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Chapter 122: Until The End
"No….Not here, not this close" Ozymandias choked out as he lay convulsing on the cold hard ground, his failing body having seemingly given in and betrayed him at the final hurdle.
Upon damaging Halo Academies' anti-gravity system the twisted and corrupted Wizard had stalked through the corridors in search of his final destination and the prize he would find therein, his pace being slowed to a torturous crawl and each breath becoming the a gasping, wheezing death-rattle until finally he could go no further and had keeled over with his organs failing and vomiting blood which congealed at an impossibly accelerated rate to leave him sprawled in a grisly pool whilst Flesh-Seeker, which he had dropped as he collapsed began to twitch and shudder slightly as if the living weapon were giving some consideration to turning on him.
"Not this close" Ozymandias repeated, struggling for air as his flesh decayed and rotted as if it had been buried for months in a matter of moments. His remaining eye widened as he realised that his goal was actually in sight, he had reached where Pantheon was being held and the automated weapons systems that had been integrated into the ceiling seemed to taunt him as they hung lifelessly from above almost seemed to taunt him. With a choking, guttural growl the Wizard focused and began drawing every ounce of his remaining power into himself and his body began glow with a harsh and slickly acid green light as he began to heal himself and slowly drag himself to his feet.
The ordeal had changed him yet again, his hair had fallen away in vast clumps and blood so dark as to be almost black dripped from cracked lips with every breath whilst his complexion had became a pallid and rotten shade replete with black veins beneath his skin and clear signs of internal bleeding and ruptured blood vessels plainly visible; most disturbing of all however was his Aura which seemed to hang around him like a noxious fog and at the same time crackle with unknowable energies and both his remaining eye and the empty eye socket on the ravaged half of his face had become twin orbs of acid green light which left glowing contrails in their wake as he moved.
"Much better" he murmured as he reclaimed Flesh-Seeker, the Grimm trident falling still once again. Ozymandias strode purposefully towards the heavy Atlesian steel door which barred his entry and thrust Flesh-Seeker into the point where the two pieces met, using his unnatural strength to pry it open and allow himself a satisfied but twisted smirk as he saw the emitters for a forcefield system that had been disabled by his earlier acts of sabotage; then he stepped into the holding cell and took his first look at Pantheon.
"What have they done to you, my poor child" he cooed sympathetically at the monstrous Grimm; the room was dark, with only Ozymandias's glowing Aura to pierce the gloom and the various computer terminals and devices connected to the container stood lifeless with blank screens and no power whilst the container itself was slowly becoming cloudy, though the scientist could still clearly see the remains of an axle that had been forced through the Grimm's skull.
"This may complicate matters" he noted to himself, realising that even after recovering from such an injury Pantheon would be in a wild and frenzied state for a few moments and would present a danger to anyone around them, thus also to Ozymandias's plan. Making a quick decision he shattered the cylindrical container and sent its' viscous contents spilling across the floor, Pantheon twitched and stirred but remained unconscious as the Wizard leaned close to their monstrous and armoured skull to whisper a command, speaking in a multitude of voices at once as he forced the command into the Grimm's mind.
"Seek me out" with that he deposited Flesh-Seeker on the now soaked ground and turned to leave, the sound of scuttling limbs informing him that the Trident had crawled to Pantheon's prone form and was now slowly beginning to tug the length of metal in their skull free so that they could begin to properly regenerate.
Ozymandias's sense of accomplishment was quickly marred by the feeling of his stomach plummeting as the anti-gravity aerial platform which supported Halo Academy lurched violently in the air, the power to its' propulsion system beginning to wane
"No sense in dallying" he muttered to himself before briskly making his way through the academy, taking the fastest possible route towards the main entrance without using the powers of the Wizard to speed up the process and risking collapsing again before he could escape the doomed campus; he had no doubts that Pantheon would survive but his own frail frame had its' limits after all. Eventually he came to a point that seemed familiar and realised that he was close to the main entrance hall, though before he could proceed any further he was brought to a halt by a bullet ripping through the air a hairs' breadth from his skull and making him flinch reflexively
"Eldritch!" a young mans' voice bellowed "Whatever you're planning, it ends here!"
"How delightfully cliché" Ozymandias retorted with a soft chuckle as Team FADE came into view, each of them looking battle-weary and utterly terrified. The girl who had shot at him struggling to reload her weapon one-handed whilst a sheen of cold sweat coated her entire body, she was soaked in blood and trembling with her left arm reduced to mangled and bloody stump at the shoulder and was clearly only able to stand due to a cocktail of Aura stimulants, beside her stood her partner; the Bear Faunus's clothes were drenched with the snipers' blood and his face was tear-stained and murderous and it seemed to be taking all of his restraint to not charge headlong into combat there and then. Antonia Arc's daughter sported armour that was scratched and dented in a plethora of places and her shield was notable in its' absence whilst the leader of the team sported a mechanical tail that was clearly a recent addition.
"Eagle my girl!" Ozymandias breathed "I do hope your mother didn't take things too hard after I left Atlas, she is a remarkable woman after all….And Felix, it is Felix isn't it? I've heard so much about you from Mister Torchwick"
"You can have the cell next to him" the Lion Faunus snarled "If we bother taking you alive" Ozymandias laughed heartily at the threat
"You have no idea of the things that are work here. This is no ending, rather the beginning of a new age and what I've set in motion here cannot be undone!"
"We'll see" Felix growled simply as he readied Hack and Slash "The Grimm are already being pushed back in the city and you're not gonna make it off of this campus"
"Very well, have it your way" the Wizard sighed, reaching into his coat and withdrawing a weapon that while simple in comparison to those wielded by his adversaries, had served him well the last time he had been forced to resort to it.
A single, bloodstained scalpel.
