The bay doors opened, and the Schnee-Rose family exited he craft and onto the Beacon campus. The middle child: Amber Rose, was making a poor attempt to straighten her messy hair after her extended nap on the flight over.
The youngest of the family: Willow Rose, was staring in awe at the large tower in the distance. "This place is so cool." She mumbled under her breath. The oldest child: Summer Schnee, lightly ruffled her younger sister's hair.
Ruby and Weiss were having a conversation, their attention diverted from their children. "Are you sure you don't want to head back to Patch?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Ruby responded, "My dad doesn't need my help anymore, so Willow and I are going to stay in a hotel for a while."
"You can stay with me at Beacon." Weiss tried to interject when a loud thud from behind her refocused her attention on her children.
Amber had been tackled to the floor by a golden blonde girl in red armor. "Mia… can't breathe." Amber chocked out.
Mia let go of her leader and backed up crossing her legs, "Sorry!" She apologized with a smile so bright it rivaled Ruby's.
"Ms. Heart. Energetic as ever I see." Weiss greeted.
"Hey Mrs. Schnee!" the blonde greeted in return.
Bella and Rod walked up to the family shortly after, and Bella helped her team mates up while Rod stared down the family. Amber cleared her throat and introduced her team. "Mom, Willow. This is my team. Meet Mia, Bella, and Rod."
Ruby practically jumped forward, "HEY! I'm Amber's mom. You can call me Ruby."
"Sup!" Mia greeted.
"H-hello Mrs. Rose- I mean Ruby." Bella stuttered a little embarrassed by her stumble.
Rod remained silent and held out is hand giving her a weak handshake. "So, who's your partner?" Ruby asked looking at her middle daughter.
Amber pointed at Rod, "Unfortunately, it's him." She joked.
"Shut up Rose." Rod retorted. Amber was about to counter when her mom leaned closer to the boy.
"Hey, you better take care of my daughter okay." Her voice was very stern, and Rod was a little taken aback.
"That really depends on her." He stated. His tone made unclear if it was supposed to be a joke or not, none the less it made Ruby laugh.
"It really does. Amber's always been the act first think later type." Ruby giggled as she backed away from Rod.
"MOM!" Ruby's giggles increased at her daughter's outburst.
"I'm just teasing." She said waving her hand in a dismissing motion.
Amber grabbed her suitcase and rolled it over to where her team was standing. Rod leaned into her ear and whispered, "The commander wants us back here in half-an-hour."
"I need to head back to the dorm and grab a few things." Amber whispered back. Rod nodded and motioned for Mia and Bella to follow them back to the dorm.
"Hey Amber!" Willow said running over.
"Yeah sis'?" Amber asked.
"You think you can show me around?" She asked using her puppy dog eyes she learned from watching their mom.
"Uh, I don't know Willow. We are kinda in a hurry. Why don't you ask Summer?" She suggested using all her might to resist her sister's adorable gaze.
Willow groaned, "Fine…" she turned around and walked back to where the rest of her family was standing now joined by Summer's team.
Team AMBR moved around their dorm double checking their bags, and Amber repacking hers with more mission appropriate items.
"Oh, Amber." Bella said gaining her attention. "This came for you in the mail." She said handing Amber a white rectangular box.
"Been waiting for this." Amber stated as she opened the box. As she opened the box Mia looked over her shoulder.
"A cloak?" She questioned. "Don't you already have several of those?"
"This one's special." Amber started taking her current cloak off. She held up the snow-white robe for all to see. Upon closer inspection Mia noticed the faint metallic sparkles in the cloth. "I custom ordered it from a friend of mine in Atlas. He wove a special metal into the fabric." She stated putting the cloak on. "Can't be too careful."
"What kind of metal is it?" Bella asked zipping up her bag.
"I don't know the name of it but it's super though and flexible, and as a bonus it is super reactive to dust." She explained.
"Thinking about working dust into your fighting style?" Rod asked rhetorically.
"Sharp as ever Broker." Amber joked.
The room fell silent for a minute until Amber spoke up, "So what do we know about the Haven Team?" She asked.
"Not much." Rod answered.
"Their name is Team TUNE." Bella explained.
"What kind of a name is that." Amber scoffed.
"Says the leader of Team AMBR." Rod mumbled.
"Well, Haven academy has different naming rules then Beacon." Bella spoke up.
