clunk.
"Easy money." Finch said.
"Well," Qrow starts, looking at Winter with a shit eating smile on his face, "looks like his hacking of ATM's payed off here."
Winter huffed and turned her head away with her nose pointed up, not dignifying him with a response.
He whips it open, revealing a rack of keys. But the vault-key is distinctive, a long steel rectangle on a neck-chain. Finch grabs it and runs toward the lab.
Winter and Jaune are working like a team, rigging the explosives. She is taping the claymores to the gas cans with duct tape to create powerful incendiary bombs. Jaune is attaching claymores and blocks of C-4 plastic explosive to the large mainframe computer cabinets nearby. All the claymores are wired back to one detonator which has a radio-control relay switch.
"How do you set them off?" Flynt asked.
Jaune shows him a remote detonator, a small transmitter with a red plunger.
"Radio remote." Jaune said.
"BOOM!" Nora, Odin, and Coco shouts, startling their partners by the sudden yell.
He makes a plunger-pushing motion with his thumb and an accompanying "click" sound. Flynt nods. Just then Finch comes running in, holding up the key.
"I got it. Piece of cake." Finch said.
Winter looks to Flynt and Jaune. "Go! I'll finish here." She said.
They run out as the sound of sirens grow louder outside.
"I'll deal with the police." Jaune said.
"Remember what I said, you can't..." Finch starts but pauses at what he sees.
Jaune turns around and shows his improved smile. "Trust me."
"So badass~." Yang and Coco fanned themselves at the more human smile he pulled off. Neo pulled out a card that said 10 written on it.
Ruby quickly took a picture, wanting to show Penny that Jaune finally got the smile right. A light blush blossomed on her cheeks as she took in the smile while taking the picture.
Secretly, Glynda, Emerald, Vernal, and Raven all did the same.
The security duo of Moshier and Gibbons are cowering behind cars in the parking lot in front of the building. They turn as L.A.P.D. black-and-whites pour into the lot, turning the area into a disco of whirling blue and red lights. The cops are jumping from their cars and ducking behind them. Emphasis on small arms here. Behind them an ugly black SWAT van screeches into the lot.
"Ugh." Coco scowled at the ugly van. Roman nods. "I agree, needs a complete makeover."
The thump of rotors is heard as a police chopper arrives and swings in close to the building. It rakes its xenon spotlight through the second-floor offices.
Ruby tilts her head. "What's that thing?"
Jack says, "That's a helicopter, think of it like a Bullhead."
Ruby said "Ah" as she nodded. 'I wonder what kind of weapons are stored there. Probably not much, it is meant for the police.'
Jaune crosses the office toward the floor-to-ceiling windows, gatling gun in hand (Coco: "Oh yeah, show those guys our baby!" Velvet: "Coco!"). He is outlined starkly by the spotlight as it rakes through the dark offices. Without breaking stride, he kicks an executive desk toward the window. Glass explodes outward and the desk topples, falling to the sidewalk below.
Jaune, standing at the edge, begins to fire multiple long bursts amongst the police cars lines up below. The cops duck as glass flies. After the minigun runs out, he drops it in exchange for his grenade launcher (Nora: "Hah! Take that Coco, grenades for the win!"). Taking aim, he immediately fires it at another police car, and watches as it goes up in flames.
Jaune, with his superb aim, manages to hit no one. But noticed that the damage to the vehicles are severe.
Coco grins, ignoring the glares of many of the women for the 'baby' comment. "Heh, that's pretty cool, but I wonder how more awesome it would've been with my Gianduja in his more than capable hands." She licked her lips, making many feel like she wasn't talking about her weapon in the end.
Nora grinned, happy that Jaune used that grenade launcher. 'Though it would've been better if that thing could fire multiple grenades like Magnhild. I wonder…'
Ren, Velvet, and Glynda shuddered.
The latter two, knowing the power behind the second year's weapon, and wanting it as far away from the Terminator as possible. 'Though I guess it could be effective enough to destroy the other machine for good.' They shook their heads. 'Too risky.'
