The System possessed a cruel sense of humor, it seemed. The notification that had popped up, alerting him of his victory in the final match, was as unappreciated as it was poorly timed. There were more, but now wasn't exactly the time.
Crocea Mors cut through blackened flesh with ease as Naruto sliced through the chest of an Ursa that had strayed too close.
"How much room do we have left?!" Naruto shouted over the noise, blade already carving a path through another Ursa.
"All the survivors are departing now! Just us Hunters left!" A voice shouted from over his left shoulder, Coco opening fire on a cluster of Beowolves as she shouted in reply.
"Get to Beacon! We need to stop the White Fang!" Naruto let out, his orders carrying over the remaining fighters in the stadium. "Do we have a way there?"
"Just one Bullhead! It's gonna be a tight fit, but I think we can do it if we jump and send the Bullhead back for a second trip!" Sun shouted, one nunchaku discharging a shotgun blast into the head of a Grimm Naruto didn't recognize, angular beak and feathered wings at odds with the quadrupedal form.
It roared at the monkey Faunus, beak snapping near his face, only to lose the entire head as Naruto hit it with a Mana Lance, pinning the rapidly dissolving body to the floor.
"Then go! I'll cover your exit!" Naruto returned, wincing in pain as another Ursa slammed down on his shield, his lack of Aura making it all the more aggravating.
It proceeded to suffer a grievous wound as Naruto let loose a shot from Tranquility underneath its jaw, blowing the top of its head off, the ding of a critical hit ringing out in his mind as he placed the forestock of the shotgun against the point where his shield met the sheathed handle of Crocea Mors, quickly racking it.
A bolt of energy hit a Creep that had approached Naruto from the side, Neptune already swivelling his rifle to aim at other targets. "Not just you, Naruto! We've got your back!"
Naruto nodded a quick thanks, beginning his pace backwards. "Hold the line! Anything gets past us, let our melee take care of it!"
Ruby landed next to Naruto in a flurry of red rose petals, Crescent Rose following in an Uzumaki that cut a Beowolf into two parts. "What about Atlas, and the robots? Something happened to the Daedalus, that's where all the controls for the Knights and the Paladins are stored!"
Naruto couldn't see past the stadium to look at where he knew the aircraft was hovering, but the thought of what might've happened weighed heavy on his mind. "Do you think you can stop it?"
Ruby pulled back the bolt on her sniper, carefully loading a new magazine. "Maybe? I'm good with tech, but I don't think I'm good enough to hack into Atlas!"
Naruto shook his head. "You don't have to be! The Daedalus is compromised, all you gotta do is shut it down! Take a team, see what you can do!"
"It's either our first trip, or our second, Naruto! We've only got one transport, remember?!"
Naruto unloaded a shell into an approaching Creep, turning its head into a mess. "Go first! We can hold them off until you get back!"
Ruby was about to object when the sounds of gunfire were overwhelmed by the much louder sounds of two aircraft flying in close, the significantly beastlier M72s aboard opening fire on the horde that the Hunters were holding back.
"Hey Uzumaki! Heard you and a few friends needed some backup!"
Despite everything, Naruto couldn't help but grin. "Never thought I'd be happy to see you again, Angel-1! You think you can take a couple Hunters up to the Daedalus?"
Angel-1, Lieutenant Slate, opened fire with his weapon. "Not going to be joining us?"
His voice barely carried over the sounds of the battlefield, but Naruto heard him just the same. "I've got to get to Beacon! I trust Ruby with my life, she's got this handled!"
Ruby gave Naruto a small smile at that, already moving to round up a group. "Coco! I need you and your team with me! We're going to take down the Knights at the source!"
The explosion that suddenly rocked the entirety of Amity threw everyone off their feet, stumbling and grasping at whatever they could to maintain their balance.
Naruto rolled, a Spinning Mana Bullet tearing through the back of the head of an Ursa that had gotten too close to Scarlet in the ensuing chaos.
