This one chapter kinda took a lot out of me because it's super hot and I ain't got no air conditioner. I feel like that character from who framed roger rabbit...you know the one that melted at the end. Anyways there is a character in this chapter who in a way has earned my respect and I hope he earns yours as well. Now without further ado the chapter.
Things were different, he couldn't explain why or how but then again it did he really need to? Blake wasn't one for public displays of affection but as they walked back to the front of Beacon she held jaunes hand and didn't seem bothered when the others stopped to stared at them. Vernal was the first to speak up when they arrived "where the hell have you been? We've been ready to go for a while..." her voice die off a moment later as she stared at the blonde. She looked him up and down for a moment before her eye's darted to the cat faunus at his side and back to him again.
"Oh" were the only words to slip from her lips.
The others in the group seemed to catch on quickly enough, all except blakes partner. Ruby rushed over to them and grabbed onto blakes hand "come on! my aunt is going to take us to yang with her semblance". Blake looked over to the blonde beside her and saw him chuckling "go on" he said "I'll see you when we get back". She hesitated at first "promise me you'll come back" she forced out. Jaune looked surprised at the request but smiled warmly a moment later "only if you promise to do the same".
Ruby continued to pull on her arm but blake ignored her to give jaune her answer "then it's a promise". Jaune nodded " and an Arc never goes back on their word...or so I hear". With those parting words the cat faunus let her partner drag her off to the small group heading to vale first. The young arc stretched his arms and headed off with vernal to the rest of their group.
In route to meet his team a voice called to him from Beacons doorway. Jaune looked back to see the general walking towards him with a young girl by his side who sported red hair and a pink bow. "Is there something you needed general"? Ironwood crossed his arms behind his back "actually I have a favor to ask of you"? Jaune raised a brow "ask away then". The general nodded before waving one hand towards the girl beside him "this is penny polendina and I'd like you to take her with you". Jaune looked to the red head and was greeted with a large and very innocent smile that made him wonder why the general would ask this of him if he knew there was likely going to be a death match.
The young arc held out a hand to the red head "it's nice to meet you penny I'm ja-".
"Jaune arc, age seventeen, currently a student of Beacon academy and a first year student like myself". Penny tilted her head slightly as she eyed him "Class S criminal of atlas, code named the grim knight by the general for mass murder and destabilizing the kingdom of atlas at the mere age of twelve". The red head looked to the general with a confused expression "general, the orders are to kill on site...should I abstain"? Jaune looked to the general only to see the elder man looking completely unbothered by the whole thing. "For now penny" ironwood said.
The red head smiled towards the blonde like she hadn't just revealed there was an order to kill him before shaking his hand. There was something not quite right about the young girl and that became more apparent when she shook his hand. Her grip was unreal, stronger then what a normal humans should have ever been and her hand was as hard as...! Jaune smiled as he let go of the red heads hand "disguising a machine as a young girl huh? I hope you hadn't planned to include her in the tournament. I doubt ozpin would have agreed to let that slide if he found out".
Ironwood and penny both froze for a moment "what makes you so certain she's a machine? She has aura like any ordinary huntress". Jaune met penny's gaze and saw her look away a moment later. "I'd call it a hunch" he said knowingly. Truthfully it felt like the only thing that made sense in this situation, seeing as the general was essentially sending a girl who was so innocent with four dangerous people to fight to the death with more dangerous people. Unless he was being an idiot but that didn't seem very likely. If penny was a machine then the general technically wouldn't be risking someone's life but a weapons.
In the end it didn't matter "does she have a locker ready to take her" he asked.
Ironwood shook his head "she's...a bit too heavy for a single locker to take her, so she'll be connecting herself to the four lockers you'll be taking". Jaune couldn't help but wonder if ironwood still believed he was doing a good job hiding penny's identity. "You do know if those ships open fire on us and take out our lockers she'll fall, right" jaune asked. The general chuckled before pulling out a pair of binoculars and held them out for jaune to take before continuing. "With so much time passing I got curious as to why they haven't started firing on us yet, so I looked up and saw something truly incredible".
Jaune looked up at the airship through the binoculars and saw the weapons retracted and the windows sealed with metal shudders. "Just what happened up there"? Ironwood smiled proudly "after what happened in atlas I wanted to be prepaid for the worst when it came to you. I had atlas's best install a failsafe that would shut down all system in the event anyone tried to hijack my ships" he looked at the blonde meaningfully. "When my ships still fired on Beacons bullheads I feared the worst but it seems someone was able to activate the lockdown. I don't have the faintest idea who but with this things should be a bit easier".