"Come on, hurry up!" Raffia demanded as he reached out and grasped Carcharodon's forearm and dragged the Shark Faunus through the cloud of poisonous fog that filled the corridor, Onyx and Hellion close behind him covering their mouths whilst the Axolotl Faunus himself had simply relied on his Semblance which undid the effects of the toxin faster than they could take hold and Professor Cimmerian had simply marched relentlessly through her own trap, stating that she had other problems to worry about and gesturing to the gut wound which left a trail of blood in her wake.
"Poison is a cowards' weapon" Carcharodon spat, struggling to get the words out though the coughing fit he was subjected to
"Well all the brave people are outside, dead or dying" Jasper retorted "This way, not much further" the five of them made their way through the narrow and now unlit corridors that lay beneath the academy itself and its' parking lot and seemed to have no end; the darkness was no obstacle to Team GORE and Jasper was using her Scroll as a torch, though in her injured state the Professor still found herself slowing the students down
"Wait here" she breathed out, taking a few steps ahead of the Faunus and opening a hidden compartment in the wall, which she reached into a produced a remote control
"Projectile launchers ahead, a couple more steps and you'd trigger them" she explained "I hid the remote in here so I don't have to fight it to turn it off" with that they continued onwards until they finally reached their destination; Jasper being unsurprised but nonetheless disheartened to see that the laser grid she had placed in front of the entrance was no longer functional.
"This is bad" Carcharodon rasped as they entered the reactor core "Onyx, can this be salvaged?" the Puma Faunus looked at the sundered and shredded machinery in front of him with a rising sense of despair, yet before he could give his opinion Jasper answered for him
"It has to be or this entire platform goes down….This reactor powers the academy and the stabiliser system; the amount of Dust it takes to keep us in the air-"
"The we're lucky that whatever Eldritch did here didn't set off a chain reaction" Hellion noted
"We have procedures in place to stop that" the Professor countered, somewhat distractedly "We have procedures for this as well….but they're not working"
"Then how do we make them work?" Carcharodon demanded; Jasper began closely inspecting several damaged pieces of equipment, swaying on her feet as she did so
"There's a backup system under us, it powers the stabiliser system, the medical wing, the holding unit Pantheon is being held in and a few other systems….It should have come online already"
"And how long do we have until the damage her causes the academy to crash?" Raffia asked, the diminutive berserker surprising even his team-mates with how worried he sounded; Jasper chuckled darkly
"A few more minutes at most"
"I think I might have found the problem" Onyx growled as he gestured to a ruined control panel that stood close to what had been the epicentre of the explosion and held up a cable almost as thick as his forearm which angrily spat sparks at the point where it had been severed. Jasper looked at the damaged control panel, then to the sparking cable and back again
"We can fix that but we'll have to act fast….shit the next control panel is damaged as well!" Jasper exclaimed frantically "If we find working controls we can re-route everything, but we'll have to work fast!"
"This one!" Hellion gestured to a bank of controls close by, at the opposite side of the room to where Onyx stood
"Good!" Jasper beamed "Bring that severed cable over here and we can find a way to connect it to this terminal" Raffia sprung forwards and seized the mass of cable from Onyx and began dragging close to where Hellion and now Jasper stood, only for a problem to become apparent
"It won't reach" Carcharodon rasped
"We're running out of time" Hellion added urgently
"Find something we can bridge the gap with!" Onyx ordered "It's a power cable, it needs something conductive!"
"Bodies are conductive" Raffia mused, seeming almost peaceful and detached for a moment as the way forward became clear; he reached out as far as he could and held the sparking end of the severed cable in one hand whilst reaching into the place that they needed to direct power with the other
"What are you-" Jasper started only be cut off
"Start it up, do what you need to do" Raffia spat "I'll hold it"
"You will die!" Carcharodon roared before his voice cracked and was filled with rare emotion "Even your Semblance will fail eventually Raffia….I can't lose anyone else"
"If I don't do this then we lose everyone!" as if to highlight the Axolotl Faunus's point the entire academy seemed to lurch and sag in the air once again, forcing each of them to brace themselves.
"You wanted us to be heroes to these people and I promised to follow you" he croaked out, his resolve seeming to waver for a moment before redoubling
"Raffia, this is-" Jasper was once again silenced and found herself realising just how superfluous her rank of Professor was around this particular team as Carcharodon turned to Onyx
"Do it" Onyx, wiping tears from his eyes and with shaking hands did as he was instructed whilst Carcharodon crouched down to Raffia's height and pulled the man into a tight embrace; the Shark Faunus openly crying
"You will go to our ancestors in the great beyond as the best of us" Raffia nodded silently and tightened his grip a moment before Onyx announced that he was ready.
The pain was unimaginable as Raffia's pale pink Aura flickered into life and a scream escaped him as his Semblance took immediate effect, his skin being blackened and burned to the bone whilst his organs failed as the power to keep the entire academy aloft coursed through him; his body was ruined and knit back together at inhuman rates only to be almost destroyed once more, each second felt like an age and Raffia could feel his Aura failing him faster than it ever had before yet as his vision became blurry and his mind dulled with the haze of agony he could see lights flickering back into life around him and knew that his sacrifice would be worth it.
Then he saw a figure loom over him
"I have a duty of care to my students" Professor Jasper Cimmerian stated bluntly before taking the cables from the Faunus's grasp, without breaking the circuit and using her own cybernetic arm to bridge the gap between the two severed points before detaching it; her skin visibly burning in the process as the final dregs of her own already drained Aura were depleted yet she clenched her teeth and with one final burst of strength she dragged both herself and Raffia free, their Auras flickering and failing around them
"We have power" Jasper managed to choke out, with smoke billowing from her clothes
"Raffia?" Carcharodon dared to ask, obsidian eyes widening as the Axolotl Faunus's blackened and burned form began to heal itself
"I live!" he exclaimed even as his Aura flickered and faded, utterly spent by his attempted sacrifice
"Pull a stunt like that again and you won't" Onyx grumbled before bounding over and pulling his team-mate to his feet and into a hug which Hellion quickly joined
"Professor" Carcharodon turned to Jasper and offered her a hand to help her up, she merely she shook her head slowly and closed her eyes
"It's a patch job if I've ever seen one, but it should hold for now….Go help Team FADE, they're gonna need it" she was halted by a brief coughing fit before adding with a hint of sadness "I wish I could come with you" and with that Jasper Cimmerian, Professor of Unconventional Tactics and Ungentlemanly Warfare slipped into unconsciousness and took her final breaths as she succumbed to her injures.
