Hello, readers. WaterDragonMaverick here with the 48th chapter of my RWBY Original Character fic, "Sideline: Another Story". When we last left off, the gang did some investigating on Mercury Black after they wondered why he chose not to stick around in Vale. After speaking to students from Haven that didn't have a clue, Smoke Shadow provided some information on Mercury's father, Marcus Black. With more questions than answers, the gang decides to enjoy the rest of the tournament before Pinkie's Semblance warns her of something bad that's going to happen. It ends up being true when Pyrrha is tricked into killing Penny and Cinder's speech instigates more negative emotions among the people. With the Fall of Beacon starting, Fragment Hunter decides to do what they signed up for and help out however they can.
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)
The only things I own are my own Original Characters
The Vytal Festival fairgrounds were in chaos after the match between Pyrrha and Penny ended in disaster. Hordes of Grimm were attacking everyone in a panic, Atlesian Knight robots were defending people, and the members of Fragment Hunter could only look on in horror at everything happening. "Oh my god," Vixen said as she looked at the damage being dealt with wide eyes.
"How did it all come to this," Celadon asked before her Scroll started to ring. "Hello?"
"Celadon, we need a headcount. Who else is with you," Rebecca said as she asked about the locations of Fragment Hunter's members.
Looking at the others, Celadon reported who she was with to her teammate. "Vixen, Silver, Layla, and Vinyl are with me," Celadon told Rebecca.
"Me, Cereza, and Lapis are still at the dorms, but Rua went off to get the others at Amity Colosseum. The White Fang are releasing Grimm into the school," Rebecca informed.
"The White Fang is here," Silver asked as he grabbed Celadon's Scroll. "Why would they even do this?!"
"I don't know, but we have a job to do," Cereza said over Rebecca's Scroll. "We'll contact the others and meet back up at the courtyard."
As Celadon took back her Scroll and hung up, a few cries for help caught everyone's attention. Seeing Creeps, Beowolves, and even and Ursa cornering some bystanders, Layla looked around before noticing a stall that sold rugs. "I have an idea," Layla said to her friends as she held out her hands. Focusing her Semblance on the carpets, she sent several of them into the faces of the Grimm in order to distract them while the others killed the monsters. When the Creatures of Grimm were slain, Layla continued to use her Semblance on a large carpet in order to evacuate the civilians. "We'll get you to safety," Layla told them as she jumped onto the carpet with Celadon and Vinyl. Making the carpet fly, Layla managed to rescue several more people with Celadon and Vinyl blasting any Grimm that flew too close to them.
Back at the locker room in Beacon Academy, Sunset and Rua teleported everyone in so that they could retrieve their equipment. "Come on, we need to get our stuff and find the others," Sunset instructed as she got her sword.
As Terracotta, Ventus, and the Celeste Sisters got their weapons, the Bull Faunus handed his wife something from the locker he opened. "You'll need this, Ivy," Terracotta said as he gave his wife a dagger to defend herself with. As Ivy secured the dagger and its sheath, everyone heard barking from a familiar dog. "Dante, here," Terracotta said with a commanding voice. When he did, Dante arrived with Diana and Drei next to him before all three stood at attention in front of the Holsteins. "Defend," Terracotta instructed in a booming voice and the dogs nodded.
"Looks like with everything going on, we'll need all the help we can get," Slate remarked as he grabbed his twin revolvers, 'Desperado'.
"Yeah. With things this bad, that's a given," Rua agreed as she placed her shield on her back. Soon, everyone watched as multiple lockers rocketed off. "And we're not the only ones to go fight."
As everyone made sure they had their weapons, Azalea's thoughts returned to Penny and Pyrrha. "I'm going back to the battlefield, even if I have to fly up there," Azalea adamantly said as she made sure she had enough Wind Dust.
"Who says we're stopping you," Sunset voiced as she turned to her friend with her pet gecko on her shoulder. "Come on, we're going back up."
"I'll tell the others what we're doing," Slate said as he pulled out his Scroll to contact the rest of Fragment Hunter, ended up getting a call from Cereza and several other friends. "Guys, we're heading back to Amity Colosseum to help people out there," he said as he answered the call.
"Okay, meet us at the courtyard when you finish up there," Cereza replied before hanging up.