Jaune nodded "then we shouldn't waste this opportunity" he handed the general the binoculars and raced over to the lockers that were lined up with his. He told the rest of his team to get on their lockers cause they needed to go quickly before the situation changed. Ironwood watched the lockers begin to take off before looking back up to the airships "whoever gave us this chance, thank you".
/
Before jaune exited the white world
The computer terminal in the atlesian airship was hailed for an incoming transmission. The senior officer clicked a key on the terminal and established the connection before seeing the generals face appear on the screen. When the officer tried to salute, ironwood spoke "at ease soldier". The officer complied before asking "sire, we noticed your approaching on an unregistered airship. Is there a reason for that"? Ironwood nodded "that's right, top secret and well above your station. All I can say is that there are several ships that will be boarding with cargo necessary for the protection of vale. Be sure to pass on this news to the other airships so they will allow them to dock and unload, is that clear"?
The senior officer saluted "loud and clear general, I'll pass the message along". With that the connection was cut and the senior officer spread the message, never once realizing the greatest mistake of his life.
The ships were granted clearance to land and before the atlesian soldiers could even react or get prepared, the white fang rushed out and started shooting down any atlesian personnel they could find without remorse. On the main airship a single ship landed and the general departed and was greeted by some soldiers before being directed to the control room. When ironwood entered the room the general visibly cracked in front of his soldiers before shattering like glass to reveal a group of three that weren't there previously.
Cinder chuckled "oh my, it seems the jig is up I guess". The soldiers were quickly taken out by roman and neo before cinder started killing the rest of the personnel in the control room. When they finished the clean up, cinder walked over to the central terminal and placed a black scroll on the dashboard before tapping the center of the screen. The screen lit up and a chess piece representing the queen shown on all the terminals, giving her control over the weapons, the white knights and the paladins within the kingdom.
"Looks like the plans going smoothly" roman said as he took a seat in the captains chair before looking through the camera systems. Cinder nodded "the fact they fel for a simple voice changer was pathetic, and is that a hint of surprise in your voice roman"? The thief looked up from his screen quickly and shook his head "no I was just...hhhmmm"! Cinder raised a brow "what's the matter now"? Roman tapped on the screen with his index finger and proceeded to toss it forward so she could see what he was seeing on his screen. The raven haired woman smiled at the site of both emerald and mercury in cells on the very ship she was on "release them and send neo to help clear out the ship, I don't need someone trying to be a hero here".
Roman did as instructed before leaning back in his seat "what now"?
Cinder smiled "now the fun begins" she said as she directed the ships cannons to fire on Beacons bullhead platforms.
While cinder was enjoying her victory and roman looked through the ships systems, a single individual opened his eye's and looked over to make sure nobody noticed he was still alive. Will scarlatina was the luckiest man on the ship at the moment thanks to the sacrifice of the coworker who tried to run passed him and got shot with an arrow of black glass in the back. The dead man fell on will and dragged him to the ground where the atlas personnel pretended to be dead so as to be spared from getting a real arrow in his intestines.
When the ships weapons began to fire, will scarlatina knew he couldn't just sit still while his daughter was in danger. He worked up all his courage and finally removed his dead coworker off him before crawling over to the nearest terminal. If he did this there was going to be no escape from these people, but the alternative was just to horribly to think about. Will thought of his precious daughter velvet as he typed away at the terminal before activating the shut down protocol ironwood put in place for this very reason.
"Daddy loves you velvet" he whispered before all the systems in the airship began shutting down except for the flight system.
/
Beacon
Velvets rabbit ears twitched before she looked away from the locker she was getting ready to ride. "What's up Bun" coco asked when her teammate stopped working. Velvet looked around for a few more seconds before turning towards coco "I thought I heard...nevermind, let's get ready to go". Coco nodded and the two went back to what they were doing.
/
Atlesian Battleship / Present time
Cinder watched as the weapons system was taken from her, along with all her plans of destroying Beacon with atlas's own weapons of destruction. She first looked to roman but saw him just as confused as she was. There was movement behind the master thief that caught her eye and she quickly realized that there was a single atlas personnel who had survive her initial attack. The man looked her way and knew he'd been caught. Cinder cleared the distance between them and grabbed the man by his throat before lifting him off the ground "tell how to deactivate the shut down protocol, NOW"!