"What was that?!"
"They're trying to bring Amity down!" Naruto shouted, Tranquility blasting a hole in a Beowolf. "SSSN, get to Beacon, now! I'll stop them from taking down the stadium! Ruby, Daedalus!"
They moved as their training dictated they should. Naruto had effectively taken charge of the group, and they were more than obliging in following his shouted orders.
Another explosion nearly tore him off his feet if not for a hastily cast Surface Walk keeping him glued to the ground as it shifted beneath him.
The Razorback, Angel Squad, Ruby and all of CFVY aboard, took off, headed towards the behemoth of an aircraft that was the destroyer Daedalus.
And the last remaining Bullhead, SSSN and a few stragglers on board, was already making its way towards Beacon.
Now all Naruto had to do was find a way beneath the stadium, and into wherever whatever it was that kept Amity floating steadily had once been.
Naruto let out a weary sigh as he decapitated what he now understood to be a Griffin.
When all was said and done, Naruto was going to need a stiff drink.
Yang needed a stiff drink.
Preferably something flavorless, or easy to drink, so that she could down a number of them and quickly forget about the horrors she was bearing witness to.
She'd never wanted to see a disemboweled corpse amongst more brutally, fatally wounded people.
She knew some of these people by name, passed them in the halls. Met some in clubs on her nights away from Beacon.
Civilians, Hunters-in-training, or just the more mundane students at Beacon, the ones that studied the less-intensive subjects.
Her attention was torn away from the carnage, eyes flickering red in the light from sparks and fire that coated Beacon's grounds, as she stared down the ones responsible for the reprehensible acts.
The Grimm on the ground were mostly dead, otherwise routed from Beacon, or presently being dealt with, but it was both the White Fang and the hacked Atlesian Knights and Paladins that were proving to be the more troublesome foes.
Qrow and Goodwitch had left, headed to the city, leaving the currently leaderless RRYN in charge of rallying the forces of good left in the academy they'd once called home.
Now, of course, it was aflame, smoke drifting into the air to add a dramatic effect to the Grimm-infested sky.
Yang punched a White Fang soldier in the face, her temper exploding as she did so, hair ablaze. "You think you cowards can walk into our school and we won't have anything to say about it!" She shouted, throwing the soldier aside. "Think again!"
They were surrounded on all sides, now. Easily more than a dozen guns aimed at the three of them, the fleshy fingers frantic and panicked, the metallic ones unmoving.
"Yeah!" Nora joined in from beside her teammate, hammer poised and ready to swing. "You're all just bullies! Evil bullies!"
"There were Faunus in the crowds. Faunus in the academy. Faunus in the city. Do you truly not care about your cause?" Ren asked, his voice doing nothing to mask the quiet fury that both Yang and Nora understood wholeheartedly.
Some of the White Fang shared glances, but others simply gestured with their guns. "Put your weapons down! We'll let you surrender!"
Another White Fang soldier spoke up. "Urk!"
Many of the White Fang present seemed confused by their fellow terrorist's proclamation, only to watch in eye-widening fear as someone they recognized wrapped a ribbon around their weapons, her foot meeting their faces in what could only be called a rather powerful kick.
Another person they recognized froze them in place, her thin blade proving exactly how sharp it was as she propelled herself in a pattern that had her disable the surrounding Atlesian Knights.
A third person they recognized, if only from the media, very efficiently eliminated the rest from being a threat, their guns bending and warping in their hands as they tried to return fire, only to receive some rather painful and yet well-deserved injuries that took them out of the fighting completely.
"Blake, Weiss, Pyrrha! I thought you guys were up on Amity with Naruto and Ruby!" Yang exclaimed, giving one of the disabled White Fang soldiers a brutal jab to the side of his head, breaking him free of the ice he'd been trapped in at the expense of knocking him out completely.
Pyrrha shook her head. "No, we were in Vale, in a cafe, having a nice evening."