The silence in the room was fragile and was soon shattered by an echoing crash and furious roaring from above, followed by the sounds of weapons firing
"I think that was the sound of whatever restraints were meant to hold Pantheon being reactivated" Hellion noted
"We kill the Grimm, Team FADE can have the madman" Carcharodon rasped out coldly as he readied his weapons and pointed to the Professors' body "We survive today, we survive because the people of New Vale should know of her sacrifice and if we die there will be no one to tell them" with that Team GORE prepared themselves and headed into battle once more.
Penny and Nickel Polendina traded blows at speeds that rendered them invisible to the human eye and the older android was slowly giving ground, being forced step by step back towards her home, yet somehow Nickel felt that something was amiss; she was built to be faster, stronger and more durable than her predecessor with a greater disposition towards violence.
Which made the fact that this was taking so long infuriating.
Penny's swords had been shifted to their laser pistol mode and the copper haired android opened fire with both as she charged towards Nickel once again, the beams being halted entirely by her Aura. As she drew close Penny shifted them back into their glossy, black bladed melee form and leapt into the air, preparing a powerful slash with her right blade.
"Just no" Nickel taunted as she reached out and caught Penny's wrist, holding her aloft and unfurling the Photon Accelerator built into her left arm, at which point proceeded to stab the sword in her left hand into the integrated weapon; as Nickel released her Penny dropped her right sword and grabbed the left with both hands and used the leverage it gave her to rip a component away from Nickel's arm entirely. With a furious scream Nickel aimed the weapon at Penny's chest and fired, sending the older android hurtling back through the air and crashing to the ground in a smoking heap.
"Do you just not get it?" Nickel demanded as Penny dragged herself slowly to her feet "I AM A BETTER YOU! YOU CAN'T WIN!" Penny remained silent for a moment and silently activated the cache of nanobots she had stored within her body in lieu of a true Semblance and the internal components which had begun to overheat under Nickel's attack were slowly repaired; she observed Nickel a moment longer and saw her crudely repaired left arm, her right photon weapon sparking and rendered inoperable, the points where her wings had once been and her overall demeanour and slowly an idea came to Penny
"If you're so sensational" she began in a conversational tone that was a little too innocent "Why are you so insecure about it?" Nickel gave her no reply other than a wordless scream before charging, without her swords Penny was forced to rely on hand to hand combat technique and soon learned that there was at least some truth to the younger androids' boasts of superiority; Penny had honed her skills for years and analysed countless fighters whilst Nickel seemed to have an innate knowledge of how to react and in terms of raw physical strength there was simply no contest.
Penny countered Nickel's wild haymaker with a blow to the inside of the elbow and a kick to the ankle to turn her own momentum against her, only for Nickel to in turn reveal that she was not as crazed as she seemed and counter by delivering a sucker punch to Penny's gut and seizing her wrist as she planted her feet firmly and hurled her predecessor a sizeable distance down the road with one hand. Penny rolled to a stop in a crouch and saw that Nickel was already rushing after her, leaping backwards into a handstand to avoid the spinning heel kick aimed at her skull she then sprung forwards and brought her fists crashing into Nickel's shoulders and brought her to her knees with the blow only for the platinum haired android to wrap her arms around Penny's waist and tackle her, carrying her along the street and ignoring the blows the older android rained down on her head and back until finally Nickel slammed Penny back first into the front of a parked car close to the Rose family home. The car crumpled and Nickel ripped the hood free before attempting to bring its' flat edge down on Penny's face like a guillotine only for the copper haired android to roll aside and kick Nickel's knee with enough force to buckle it and drive her elbow into her failed successors' face before wresting the hood of the car free of her grasp and swinging at Nickel's face with enough force to knock her across the street.
"Okay, not bad for an obsolete model!" Nickel screamed in defiance as she leapt to her feet and saw that Penny was in the front yard of her own house and making her way towards the porch "GET BACK HERE!"
For Penny things were going exactly according to plan.
"Sensational" she grinned to herself as Nickel leapt over the fence and into the front yard and with a quickly given verbal command the security systems that had been deactivated when Corvid and Syneffo had collected the twins and taken them to safety came back into life
"What?" Nickel demanded as she suddenly found the entire property engulfed in the translucent bubble of a forcefield while several small turrets were deployed from various hidden compartments and took aim at the younger android
"I knew you'd get suspicious if I just ran here, so I let you think you were controlling the pace of the fight" Penny explained "It was easier than I expected"
"So" Nickel forced the word out through clenched teeth, entire body visibly trembling with rage as her eyes took on an unnatural glow and her Aura crackled around her
"Not only do you get to have a happy life that should have been mine while I'm forgotten about!" she screamed at Penny, looking as though she would weep if she were capable "BUT YOU TURNED IT INTO A WEAPON AS WELL!" as she raged her Aura flashed and warped as it expanded outwards, the Booster deposits in her system taking effect and pushing her abilities even further.
Nickel ordered the houses' defence system to open fire and simply hope that she hadn't miscalculated.
Ozymandias Eldritch was like no opponent Team FADE had ever faced before and every moment that passed made the inescapable truth that they were simply outmatched more and more apparent.
They had been pushed back inch by inch and the fighting was now taking place within the entrance hall of the academy itself, giving the combatants room to manoeuvrer which Eagle took advantage of, taking to her avian form and soaring overhead as the corrupted Wizard slapped Arctus away with contemptuous ease and sent him skidding across the ground; without warning Eagle returned to her true form and fell towards Ozymandias with her sword pointed straight downwards.