Will smiled defiantly "never". Cinder slammed the man into the terminal before creating a small dagger made black glass and stabbed him with it. Will did not have any training like most soldiers because he was an engineer, so when he got stabbed in his shoulder for the first time he screamed as anyone would. Cinder made sure to twist the dagger for good measure, drawing an even louder scream from the man "tell me now and this can all be over"! Will looked the raven haired woman in the eye before spitting in her face "Do your worst" he said with tears in his eyes. And so she did.
After awhile the mans screams came to a halt as did his breathing and living, leaving only a corpse even more wounded and deader then the rest of his coworkers.
Cinder huffed angrily "even till the bitter end he never gave anything away...tch, damn it". Without a way to shut off the lockdown there was nothing she could do so she headed back to the black scroll and looked over what she still had control over. To her surprise the white knights and paladins were still operational so she proceeded to turn them on the atlesian soldiers to give the white fang a bit of a helping hand over on the other ships.
"Um, cinder"!
The raven haired woman looked over to the red haired thief "what's the matter now"?! Roman got into the camera systems - one of the only things still operational - and brought up one of the cameras of the ships exterior "looks like we got some unwelcome guests arriving". Cinder pushed the thief aside to see what he was talking about only see a group of students flying up to the ship on rocket lockers led by jaune himself. She stood up straight the next moment before pulling her scroll out to send a message to neo. Afterwards she looked to roman who was standing close by "go handle them" she ordered.
The thief knew better then to argue so he fixed his bowler hat and lit a fresh cigar before heading out. He was met in route by neo and cinders kid minions. When the door leading to the ships landing platform opened up they were met with a group of teenagers who'd just landed their rocket lockers. "Sorry kiddos but your clearance has been revoked so pack it up and be on your merry way" roman said before shooing them.
Jaune exchanged a look with vernal before she pulled out one of her blade gun and fired a shot at the red headed thief. The bullet never hit it's mark as neo moved to romans defense and used her parasol to block the bullet. Roman pulled his bowler hat down and let out a sigh "skipping the pleasantries? fine, neo if you would". The ice cream girl twirled her parasol between her fingers before her semblance activated and made them invisible to the naked eye. Jaune wasted no time in trying to rip neo out of her illusion when he shot his whip sword out into the distance. The blade looked like it wasn't about to do anything when it suddenly wrapped around something they couldn't see at first.
Jaune raised a brow because normally if something interfered with neo's semblance it would shatter like glass. Penny rushed passed the blonde and brought her blades out to form a makeshift shield just in time to stop a blast that had been aimed at jaune. The red headed girl threw both her hands forward and sent the blades flying in front of them and shattered neo's semblance to reveal roman, neo and mercury still in the same place they started. Jaune eye's widened in surprise before he looked toward the place his sword was attached to.
The illusion was still in place but it became clear that this wasn't neo. A bang rang out and jaune was protected once again but this time by a giant hammer. "Thanks for the assist nora". The pink bomber smiled happily "no problem commander" with that she rushed off to attack the invisible woman at the end of his blade. Jaune decided he'd repay his debt by giving nora a free shot at their invisible lady by pulling her forward when he yanked his blade back. Nora let out a roar before delivering a devastating blow against the invisible woman revealing emerald in the process.
With her semblance coming undone jaune could finally focus and see all his enemies clearly. "Ren the kid in grey. Vernal if cinders not here then she's still in the ship". The brunette chuckled "I owe that bitch some payback so keep these guys busy wouldja"? Jaune never got to reply because vernal raced passed the others and dodged their enemies to enter the ship. Roman knocked one of penny's blades away before looking to neo "don't let her get to cinder". Neo nodded and tried to follow after the brunette only to run into the blonde that now blocked her path.
Jaune had used his gun to launch himself up and over while ren and penny kept roman and mercury busy. Neo held the tip of her parasol up so that it was pointed at the man in front of her. The blonde did the same in reverse "neo, don't do this" he pleaded only for it to fall on deaf ears. The mute ran at him but jaune easily cut her through causing the small girl to shatter a moment later. realizing what her true aim was, jaune turned his blade into it's whip sword form and swung behind him catching neo by her ankle and yanking her off her feet to slam her onto the floor in front of him.
Neo growled silently at she glared at the blonde but jaune didn't seem bothered by it. "Remember this was your choice" he said before running at her. Neo jumped to her feet and blocked his attack as best she could. Jaune pushed down on his blade which brought his face closer to hers "I hope it's everything you wanted" he growled before he decided to fight in earnest.