Amber tilted her head waiting for her to continue. "Well Beacon teams use the first names of the members, but the other academies have different rules for team names." She continued.
"Like what?"
"Well." Mia broke in. "Haven uses the members middle names, Atlas uses last names, and Shade just lets the team decide what they want to be called."
"Huh." Amber involuntarily said processing the information. "Do we know anything else?" She asked hoping for more.
"Other than that. They are fourth years, they work under Commander Regal, and according to Commander Adel, a little eccentric." Rod answered.
"Well, that answers nothing." Amber mumbled. "Well, I guess we'll find out when we meet them." She proclaimed.
The team quickly finished their checks and was about to leave when someone knocked on the door. Opening the door and the team was surprised to see their commander at the door. "Hey there recruits. Ready to go?" She greeted brightly.
"Commander!?" They all exclaimed.
Coco chuckled, "Yep, that's me. You guys ready to go?" She asked again.
Amber nodded slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Ready as we'll ever be." She stated a hint of apprehensiveness in her voice.
"Great. Airships gonna be here in a few minutes, so we better hurry up." With that Coco left not waiting for the team. Team AMBR walked out of their dorm occasionally exchanging looks, anxiety written all over their faces.
The large craft lowered into the landing zone located in a very large clearing in the woods a few miles away from the village where the mutated Grimm had been spotted. The clearing had large tents scattered around housing mobile labs, barracks, armories, and he largest being a makeshift mess hall.
The bay doors opened and Team AMBR and Coco exited the craft followed by several squads of soldiers that quickly went to their posts around the camp. The team was greeted by a tall man with dark brown hair and a very short beard with gray hairs starting to show. The man had piercing golden eyes and was wearing a vibrant purple robe with a yellow crown insignia over is heart. Under his robe was a dark purple unbuttoned suit jacket, and yellow polo shirt. He wore similar dark purple pants with back combat boots.
"Seriously Raymond, We're here to identify and exterminate a possible new mutation of Grimm and that's how you come dressed." Coco reprimanded. She was wearing a weighted vest with brown undershirt, and similar brown cargo pants her weapon slung around her belt. Team AMBR had learned that the small bag was in fact a powerful minigun that tripled as a rocket launcher and anti-material anti-tank rifle. One of the most powerful weapons Amber had ever seen if not the most powerful weapon.
The new Commander sighed, "Ms. Adel. A pleasure to see you again." He spoke in a refined foreign accent.
"So, I hear that your Team has been giving you quite the headache, I like the sound of them already." She joked walking over to the man being followed by her own recruits.
Regal sighed once more pinching the bridge of his nose, "Yes… Team TUNE can be quite the handful, but their power and skill is worth the irritation." He half-joked. He looked behind Coco eyeing down Team AMBR. "This is your team I presume."
"Yeah, this is Team AMBR." Coco stepped aside so he could get a better look at the team. "They may be in the first year, but they show the most promise out of every team in Beacon." She explained almost bragging.
"Hello sir, My name is Amber Rose, I'm the leader of our team." Amber greeted.
"Hey! I'm Mia Heart!"
"Um, I'm Bella String."
"Rod Broker." They introduced.
"Hm." Commander Regal eyed them closely, "I expect great things from you four."
"Thank you, sir." Amber stated. Regal smiled and turned around and walked back into the camp.
Coco walked in front of her team and turned on her heels to face them. "Okay!" She started. "The mission starts tomorrow at eight-thirty sharp. I'm taking you guys out to scout the area around the village for the Grimm." She explained. "Your tent is over that way." The commander pointed over to the far-right side of the camp were several tents sat in neat rows. "I would head to bed soon, but feel free to look around. I got to talk with Regal, so I'll see the four of you in the morning." With that Coco left the team and walked into a large tent across the camp.
The team exchanged looks for a short minute, "I uh, guess we should go unpack." Bella said breaking the silence. The rest to her team nodded and they walked over to the row of tents.
They located a tent with their team name displayed on a sign in front of the entrance. The tent was small with one tiny desk stashed away in a corner, and the bunk beds up against the fabric walls.
They each threw their bags on to random bunks claiming them as their own. "So now what?" Mia asked with a shrug.
Her answer came in the form of a gurgle from Bella's stomach. "How about we see if anything in the mess hall is halfway edible." Amber giggled.