The former due to his 'Nora Sense' flaring up, believing that she came up with another scheme and it would no doubt bite him in the ass.
The cops immediately fire back once the barrage ended. Jaune turns and walks calmly from the window as glass, office furniture, drapes, etc., are riddled by returning fire. A few rounds hit his back, but he doesn't notice. He reloads as he walks.
Tight on a key inserted into one of the vault locks. The view widens as Finch and Flynt stand poised, hands on keys.
"And let's see what's behind door number one." Finch jokes.
Flynt nods and they turns the keys together. The vault grumbles to itself, withdrawing it locking bolts with a final KLONK! Together Flynt and Finch swing the door open.
Finch and Flynt are isolated from the world in this silent steel womb. Flynt opens the cabinet containing the Terminator relics. It's Finch's turn to stare with uneasy déjà vu as he sees the Terminator hand and CPU. Then in one vicious move he sweeps his arm behind the inert-gas flasks and hurls them to the floor. The glass containers shatter. Finch snatches the CPU and the metal hand out of the broken glass.
"Got ol' Skynet by the balls now, Coal. Come on, let's book!" Finch said.
Clutching the steel hand and pocketing the chip like it's a Mars bar he just bought, Finch runs out. Flynt follows.
"Great, so they got the stash." Mercury says, impressed that they managed to pull it off without the help of the big guy.
"Now, how are they going to destroy the two?" Cinder asks with a slight frown.
The varsity takes the field as the SWAT troopers sprint forward by squads. They flank the lobby and work their way inside, deploying rapidly. They move and freeze, behind cover, quivering with adrenaline. They have all that great SWAT equipment: body armor, gasmasks, M-16s, tear-gas launchers, ropes. The works. They make a lot of hand signals and keep their mouths shut. They're well- trained and deadly. We see the advance squad of SWATs make it to one of the stairwells. They start up, two at a time, covering each other ritualistically by the numbers.
James and Winter blinked. From what they've seen, these SWAT were more equipped than their own variants in Atlas! And what a blow to their pride that was to admit.
Others felt that this amount of firepower for a police unit was a bit much. 'Though these guys don't have Aura, so I guess that's why they look like they're going to war.' A few thought.
Finch pelts into the lab with Flynt stumbling along behind him. Winter is just about finished wiring all the charges to the central detonator.
"Ready to rock?" Finch said.
"Ready." Winter answered.
Finch tosses her the metal hand. She catches it and bends to put the hand in her empty backpack. Winter zips the pack and starts to shuck into it. Flynt begins running out of steam. The bandages at his shoulder are soaked with seeping blood. He stands in the middle of the lab, saying goodbye in his mind, looking weak and empty. Jaune strides into the lab.
Terra frowned. 'He looks like he's about to keel over any second.'
"Time to go. Now." Jaune said.
He and Finch head back the way they came, through security. Winter sees that in her work, she has set the detonator down twenty feet away, near where Flynt is standing.
"Flynt, hand me the detonator. Let's go." Winter said.
He gingerly picks up the detonator, then starts toward her. CRASH! The doors at the back end of the lab are kicked open! The SWAT leader and two others open fire immediately, their M-16s raking the room. Winter dives behind a computer cabinet. Flynt however, from being injured and exhausted, is hit. He is slammed to the floor by the impacts.
"What the fuck?!" James yells in anger. "You idiots! You are police officers, you can't just open fire immediately like that!"
Winter glares, "What the hell is wrong with them! Don't they know that it's against the law for them to open fire indiscriminately?!"
Many were glaring at the trigger-happy SWAT team for gunning down Flynt.
In the hall, Finch hears the firing and spins to run back.
"Mommm!" Finch yelled.
Jaune grabs him and turns around as bullets slam into his broad back (Winter: "You imbeciles are dead! That is my child you're shooting at!"). He makes it around the corner with Finch, out of the line of fire.
