~~-Yellow Maidens-~~
"Mr. Arc, where should we head?" Winter turned back to the cramped passenger compartment as the Limo rumbled through the destroyed gates at the end of the mansion's driveway into the quiet early morning streets of Atlas.
It took him a second to respond, Jaune had his scroll to his ear, listening intently. As a testimony to his perceived role as leader all chatter ceased when he held up a finger. "Ummm, 3rd avenue between 30th and 31st. We are going to meet up with some of the Atlas Academy students at a café there. But we may have a bit of a problem. It seems that your father has pushed the meeting up, from 2 o'clock, to 10 this morning. The good news is the defensive forces are struggling to get in place 4 hours early, but it means we won't have much time to prepare either."
The café their friends from Atlas had chosen for a meeting place was nice, clearly a favorite of the local students. However, while it had a nice homey vibe it was not very large. With teams JNPR, CFVY, the now full restored team RWBY, Ilia, Winter, Whitley, and Klein, as well as the Atlas students, comprising team FNKI, Ciel Soleil, and Penny Polendina, the restaurant was now rather packed.
The place had a Menagerian style, and the staff appeared to be mostly Faunus, which was a rare thing in Atlas proper. But more specifically the menu was inspired by the region of Menagerie that Velvet's Mom was originally from. Watching her eyes sparkle as they roamed the menu, filled with dishes she thought only her mom knew how to make, was heartwarming and adorable.
Jaune let her order for him, how could he not when she was so excited to share this little bit of her childhood and heritage with him. The rest of the Beacon group immediately followed suit.
Their trust was not misplaced, everything was excellent. Avocado on sourdough toast with a runny egg, sausage rolls, and sweet corn fritters, all of it delicious. Yang powered through something called the 'big fry up' with truly frightening speed. Rivaled only by the rate at which Nora consumed her plate of 'pikelets with berries and cream'.
Unfortunately, the earlier than expected time for the big shareholders meeting meant that they had to keep things short.
"Alright guys we need to get moving soon, and I think we need to change up the plan a bit. We don't have time to get everyone into place so we will need to hit hard and move fast. We will need to have a diversion to pull the Atlas forces to the north while we come in from the south in the limo." Winter and the Atlas students nodded along in agreement, the latter of which were apparently already co-conspirators in Jaune's initial plans.
"So, since no one is more an instrument of chaos and confusion than Nora."
"You know it boss!"
"That wasn't a compliment." Nora ignored him and continued with her superhero pose. "Ren you will go with her and keep the collateral damage to a minimum. I was also thinking, if Coco is okay with it, of splitting up team CFVY and sending the boys on with Ren and Nora. No offence guys, but I'm hoping not to get into any melee fights and the Limo is rather cramped. I'd rather have you with Ren and Nora to sell the whole White Fang angle. Ilia, were you able to get the masks and uniforms?"
"Yeah, not sure I like the idea of pinning the direct assault of the SDC on the Fang…" Despite her misgivings she took one of the duffle bags team FNKI had brought, and opened it revealing it to be full of White Fang Grimm masks and uniform coats, much to the shock of Winter and Whitley.
"That's fair. We could run it by Miss Kahn first…."
"I already did, she was thrilled at the idea and asked how many men we needed. I figured we didn't want to actually involve them, so I told her we had more than enough manpower. So, she knows the plan and is cool with it. But still, it feels… dishonest." Ilia gave a half shrug, passing out masks to Nora, Ren, Fox and Yatsu.
Winter's eyes were wide with shock. They were planning this with cooperation from the White Fang?
"We'll try not to be seen. But I suspect they would have placed the blame on the White Fang either way." Ren took his mask with a small bow.
"Nora, you were able to get the special smoke grenades? And not in pink, right? That color is pretty specific, and we don't want this traced back to us if we can help it."