As they walked out and started their walk over to the mess hall Rod started a conversation. "You know Rose the food they serve here is going to be a far cry from the food your chefs back in Atlas made for you." He half joked.
"So is the food back at Beacon." Amber mocked.
"Yeah, I still don't know how that one lady managed to burn pasta water." Mia mumbled scratching the back of her head.
"It's because she didn't use water." Bella explained.
A horrified look fell over Mia's face, and she started mumbling making Amber and Bella giggle at their friend. They entered the large tent seeing several long table arranged in rows with a line forming towards the back of the tent.
They got in line and waited for their turn. While they were waiting Amber could hear a group of Mistral soldiers talking about her.
"What the hell is a Schnee doing here?" The tallest of them asked, disgust coating his voice.
"Saw her with Commander Adel earlier." Another responded.
"Well, that was a mistake." The shortest member of the squad quipped making the others laugh.
Amber's silent rage reached a boiling point, and she clenched her fist in preparation to punch the first man in the face with all her might.
"I wouldn't bad mouth someone of the commanders deems more powerful than one hundred of you soldiers." The voice came from a tall boy in a dark blue t-shirt with dark brown curly hair. His green eyes pierced like daggers through the group of soldiers putting them at a loss for words.
Amber herself was at a loss for words. Taking a step back, she let her anger slowly leave her as she calmed. The boy approached her team pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I'm sorry about those guys. Their squad isn't very open minded." He apologized.
Amber smirked and opened her mouth to start talking only to be cut off by a brown blur.
"HEY!" It shouted so loudly the whole camp took notice with most Mistral soldiers shrugging it off. The blur turned out to be a rather short dog faunas boy with light brown hair and sunglasses.
Amber yelped as she jumped back in surprise. "I'm Barry T. Border. Leader of Team TUNE! You're the newbies, right?" He spoke so quickly it took a second for everyone to process what he really said, and his voice was loud and demanded attention.
"Barry don't scare the new team." The other boy reprimanded.
"Don't worry Jim, I'm just sizing them up." Barry joked.
Jim sighed and walked up to the team. "I'm Jim N. Caster and this is my partner, Barry. You're the Beacon team, right?"
"Oh um, yeah. I'm Amber Rose and this is Mia, Bella, and Rod." Amber greeted a little caught off guard.
"A, M, B, R." Barry said the letters out loud confirming the teams name before starting to laugh. The dog's laughter earned him an elbow from his partner.
"It's not that funny." Amber grumbled.
"It does cause a little confusion." Bella confessed quietly.
"Well, it's not like the leaders name is the same as the teams. Hell, Team RWBY was led by Ruby Rose. It's actually considered to be a sign of good luck in Haven." Jim stated.
A short pause set off the small group and Mia was the one to break it. "So, who are the other people in your team?" She asked excited to hear about the number one team in Haven.
"Well, there's Greggory, he's a FANTASTIC singer, and then there is Mathias he's a bull faunas that's built like a monster truck." Barry answered quickly.
"Line." Rod broke in.
The group look over to see the line had moved considerably, and they said their goodbyes and got their food.
"Well, they seem… interesting." Rod stated as they sat down.
"That's one way to put it." Amber joked taking a bite of what she thought was pork but turned out to be steak, throwing her for a loop.
"Well, they clearly have some strength behind them. You don't just make number one in an academy without some skill." Bella put forth.
"I'm curious how that Barry guy landed team leader. He seems for energetic them me." Mia stated.
"So, you know you're crazy." Amber joked pointing her fork at her friend. Mia stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms.
"Bella does have a point." Rod started. "They are one of the best teams on the planet. We're just first years, we could learn a thing or two from watching them during the hunt tomorrow."
"And put us one step closer to being Beacons number one." Amber finished.
"Exactly."
The team ate their meal in silence mulling over their thoughts of tomorrow. When they finished, they put their trays in the collection area and went back to their tent for the night. The girls made Rod wait outside while they got changed. While Rod waited for his teammates to give him the all clear he continued to let his mind wander.
His thoughts then landed on a detail of his team leader. Her scar. The thin jagged scar that ran across her face under her right eye. She never made mention to the mark, and she pretended like it wasn't there even though it was the first thing everyone noticed about her appearance.
"Hey Rod, you can come in now." Mia's voice stated pulling him out of his thoughts.