Putting away his Scroll, Slate turned to the others just in time for Rua to teleport the group back to the arena.
When they reached Amity Colosseum once more, Sunset and Azalea looked at the battlefield to see that Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck were fighting a horde of Griffons that made their way into the arena. "The barrier must have been broken by that Nevermore," Pinkie guessed.
As the two teachers fought the Grimm, Sunset was ready to snipe the closest Griffon when she sensed something. Focusing with her Semblance, Sunset noticed that there were still a few people in the stadium stands. Several of them were scared and the Grimm were able to sense it as well. Seeing one of the Griffons flying off to a hiding girl that got separated from her family, Sunset aimed her weapon's sniper rifle form at the Grimm and fired. The bullet flew toward the Griffon and nailed it in the throat, drawing its attention to Sunset and the members of Fragment Hunter. Before it could attack them, Rua teleported onto the Griffon's back and slashing at the wound to decapitate the Grimm. As it died, Azalea and Ivy approached the girl to calm her down. "It's okay, follow me," Ivy said as she helped the girl get to safety while Azalea and Pinkie helped the other hiding civilians.
When more Griffons attacked Rua, Dante's eyes flashed green and a barrier formed around Rua. The dog soon created platforms and got above the Grimm before creating an axe-like barrier around his tail and flipped in the air to slam the 'weapon' into the monster's face. When the creature hit the ground, Professor Port rushed over and slammed his own weapon's axe blade into the monster to finish it off. With the teacher retrieving his weapon, Terracotta swung his claymore to create a blade of air that cut off one Griffon's wing and made it crash into another few. With the creatures grounded, Nocturne activated her Semblance and used the shadows of the Grimm to impale them while her hair began to shimmer like stars. Continuing her attack, she electrocuted another Griffon with the Lightning Dust in her partisan and held it down for Doctor Oobleck to incinerate the creature with a fireball. "You monsters are no match for the power of a fully trained Huntress," Nocturne declared as she zapped more Griffons.
"Well said, Miss Celeste," agreed Port as he opened fire with his blunderbuss and shot more of the Griffons. With the monsters paying attention to him, they didn't see Ventus Gaia rushing past them and slashing their wings off. As the Griffons fell, Ventus and Slate shot at them with their guns and killed the Grimm before they hit the ground. More Griffons roared as they charged toward Ventus, but the Falcon Faunus flew around the battlefield until he approached Aurora Celeste. As Ventus pulled up, Aurora fired a ray of light using her Semblance to pierce through four Grimm at once and killed them in an instant.
"A wonderous maneuver, sister," Nocturne congratulated as she avoided a few slashes from a Griffon's claws. Dodging another swipe, Nocturne thrust her partisan into the Grimm and electrocuted it. When it evaporated upon death, Nocturne took count of the remaining Griffons and saw that there was only five more. "This is the final stretch, my fellow combatants," Nocturne announced. "We'll soon rid the arena of the Grimm."
"Excellent. We've already defeated twice as many before you came to help us," Oobleck said as he used his weapon to strike another monster with a burning swing. As the monster's feathers ignited, Port swung the axe blade of his blunderbuss into the side of the burning Grimm to kill it.
Arriving from the exit tunnels, Ivy shouted to the fighters about the status of the civilians they rescued. "That was the last person in the stands! We should be safe here when you're done," she called out with Diana by her side.
"Good," Terracotta said as he looked at Drei and held out his open hand. The corgi jumped into the Huntsman's arms and Terracotta threw the dog toward the closest Griffon. When he got close, Drei bit down on the throat of the monster and spun around thanks to Terracotta's throw. While still holding onto the Griffon's neck with his jaws, Drei managed to snap the Grimm's neck and landed into Azalea's open arms.
With a stomp of her foot, Azalea ejected one of her batons from her greave and changed the setting for Ice Dust. Looking at the corgi in her arms, the dog barked once before Azalea tossed the animal into the air and kicked him toward another Griffon. With his Aura protecting him, Drei was coated in enough ice to change him into a spiked ball that impaled the Griffon it hit. Pinkie soon followed through with the attack by grabbing the frozen dog with her yo-yo and swung the ice ball around to strike at one more. As the Grimm was injured, it turned its attention to Pinkie and charged at her. The Grimm wasn't expecting Pinkie to leap onto its back and wrap the string of her yo-yo around its neck. With one swift motion, Pinkie managed to cut off the Griffon's head and use her yo-yo to grab onto the final Grimm. Pulling it down, the Griffon was left wide open to Port and Oobleck striking it at the same time.