In the lab, bullets fly over Winter's head, smacking all around her, clanging into the machine protecting her. She can see Flynt, slumped on the floor. Debris and flying glass rain on her as the SWATs pour on the fire. The detonator is clutched in his hand. He rolls to face her, his eyes bulging from the pain of his torn-up guts.
"Go." Flynt said.
The heroes bow their heads in solemn respect for the man's bravery. Even though he's in incredible pain from the bullets hitting him, he still tells Winter to leave him behind.
Winter hesitates a split second. Then she nods and snap-rolls and fast-crawls through broken glass and debris into the hall.
Finch see's all of this and notices she's trapped.
"Shit, there's no way out of there." He said as he watches from the monitor.
Jaune hearing that knows just what to do.
We see Winter by a wall when all of a sudden it burst open and shows Jaune and how he broke it down to grab her. Jaune grabs her by the jacket and hauls her roughly to her feet. Bullets strike the walls behind them as they sprint forward.
They around the corner. Finch does a fast take noticing that she's not hit, and they run together through the security checkpoint. Finch reaches the first door, and tries it. Locked. Jaune unslings the M-79 blooper smoothly, opening the breach.
"Get back." Jaune says. He pulls a grenade from the bandolier over his shoulder, and slides it into the bore. Flick his wrist. The breech snaps shut. Winter and Finch have a split second to duck and cover.
"Cover your ears." Jaune warns them.
They do. KABOOM! Twenty feet away the door, and half the wall around it, explodes outward. The back-blast hits Jaune full force, but he strides through the smoking hole before the debris has even hit the floor.
"Grenades, always the way to open doors." Nora says, less enthusiastic than last time. Her parents immediately pulls her in a deep hug to comfort her.
The SWAT leader moves cautiously through the lab. Cat-stepping, he circles around a desk which block Coal's body from his view. His M-16 is leveled crisply. We look over his shoulder as he rounds the desk, revealing Flynt Coal's not dead. He will be very soon, but at this moment he is conscious. He has propped himself up against the desk, and holds a book in one hand. A heavy technical manual. Below the book is the detonator, upright on the tile floor. The message is clear: Shoot me, the book drops on the plunger. Adios.
Flynt wheezes, trying to draw enough breath to talk.
"I don't know... how much longer... I can... hold this thing..." Flynt said.
Those from Atlas rose up and saluted the brave man. The man not doing what many felt they themselves would, killing the men who fatally wounded them. In his last moments, he showed what kind of man he really was.
Winter said, "He's showing those idiots mercy." She shakes her head, "I wouldn't have."
The SWAT leader seems to see the wires, the claymores, the gas cans all around him for the first time. His eyes, visible through his gasmask, go very wide. He spins and motions his squad back.
"You know, that raises an interesting point." Whitley says as he tilts his head. "How did all those bullets miss those explosives and containers?"
No one had an answer to that one, and in the end chalked it up on an ass ton of sheer dumb luck.
"Fall back! Everybody out! Move it! OUT NOW!" the leader ordered.
They retreat so fast they crash into the next group coming up the stairs (Coco: "Hah! That's right, you mothers! Run!").
Jaune reaches the main elevators and hits the button. Winter and Finch are coughing and stumbling in the choking darkness, buddy-breathing with the single mask. The doors open and they get in the elevator heading down.
Flynt is lying amid the ruins of his dreams. Sprawled on the floor, he has his back propped up against the desk. He is bathed in his own blood, which runs out in long fingers across the tiles. His breathing is shallow and raspy. He still holds the book, trembling, above the switch. In his lap is the picture from his desk. He has pulled it from the debris next to him. A tear trickles from his eye. His wife and children smile up at him through broken glass. Cut to the pupil of his eye, at the moment of death, the light fade from his eyes. He's gone. His arm drops, and the book hits the switch.
The other heroes stood up in salute. Many crying at the gut-wrenching sadness of the man's final moments looking at a picture of his family.