The Wizard was no longer there, instead Eagle's sword was buried almost to the hilt in the ground and Ozymandias stood beside her. With a roar of exertion the blonde ripped her sword free of the ground and sent debris scattering in all directions as she charged only to find her blows parried almost effortlessly as Ozymandias wielded his scalpel for a perversion of its' original purpose but with no less skill or precision; redirecting the attacks with greater force.
Then the crack of Diamond's sniper rifle rang out and trivialities such as the laws of physics and common sense were utterly disregarded.
Ozymandias released the scalpel from his right hand, yet it remained hanging in the air and Eagle felt no less resistance against it as if the thing were frozen in time, the Wizard then turned nonchalantly and caught the round Diamond had fired at him whilst taking the floating scalpel in his left hand; he did this at a slow and leisurely pace, with events being slowed to accommodate him and then, continuing to hold Eagle's sword at bay with his left hand he delivered a right hook to the side of her head and Eagle felt as though she had been struck by a train; the Wizard's warping of time gave each of his blows and almost infinite amount of momentum and she was lifted from her feet and left dazed only to find herself almost floating, Ozymandias having decided to slow her flight through the air so that he could take her ankle and hurl her across the atrium and send her crashing into a wall with an impact that shook the entire entrance hall.
Felix was on him in an instant, Hack and Slash screaming as the Lion Faunus slashed at his opponents' face and gut in a series of blows whose wild delivery belied their clinical and targeted nature. The Wizard found himself blocking by striking the insides of Felix's arms only for the Faunus to respond by using the momentum of Ozymandias's own blows to propel him into wide, arcing slashes and eventually he was forced to take another approach. Time around the pair slowed to a crawl as he kicked at Felix's lead leg and forced him to hastily adjusted his balance, the Wizard then jabbed his scalpel into the chainsaw blade of one of the Faunus's weapons and sending the entirety of the severed chain flying into the air in slow motion, he then plucked it from the air with ease and promptly whipped Felix across the face with it, the younger mans' golden Aura flashed but held and protected him from the blow though he was still staggered and halted which allowed Ozymandias to kick him unceremoniously across the room.
Only for the corrupted Wizard to double over a vomit a stream of blood, laced with a thick and viscous tar like substance as the arcane light that engulfed him flickered and wavered for a moment.
Which prompted Arctus and Diamond to launch another offensive
"ENOUGH!" Ozymandias's voice came as a chorus of tortured screams as he deflected bullet after bullet from Diamond who had taken a crouched position in a corner of the room, her critically injured state leaving her in no condition to fight at close quarters and seeing this the Wizard began stalking towards the sniper
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Arctus screamed as he gathered the very last of his heavily taxed Aura reserves into one last Glyph whose sharpened edge tore through Ozymandias's throat in a spray of crimson and left the man gagging and choking.
Then the magical light around him seemed to reassert itself and Team FADE looked on in horror as the blood spraying from Ozymandias's opened artery floated in the air before reversing its' trajectory and returning to his body, the wound vanishing a moment later
"Admirable, but futile" the Wizard noted with a cruel smile as he turned his attention to the Bear Faunus. Arctus readied his oversized broadsword yet is already too late, in a flash of light and a movement to fast to be tracked Ozymandias was beside him and Arctus felt his body suddenly grow cold as pain blossomed in his abdomen
"NO!" the screams came from all sides and echoed around the ruined atrium as the Bear Faunus clutched at the deep slash in his belly which spilled blood over his already soaked clothes and hands before he collapsed forwards with his eyes wide and glassy.
Felix saw his cousin fall, he saw a distraught and screaming Diamond leap to her feet and shift Lex Talionis into its' glaive form as she prepared to charge in what could only have been a final gambit, he saw Eagle throw herself at the other woman and hold her in place as she sobbed and begged for Diamond not to throw her own life away.
Then Felix felt himself begin to change.
The shift into his Balrog state was a familiar thing, a dull buzzing in his ears and a pounding behind his eyes whilst his skin prickled and his entire body began to burn as he surrendered himself to the fury. This however was something else entirely, Felix felt the Aura regulator in his cybernetic tail kick into life and the Fire Dust stored within the limb be activated along with countless other smaller devices whose purposes had been loosely explained to him; it was as though a raging inferno had been condensed into a single moment and then there was nothing but calmness.
Felix launched himself forwards with power that he'd never experienced before and Ozymandias who had been about to attack Eagle was struck with the force of a comet and lifted from his feet; the entire entrance to the academy exploding outwards as the Wizard was blasted out onto the airborne campus by a single blow.
"Felix….what happened to you?" Eagle knew that this must be the product of her mothers' experimentation but seeing the end result in person was something else; her partner had entered his Balrog state yet it had been changed, his body had the same pitch black and stony appearance but now the criss-crossing veins of magma the decorated it, his blazing hair and the fiery light spewing from his eyes all glowed white hot and the flames that engulfed him were blue; moreover there was something different in his bearing. Where Felix in his Balrog State had always been near feral and always struggling for control, this new form that the Lion Faunus had taken on seemed to be free of that drawback
"Is Arctus…." Felix trailed off not daring to finish the question, Eagle and Diamond rushed to the Bear Faunus's side
"He's breathing" Diamond confirmed as she cradled his head with her remaining hand
"The lights are back on, that means we have power" Felix noted and his team-mates looked around in surprise, in truth they had been so focused on subduing Ozymandias that they hadn't noticed "That means that there's power in the medical wing. Eagle, get Diamond and Arctus up there and give them all the Aura stimulants you can find"
"You're gonna fight him alone?" Eagle demanded incredulously, seeing that Ozymandias was already rising to his feet at the end of the trench that had been carved into the campus by his landing.
"Meet me outside when you're done" Felix answered "Those powers of his are killing him, he's on borrowed time and I think I can stall him for a while" with that Felix marched out of the now destroyed entrance and hoped that this new Balrog State had the stamina to outlast an opponent who could warp time.
"Is uncle Qrow gonna be okay?"