"You got it fearless leader! Me and Ruby modified them ourselves. It should make a massive cloud of icky, pale blue smoke. And I made some flash bang versions as well, we set them for air burst, proximity fuses should have them detonate 15 feet off the ground, so no one takes a direct hit. I can't wait to try them; they are going to be sooooo loud!" Nora excitedly and aggressively patted the duffle bag; Flynt had very gingerly handed to her.
Meanwhile, with a Herculean effort, Weiss was able to suppress the urge to correct Nora's grammar, but the strain caused her eye to twitch uncontrollably. The words "Ruby and I" hung palpably in the air around her.
"Nora you are scaring us a little. Please, please, make sure no one actually gets hurt."
"No problem Boss."
"Right, well I was hoping Flynt you and your team could…" Jaune looked over to see Neon being her usual self, squealing about how cute Whitley looked in his pajamas, and pinching his cheeks. "Actually… Ceil, do you think you could keep Whitley out of the action? Maybe see about setting him up with some kind of accommodations at the Academy? And if it isn't too much of a hassle, help him get some new clothes? We kind of dragged him here right out of his bed."
"My orders were technically to aid the SDC, and by extension the Schnee Family, and to protect their assets. I find this to be an acceptable revision to the plan." Ceil nodded, looking rather relieved actually, as did Whitley, so Jaune counted it as a double win.
"Good, so everyone knows what's what?" Jaune got a round of nods. "The timing is going to be crucial here. We need to start the attack just before ten. Late enough that all the shareholders will be there, but early enough that the meeting won't have started yet. Nora, you start the diversion at 9:45 on the dot. That will give Ceil and Coal 5 minutes to convince the Atlas soldiers to move to reinforce the northern sides of their sectors and prevent them from getting in the crossfire when we attack the SDC droids in the south." Ceil took down notes on her scroll as she double checked her watch, crosschecking that her clock was synchronized to Nora's scroll.
"Okay guys let's do this."
Winter was, once again, and despite her rank and seniority, following along with this young man's plans. For better or worse leaving her sister's destiny in his hands. Oddly enough she felt rather comfortable with that idea.
Ilia dropped down from the roof, landing next to the limousine idling at the curb. She knocked on the opaque glass to get their attention. A muffled "Who is it?" coming out in a sing song voice from within.
"Yang, just open the door." Ilia knocked on the glass again.
"Commander Arc! Sir! Lieutenant Amitolia requests permission to enter."
Ilia could hear Jaune let out a loud and put-upon sigh before saying, "Permission Granted."
The door opened and Ilia slid in taking a seat next to Jaune. He leaned over and whispered to her. "Play along. It's not worth another argument." Before in a louder voice saying. "Report Lieutenant." He rolled his eyes good naturedly as Yang and Ruby clapped happily.
"Well, Captain…"
"No, Jaune is the Commander. I'm the Captain." Ruby pointed proudly at herself. Ilia looked to Specialist Schnee who was looking on through the downed partition. She gave her a commiserating look of exasperation. Neither of them expecting to be sympathizing with what had been, until recently, a mortal enemy.
"Fine. Okay then, Commander. The good news is, it is like Ironwood said, no personnel, only droids and automated mechs. The problem is, there are a lot of them."
"How many are we talking about?" Jaune pulled up a map on his scroll.
"The first line is just around the corner, about a block down. Standard police barricade blocking the street and about a dozen or so of the older AK130s. After that they have another barricade at the next intersection. That one is a lot stronger. They have cement barriers across the road and about 30 of the K200 knights."
"That doesn't sound too…"
Ilia cut Blake off with a raised hand. "I didn't get to the bad stuff yet. Lined up at the end of the road in front of the SDC building itself are 4 Paladins, and there are about 4 truckloads of Knights that are still being unloaded but are ready to activate at a moment's notice, so that's another 120 or so. And to top it off they have one of those huge spider droids!"
"Wow. Yeah, those are tough, I couldn't even scratch them." Blake leaned back clearly worried.