At the face of the building, an explosion erupts with glass and fire flying out in rapid speed. The remains of the second-floor windows shower the parking lot and a huge fireball rolls out, leaping into the sky. The cops look up, stunned. The helicopter banks away from the heat. Burning debris falls among the cop cars and a number of officer's break ranks, pulling back.
Several had choice words to say about the police there. One was that if they didn't shoot first, then a father would soon be reunited with his children.
Ruby and Yang held onto Summer as they thought of something similar, while the woman hugged her babies close as she drew parallels between Flynt's death and her own.
Only one of them seems to be moving with purpose. A bike cop who has just arrived drives through the disorganized crowd, directly toward the building.
Everyone could tell who that person was. They could think of only one 'cop' who could walk so determinately while ignoring everything else. For once, everyone felt they could live with Cardin killing a few more people.
'Would serve those SWAT guys right at least.' A few thought.
The elevator doors part and Jaune eases a look out into the corridor. The walls on either side of him erupt with bullet holes. The SWATs had the lobby end of the corridor blocked off. They're totally trapped, cut off, screwed. The SWATs fire a tear gas grenade toward the elevators (James: "Oh sure, now bring out the tear gas."). It spews the vicious CS gas out in a swirling cloud which envelops Winter and Finch, who are pressed against the back wall of the elevator.
"Keep your eyes closed and don't move. I'll be back." Jaune said. They nodded and squeezed their eyes shut.
He slings the grenade launcher over his shoulder and walks out into the corridor. With the SWAT team, they're gripping their weapons at the mouth of the corridor. They watch the boiling cloud, waiting.
From their POV, on the wall of boiling smoke, a figure appears. Walking as if unaffected by the gas around him. Jaune emerges from the smoke. Not even misty-eyed. Not what they expected.
Through a megaphone, the leader of this group says "Stop where you are. Lie down on the floor, face down. Down on floor, now!"
Nora glares at the police. "Beat their asses, Jaune." She growls, ignoring the looks of shock from her friends.
James and Winter were stewing in their anger. 'Those idiots are only now choosing to issue out demands?!' Winter thought.
James meanwhile took a deep breath to calm himself. 'If they had only done this sooner, then Mr. Coal wouldn't have died.' He glared at the incompetent officers, hoping for some retribution for the man's sacrifice.
Jaune continues to stride toward them.
The SWATs tense up. They've never seen anything like this. They're not sure what to do. Closer and closer, he approaches.
"Drop him." Leader ordered.
They open fire. The corridor is filled with cracking thunder as the rounds tear into Jaune's chest. Stomach. Face. Thighs. His leather jacket leaps and jerks as the rounds hit him. The SWATs think the guy's wearing body armor or something (Velvet: "Are you really that stupid? Do you see any armor on his face or legs?"). They keep firing. The rounds tear into him, staggering him slightly, but he keeps moving.
"You're not hitting him!" The leader said.
"Yes I am!" One of his subordinates shouted, getting scared of the man who seems to just eat their bullets.
Jaune draws his .45 smoothly. Unhurried. He shoots the nearest man in the left thigh. As he screams and drops, Jaune shoots him in the right thigh. He does this with nearly everyone. Jaune then bends down and picks up the shrieking man's weapon... the tear gas launcher.
Cinder smirked, remembering his promise of no killing. 'That's good, helps to make them suffer longer.'
It is one of those new rotary jobs that hold 12 rounds in a big drum. Jaune shoots the next SWAT in the chest with the tear-gas launcher. The gas canister hits the guy's body armor but doesn't penetrate. However, it's like getting slugged in the stomach with a full swing from a baseball bat. The SWAT fold double and hits the tiles, gasping.
A few laugh at the man's pain.
Jaune is like an image from Hell, a tall figure in shredded black leather, streaked with blood. One eye is a bloody socket, the metal eye-servo glistening. The flesh of one cheek hangs down in tatters, revealing the chrome cheekbone beneath. The whole front of his jacket is blown open, revealing his metal armor chest.