"Shame these degenerates had to ruin it," Weiss began. "I trust you don't have a problem with me calling them that now, Blake?"
Blake didn't respond immediately, instead wrapping her ribbon around the throat of one of the half-frozen terrorists and pulling them free, resting the blade of Gambol Shroud against their Aura-less neck. "Where is he. Talk."
The terrorist coughed and spluttered, and Blake didn't like that answer, instead placing her heel against their hand, pressing down. "Don't make me ask again."
"In… Beacon… don't know… where…" The terrorist coughed out, and Blake kicked hard, the final blow that was needed to silence the man.
"We need to work together, get as many people out of Beacon as we can. We can't hold this place, no matter how hard we try," Weiss spoke, trying to regain at least some control of the situation.
"I have somewhere I must go. I'll be back as soon as I can, but I must leave. Alone," Pyrrha spoke up, and Weiss lost any semblance of control she might've had.
"What?! Were you even listening to me?" Weiss asked, as the forewarnings of panic began to set in on her face.
"I'm sorry, Weiss, but this is a responsibility entrusted to me by Headmaster Ozpin. I can't disappoint him, especially not now."
"Then I'm going with you."
Yang's voice brooked no argument, or at least it should have.
"No, Yang. You can't!" Pyrrha objected. Would have continued to object, too, if Yang didn't interrupt.
"I don't care about whatever the hell it is you wanna tell me. I'm coming with you, and nothing is going to stop me. Shut up and go, I'm right behind you."
Pyrrha opened her mouth, considered her options, and promptly shut it, already moving away from the group.
Weiss let out a frustrated sigh, running one hand through her hair. "Alright, then, that leaves the four of us. We need to help everyone we can, and we do that by doing what we do best. Fighting. Where do we go, any ideas?"
Blake turned and pointed over her shoulder. "We should probably go help Sun and his team. They've just landed, and we need to consolidate."
Nora hefted Magnhild, Ren reloaded StormFlower, Blake wrapped Gambol Shroud's ribbon around her forearm, and Weiss let out a sigh as she spun Myrtenaster's chamber. "It's always Paladins with us, isn't it?"
The inside of Amity was like a catacomb, interlocking bridges, catwalks and hallways leading any which way they felt like, and that was when Amity was right-side-up.
As it was currently drifting through the Valean sky on a sharp incline, Naruto found it even more confusing. At least Surface Walk allowed him to take it like it was at a normal angle, but even still, when there were active Atlesian Knights standing on the walls, it did make it a little disorienting.
At least they weren't massive threats, the AK-200s. Sure, they were pretty accurate, and he was really low on Aura still, but they didn't possess anything but metal plating, and Mana-based projectiles punched through that the same as anything he'd fired at before. Grimm or Robot, it was pretty apparent that Mana was still effective.
There were no more White Fang aboard Amity, at least. They'd fled, that much was certain, unwilling to stay aboard the floating island as it neared its end.
Naruto had to stop it, somehow. There had to be a way to halt the fall, or just even out the stabilizing equipment so that, despite it hitting the ground, it would be easy to repair and send back up.
As it was, Naruto still didn't quite know where he was going, but he had an idea of which direction.
Labeled signs directed him towards the engineering deck, and he followed them quickly, shield raised as he moved.
He didn't get to see the inside of the engineering deck until after he'd taken out the three AK-200s at the entrance, but once he stepped inside, he stared wide-eyed at the expanse of machinery in front of him.
Two of five immense pillars, crackling with Dust sparks, smoke spewing forth, looked unsalvageable. The other three, though, pistons pumping away, venting exhaust and straining as hard as they could, kept Amity afloat, if just.
The three bombs ticking down on the mechanical pillars would soon put a stop to that, though, if Naruto didn't at least try and do something.
Naruto moved with fluidity he did not feel, already swinging with Crocea Mors at the Knights, his blade grating against metal as it cut through.