"When would you have fought an SDC spider droid?" Winter looked at the cat Faunus with narrowed eyes.
"Remember just before school started, there was that train where only half of it made it to Vale?" Blake looked askance at Weiss, subconsciously grabbing onto Yang for support.
"That was you?" Weiss practically shrieked.
"Yes… But I did it to protect the crew. Adam was going to blow it up and kill everyone onboard!" Blake had that terrified look as her eyes darted between Winter and Weiss. Her body tensed and one hand was inching toward the door handle, like she was unconsciously and desperately searching for a way out.
"Adam? Adam Taurus?" Winter growled as she glared at Blake.
"Guys we are getting off topic. We need to have a plan for how to deal with things now." Jaune put a hand on Blake's shoulder, calming her down with just a touch, and earning a grateful smile from Yang.
"Pyrrha, if I boost your semblance do you think it would work from a distance?" Pyrrha nodded back.
"I honestly don't know how far away I can use it. I never really used it offensively like that until the attack on Beacon, but it was very effective against the Paladins." Pyrrha played with her hair shyly, despite being as famous as she was, she was never very good at touting her own abilities.
"Okay, well Nora should start her attack, in just a couple of minutes. I think we should concentrate on trying to bull rush our way through. I'll boost Pyrrha and Velvet. Pyrrha, you concentrate on offense. Destroy or disable as many mechs as you can with your semblance, but your primary objective is to clear a path down the center. Velvet you're on defense, use your semblance and weapons to keep them off us. Ruby you pick off what you can but leave the bigger ones for Pyrrha to deal with. Weiss, you and Winter can use your summons for support. Yang, Ilia, and Blake are last ditch for if the car stalls or gets boarded, and Coco, I want you in the sunroof for close in defense with your mini-gun." Everyone shifted around to get near window seats or to have a view for where to aim their assault.
Ruby took the 'driver's side' window, Weiss the 'passenger side'. Pyrrha, Coco and Velvet decided they were all going to hang out the sunroof to get the maximum field of fire for their weapons and semblance.
Jaune elected to sit in the rear facing position on the bench seat. Ilia sat on his right behind Kline. Blake and Yang took the opposite side sitting in the center of the back bench.
Jaune's scroll buzzed and he pulled it out to see a thumbs up emoji from Nora. Almost immediately after there were the distant sounds of explosions. And in typical Nora fashion you didn't need Velvet or Blake's Faunus enhanced hearing ability to make out the thunder like sounds of her 'flash bangs' despite the approximately 6 blocks of distance.
"Okay, that's the signal. Just try and keep the car moving at a steady clip and let us handle the rest, no matter what happens just keep moving forward." Jaune got a nod and gave Klein's shoulder a pat in return, before turning back to the girls in the passenger space.
"Vel? Pyr? You guys ready?" Velvet and Pyrrha shifted over into the foot-well of the passenger space, while the trio joined hands.
"Weiss you might want to close your eyes." Blake reached over and nudged her as she watched in fascination. Ilia flipped the switch to raise the privacy screen to protect Klein and Winter from the imminent, potentially blinding, flash.
As Jaune's hands began to glow brightly, Weiss took the advice and averted her eyes, eventually closing them completely as the glow became brighter still. Even with eyes closed at this proximity the light was so bright that when it faded, she had to blink away a few spots. She looked at the girls still holding Jaune's hand and the smiles on their faces. But then the car started moving forward and everyone raced to get into their combat positions. And Jaune hurried to reopen the privacy screen.
Yang giggled at the look of it all, with Ruby and Weiss hanging out the side windows and the three girls sticking out the sunroof they must have looked like a bunch of rich 'Woo- girls' on spring break. ….If you ignored the fact that they were all armed to the teeth.