The students feel queasy, but manage to hold it in. 'Thank goodness Penny isn't able to see this.' Ruby thought, seeing her friend sleeping off the buzz in her head.
The remaining SWAT starts to fall back. He turns to run and - KPOW! A gas canister nails him in the back, sending him sprawling.
Meanwhile, outside, Cardin guns a bike up a ramp to a pedestrian bridge which crosses from the nearby parking structure to the Cyberdyne building. It enters on the second floor, which is now a burning maze. He drives into the smoky wreckage. It draws a Hoechler, a Koch MPK machine pistol and cruises slowly into the firelit offices, scanning.
The heroes groaned at the bad timing of the Terminator.
Back to the action, smoke boils out of the front door as a figure emerges. Firing the tear-gas launcher with one hand, Jaune launches all remaining rounds among the cop vehicles. Unprotected officers run, choking and half-blind, slamming into cars and tripping over each other (Nora: "Pff, haha! Serves you right, you jerks!"). It is a total rout.
At the SWAT van, one of the SWATs is rapidly handing out the remaining masks to unprotected cops. A figure appears out of the smoke beside him. He looks up. His mask is ripped off and he is handed the empty launcher. Instinctively he catches it. Jaune grabs his flak vest with one hand and sails him out into the mist.
Jaune strides the length of the van and climbs into the driver's seat. No keys in the ignition.
He flips down the sun visor. The keys fall into his hand. He starts the van and slams it into gear.
"Wait, why were the keys under the sun visor? That's like leaving them in the ignition." Tai says. He owns a car himself, and he was never dumb enough to leave his keys inside the car. 'Man, they really are dumb.' He facepalms, feeling a bit bad for thinking that. (5)
Lucy blinked in shock. 'What kind of moron leaves the keys inside of the vehicle? That's like asking for the car to be stolen!' Ironic, considering who her mom is.
Terra scratches her head. "Wait, how did he know where the keys were? And why would a machine even need keys in the first place? Can't he just hotwire it?"
Watts rubbed the bridge of his nose, thinking the same questions and not finding an answer to any of them.
The tear gas has cleared to a thin haze. The uninjured SWATs are tending their wounded. They look up at the sound of shouts and a roaring engine. The SWAT van crashes into the lobby in an explosion of glass and debris (Coco: "That is so cool!"). Cops scatter as the van screeches across the lobby in a smoking one-eighty, sliding to a stop across the corridor which leads to the bank of elevators. Jaune backs up until - crunch – he seals the corridor with the back of the van.
Winter and Finch stumble along the corridor, coughing. They leap into the back of the van and Jaune hits the throttle. The van roars across the lobby and exits through blown-out windows.
Cardin, astride the Kawasaki, looks down from a second-floor office and sees the van tearing across the parking lot with the remaining cops firing at it. It knows. It looks around, analyzing its options. It sees the helicopter hovering outside the building at the end of this corner office block. It twists full throttle on the powerful bike, roaring through the office, accelerating fast, straight at the windows.
"Please miss, please miss." Pyrrha quietly repeats herself, hoping Cardin misses the helicopter and goes splat on the concrete.
Cardin blasts out through the glass, airborne on the motorcycle. It rockets across the gap to the hovering chopper and slams into the canopy. The impact of bike and rider pitches the chopper radically. The startled pilot curses a he fights to regain control as the bike tumbles to the pavement below, barely missing a few police below. Cardin doesn't. It clings to the shattered canopy. Nightmarishly, the pilot watches as Cardin smashes its head through the plexiglass and rapidly pours itself through the jagged hole. It reforms instantly into its previous self on the passenger seat.
Coco sighs and raises her hand, "Ok, I'll admit, that was pretty cool." No one could deny that, despite many wanting to so as to not acknowledge that a version of Cardin was cool.
Velvet eye-twitched, cursing herself and Cardin for forcing her to agree with her friend.