When her re-entered the tent Amber was sitting on the top left bunk playing a game on her scroll. "Hey Rose," He started gaining her attention, "I've got a question for you."
"Fire away!" She answered putting her scroll down.
"How did you get that scar under your eye?" He pointed to the mark's location on his own face.
Amber's face went from cheerful to one of surprised shock, and then to one void of emotion. "It's personal."
"Oh, come on." Mia broke in. "You've never told us about it, and we're going to be spending the next four years of our lives together so we're gonna find out eventually." Mia coaxed.
"Look guys, I don't want to talk about it." Amber stated trying to shut down the conversation.
"Amber," Bella started earning a glare from her leader. "I can use my semblance so the people in this tent can hear you. If that helps any." She said softly in a reassuring tone.
Amber fell silent for a while, unmoving, deep in thought. "Do it." She finally spoke.
Bella obeyed the command and canceled out all sound wave travel around the outside of the tent.
Amber took a long, slow, deep breath and jumped down the lower bunk motioning for her team to sit in front of her on the other bunk.
"So, what's so personal about your scar." Rod asked hiding his intrigue.
"I was a twin." Amber started.
The team looked very confused before realization hit Bella heavily, "What do you mean 'Was'?"
"You guys know about the Black Fang, right?" She asked.
"Yeah, the terrorists that separated from the White Fang when they became the Faunas Rights Organization thirty years ago." Mia stated confusion present in her voice at this round about explanation.
Amber took another deep breath looking at the floor, this time her breath becoming a little shaky. "Well, they have it out for my family, and when I was seven, they broke into my house and kidnapped me and my twin sister Emerald." She stated her face contorting as she tried to keep a straight face and not break down into tears that were fighting to escape her eyes.
Her team fell deathly silent in shock at the sudden statement from the silver eyed girl. "Emerald Sapphire Schnee-Rose. She was about eleven minutes older than me, but I was always taller." She trailed off. "We look almost identical in our face's, but out hair was opposite. She had reddish-brown hair that was white at the tips, unlike me." Amber said the first tear leaving her face. "We used to prank Summer all the time. Drove her insane, but we didn't care."
"We even discovered our semblances at the same time. I… fell off a railing. She was able to move objects around with her mind and I can teleport. Our old butler Klein called us the 'Psychic Rose Twins'." She took a moment to remember the aging man. He died just a few short months before the Black Fang attacked her family. The family's head maid and her old friend Dinha was his daughter, and she took his death rather hard as did her mom Weiss.
"How…" Mia started scared for an answer. "How did she die."
Amber choaked on her words for a moment. "The Black Fang soldier assigned to guard us after they took tied us to chairs, and I was able to break free with me semblance. He panicked and grabbed Emerald and held a knife up to her throat." A steady stream of tears fell of her eyes staining her clothes and the ground below her. "I thought I could wrestle the knife out of his hands and… He slit her throat. The blade got my cheek in the same slash, and…" She cut herself off, a heavy stream of tears leaving her eyes. The images of her sister lying in her arms blood pouring out of her wound staining her clothes and the floor below them a deep crimson, the Black Fang soldier lying next to them his knife shoved deep into his left eye curtesy of a young Amber's rage, coming back to her in full, horrifying, force.
"Amber you don't have to keep going." Mia quickly blurted out.
"Thanks…" Amber choked out glad to end her horrific story. Bella was quick to grab a tissue she packed and help wipe away her friends tears.
"Thank you for telling us about Emerald." Bella comforted. Amber gave a small smile as the unstoppable wave of tears continued.
"Hey Rose, I-." Rod started.
"Stop calling me that." Amber spat back glaring at the boy with tear-stained eyes.
"What…" Rod stumbled over his words.
"As soon as I met you you've done nothing but berate me and criticize everything I've done!" She yelled venting all the anger she had bottled up over the months. "I don't know what you have against me, but I earned my place in Beacon. After my sister died, I worked myself to the bone every god-damn day!" Her eyes began to glow a faint silver color as she stepped closer to the boy. "The least you can do is show me a little respect and use my first FUCKING NAME!" Her voice exploded into a mess of emotions with anger being the most prominent.