As the car came around the corner and approached the first roadblock the poor robots stationed there were caught completely off guard. One of the robots raised a hand in the international symbol to 'stop the car' and or 'turn around'. It paused for a moment to process the fact that the car in question made it clear that they were ignoring that command. A few computational cycles later the robots simultaneously switched from standby to defense mode. When the car increased its speed, they switched from defense to attack mode. Weapons whirred to life as the robots took shooting positions and readied their weapons systems.
Unfortunately for the mechanical automatons, they were too late. As if sensing the transition, the occupants of the car went on the offensive first. Machine gun fire, sniper fire and dust-based attacks lit up the roadblock, absolutely decimating it. In a show of her newfound abilities that she knew would make her sister proud, Weiss summoned her Giant Grimm Knight who used the broad side of his massive claymore sword to clear a path through the smoldering debris. Velvet formed a copy of Jaune's shield, using it almost as a snowplow of transparent cyan hard light, ensuring the vulnerable engine compartment remained protected, and sweeping clear any debris that could damage the tires or undercarriage.
After running the initial roadblock, it became the Invincible Girl Show. This was the first time Pyrrha had been given the Maiden's powers and she was determined to make full use of the semblance boost that had been bestowed on her. If nothing else she would be sure that none of these mechanical foes would have a chance to lay a finger on Jaune.
In a spectacular display of her newfound control over metal, a pair of manhole covers levitated up out of the road and floated on either side of the vehicle. The occupants inside watched in fascination as they began spinning faster and faster, slowly elongating into sharpened disks. The spinning, and now razor-sharp, blades were then magnetically accelerated to supersonic speeds. The crack of the twin sonic booms rattled the windows of shops and caused Blake and Velvet to wince as their Aura's dipped slightly.
The K200 Knights, with their machine-like precision, had all been marching out in perfect lines, forming two columns, down both sides of the road. The mass-produced uniformity of the robots meant they were all exactly the same height, or more specifically their necks were all at the same height. Pyrrha's attack decapitated them all instantly, around 60 or so in total, before embedding into and demolishing two of the Paladin mechs at the back of the formation.
The remaining few knights at the roadblock, were squished flat as if an unseen hand had hammered down on them from above. Only the faintly glowing outlines before their sudden collapse could have clued a careful observer into the source of their demise.
As they approached the now unprotected second roadblock, Pyrrha, in a moment of inspiration, used the rebar and steel reinforcement in the concrete barriers to shift their entire bulk off to the sides. Simultaneously sweeping the area clear of debris, leaving a perfectly clean corridor down the center of the road.
The remaining two Paladins wasted no time in launching a volley of missiles. Their smoke trails arched up and toward the limo, which was rolling steadily down the yellow centerline. The sparking debris of the SDC's newest and best defense droids sprawled uselessly in a twisted pile of limbs lining either side of the road.
Before the missiles could even reach their zenith, they froze in midair, surrounded by a now familiar black glow. They paused for just a second, hanging in midair before they turned back over on themselves and rained down into the cross streets. Landing amongst the reinforcements pouring out of their cargo trucks. The missiles decimated the robotic forces, destroying all 4 trucks and eliminating more than half the remaining robotic soldiers, most of which had yet to even fully activate.
With the limo getting closer and now picking up a little speed, the paladins switched to arm mounted chain guns. They fared no better than they had with the missile attack. Pyrrha, reaching out with her semblance, grabbed ahold of their arms, and pulled them around in an arc. The arm cannons continued to fire, scything down any remaining knights, before ultimately their fire turned on one another shredding their armor and causing them to stagger back. Pyrrha again used the rebar in the concrete barrier they had passed to levitate the K-rails. The Beacon crew watched in awe as the hardened pre-stressed concrete barriers rocketed past the car windows, the mass of the concrete hitting with such speed that it punched clear through the center of the last two Paladins. The center section, where the cockpit would be in a piloted version, was completely obliterated. Jaune and crew were able to see right through the hole, machinery sparking and dropping out of the gaping wound as the mechs fell slowly backward. Behind them two massive explosions of dirt flew up as the Jersey barriers cratered into the park like gardens that surrounded the SDC building.