"Why did we leave our house? And why are we flying towards the city when all those alarms are ringing?" Syneffo looked up from Qrow's still unmoving form and looked Tai-Jaune and Summer Pyrrha in their eyes as Penny Polendina's heavily modified transport 'The Pearl' drew close to the city; the Bull-Head had a metallic slab fitted in its' rear compartment surrounded by mechanical armatures operated by the crafts' onboard AI which Qrow had been laid gently on, it seemed unlikely that Qrow would die but he still needed medical attention as soon as possible
"Your uncle is a brave man and a hard one to kill….if the stories people tell about him are true then he'll be fine" Syneffo forced a weak smile onto her face and hated every second of it, she had heard Qrow's back break
"But you had to leave your home because a bad person was heading there and Penny wanted you to stay safe" she paused and a genuine grin formed on her face as she added "We're heading into the city because we're Hunters, where else should we be?" the answer seemed to assuage some the twins' fears but not all of them, Summer looked noticeably unconvinced by the latter part of Syneffo's explanation however the Nikosi had little time to worry about that as Corvid's voice sounded out from the cockpit
"Syneffo, get in here" despite the bluntness of the instruction she followed without complaint and upon taking a seat beside Corvid she saw that the older woman wore a beleaguered and nervous expression that looked oddly out of place on her face
"We've got a problem" she began simply and with no effort to lessen the blow "We can't go to the nearest hospital, we need one with a Bull-Head terminal….No way am I taking Uncle Qrow off of that bed until we've got a doctor with us"
"And the nearest available hospital is under attack from the Grimm?" Syneffo surmised
"One of the aerial platforms has a triage for wounded Hunter and military" Corvid said as she nodded "Everyone there is low on Aura or out completely and the place is being swarmed by Grimm….warships don't want to fire on it and the people defending it are being pushed back"
"Take us there" Syneffo ordered, momentarily forgetting that if anyone were in charge of this situation it would be Corvid
"That's the plan" the older woman answered simply before giving a warning "I might be able to pick a few Grimm off from the air but you're gonna be on your own, the AI is focused on Qrow and I need to pilot….I'm not landing with the twins onboard until the place is clear"
"I understand" Syneffo nodded as she readied her axes and made her way back into the rear of the Bull-Head, positioning herself at the rear hatch and silently gesturing for the twins to stand clear.
"Ready?" Corvid called back to the redhead teen mere moments later, clearly unhappy about the choices she was having to make; Syneffo simply nodded and the hatch opened, bringing the besieged aerial platform into view below.
Syneffo leapt out.
A brief use of a Semblance brought a shield of crimson light into existence around her as she landed on the back of a Manticore Grimm, both protecting her and tearing the beast in half as she collided with it. The aerial platform was some kind of medical college whose staff and students were putting their skills to use in this time of crisis, however the doors and windows had been barricaded and whatever defenders had originally been present were gone, their only remains a series of bloody smears on the ground as Griffin and Sphinx Grimm that had been fighting over scraps turned their attention towards the new arrival. Syneffo clutched the Harpies' Claws and rushed into the mass of monsters that charged towards her like a wave of claws and teeth; a vast swathe of Grimm were torn apart by her Aura fuelled double slash as she collided with the Grimm, a Griffin found an axe embedded in its' skull and a Sphinx was swiftly decapitated before another winged monster was kicked back with enough force to utterly shatter its' ribs.
Then the monsters began to retaliate in earnest and Syneffo was forced to use her Semblance to defend herself as she was simply overrun, the sheer amount of Grimm too much for her to face alone; she felt her legs give way under the force of holding the shield around herself and felt the last of her already heavily drained Aura began to fail her.
The shield began to crack as if it were glass and Syneffo realised that not only was she about to perish here, but those inside would likely share her fate and that Qrow would likely not find a doctor in time.
Then she felt pressure build behind her eyes and without warning everything went white.
Syneffo let a roar of triumph, she realised that she had somehow tapped into the power of her Silver Eyes once again and in that moment she felt that she understood; putting her own life at risk was not enough, being a Silver Eyed Warrior made her a protector and the act of saving others was what enabled her to use her gifts. Syneffo couldn't see, the light spilling from her own eyes filled her vision so instead she simply span blindly and hoped that she would unmake every Grimm on the aerial platform before she was exhausted.
Within a matter of moments the light faded and Syneffo collapsed backwards utterly spent, but as her vision dimmed and consciousness slipped away from her she saw Corvid bringing the Bull-Head in for a landing and a soft laugh of pure joy escaped her
"I did it" she murmured to herself before the darkness came.
Nickel was simply too powerful.
Penny had realised this as the younger android, now fuelled by Booster had simply waded through the firestorm unleashed by the houses defensive turrets and torn the weapon emplacements apart with the bare hands. Penny had been given no time to react when Nickel had lunged forwards and kicked her square in the chest and sent her crashing into the front door, which had been ripped from its' hinges despite being made of reinforced Atlesian steel and as she struggled to her feet at the end of the hallway she was treated to the sight of Nickel stepping into her house; an automated weapon unfurling from a hidden compartment within the ceiling only for it to be grabbed the moment it began to fire, the platinum haired android turning the weapon on Penny before finally growing bored and simply crushing it as her opponent slipped away.
Penny made her way into the kitchen and quickly began gathering all of the sharpest knives; the moment Nickel came into view the copper haired android hurled each of the blades with almost enough force to break the sound barrier yet nickel either caught or deflected each of them until, with only three knives remaining Penny saw Nickel's Booster enhanced Aura visibly contract and shudder, whatever inhuman benefits it granted her having been largely spent in merely surviving the onslaught of the Rose family homes' weapons. The final three knives found their marks' in Nickel's body, the first tearing through her left hand as she tried to catch it whilst the second and third ripped into her chest and abdomen.
Yet Nickel only became more furious
"Well look at this….It's almost like Vytal Tournament isn't it" Penny came to a halt as memories that she wished she could delete came rushing to the fore, memories of Ruby clutching at he original body as she died.