Rod pushed Amber back. "All that you've done sense we met is put yourself in unnecessary danger and put your life on the line for no damn reason!" He yelled in return. "You honestly think you're the only one to work hard to become a hunter! I watched my whole village burn to the ground in front of my eyes. I was forced to learn how to survive in the wild! The only reason I'm alive today is because a hunter found me and took me under his wing."
"WILL YOU PLEASE STOP ARGUING!" Mia shrieked. When Amber and Rod turned to see the red themed girl, they saw her desperately holding back tears.
"Mia are you okay?" Amber asked concerned.
"I-I-I just don't like it when you guys argue…okay." She stammered out.
"You never cry." Bella started. "What's the matter."
"I-I… It's just… I uh." Mia stumbled over her words unsure what to say. "It's about my parents okay…" She crossed her arms and turned away facing the exit of the tent.
"They're actor's, right? What did they do?" Amber asked walking over to her friend.
"It's personal." Mia mumbled.
Amber placed her hand on Mia's shoulder, making the red themed girl look up meeting Amber's silver eyes. "So was my sister's death, but I told you guys because no matter how much some people piss me off." She put a small amount of edge in her voice as she finished her sentence. "I trust you guys."
Mia took a long deep breath. "It's a bit of a long story, but I'll try my best." She started. "My parents didn't have a happy marriage. At all. They were forced to get married by their family's for popularity and money reasons. They would yell and argue all the time about the littlest of things."
"They seemed rather loving in interviews." Bella interrupted small beads of sweat forming on her forehead from using her semblance for so long.
"They're actors… it's what they do. Pretend." Her voice was somewhat monotone but the sadness she was holding back bleed through on occasion. "One day my mom had an affair with some guy and nine months later I was born." Mia took another deep breath. "My dad was obviously pissed and hated my mom for the affair and me because I simply existed."
Amber mumbled a curse under her breath. "I tried everything I could to try and make him even the least bit proud of me, but I kept messing up and for every mistake I made he beat the hell out of me."
"That son of a…" Amber muttered to herself, seething with anger that her friend had to grow up with someone like that.
"One day while I was watching TV." Mia continued. "I saw a documentary on Team RWBY and their life stories. I was completely awe struck and that's when I decided that I wanted to be a huntress. Something deep inside me awakened after I saw that documentary." A smile pulled at Mia's lips as she remembered the moment. "So, I transferred schools, applied to Beacon, and… well, here I am." She quipped.
By this point the tears leaking out of Mia's eyes had turned from tears of sorrow to tears of joy. "I honestly see you guys as my new family, so I hate it when you two fight all the time."
Amber chuckled a little, her own tears doing the same. "Well from now on when me and Rod have an argument, we'll be sure to go to the other room." She half joked. Mia snorted and hugged the teams leader tightly.
Bella suddenly fell back onto the bottom right bunk. "You okay?" Amber asked kneeling in front of her.
"I'm fine. I'm just not used to using my semblance for this long." She explained.
"Oh, well you can cancel the field now." Amber said lightly. Bella sighed in relief as she disabled her semblance her sky-blue aura flaring across her skin.
"Well, this has been an emotionally exhausting night." Rod stated with a sigh.
"You can say that again." Amber agreed with a similar tone.
"We got a big day tomorrow; we need to get some sleep." Rod continued. Everyone else in the tent nodded and they all tucked into their covers fading off into sleep.
The black void stretched as far as Amber could see in all directions. When she looked down she saw the floor was made of a thin grey fog. She was taken aback when the grey fog suddenly changed to blood red, and an intense pain shot up through her right shoulder and shook through the rest of her body.
She shrieked as loud as her lungs would allow at the sudden, unbearable pain. She was forced to her knees as the pain increased. Her other had reached over to grab her arm, only to grab at nothing. She looked over to see the fresh bloody stump that was once where her arm connected to her torso, the blood flowing and squirting out of the fresh wound.
The child like giggles turned her attention forward seeing the small girl with a large, toothy, sinister smile painted across her face. Her eyes were shadowed out by the bright pillars of light shooting out of the ground. Each pillar was a different color, and they were arranged in a neat tight semi-circle.
The girl leaned in close to Amber and stated giggly, "I. Win."
Another intense pain shot through Amber's stomach.
Amber shot up from her bed drenched in a thick coat of sweat, clutching her right arm. She looked down at her arm to confirm that it was still attached to her body. "What the hell was that." She mumbled to herself the dream still sharp in her memory.