Stepping out from between the twin plumes of dirt came the 'spider tank'. The final boss if you will. It skittered forward on its stumpy claw like legs. The main gun coming together and charging with raw power.
"That's a lot bigger than the one I fought!" Blake drew a sharp breath, whistling through her teeth.
"Hold the car steady, I can't get a clear picture." Velvet yelled down through the sunroof, peering through her camera, as the energy weapon began to take on a bright glow.
"What? Just shoot it!" Winter yelled back, practically shouting in Jaune's face.
"I'm trying to, but getting it framed properly is hard with the car swaying around." Velvet yelled back.
"I meant…" Winter's reply was cut off by a bright flash from Velvet's camera, almost immediately echoed by another bright flash from the Droid's cannon.
As soon as Velvet got her shot Pyrrha made her move. Pulling all the metallic debris of the Knights and Paladins into the beam, she basically created a dense ablative armor.
The debris absorbed the blast, partially vaporizing, with the rest melting into a ball of molten slag that she then sent hurtling at the droid. The ball of white-hot liquid metal flew forward thinning out into a molten spear that was forced down the barrel of the cannon and into the internals of the multi-legged tank. The heat and impact combined to overload the cannons dust reactor, sending a fiery explosion out the back and joints.
The remaining liquid metal splashed over and rapidly cooled around the smoking husk, encasing it, and rendering it inert. Although it still blocked their path, its shear bulk taking up almost the entirety of the road.
With a grunt of effort Pyrrha pushed her semblance even further, the massive hulk was surrounded by a dense black glow, then it was unceremoniously lifted and hurled back. The multi-ton iron block rolling up and out of the way, inadvertently creating a brand-new art emplacement in the center of the SDC's gardens.
Klein didn't bother to hide his contempt for the SDC, jumping the curb, he drove through the lawns and gardens, the tires spinning in the dirt and churning up plants as he went. Utilizing the sidewalks as best he could to maintain forward momentum, he drove the car right up to the front door of the skyscraper.
The teens and Winter disembarked. Taking up positions around the car and the front entrance to the SDC building. Jaune's own exit was done in a more… tumbling fashion, than he would have liked.
Pyrrha and Coco chose to avoid the pile of limbs and blonde hair that blocked the car door by just leaping out the sunroof, like the total bad asses they were. They took defensive positions on either side of the Limousine. Pyrrha standing protectively over Jaune of course.
Yang and Blake slipped out last and helped Jaune to his feet. Yang let Blake fuss over him, dusting him off, and instead she looked back over the top of the car at the street filled with destruction. She gave Pyrrha a light punch to the shoulder and whistled appreciatively. "Damn Pyrrha. You scary, gurl."
"Pyrrha that was so awesome! You were like BAM, BAM, and then giant chunks were flying around like WHOOOSH. I only got to kill like one of them. But your semblance was so cool!" Ruby appeared next to Yang in a flash, hopping up and down next to Pyrrha who blushed slightly at the praise.
While Jaune was gathering himself up, the rest of the group took a moment to inspect the main entry doors to the building. They were clearly in full lockdown. The heavy, probably bullet resistant glass, was sealed tight behind a hard light barrier, that easily rebuffed their probing attacks.
"Hmm. Fair go mate. Hey guys, can you maybe back up a bit? I'm going to take a crack at it." Velvet stood back, eyes closed and power swirling around her as she held her camera out. The Beacon crew wisely pulled Winter aside as a massive version of the spider tank's main cannon began to form and glow with cyan light. A few short seconds later a blue beam shot forward, smashing through the hard light barrier and burning a perfectly circular two-meter-wide hole through the glass partition, before continuing on to blow a hole in the polished marble floor of the foyer beyond, the impact shaking the whole building.