"And that's the difference between us Penny!" Nickel spat as she advanced on Penny without bothering to remove the knives from her body "I DON'T GET TO DIE AND THEN COME BACK BECAUSE I'M DADDY'S FAVOURITE!" her wild haymaker knocked Penny from her feet and she continued to scream at her predecessor as she unleashed devastating blow after blow to Penny's face, voice cracking and giving into sobs as she did so
"YOU WERE DEAD! YOU FAILED YOUR MISSION PENNY! WHY DO YOU GET TO COME BACK AND TRY AGAIN WHILE I GET SCRAPPED? WHY DO YOU GET TO BE A PERSON WHEN I'M JUST A WEAPON? THIS WHOLE LIFE YOU'VE GOT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MINE BUT I NEVER GOT A CHANCE BECAUSE YOU TOOK IT FROM ME!" Penny was barely clinging to consciousness, her vision becoming filled with static and clogged with error warnings; she was vaguely aware that most of her face had been destroyed; there were no pain sensors left but she was aware that much of the covering around her left eye had been ripped away and the amount of blood smeared across Nickel's knuckles was concerning. Just as Nickel made to throw another punch that would have splintered the skull of a lesser opponent Penny manage to roll aside and kick at the weeping androids' legs before leaping up and slamming her face onto to the stove, though before she she could turn it on Nickel had placed a foot against the now dented and broken oven and kicked out, sending Penny crashing back first into the freezer. The two fought for a few moments in the small space, trading vicious knees and elbows until Nickel finally managed to deliver a well placed kick that sent Penny hurtling through the air, crashing into the kitchen table and upending it before finally coming to a halt near a door that led into the basement which housed the workshop she and Ruby shared.
Which gave Penny an idea.
She dragged herself up as Nickel finally ripped the knives out of her body and brandished one menacingly as she advanced. The copper haired and heavily damaged android opened the door to her basement and hurried down the stairs, mildly surprised when Nickel didn't immediately follow her
"You're not getting me with that trick again!" the younger android called down to her "We both know that there's now way out down there….You come out or I cause a gas leak and bring the house down on you, it's your choice!" Penny ignored the shouted challenge and quickly fought to overcome the disorientation and sluggish movements caused by her extensive damage. She drew a shotgun from a rack of weapons that were kept in the house as spares, or for using to test experimental rounds the likes of which the she and Ruby sold the patents to and quickly loaded several such rounds into it; these were something that the two of them had been working to perfect for years, a nanobot payload based on Penny's own internal nanobot cache that had been dubbed 'Hostile Takeover' rounds.
"Think I'm joking?" Nickel demanded "I'll rip this whole house down right now!" Penny wasted no more time and sprinted back up the stairs from the basement with the weapon held at the ready, the moment Nickel came into view Penny opened fire, again and again until the weapon was empty and she was that Nickel's upper torso was now ripped open in almost a dozen places with patches of her robotic frame visible beneath her epidermal layer.
Then Nickel retaliated and it was horrific in its' brutality.
She lunged and seized the shotgun, ripping it from Penny's grasp before swinging the butt of the weapon at the older androids' face and partially collapsing her already exposed skull around where her left eye had been, she discarded weapon and stomped on Penny's knee with enough force to break the joint before grabbing her left arm roughly by the shoulder and ripping the limb away in a shower of a sparks, coolant and blood that filled her synthetic flesh.
"I'm going to rip you apart! Piece by outdated piece!" she screamed in Penny's face, the copper haired android met her gaze with chilling calm despite her catastrophic injuries and when she spoke her voice was toneless and mechanical
"Activating self destruct sequence" Nickel paused for a moment and gave a mirthless laugh
"Really? You're gonna activate your-" then she came a halt as warnings began to flash across her vision, some kind of highly adaptive malware making its' way through her systems
"No" Penny answered "Not my self destruct sequence, yours" the realisation seemed to sober Nickel for a moment and Penny watched the younger Androids' face morph through a dozen expressions as she processed her own impending demise, finally settling on acceptance.
"Fine" she reached out with her still functioning hand and pinned Penny to the wall by the neck "Then we both die, works for me" Penny struggled against Nickel's grip but in her heavily damaged state, with every internal system warning her that she need to enter repair mode immediately it was utterly futile.
Then a crimson a blur tore into the room and time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Ruby appeared behind Nickel in a burst of rose petals, wearing the most hateful and murderous expression that Penny had ever seen on her face. The caped Huntress wasted no time deploying her weapon and instead used her mastery of her Semblance to phase her hand into Nickel's torso through her back and quickly retract it. The platinum haired android's eyes went wide and her grip slackened as a large handful of her power supply and the bomb attached to it were forcibly ripped out of her body. Penny watched as Ruby looked at the device and quickly sped away to get the explosive to a safe distance before it detonated and by the time she'd returned Penny had slid down the wall and Nickel had collapsed to the ground with a thud, stiff and unmoving.
"You're gonna be okay, I promise you're gonna be okay" Ruby cried as she returned with another burst of speed and began wrapping her cape around Penny "Where are-"
"The twins are safe, Corey and Syneffo took them with them….Qrow needs a doctor" Penny's remaining eye took on a distant, unfocused look for a moment before she pointed to Nickel with her remaining hand added "Save her"
"What?"
"I can go into stasis and repair mode but I can't support two Auras, I need you to save her Ruby"
"She tried to kill you!"
"She is me" Penny's voice became garbled as she fought to stay online "She's what I could have been, if I hadn't met you….she never got to be a real girl" Ruby looked at her wife, broken and battered, leaking blood and mechanical fluids onto her cape even as nanobots in her body tried to seal as much of the damage as possible and then to Nickel whose main Arc reactor had been ripped almost in half yet somehow clung to life.
There was no decision to be made, Ruby would have done anything for her wife
"Go into stasis mode and I'll do what I can" she promised with tears filling her eyes "But if I can only save one of you…." Ruby trailed off and trusted that Penny understood.