Before she could retreat into her thoughts her commander walked through the flap I the tent with a whistle around her neck. 'Not again.' Amber thought to herself remembering the morning before the entrance exam.
"Commander?" She blurted out hoping to stop her from blowing into the silver whistle.
"Oh, Amber." She said mildly surprised, "Your awake, good. Wake up your team. We leave for the site in half an hour. Meet me and Regal by the airship landing site." She explained. Amber nodded in response hoping out of the bed her legs a little weak from her nightmare that refused to leave her mind.
She did as she was told and woke up her teammates quickly instructing them to get ready for the mission. The team scrambled to prepare making good time to the spot they arrived from yesterday.
"Good your all here." Coco said happily. Next to her was the Mistral Commander Raymond Regal, his team; Team TUNE, standing in front of him. Behind the commanders was several jeeps with just enough seats to fit a whole team. There were teams of Vale and Mistral soldiers loading into the jeeps and driving off down a dirt path into the woods.
Barry and Jim were standing next to each other having a conversation, but Barry seemed more interested in the peanut butter chocolate bar he was eating then Jim's rant about how geese evolved from dinosaurs. The final two members of the team being Mathias and Greggory were just listening in on the conversation happening next to them.
Mathias was tall nearly six foot seven with large bull horns growing out of his temples. He was dark brown hair and tanned skin. He wore a brown leather jacket over a white t-shirt. He had an incredibly muscular build that only came from intense strength training. He had two golden brass knuckles strapped around his belt.
Greggory was a little shorter than Jim and had a dark complexion. He had a blue jean jacket on and a black under shirt with a skull design on it. He was rather slim with no weapon visible on his body.
"Everyone in the jeeps." Regal ordered. "We will be heading out to the area around the village that the mutated Beringel was spotted. Scout teams have tracked it to a small clearing east of the village." He explained. Everyone nodded and got in the back of the cars, and soon they were off.
"You guys excited!" Mia shouted over the roaring engine.
"Hell yeah!" Amber replied.
"Of course!" Bella shouted.
"This is what we've been training for." Rod yelled.
They remained silent for the rest of the ride and after a while the parked in the middle of the trail. Coco got out of the jeep and pointed off the right of the car, "It was last spotted in that direction." She explained grabbing her weapon that resembled a duffle bag, slinging it around her shoulder. "We still got a lot of walking to do. Amber sense you can teleport I want you ahead of the rest of us. Understood?"
"Yes ma'am." Coco flicked Amber's forehead.
"What was that?" She asked threateningly.
"Yes Commander Adel." Amber corrected rubbing her forehead.
"Better. Now go, I want you at least a fourth of a mile ahead of us."
"Understood." With that Amber disappeared in a cloud of white rose petals.
After a long time of trekking through the dense woods a loud bang rung through the woods disturbing the birds. "That was a gun shot." Bella stated after a moment.
"How far?" Commander Regal ordered.
"About four hundred meters." She responded.
"That's were Amber is." Mia yelled.
Coco took in what was just said and looked back at the groups of soldiers behind them, "We're closing in on the target, stay sharp!" She yelled and took off running in the direction of the gun shot.
Another louder bang shook the forest with a mighty shockwave. Coco didn't need Bella to confirm the sound with her super hearing. The source of the shockwave was a dust powered grenade.
They saw the tree's break into a clearing a few meters ahead of them, and a white figure leaning against a tree waiting for them. The troops ran right past Amber and into the clearing raising their rifles at the mutated Grimm.
"There's no point in trying to shoot it. It won't fight back." Amber shouted over nonchalantly.
"What do you mean?" Coco asked holding on tightly to her weapon. She eyed the large gorilla like creature closely. It stood a foot taller than the average gorilla and had armor plates covering its body. The strange part that marked it as a mutant was its discoloration. The black fur had turned snow white, and the alabaster plates turned pitch black. It was sitting down picking ice chards out of its black armor.
"I've stabbed it, slashed at it, shot it, I even through an ice grenade at it, but it refuses to attack me." The young huntress explained.
The soldiers surrounding the Grimm looked at each other in confusion. "Shoot it. See what happens." Amber suggested.
"Sure, why not." Coco muttered to herself drawing her sidearm and aiming at the large white ape. She fired a single round into the beasts right leg with laser accuracy. The Grimm roared in pain but did not stand up in retaliation. Coco fired another bullet into the monster's leg and another roar shook the ground they stood on.