He had to move fast, faster than this. He didn't have a good grip on how long the bombs had left on their timers, but it couldn't be that long.
The room had, at one point, held twenty AK-200s, all standing guard. In less than a minute, Naruto had cut through them all with sword and magic, leaving only smoking shrapnel and shattered circuitry.
And yet he paid that no mind, instead wracking his brain in a singular attempt to figure out exactly how to disarm a bomb.
Not something he was really prepared for.
Naruto lifted the plastic case on the nearest explosive device, letting out a small sigh as the mess of tangled cables and capsules full of Dust greeted him. He'd seen more organisation in his room back home. Which was to say, none at all.
Where did you even start with defusing a bomb? It wasn't something they'd covered in Beacon, and he doubted it was anything other than a special elective in their fourth year. And even then that was a maybe.
A quick check lead Naruto to notice the small red diode display, the numbers both bright and terrifying.
"Okay Naruto, less than a minute, figure out how to defuse three bombs. Easy, right?"
It was not. Naruto was, in a word, screwed.
Then an idea, one that was so foolhardy that he couldn't believe he was about to try it.
Naruto placed the plastic case on the bomb once more, lifted the entire thing, and placed it in his inventory.
He did the same with the other two, leaving fifteen seconds to spare.
Then, he waited.
Either he was about to explode, or he'd just paused reality on the bombs.
"Five, four, three, two…" Naruto said aloud, wincing as he reached the final second.
Everything went black.
To Naruto, a single moment passed.
Naruto opened his eyes, surprised to find that not only was he alive, but his left arm was broken in three places. Which hurt. A not-so-insignificant amount, in fact.
"Good news, I didn't explode. Bad news…"
He wasn't entirely sure what the bad news was, but looking out what had once been a window that was now full of dirt, it occurred to him.
Amity had hit the ground, and nowhere near as hard as it would have without the stabilizers.
Less bad news, more… mediocre news. He could accept that.
His arm was already healing, it had been since before he'd awoken. Obviously his injuries had been worse, but he hadn't died, so at least there was an upside.
He ducked underneath a bent girder, grabbing Tranquility from where it had fallen off of his belt, stowing it in place as he checked himself.
He was wary when checking the three bombs that sat in his inventory, but they remained dormant. As long as he didn't take them out of his inventory, he'd be fine.
He hoped.
Now all he had to do was get to Beacon.
Ruby wished she could have said that she, CFVY and Angel Squad all landed atop the Daedalus, put a stop to whoever or whatever it was that was causing so many problems, returned to their aircraft, and flown to Beacon to assist in the cleanup of this horrendous attack.
What actually happened was their Razorback was shot out of the air, and they had bailed out.
Rather, CFVY and Ruby had bailed. The leader of Angel, who'd briefly introduced himself as Slate, had stayed behind with his squad and the pilot, planning on riding the damaged aircraft to the ground.
Then, through a series of unfortunate circumstances that had to be one in more than a million, the entirety of CFVY had been swept aside from the top of the Daedalus by a swarm of massive Nevermores that had flown through, barely missing the red reaper.
Which meant that Ruby was now alone atop the deck of the Daedalus, wind buffeting her hair every which way as she struggled to keep her footing.
"Well well, Red! Had a feeling you'd show up eventually! Not bringing your little boy-toy?"
Roman Torchwick, of course it was. Ruby frowned, slamming the sharp end of Crescent Rose into the metal deck, holding her weapon firm. "You can't think you'll get away with this, Torchwick!"
The wind extinguished Roman's cigar, much to the man's distaste, allowing a gust to carry the entire thing out of his hand. "Get away with what, Red? I'm fighting for my life up here, I was locked up the entire time. Neo, on the other hand…"
Pink and brown met silver as Neo rushed in from behind Roman, already closing the distance between the Huntress-in-training and the pint-sized assassin, blade narrowly missing piercing Ruby's chest as she flipped atop Crescent Rose, pulling it out of the metal and firing to gain some more distance.