"Get out." Cardin hurls the pilot out of the chopper and slides into the driver's seat. The chopper is auto-rotating, spinning out of control. It drops toward the parking lot. Cardin recovers control ten feet above the ground.
Cops hits the deck as the tail-boom swings around, going over them by inches. The chopper lifts out in a power climb, roaring away across the parking lot toward the fleeing SWAT van.
Jaune looks back at his two passengers as he turns the boxy van onto a divided highway. Winter and Finch are catching their breath, still coughing from the CS gas. Jaune looks to the rear-view mirror. He sees the xenon searchlight of the chopper behind them, gaining. Winter looks around the inside of the SWAT van. It is a rolling armory. There are rifles, ballistic vests, all manner of equipment.
Whitley sighed as he rubbed his forehead. "Why were there still weapons inside the vehicle when the teams were already deployed?" He groaned out. (6)
"Finch, get under these. Hurry! And no matter what, you stay under there." Winter said.
He sits against the front bulkhead of the van and she pile bullet-proof vests on top of him, completely covering him. Looking back, she sees the helicopter chasing them
"Chopper, coming in." Winter said.
Jaune sensing futuristic robotics in the helicopter stated, "It's him."
Winter grabs two M-16s from the wall-rack and loads them. She starts on a shotgun as the SWAT van weaves through sparse traffic at high speed. Jaune slews the unstable van around cars and trucks which seem to be crawling. The van hits its top speed of eighty.
The chopper swings in behind them, closing fast. Cardin reaches through the shattered canopy with the MPK machine pistol and fires. The back of the van clangs with hits. The door windows are blown in.
Jaune weaves the van, trying to throw off Cardin's aim. The unstable vehicle screeches and wobbles on the edge of control. One of the doors is kicked open. Winter, wearing a ballistic vest, crouches in the doorway, whipping up the M-16. She opens fire. Bullets riddle what's left of the chopper's canopy as Cardin returns fire. The van is stitched with hits.
Inside the van, holes are punched through the thin sheet-metal walls, ripping up the interior. The vests covering Finch are hit repeatedly. We see that Winter has hung two Kevlar vests on the inside of the back door and she ducks behind these as bullets hit around her. She pops back out and fires in controlled bursts. The M-16 empties, and she grabs another.
Weiss sputters, "Wha- How- Didn't we already see one of those vans take shotgun blasts before?"
The ones who saw that scene with the Joker firing at the SWAT van earlier were confused. Cardin is using a machine pistol and is able to punch holes through the van, but the one that the clown was shooting at in that other viewing only left indents on the armor at best, and he used a machine pistol and a shotgun.
"I kind of feel bad for anyone unlucky enough to ride one of those things into a real firefight." Saphron said, thinking that if a pistol could do so much damage, then a rifle or would just destroy anyone in the back.
Jaune swerves around a car which is changing lanes, hitting it and causing it to skid off to the side. They swerve to miss the back end of a white 18-wheel tanker. Winter reloads and keeps firing. The van swerves around a Toyota. A moment later the helicopter passes it, the rotor just clearing the top of the car. (Terra: "I hope whoever was inside is safe.")
Cardin fires the machine pistol just as Winter popped out to fire. She takes a hit in the thigh, and several rounds hammer into her Kevlar vest. She is thrown back onto the floor of the van. She lies there, an exposed target...
Winter winced, knowing that without Aura the impacts would hurt like a bitch.
Weiss and Whitley flinched as their sister's thigh began to bleed.
Jaune sees Cardin preparing to fire again. He locks up the van's brakes. Tires screech as the vehicle shimmies. Winter is thrown forward, sliding up to the bulkhead next to Finch, and the helicopter slams right into the back of the van. The rotor disintegrates, the back doors of the van are crushed in as the canopy, the whole front of the fuselage is hammered into junk, trapping Cardin inside the twisted metal. The chopper hits the pavement, flips, sideways, and cartwheels... smashing itself into a shapeless mass of twisted metal. It falls away behind the van, tumbling end over end.