"That was a tough battle," Port remarked as he caught his breath. "Are all of you alright," the professor asked as he turned to the members of Fragment Hunter.
"We're okay, Professor," Slate said before he noticed Azalea approaching something. Seeing what it was, everyone had faces of sorrow as Azalea approached the remains of Penny Polendina. Slate approached his girlfriend and teammate alongside Sunset as Azalea fell to her knees and placed her hands on Penny's face.
"We were friends. She was my friend. She was Ruby's friend. I don't care if she was a robot," Azalea said as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Robot or not, I felt her soul. Her emotions. She was a real person to me," Sunset stated as she placed a hand on Azalea's shoulder.
"You said that she looked enough like me to resemble a cousin," Azalea remarked as she remembered the first time she and Sunset met Penny. "She would have fit in back home at Mirabelle. We could have shared a room together." Azalea felt the tears falling from her face as her friends and family tried to comfort her. Smiling at all the support she was receiving, Azalea closed Penny's lifeless eyes and removed the ribbon from her hair. After tying it around her arm, Azalea collected three of Penny's swords and turned to Penny's remains. "When this is all over and I go home, I'm giving you a proper funeral and put these up as a memorial. I feel like you aren't completely gone, but this still feels like something that needs to be done," she said. "You're a part of us all, Penny. It's the least I can do."
Everyone listened to Azalea's speech and even began to cry themselves as Azalea stated what she was going to do. "We raised her right," Terracotta said to Ivy as tears fell down his face. Ivy wiped her face and nodded in agreement.
"Okay, let's get back to the others," Rua said as everyone grouped together and prepared to teleport. "Hold on, gang."
The rest of Fragment Hunter was fending off the Grimm, but soon encountered members of the White Fang as well. "Attack," one of the masked Faunus yelled as several soldiers rushed at the group. Silver was quick to retaliate by wrapping them up with his weapon's chain and revving the engine to harm them. As the soldiers were thrown around, Lapis used the Dust in her trident to freeze them solid while the members of Fragment Hunter progressed forward.
"Let's keep moving," Cereza instructed as she led the group. As they passed by some Atlesian Knights that were shooting at some Grimm, the visors and LEDs of the robots turned to a dark crimson before they turned around to open fire on the teenagers. "What the bloody hell has gotten into those things," Cereza questioned as she dodged the bullets and retaliated by activating her Time Mirage Semblance. Striking at the robots while time slowed around her, Cereza took off their heads and kicked the bodies of cybernetic soldiers into nearby Grimm.
When an Ursa saw the robot land at its feet, the bear-like Grimm tore the robot apart before roaring at the members of Fragment Hunter. Before any of them could attack the Grimm, a spike went flying at impaled it in the mouth. As the monster staggered in pain, gunshots were heard and several bullets flew straight into its chest. As the Grimm evaporated upon death, Fragment Hunter turned to see that Team PRDT came to help them out. "Why don't you take us on," shouted Percival Ivory as he extended his natural Faunus claws and attacked the closest Atlesian Knight, ripping its limbs off before headbutting it in the visor to break it.
At the same time, Percival's teammates fired their guns at any weak Grimm that approached them. When more members of the White Fang ran toward the group, a blur zoomed by them and they slipped on a patch of ice. After they picked themselves up, Oren Maxwell slammed his robotic arm's hammer form into them and sent the Faunus flying. "We thought you could use some assistance," Maxwell stated to Fragment Hunter and Team PRDT as Team GLOW appeared before them.
"You thought right," said Rebecca as she threw some shuriken into a Beowolf and killed it. Retrieving her shuriken using her armguards, Rebecca threw more at an Atlesian Knight to electrocute it. As the robot was shocked, Garnet Pepper shot it before turning around to fire at a Griffon that flew in. Taking off the Grimm's head, Garnet ran over to Celadon as she took out several White Fang soldiers with her Semblance. Teaming up, the two fired multiple projectiles at the Atlesian Knights to defeat them while the rest of the group defeated their opponents.