"Sensational" Penny murmured before finally allowing herself to stop fighting and drift offline.
The last automated weapon finally ceased firing as the three pronged claw of Pantheon's tail closed around it before the serpentine limb whipped and thrashed about until it was torn of the ceiling entirely.
Their mind was slowly recovering from both the physical damage done to it and the extended state of torpor and Pantheon felt the dense haze of primal bloodlust that clouded their senses gradually fading away and clarity slowly returning to them as they tore their way through corridors too small to accommodate their height or vast wingspan with a single goal in mind.
To return to Mother.
Pantheon continued to rampage through Halo Academies' campus, ripping down walls as they went and slowly ascending upwards until they reached what could be considered the 'ground floor' of the aerial platform only to find themselves confronted by a group of Faunus as they neared an exit
"We meet again" the rasping voice from behind them noted and no sooner had Pantheon turned around than they found their right wing and upper arm with its' scythe like claws burned away by the laser weapon an Axolotl Faunus was carrying, quickly followed by the massive Puma Faunus beside him firing a massive artillery piece that caught the sentient Grimm in the streamlined fin comprised of solid bone and chitin that made up their chest; resulting in them being flung backwards by the force of the explosion and through a nearby wall, taking them out of the academy itself.
"Well done Hellion" Carcharodon noted, the Dragonfly Faunus was in a crouched position beside him with her eyes milky white as she used her Semblance; Marauder had been left on Team GORE's ship but no building the size of Halo Academy and its' aerial platform, housing as many people as it did would ever be wholly free of rats and other such pests; it was their minds which Hellion had leapt into in order to track Pantheon's movements through the campus so that the former raiders could intercept the Grimm.
"Now we've just gotta find a way to kill it" Hellion noted grimly, eyes returning to their natural jade colour and wing shuddering as she rose to her feet and drew a pair of knives.
"Keep it from getting to Ozymandias at least" Onyx grunted as he shifted Jotun Fang into its' axe mode "If he needs the Grimm then we keep them apart until Team FADE can deal with him"
"Provided they're not already dead" Raffia observed as he shifted the Blazing Avenger into the swords that it formed for close combat
"We can't worry about that now" Carcharodon answered simply "Follow my lead" with that the Shark Faunus charged, sprinting out of the hole that Pantheon had been knocked through and out into the rear of the campus with the coliseum like training area close by.
"YOU WILL DIE!" Pantheon screamed their challenge as they rose to their feet, wings spread wide, freshly regrown clawed upper limbs snapping and tail thrashing behind them as they clutched Flesh-Seeker in their lower and more humanoid hands; the Grimm launched itself forwards with a powerful flap of its' wings and flew towards the Shark Faunus that was charging towards them and in the same movement hurled Flesh-Seeker at his chest.
The blade passed through Carcharodon's body as though he were made from water and embedded itself in the wall of the academy; Carcharodon then sunk into the ground and passed below Pantheon's feet as a living shadow before reappearing behind them with the Red Waves drawn, slashing at their tendons before wrapping his arms around the tail that made to lunge at it his face with a mind of its' own, struggling to hold it at bay.
Pantheon turned and raised his upper limbs, each ending in a trio of scythe-like and serrated claws which the Grimm poised to deliver a stabbing attack that would all but eviscerate their opponent.
Then the rest of Team GORE leapt into the fray.
Raffia, even with his Aura depleted leapt on to Pantheon's back and buried his swords in the Grimm's shoulders, leaving the bladed limbs hanging limp and useless. Pantheon extended a lower arm and called Flesh-Seeker back to them only for the diminutive Faunus to scrabble across the Grimm's broad back and pull the arm aside so that the jagged tip of the returning weapon plunged into Pantheon's gut; Raffia ripped his swords free and made to stab at Pantheon again only for the Grimm to finally throw him aside, the clawed tip of one of the digits that formed a membranous wing cutting the Axolotl Faunus's face in the process.
Carcharodon however was yet to relent and still held Pantheon's tail at bay and the Grimm in place even as their torn flesh began to stitch itself back together
"DIE!" Pantheon roared as they attempted to rip their living trident free of their body only for Hellion and Onyx to make their move; the Dragonfly Faunus unleashing a hailstorm of throwing knives which sunk into the unprotected parts of the sentient monsters' body before the Dust crystals worked into their handles exploded, providing enough of a distraction for the Puma Faunus swing his battleaxe at the Grimm's skull and break their skull open whilst tearing their entire lower jaw away.
Yet still Pantheon fought
"TAKE IT'S WINGS!" Carcharodon bellowed, slashing through the Grimm's tail with his arm mounted blades and leaping onto Pantheon's back to hold one of its' bladed upper limbs in place, whilst Onyx and Hellion faced a similar struggle with the other as their adversary thrashed and struggled. Then Raffia, with blood streaming down his face from a vertical cut which reached both above and below his right eye charged into battle once more and with a furious roar the berserker brought his larger sword down on one of Pantheon's wings, cleaving through it entirely
"DRAG IT TO THE EDGE!" Carcharodon demanded, seeing Pantheon slowly overwhelming his team and deciding that one wing would have to be enough. With great effort and taking care to continue hacking and slashing at the monster to keep Pantheon's efforts focused on healing its' ever increasing litany of injuries the four of them dragged the shrieking Grimm to the edge of the aerial platform
"WE WILL FEAST ON YOUR-" Pantheon's roared threat was cut off prematurely as Carcharodon kicked the Grimm squarely in the chest and sent then toppling over the edge of the aerial platform; their remaining wing flapping frantically as the other continued to regrow. The Shark Faunus watched the Grimm fall until it vanished from view
"I think I can stomach being a hero" Raffia noted solemnly before his face became a demented grin "But at least we're not resorting to insufferable one liners when we deliver the killing blow-"
"Don't celebrate yet" Carcharodon rasped "We don't know for certain that it's dead….We should find Team FADE, I fear that everything may depend on it"
The ground shook under the force of the blows that Felix and Ozymandias exchanged on the opposite side of the campus to where Team GORE and Pantheon had fought; the corrupted Wizard being slowly killed by his own powers and forced to use them sparingly combined with Felix Semblance having been pushed to hitherto unimagined levels made the fight far more even than it could have been.