Neo was still moving, however, a vicious smirk on her face, one that Ruby found herself disliking intensely. The blade, steady as ever, threatened to puncture her Aura, leave her bleeding out, and Ruby wasn't going to have that.
A burst of speed that not even Neo could keep up with had Ruby launch at Roman, winding back with Crescent Rose.
Roman nearly fell over, surprised as he stumbled backwards, foot catching the edge of a mangled plate of armor, barely ducking out of the way of a blow that would have removed his head, Aura or no.
The man let out a whistle, rolling to his feet next to his partner. "Damn, Red! What's got you so upset? Surely it couldn't have been anything I've done?"
Ruby didn't want to reply, didn't want to give him anything to use against her, but against her better judgement, the words poured out. "I had to kill one of my friends to save people!"
She roared it, voice cracking under the pressure, both physical and emotional.
"Don't you dare think any less of the tragedy you had a hand in, Torchwick! This is your fault!"
She rushed again, a burst of speed and rose petals, but Roman was ready for it, the edge of his cane hooking around the haft of Crescent Rose and flinging it, and the girl holding it, aside, nearly sending Ruby off the aircraft into the waiting jaws of the circling Griffons below.
The blade of Crescent Rose squealed in that metal-on-metal way as she hung off the edge of the Daedalus, trying her absolute damndest to keep her grip.
And then Neo leaned in close, that smirk still on her face.
"Finish her, Neo. We've wasted enough time here already," Roman said from above, and the smirk doubled in intensity, eyes growing a kind of manic look that terrified Ruby all the more.
The blade ever so slowly trailed out of the parasol, spinning in the mute murderer's hand.
That was it! The parasol!
Neo lifted the blade, ready to plunge it into Ruby's hand, when the red-cloaked girl used what little force she could and reached forward with a burst of speed, her hand finding the button.
And, in a single moment, Neo's face contorted into an expression of surprise as her parasol opened, and the wind whisked her away, soundlessly.
Roman looked just as surprised when Ruby did clamber back atop the Daedalus, weapon poised and ready to strike.
"Red, did you just… I don't… how…"
Ruby chambered a round. "Shut up."
"Ms Nikos, good to see you in one piece. Ms Xiao Long, an unexpected surprise."
Ozpin's greeting was curt, fingers rapidly tapping an asymmetrical beat on his cane.
"Headmaster. I've come to accept your offer," Pyrrha said, standing firm.
The relief that Ozpin wore on his expression was palpable as he quickly moved towards the elevator. "Good. Please, Ms Nikos, Ms Xiao Long, follow me."
The elevator ride was silent, tense, and Yang felt truly claustrophobic for the first time. "What's happening?"
Ozpin shook his head at the blonde's question. "Not now, Ms Xiao Long, we don't have time. Just be on your guard, you cannot let anything get past."
Yang glanced to Pyrrha, yet the redhead wouldn't meet her eyes. "Pyr-"
The doors slid open, the elevator dinging, and the three stepped out, one in startled silence, the other two moving quickly.
"Ms Nikos, if you'll step into the empty pod, I'll begin the procedure."
"Pod? Procedure?" Yang asked, the cavernous room serving only to alienate her further. "What the hell is happening?"
Pyrrha didn't answer, stepping into the pod and taking a deep breath as the hatch sealed.
This was the point that Yang noticed the second pod, a tan woman inside it.
"Ozpin, what the hell!?" Yang asked again, but Ozpin paid her no mind, already initiating the procedure.
"Ms Xiao Long, please, do not let anything get past you!"
Yang turned to the elevator, steeling her gaze. Temptation lingered over her shoulder, concern dictating that she should find out what was happening to Pyrrha.
Instead, she held firm, Ember Celica at the ready.
The elevator dinged.
The doors slid open.
Cinder Fall, wreathed in flame, eyes burning bright, stepped out, a victorious smirk adorning her face.
"Hello, Ozpin."