"We need to move. There's plenty of people still trapped on rooftops, soldiers are struggling against all the Grimm, and somebody associated with that woman on the microphone has hacked the Knights," Garnet stated. "Some of them are also piloting new Atlesian Paladins, so it's going to be a challenge to stop them."
"There's nearly 20 of us," Percival reminded. "I'm sure that when Azalea and the rest get here, we can handle them." Just as he said that, everyone from Amity Colosseum appeared in front of them. "See? We can keep fighting now."
"What's the situation," Terracotta asked as he turned to Fragment Hunter and the visiting teams.
"Hacked robots, White Fang soldiers, and a ton of Grimm attacking the school and city," Jennifer Dawn replied.
After hearing the information, Sunset stepped forward and began instructing the large group. "Team GLOW, Pinkie, Cereza, Layla, and Vinyl will focus on rescuing people. You can take them to safety and if you find anybody that was hurt, bring them to Ivy. Team PRDT will help me, Azalea, and Slate with the military so that we can keep the larger Grimm back. Team SLVR, Rebecca, and Celadon will handle the White Fang here at Beacon," Sunset stated.
"What about us," asked another voice and everyone's attention turned to Smoke Shadow in his thieving attire. Standing next to him were Kun Agate (aka Tremor), Veronica Moonstone (aka Rouge), and another person wearing a suit of mechanical body armor. "Pretty sure you can use all the help you can get."
"Aren't you criminals yourselves," Lucy Diamond questioned as she remembered what Fragment Hunter told her before at Bianca Coloratura's concert.
"We're thieves," Smoke said. "This sort of thing is a little too much for a heist we would pull off."
"Exactly," said the person in the armor. "Whoever went through this has been planning it for weeks, maybe even months. And they've obviously had help from another source if they could hack into the CCT for that monologue as well as infecting those Atlesian Knights with a virus."
As the armored person explained what they knew, Garnet looked at the armor suspiciously. "Where did you get this thing," the leader of Team GLOW asked as he saw the details of the armor.
"Atlas Tech body armor. I made it from the remains of a broken Atlesian Paladin that the White Fang had stolen," the person stated. "Apparently, there was some commotion near a nightclub and reports said it was chasing some students down the highway. When we looked into it for ourselves, the mech was broken to pieces."
"That's property of the Atlas Military," Oren Maxwell stated as Team GLOW looked at the criminal.
Opening the visor of their armor, the person inside was revealed to be Oliver Electrum. "You wouldn't hit a guy wearing glasses, would you," he meekly asked as he backed away from the team from Atlas.
"Guys, it doesn't matter at the moment," Azalea said as she separated Team GLOW from Smoke Shadow's gang. "We have a job to do and if they're going to help us, I say we let them," she declared with resolution.
"You've changed a lot from when we first met, Tiny," Tremor remarked with a grin and put his hand on Azalea's head, which prompted Slate to glare at the boxer.
Thinking about what Smoke Shadow's gang could do, Sunset gave them instructions. "You four do what you can. I'm sure you can find some way to help." As Smoke's gang agreed, Sunset turned back to everyone else. "Move out, everyone," Sunset ordered and the group divided to do what they were tasked with while the Huntsmen and Huntresses went their own way.
In the city, Atlas soldiers were having difficulty fighting a Death Stalker as its thick armor was deflecting their gunfire. The scorpion-like Grimm hissed as it attacked with its pincers and knocked a few soldiers back. A few other Grimm approached the downed men and were ready to attack when new gunshots sounded out and took out the unarmored Grimm. The soldiers turned to see that Slate Quartz, Veronica Moonstone, and Sunset Blaze had shot down the Beowolves that approached them. The Death Stalker hissed again before it tried to strike the newcomers with its stinger. After dodging the attack, Tremor used his weapon and Semblance to create a large drill-shaped field around his arm before punching the Grimm in the face. As the drill pierced through the armor, the Death Stalker sounded out a cry of pain before evaporating. "Yeah, take that," Tremor shouted as the large Grimm died and he changed targets to an Ursa that was charging at him.