Everyone gapes at the move. "Holy shit." Ren mutters.
Jaune fights to control the van, which is fishtailing violently from the impact. It smashes up against the center divider, screeching along the concrete, and then pulls away. Jaune puts the hammer down and the van accelerates. He swerves to avoid an ugly pickup crawling like a snail ahead. The right front fender of the van crumpled by slamming the wall, sawing into the tire. The tire blows and peels off the clean rim. The steel wheel grinds across the pavement, striking trails of sparks, and the van slides sideways and topples. Steel screams on pavement as the van grinds to a stop on its side.
The sound of twisting metal caused the Faunus to yelp as they all clutched their ears in pain. This also had the effect of snapping the others out of their stupor.
"Are you crazy?!" Weiss shrieked. "Why did you just stop?! My sister and nephew could have been crushed by the impact, you dunce!"
Her friends leaned away from the angry heiress.
Willow began to chew her bottom lip in worry. 'My grandbaby!' She pulled a surprised Whitley and Winter in a death grip as she wanted to know that her grandson and daughter were alright. Ignoring the repeated tapping on her arms as Whitley and Winter struggled to escape the sleeper hold their mother had unknowingly caught them in.
Inside the van, Finch crawls to Winter, who is groaning and holding her bleeding leg. She is pale and is in shock. Jaune starts to extricate himself from the crumpled driver's seat.
Seeing that the two were ok, Willow let go of her children, causing them to drop to the ground in a gasping and coughing heap.
Back down the road, the helicopter wreckage is a crumpled ball of junk metal, unrecognizable. Behind it, the tanker truck brakes hard, shuddering and groaning, trying to stop. The big tires lock up in clouds of tire-smoke. The rig comes to a shuddering stop just short of the wrecked chopper. The shaken driver jumps down. Behind the wreckage a cop emerges, walking toward him.
"Are you kidding me!" Garnet shouts in disbelief as her sisters' jaws dropped at the machine being alright. "Can nothing kill that thing?!" Peridot yells, copying her twin.
The students shouted at the screen for the driver to get away from the murdering machine.
"Goddamn, are you alri-" The driver started but paused.
SSSHHCK! Cardin drives a blade through the man's abdomen and walks on past without slowing, or even looking at him.
The shouting stops as they looked at the dead man with sadness.
It climbs into the open cab of the tanker. Releases the brake. As the truck bellows are rolls forward, we see the large blue letters on the side which say "CRYOCO INC. LIQUID NITROGEN SUPPLY'.
Robin raised an eyebrow, "The hell is Nitrogen?" Ignoring her sister chiding her for her language.
Jack shrugged, "Think of it like Ice Dust."
She looked at the god in confusion, "What the fuck is Dust?" She really wanted to know what this Dust thing is that everyone keeps talking about.
Everyone else looked at her in surprise. "Wait," Weiss began, "you don't know what Dust is?"
The girl looked at her with a tilted head as Altani shook her head, "Not really, no." She scratches her head, just behind her kitty ears, and said "This is the first time anyone's ever mentioned this stuff in length to us before." She shrunk a bit at the looks given to her, "What?"
Maria blinked "Dust?" The two princesses looked at her. "The substance that powers everything? The material used in conjunction with Aura to help Huntsmen battle the Grimm?" They shook their heads in a negative.
Robin looked up at her surprised mom, "What's Aura?" Her sister looked to Sienna at the same time and asked, "What's Grimm?"
Everyone sputtered for a response to that, then looked to Jack as he snapped his fingers, "Oh yeah, that's right." He looked sheepishly as everyone looked at him. "So, remember how those Arrancar attacked the Land of Darkness in that one future?" Those who saw it nodded, shivering at the memories. "Well, what you didn't see was that Jaune had another attack conducted throughout the borders of the land, the groups tasked with ensuring that no Grimm could escape as the pools, the one place that can spawn Grimm in large numbers, were being destroyed."