As she lowered her gun another louder howl echoed from farther into the forest. Everyone's attention was focused on the direction the thundering howl originated from. A low red fog settled over the ground on the north-eastern part of the clearing. "RED WOLF!" A soldier shouted right before the enormous red and grey Beowolf jumped out of the clearing biting down on the man separating his torso from his waist.
Coco wiped around to Team AMBR, who had taken up battle positions, and pulled out four color coded metal plates that had a slight curve. "Put these over your mouths!" She ordered clearly panicked.
They each grabbed the plates with their color and placed them over their mouths. Instantly the plates extended around the back of their heads and over their noses creating an airtight seal. "Those can let you breath in the red fog for a while, when you hear it buzz you have to leave." She explained earing a nod from each of the teens.
The white Beringel stood up on its hind legs and started beating it's chest with a loud roar that the red Beowolf returned tenfold. The large ape, that looked tiny compared to the wolf, leaped forwards landing a powerful right hook to the wolf's jaw. This was quickly followed by an equally powerful uppercut, The ape jumped up and hit the Red Wolf with a devastating double hammer punch. The white Grimm stood on the Beowolf's neck and grabbed it by the jaw pulling it open farther than it should. The armor surrounding the wolf's jaw began to crack and shatter under the pressure of the muscles being hyperextended.
The black plated Beringel roared in preconceived victory when the grey plated Beowolf released a large cloud of the crimson fog. In an instant the Beringel's grip loosened and the Beowolf through the ape off it. The Beringel rolled to a stop and the Beowolf leaped over to the dying Grimm using it's razor-sharp claws to cleave it's torso from its legs. The disabled gorilla didn't have a chance to fight back before the large wolf looming over it reached down and bit it's head off with a sickening crunch.
The wolf wasted no time celebrating its kill and turned its attention to the soldiers aiming their guns at the beast. It roared at the troops and in response they opened fire on the beast. It charged forward but was met by a flash bang courtesy of the leader of Team AMBR.
The stunned beast stumbled backwards. Barry shouted an order at Mathias and the tall bull faunas charged forward at the mutated Grimm. He slide under its belly and wit hall of his strength began to try and lift the Grimm in the air. His aura flared across his body, and he suddenly grew nearly a foot in height and his already large muscles expanded to an enormous size allowing him to lift the Grimm with relative ease.
Mia getting an Idea switched the active dust in her gauntlets from fire to gravity and ran to the edge of the clearing. "OVER HERE!" She shouted waving her arms in the air. Mathias getting her signal repositioned his body and threw the Grimm at Mia.
Mia clutched a piece of crystalized fire dust in her hand and crushed it creating a fiery ball around her hand. She used her semblance to create a large mirror in front of her and as the flying Grimm got just out of punching distance she punched the mirror shattering it and infusing it with both gravity and fire dust creating an enormous explosion, the shockwave of which sent the red Beowolf flying into the air.
The Beowolf's path was interrupted by a low hanging tree branch that impaled the beast through the back and came out through its belly. It howled in pain disturbing the entire forest and gaining the attention of the village miles away.
"Now what?" Amber asked no one in particular.
"This." Her commander responded by taking her bag and activating it's weapon form. The bag quickly unfolded into a large canon that she mounted on her shoulder. She took aim and fired a dust power rocket propelled grenade up at the impaled Grimm.
When the rocket made contact a large explosion engulfed the Beowolf and the portion of the tree it was stuck to. The tree collapsed and fell backwards into the forest colliding with another tree stopping its fall. The body of the Red Wolf fell from the branch and landed on the ground below slowly fading into the smoke that emanated from its body.
Coco stood slowly and refolded her weapon, "We have a fuck ton of paperwork to do now." She mumbled to herself.
Mia rushed over to her team and started shouting excitedly, "Did you SEE that! I punched that thing into a TREE!"
"Way to knock it out of the park Mia!" Amber congratulated while giving the brawler a high five.
"That was incredible!" Bella said awe struck.
Their celebration was cut short by their commander, "You can celebrate when you get back to Beacon, in the meantime, I'm taking you guys to HQ for debriefing." She explained pointing them towards the path they originally came down, silently ordering them to head back to the jeep.