"Wow. Vel that was overkill don't ya think?" Coco came over to look through the new opening, waving at the wide-eyed Ace Ops team that was racing in on the other side. Winter entered first hands up in surrender as Clover called for his team to put their weapons down. The two groups side stepping the destruction to meet in the middle.
"Okay, Velvet and Pyrrha, I think we should… ummm… discharge? Unboost? …De-semblance you? Is that even a word?"
Pyrrha and Velvet shared a look and seemed to hold a silent conversation. Before Velvet stepped up and kissed Jaune passionately. She then stood hands still gripping the edges of his chest armor as she stood on her tiptoes pressing her forehead to his.
There was a snigger from Coco, and a whoop from Yang, that made Velvet blush. But it was the gasp from Weiss that brought Jaune's head back down from the clouds. Velvet sighed and returned to her feet, she went to pull away, but Jaune pulled her back in with a hug.
With a flash from his semblance the maiden power left her. As he released her, she pulled back, trailing her hands down his arms, turning to Pyrrha with a nod and a smile.
Pyrrha stepped into the place Velvet had just vacated. And proceeded to kiss Jaune just as passionately, and slightly more aggressively than Velvet had.
"Pyrrha? You as well?" Weiss squealed indignantly.
But before Jaune could recover Pyrrha danced back. And as Weiss gawked, she seemed to have a one-sided conversation with herself.
"I know right?" Pyrrha's voice was soft and breathless, but not a whisper.
"…" Weiss looked around trying to figure out who Pyrrha might be conversing with. This was not normal behavior and was far out of left field for the normally composed and controlled Pyrrha Nikos.
"Yeah… It feels amazing, it's like a dream come true... I do want more, but I don't think I'm ready for THAT yet. It took me almost a year to get up the nerve to even confess!" And she began to blush heavily. Not even registering the look she was getting from Weiss, or the knowing grins of the others. She stood there quietly growing redder and redder, almost to the point of steam rising from her head.
Yang came over and elbowed Jaune. "Hey. Lover boy. Better do your magic thing. If she embarrasses her any more P-money is going to have an aneurism or something."
"Right…" Jaune reached out to his partner, he had no way of knowing what Amber was saying, but by now it was getting rather hard to tell Pyrrha's face from her hair.
Pyrrha sagged in relief when his semblance flashed, but for whatever reason couldn't even look in his direction. Instead, she went over to whisper to Velvet while fanning her face with her hand.
"If you children are quite done, we have a mission to complete." Winter stuck her head out the opening, wondering what the hold-up was. Her scolding tone brought Jaune out of his dopey grin and made Velvet and Pyrrha blush anew.
Jaune looked over to see Winter duck back into the hole in the building with Ruby, Blake, and Ilia close behind. Weiss was just standing there in shock, a complicated expression on her face. Yang went over and with a soft smile, gently directed her through the circular opening and into the SDC.
~~-Yellow Maidens-~~
AN: Pyrrha in all her ridiculously broken overpowered glory. I'm beginning to think Roosterteeth killed her off just so she wouldn't Mary-Sue every fight they got into. Maiden Pyrrha would be a truly terrifying foe. One reviewer asked why I haven't showcased Pyrrha more. The answer is that with her powers supercharged it's difficult to suggest a fight scenario where Pyrrha doesn't just own everybody. I thought about her just creating a massive EMP against the robots, something that should be easy for her to do, but that would be boring.
FYI: In Manhattan, 3rd avenue between 30th and 31st is the location of Ruby's Café. An Australian themed small restaurant. Never been there, but it seemed on point. I just wanted a location roughly a few blocks south of the Empire State Building, to give a reference for the SCD corporate office, and to have a realistic address. I try to have everything I can be thought out as to how the characters are getting from place to place in a realistic way and so the timeline makes sense. So, I'm using NYC, Manhattan specifically, as an archetype of a planned city with regimented blocks to stand in for what I suspect Atlas would be like.