That… that made a lot of sense to everyone. If the Grimm couldn't escape, and their homes were destroyed, then the Grimm would be extinct by the time the two girls were born. 'Especially with those Arrancars leading the attack.' Many thought.
Nora grins as she shouts, "Go fearless leader! My big brother always has a plan!"
Salem blinked, "Wait a moment," Jack looked at her, "that still doesn't explain how those two don't know what Aura or Dust is." 'They were created by the Brother Gods after all.' Ozpin nodded, knowing where the two power sources came from.
The others hummed in agreement, wanting to know too. Jack smirked and went back to watching the screen, causing many to narrow their eyes at him. (7)
END
And done. Man, this chapter was a pain in the ass to do. So much research. Also, you may be wondering how Penny got drunk when Qrow's flask is enchanted to take away hangovers, not help get people drunk. Well, Jack felt bad for Penny's near mental breakdown and felt she needed something to ease the edge off. So he temporarily lifted the second charm while still allowing her to not get a hangover by the end of this, all the while still denying Qrow a chance to get hammered (man, even with all those lucky charms he's still unlucky).
A few more may also be mad at me basically ripping those SWAT a new asshole, but they did shoot first without shouting "Freeze, hands up in the air where I can see them!" Thanks to their bullheaded attitude, a man is now dead, and a family is without a father/husband. All because a few officers decided to shoot without taking a measure of the situation. Not cool.
Anyway, next time: the final battle between the older T-800 and the prototype T-1000. Hope to see there, peace!
List of current Jaune's children in the Nexus:
Neo: Lucy
Emerald: Peridot & Garnet
Vernal: Amber
Raven: Robin
Sienna: Altani
Glynda: Alice
1. When James/Two-face tried to punish Ozpin in "Why So Serious?", only she doesn't have a gun pointed at her. Seeing the fear on the little girl's face over her father's fate is enough to invoke memories of that.
2. The shoulder is made up of three bones: Scapula (shoulder blade), Clavicle (collar bone), and Humerus (arm bone); the fact that the bullet didn't hit any of them is a miracle. Considering the angle, the bullet realistically should've hit the Scapula as the exit wound in the movie is near dead center of the shoulder, and the Scapula is a completely solid piece of bone, no gaps in it for the bullet to safely pass through.
3. Rainbow: A new recruit in basic training.
4. While water is very effective on class A fires (common combustibles, i.e. wood and paper), Halon is effective on class A as well (though not as good as water); it's also great on class B (flammable liquids), and doesn't conduct electricity back to the extinguisher operator (class C fires). Fire extinguishers are effective on A, B and C class fires, but they are highly corrosive, and create billowing clouds of choking dust. Foam extinguishers are effective on class A and B fires, and are particularly useful for preventing ignition of flammable liquid spills. However, foams require cleanup and aren't for use on electrical fires. All the information I found is in www.h3rcleanagents support_faq_2. htm
5. Many may think leaving the keys there would be easier to start the SWAT van, but wouldn't it be faster to just leave them in the ignition like Tai remarked? Also, it's a van. Why would they need to be fast in leaving an area when police cruisers are much faster?
6. That part never made sense to me. Sure the police were arming the other officers, but how could there be so many weapons left after the van was taken? The SWAT team that the van ferried were armed and ready, there would've been little to no reason for there to be leftover weapons; ammo sure, that I would believe, but not weapons. Also, shouldn't those cops already have weapons stashed inside their own cruisers? Plus, with all the weapons there, I doubt that there would be enough room leftover for the SWAT team in full gear. Looked cramped with just Sarah and John to me.
7. Yeah, those two don't know about Dust and Aura. Reason why is because those two power sources don't exist anymore. Their dad saw to that when he did something to the ones who created the stuff, which would also explain why he nor his wives told their children. And the Grimm haven't existed in their timeline for years, remember the attack on the Land of Darkness?