A few Atlesian Knights came near the group and the soldiers prepared their guns before watching one suddenly lose its arm. After that, two more lost their limbs before several lasers blasted each of the downed robots to finish them off. When the robots were defeated, an invisible Azalea revealed herself with two of Penny's swords in her hands. Soon, a Griffon came flying in and shrugged off the bullets being shot at it by the Atlesian military. Swinging around with a yell, Azalea cut into the Grimm with the swords and gave a new opening for the soldiers to shoot at. With bullets filling the Griffon's wound, the monster soon died and the troop of soldiers moved forward. "Keep pushing them back," one of the soldiers shouted to everyone before an Ursa Major jumped down from a rooftop and slashed at some of the soldiers.
The Grimm roared after killing or injuring the men and started charging toward the closest person, which happened to be Smoke Shadow. The Raccoon Faunus only smirked as he turned to Sunset and pulled out the weapon that he showed her before. "I guess this is a good time to show you what I was talking about, Firefly," Smoke remarked just as the Ursa Major got near him. Using his Semblance to avoid getting hit, the Grimm was confused about what happened while Smoke quickly dialed a combination into his gun. "Let's go with Fire Dust to start," Smoke said to Sunset as he entered the combination and fired the gun at the Grimm. As he pulled the trigger, an explosive fireball shot out from the barrel and incinerated the Grimm in one shot. Sunset, Azalea, and Slate were amazed by the power Smoke Shadow's Phantom Magnum as the thief then fired more shots at some approaching Nevermore Grimm. "Impressive, right?"
"I'll say," Slate voiced.
"Just keep it up," Sunset told the tailed Faunus.
Flying past the group, Oliver Electrum was shooting down Beowolves and Creeps from the air using lasers and small missiles. Each attack was effective and helped take out the remaining Grimm in the area, which Oliver noticed thanks to a display in his helmet's visor. "Okay, this place is clear. We should move onto somewhere else," Oliver told the group.
"Got it, little buddy," Tremor said as he gave a thumbs-up and the fighters moved on.
Civilians who were fleeing the chaos were trying to get attention from anybody as they stood on the rooftops and some Grimm began to climb the side of the building they were on. Luckily for some of them, Layla Carbuncle and Vinyl Aurum were able to make their way over. "Get on," Layla said as she used her Semblance to make a large rug fly at her command. As the bystanders got on the carpet, Vinyl blasted any Grimm that got too close while Team GLOW worked with Cereza and Pinkie to deal with Grimm attacking civilians on the ground. After evacuating the people to a safe area, Layla groaned as she held her head. "There's just too many," Layla bemoaned as the carpet she was on started to fall. Acting fast, Vinyl created a hard light platform for the two to stand on. "I can't keep up with everything," Layla said.
"We have to keep at it," Vinyl said as Lucy Diamond and Pinkie swung by using their weapons and saved a few more people from the rooftops. Moving her sunglasses to show her eyes, Vinyl looked at Layla. "We signed up for this job, so we have to do it," she stated.
Layla only smiled as she looked back at Vinyl and the two headed off for another area. Making their way to an area that had people trapped by hacked Atlesian Knights and more Grimm. Jumping down to attack, the two girls slashed at their enemies with their blades and managed to deal with the Atlesian Knights before things took a turn for the worse. After focusing on rescuing so many people, Layla's Semblance had drained her Aura and a Boarbatusk was able to break her Aura by tackling into her. Vinyl tried to defend Layla by using her hard light disks as shields, but she couldn't stop every attack and kill the Grimm. While she took damage, Vinyl was able to defeat the monsters and created another platform for her and Layla to ride on. "Thanks, Vinyl," Layla said as she held her aching head.
As the two made their way back to Beacon Academy, they were bruised and beaten down from everything they were doing before. Thinking it was safe to catch their breath and wait for their Auras to recharge, Vinyl was proven wrong when they saw a large number of White Fang members surrounding them after a few seconds. Counting nearly 30 armed Faunus soldiers, Vinyl was ready to defend the two of them when her Rhythm Scratch failed on her. "Crap," Vinyl said as she saw the White Fang getting ready to fire.
"You humans are going to die here," said one of the soldiers. "Any last words?"