/
Vale
"Rrraaghh"! yang roared as she delivered a powerful right uppercut to a beowolf alpha's jaw, snapping it mouth shut and making the beast bite off it's own tongue in the process. With the beast looking up, yang rushed in and gave a five hit combo to the grimms chest before throwing a powerful right straight that sent the grimm crashing into a group of creepers that were running towards them. She looked back to the family of four she was protecting and gave them a thumbs up "the shelter should be just up ahead" she announced and the family took off, leaving her behind.
Yang let out a sigh before turning her attention to saphron who had just finished dealing with seven ursas and was running up to her. "So much for a night on the town huh? And after jaune dumped all that money on me too". Saphron actually looked more bothered by the fact that she couldn't drink herself into a stupor then about the invasion of grimm. Yang shook her head with a chuckle "damn sis you definitely got your priorities mixed up". The elder blonde raised a brow "Really?! Well I blame raven for that one...or maybe uncle qrow".
A building a few blocks down suddenly exploded all of a sudden and out of the wreckage a beringel leaped from the buildings window with a teenager in it's grasp. The teen was clad in a full body armor with a bird on the breast plate. "Cardin"! russel yelled as he and the rest of their team finally made it out of the now burning building. Cardin tried to punch the beringel but to the beast it was merely a love tap at best. The grimm hoisted the boy above it's head before tossing him like a football through the air where he hit the streets stop light before landing on an abandoned car in the middle of the road.
Cardin had taken the worst of it so far because he saw the beringel try to attack russel when he wasn't looking, so he pushed his partner out of the way and got tackled through a building because of it. After that he had tried to use the fire dust in his mace but the beast had knocked it out of his hand and caused an explosion that almost leveled the building. Without his weapon the beringel didn't have much competition and probably could have finished him off.
The grimm let out a mighty roar before leaping into the air to smash down on the armored teen. Russel watched in horror as the beast came down on his teammate but was surprised when someone ran up and pulled cardin out of the way at the last second. The red headed boy looked up to see a blonde woman raise her shield in time to block the beringels second attack. Cardin watched in awe as the woman pushed her shield forward and pushed back the grimm before driving her sword into it's shoulder with ease.
Saphron used her semblance the second the beast hit her shield again with all it's strength. The blow felt like nothing in the face of her juggernaut semblance so she pushed the attack aside before shield bashing the beringel in the face. The large beast stepped back and found it's back against the car it was just on seconds ago. Saphron then thrusted her sword into the creatures chest before hitting her sword with her shield, forcing the blade upward to slice the beast through it's body and out through it's head.
"Well that was something" the blonde said before turning to the red head and held out her hand "on your feet kid". Cardin nodded and took hold of her hand before being bodily lifted to his feet with surprising strength. Yang arrived shortly after at the same time cardins friends arrived. "Took you long enough to catch up" saphron said to yang. The younger blonde huffed "your just too fast, give me a few years and I'll catch up".
"Um, thanks for saving my partner" russel said to the older blonde.
Saphron looked his way and smiled "we hunters have to look out for our own kid" she said before looking around "and with all that's happening it's something we need to do now more then ever". Cardin stood tall and took hold of his weapon when dove held it up after picking it up earlier. "Your the senior huntress here, we'll follow your lead" he said.
Saphron nodded "we'll stick to the basics, look for survivors and guide them to the shelters and if any grimm get in your way, kill them". They all nodded and followed her lead as they moved down the street to the residential district. Gun fire was heard in the distance and saphron couldn't help but hope that there was people still fighting for their lives out there somewhere. Unfortunately she never once thought about the chance that someone was deliberately helping the grimm complete their work of killing the survivors.
/
On the outskirts of vale and working their way inwards the white fang gunned down any man, woman or child they came across. A scarlet katana was held up by the leader of the fang and adam taurus proclaimed proudly "leave none alive and at the end of this day this kingdom shall be OURS"! The white fang cheered loudly as they marched on to slaughter whoever dared stand any in their way.
So many players, so many scenarios and so many terribly things to come. But can our heroes rise to the challenge or will they fail like chumps?
Well as of late I've been playing danganronpa a lot lately and I gotta say I'm loving me some mystery. Speaking of... I heard this theory that the whole reason jaune fell through the world was so that he can use his new found view of the world to save neo from her path of revenge, but what do you think? Personally it makes a lot of sense since I doubt anyone from team RWBY would care enough to do that for her. Wait then is silent knight a possibility? or are they going to do something stupid like kill her off. Personally I feel like neo deserves the redemption more then emerald ever did but that's just me.