"Yes Ma- uh, Commander." Amber quickly corrected. Coco smiled lightly at her slip up and walked past the team leading the way back.
"What about the Grimm, shouldn't we take some pictures or samples or something?" Mia questioned.
"That's the grunt's job, not ours." Coco responded. Mia shrugged content with the answer.
They were taken back to the camp and loaded onto an airship that took them to a large building in central Vale with a helipad on the roof. The building was nearly thirty stories tall and at a passing glance looked like an ordinary office building.
The team was taken to the twenty-eighth floor and was separately interviewed about what had happened while on the hunting trip. After hours of interviews held by grizzled, tired, looking men they were sent back to the lobby to meet back up with their commander and head back to Beacon.
The lobby was a mostly empty room filled with chairs and two front desks checking people into complex. Upon scanning the room Amber noticed that Coco was nowhere to be found. A little confused, she walked over to the front desk lady, "Did Commander Adel leave? We're supposed to meet her here." She explained.
"Yes, the Commander said she was going to the memorial room. It's the room with the glass door at the end of the hallway." The receptionist explained with a polite smile.
Amber thanked her and walked back over to her team quickly explaining what she was told and leaving to find their superior officer. She walked down the hall pointed out by the receptionist and at the end was a glass door that led to a long thin room with the back wall being made off a glossy black stone with white etching carved into it.
As Amber took a closer look she saw the etchings were in fact names. The wall was covered in people's names. Amber looked down at her feet and saw that flowers had been placed along the walls edge.
Looking up Amber quickly noticed her commander at the far end of the room starring at a name on the wall. She slowly walked over to the women and cleared her throat to gain her attention.
"Oh, Amber. I guess you're done with your interviews." Coco stated still pulling herself out of her thoughts.
"What is this room?" Amber questioned.
"It's a list." Coco started. "Of everyone that died fighting when the Omega Grimm first appeared." She explained.
Amber took another look at the long wall in awe at the number of names that had been carved into the stone. Coco cleared her throat regaining Amber's focus, "Come on. Let's get you back to Beacon. She walked past Amber and headed for the entrance.
Amber took a second to sneak a peek at the name her commander was looking at reading 'Velvet Scarlatina- Adel'. Swallowing the feeling that she felt after reading that name Amber quickly followed Coco out the door.
Next Chapter; The Grotto
Hey there it's me again, how long has it been? Almost a month again? I swear this isn't supposed to be so infrequent but it somehow just turns out that way.
So fun fact, Team TUNE was made by my best friend who reads this story. Hey. If they seem a little weird it's because they weren't made to be in the RWBY universe. They're from a comic book cartoon. Seriously. Barry T. Border was originally Barry The Border Collie, Jim was an interdimensional news anchor, Mathias was a bull named Mathew (I changed his name to make it sound better in RWBY context.), and Greggory was Greg the ghost, who just so happens to sing.
I was going to have this huge fight scene where you got to see their powers better, but this chapter is already late so I shortened it significantly. So if your interested here's what I had planned. Barry uses a large hammer as a weapon as reference to his weapon from the comic, and his semblance allows him to turn his body into rubber as reference to old-school 'rubber-hose' style cartoons. I was going have have him be flattened and he just pops up fine, but like I said I had to cut it. Jim can see everyone's actions 30 seconds into the future as reference to his news anchor origins, he also uses an incendiary shotgun that turns into an arming sword, cause why not. Greggory uses two knifes her keeps in his pockets and can turn intangible sense Greg was a ghost in the comic. Mathias you got to see, he can increase his strength and uses brass knuckles. Another fun fact, the interactions Barry and Jim have are based off of the conversations me and my friend have. At least that's what he said.
I finally revealed Amber's backstory. I was going to do it back in chapter three but I held back and this felt like an okay spot to put it out there. And as for Mia's backstory well... when I wrote these characters I gave ALL of them a terrible childhood or tragic backstory. Don't worry, Bella is still damaged, I just don't know when is a good spot to reveal it is all. They all have a demon I built their personality's around, Amber's is death, Mia's is abuse, and Rod is survival.
I have some absolutely GIGANTIC plans coming down the pipe line for this story, the reference to Gods in the summery isn't a lie let me tell you. I always wanted this story to have a dark tone to it and that dark tone is starting to show through now, and it's only going to get darker and darker from here onward. I hope you all stick around for the rest.
Farewell for now.