Layla and Vinyl only glared at them in defiance before the group prepared to fire their guns at them. Just as the soldiers were pulling the triggers, a new male voice sounded out as the bullets began to fire. "Connect." With a single word, a glyph with an emblem that looked like a naginata passing through an oval-shaped portal appeared and a cloud of smoke filled the area. After opening fire at the smoke cloud, the White Fang waited to see if their targets survived. When the air cleared, the soldiers and the two Huntresses-in-training were surprised to see the latter unharmed while somebody stood in front of them with a shield. "You two okay," the newcomer asked as he looked back at Vinyl and Layla. They only nodded and Vinyl seemed to smile as if she recognized the man in front of her.
The White Fang members looked at the man to see that he was toned and muscular, stood at 6'2", and was wearing a suit of samurai armor. The armor consisted of a bodysuit with a belt, a helmet that covered his face, a chestplate, a set of guards on his shoulders and shins, and a pair of boots. With another glyph appearing on the shield he carried, the man made the item vanish as he looked at the White Fang. "Who the hell are you," a Faunus with tusks asked as they glared at the samurai.
"I don't exactly have to say my name to somebody I'm going to beat," the samurai said as he held out his hands. "Connect." When he said that word again, a pair of swords appeared in his open hands. The first was a simple blade, but the other was a katana that had a pistol built into the handle. The White Fang with swords and axes charged at the man, only to have their attacks blocked and get kicked away. With a swing of his swords, he knocked several Faunus aside and shot at some of them with the gun in his katana. Placing the handles of his weapons together, the samurai formed the swords into a naginata and ran toward the soldiers. With swings of his new weapon, the masked fight was able to easily defeat several of the Faunus extremists. Turning to see some of the soldiers heading for Vinyl and Layla, the man held out his hand and created a glyph just before the Faunus could attack the girls. Instead of hitting one of them, a second glyph appeared and the White Fang member ended up appearing near the samurai. While the soldier was confused, they were grabbed and thrown into the portal again to crash into the second Faunus.
While the members of the White Fang were questioning what was happening, the samurai made a new glyph in front of him and reaching inside it to pull out a flail. Twirling the weapon around, he hit several soldiers in order to group them up and wrapped the flail's chain around them. As the Faunus were all tied up, Vinyl saw her chance and used her Semblance to attack all of the White Fang members. With a large energy blast knocking the Faunus out cold, the samurai turned to Vinyl as Layla stood back up. "You've definitely gotten better since we last met, Vinyl," the man said as he began to remove his helmet. When he did, his face was revealed have a light complexion, he had short golden blond hair with silver highlights, and the same cerise-colored eyes as Vinyl.
"Hey, Gin. Nice to see you, big brother," Vinyl greeted.
In another area of Beacon Academy, Team SLVR was fighting the White Fang alongside Rebecca and Celadon. The six were able to fight through many soldiers as well as rouge Atlesian Knights as they made their way through the campus. "Just how many of these guys are there," Vixen asked as she used her fans to deflect bullets fired at her before Celadon used her spear's whip form to knock away several White Fang members. Focusing her Semblance, Celadon fired gemstone-like projectiles at the Atlesian Knights that were about to attack Silver and Lapis from behind. As the teenagers pressed on, they saw that several walls were broken and the school was being ruined by the battle.
"This is madness," Celadon remarked as she stepped inside the school from a broken wall. "Why would anybody want to attack the school?"
"If the White Fang are involved, then it means that some members have gone too far off the deep end," Silver stated with bared teeth. "Sienna Khan first encouraged violence when necessary, but some members have taken the wrong way. Those Faunus will strike down anybody they think will stand in their way, even peaceful members of the White Fang."
"I know this is a sensitive subject for you, Silver. Right now, we have to deal with them," Rebecca said.
Silver growled before he took a deep breath and calmed down. After he did, his Scroll began to ring and he checked who it was. "Bianca? She must be worried about us," Silver said before he answered the call. "Bianca. Are you alright? Where are you?"
"I was watching the finals in my hotel room when that th-thing happened, then I heard that woman's speech. I would come over and help all of you guys, but I think this is way bigger than that breach from before," Bianca told the Wolf Faunus. "I'm seeing ships getting shot out of the sky and a ton of Grimm coming from the southeast. Silver... I'm scared," the Dove Faunus added.
Silver listened to the singer and could tell from her voice that she was afraid. "Me, Azalea, and the rest of us will come back alive. I promise," Silver reassured. "Just stay where you are and be safe. Try calling Azalea now and tell her how you're doing."
Bianca smiled as she heard Silver keep his word. "Thanks, Silver. You be safe, too."
Ending the call between the two, Silver put away his Scroll just as the ground started to rumble. "What's happening now," the Wolf Faunus asked.
The rumbling soon stopped and a roar was heard approaching the city. Everyone looked off in the distance and saw a titanic dragon-like Grimm flying toward Vale. "Oh, that's not good," Vixen remarked.
"You think," shouted Rua. "That thing's massive! I don't think any of us could take it down by ourselves!"
"Can things get any worse," Silver asked rhetorically. As if the universe heard him, shouts of pain were heard nearby and the six teenagers made their way toward the source. When they saw a ruined lecture hall, Silver's eyes widened in recognition before he glared in anger at who he noticed. "You," he said with a voice filled with venom.
The teenagers watched a wolf-eared Faunus throwing trapped students from Mistral and Atlas aside like a pair of ragdolls before he turned to look at them. The Faunus was 6'5" with a large muscular build, black hair that was styled in a look Vixen and Celadon recognized as an old 'warrior's wolf tail', and wore a Grimm Mask that had red markings that resembled bared fangs. He was also wearing a short-sleeved black shirt, a pair of black gloves, black boots with gray soles, and a pair of black pants with a few straps on the right leg. On his back, the Wolf Faunus had a plate that held a serrated sword that looked like it could be loaded with Dust in an opening. The White Fang officer looked at Silver and growled at the younger Faunus when he recognized him. "The traitor returns," he voiced. "Is that arm still hurting from when I slashed it?"
Rua remembered what Silver said about his past and the scar on his shoulder before she turned to her team leader. "Is this the guy that killed your parents," Rua asked.
Silver nodded as he kept his sight on the Wolf Faunus in front of him. "Yeah, he's the one responsible for their deaths," Silver answered. "Sable Eisenbrand."
I think this is a good point to end the chapter. We've got a lot happening for the characters while they deal with the Fall of Beacon. Let's see how they do in the next few chapters, but I'll say a few things about this chapter for now. First up, I thought that Layla using carpets with her Telekinesis Semblance to help save people would have been super fitting with her inspiration being genies, so flying carpets also make you think of those stories.
Second, the scene at Amity Colosseum after helping Port and Oobleck. Penny's one of my favorites and her death in the show was harsh for everyone. When writing Azalea's speech to her remains, I actually teared up myself. I wanted Azalea to use Penny's swords just like Ruby did, so I had her take them with the intention of putting up a memorial to the robot girl as she said in the scene. The ribbon around her arm was inspired by Final Fantasy 7, where the main characters all wear a ribbon in memory of Aerith. I'm considering having Azalea get a new one of her own after her plans, so what do you all think? Should Azalea keep the ribbon as part of her post-Volume 3 outfit?
Third, Smoke Shadow's gang appearing and their new equipment. Oliver Electrum's armor is inspired by Iron Man and was hinted at during the concert chapter if you were paying attention. I thought that he needed to get involved in the action a little more because of who I based the male members of the thieves on. As for the Phantom Magnum that I mentioned in this chapter and the previous one, look up the Lupin Magnum's gun mode from "Lupinranger VS Patranger" and change the color to something you all think could work.
Fourth, we are now introduced to Gin Aurum, Vinyl's older brother that was actually hinted at back in the first chapter of this story. He was also the one watching the match against Sun and Neptune. For his battle scene, listen to "Just Live More" or "Raise Up Your Flag" from Kamen Rider Gaim (as the main character is my inspiration for him)
Finally, we have an antagonist that I've been planning for a little while, Sable Eisenbrand. For those of you wondering, he's Silver's own personal "Adam Taurus". The one responsible for him leaving the White Fang and a dangerous enemy that has significant authority in the terrorist group. While Adam has the chainsaw-wielding Lieutenant, Sable is more along the rank of a Captain. The reason why I went with that rank, I got inspired by something that I will elaborate on the next chapter, "Thrown to the Wolves".
With all my characters handling so many different things, how will they do now that the Wyvern has revealed itself? How will Silver and company do against Sable? What will happen next time? You'll just have to stick around and read the next chapter to find out more.
Review, like, and follow if you enjoyed this chapter! Until next time, WaterDragonMaverick signing out!