As was evidenced when Felix blocked a blow intended for his face before delivering an open palmed blow to the Wizard's chest the audibly shattered ribs and sent Ozymandias hurtling backwards, which the older man counteracted by simply dissipating his own momentum and landing in a crouch, coughing up a mouthful of viscous tar-like blood as his injuries healed
"You are beginning to become something of an annoyance" he noted in a tone that was intended to be calm and collected yet the faintest cracks in the facade were clear to Felix
"Never had to fight on a timer like this before have you?" he grinned, flashing his oversized canines "But I have, you're playing by rules now" with that Felix charged again only for Ozymandias to let out a sound of pure frustration before simply appearing in front of his opponent and delivering an elbow strike to the face followed by a backhand delivered with incredible velocity; Felix rolled off of the attack and carried its' momentum into a spinning kick which shattered Ozymandias's right knee, the Wizard casually snapped the limb back into place before throwing another wild punch which Felix scarcely avoided before delivering a spinning heel kick that pushed his opponent back.
For all his bravado he was still unsure if he could win, he could feel the familiar heaviness in his limbs and in this new form he had no idea how much longer he would be able to fight for. In a flash of acid green light Ozymandias vanished from view and Felix instinctively dropped into a crouch and span, hoping to take out the legs of the enemy he expected to be behind him; the Faunus felt time and forces such as momentum shift as the Wizard leapt over his leg sweep and hung suspended in the air, knees brought up to his chest before lashing out and kicking Felix in the face with a blow that caused the younger man to break the sound barrier as he was flung across the aerial platform, bringing himself scrabbling to a stop with one foot dangling over the edge before he could fall entirely.
"I warned you that what I've set in motion cannot be undone. This is inevitable" Ozymandias stated coldly and Felix had only a moment to gather his remaining strength into himself before the Wizard charged at him towards him once again; the two met in explosion of force that rocked the academy in the air and tore the ground beneath their feet apart. Felix and Ozymandias grappled each holding onto the others' arms to keep them at bay and the Lion Faunus, body still blazing with pure white light and blue flames managed to force the corrupted Wizard backwards a single step.
Then the ground began to give way and Felix found himself sliding backwards slowly but surely towards the edge and his strength beginning to fail him as he was pushed to his limits.
"And now it ends and tomorrow will be a new dawn for-" Felix saw of flash of pure, snowy white Aura behind the crackling nexus of acid green light that was Ozymandias and the Wizard's remaining eye widened as the blade of a sword burst through his chest
"I came as fast as I could!" Eagle exclaimed as she ripped her sword free
"And it wasn't fast enough!" Ozymandias declared in a furious roar made up of countless tortured screams as he broke free of Felix's grasp to spin around and deliver a blow to Eagle's face that left her slumped on the ground unconscious, her Aura flickering around her. Felix watched the Aura-fuelled flames engulfing his own body begin to fade away and made a split second decision in the hopes that he might save his partner.
He gathered the last of his strength and punched downwards.
The ground beneath both his own and Ozymandias's feet shattered and Felix watched as the Wizard toppled past him and fell over the edge of the aerial platform that held Halo Academy aloft, desperately flailing and clutching at the air as he went. As he fell Felix managed to reach out and grab a piece of debris jutting out of the side of the campus and hold on for dear life despite the aching and drained sensation that washed over him as he returned to his natural state.
Then with an ominous creaking Felix saw parts of the ground above him continue to crumble and give way under strain that had been put upon it and even without the machinations of the Wizard time seemed to slow to a crawl as he watched Eagle's limp body fall
"NO!" the terrified scream left Felix's lips but was echoed above him and glancing upwards the Lion Faunus saw Hellion Eudialyte rush to the edge of Halo Academies platform and activate her Semblance, her eyes fading to milky white before she seemingly did the impossible,
Her consciousness leapt into Eagle's body and the armoured Huntress took her avian form in a flash of Aura despite being unconscious and was flown back to safety.
"Take my hand!" a reedy voice yelled down and despite everything that had happened Felix was still a little surprised to see that a bloodstained Raffia was the one offering to drag him to safety "Believe me I'm as unhappy with this as you are" the smaller Faunus noted with a derisive snort upon seeing Felix's stunned hesitation. Quickly Felix took the proffered hand and was dragged back onto Halo Academy where he could see that Team GORE were all present and accounted for and that Hellion was desperately clutching at a now conscious Eagle as if she though that the blonde would slip away again if she let go.
"Arctus and Diamond are safe" the informed Felix "They're in the medical wing but they both need a doctor"
"Well the Professors and other staff should be able to come back to the Academy" Felix managed to pant out as a wave of exhaustion crashed over him; quickly turning to Carcharodon who remained stoic and imposing as always nearby "Halo's not gonna fall right?"
"No it isn't….And Professor Cimmerian gave her life to achieve that" the Shark Faunus answered and the new hit Felix like a punch in the gut, Carcharodon looked away with his eyes downcast as he added "We took Pantheon's wings and threw them over the edge, but with the way they heal….They may not be dead"
"We'll find Goodwitch and tell her" Felix answered with no hint of judgement, scanning his surroundings for the injured Headmistress who had clearly taken cover at some point in the battle.
"Either way, Ozymandias is gone" he sighed "So it's over"
Authors Notes:
THIS STORY HAS HIT 200,000 VIEWS ON FF NET, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO'S BEEN READING AND ESPECIALLY THOSE OF YOU WHO'VE BEEN HERE SINCE 2017.
Oh boy, that's the penultimate chapter of Vol.9 and Third Year as a whole.
I finally got to write a few scenes that I've been wanting to write since 2017 and I'll be 100% honest with you I'm not sure if I did them all justice, but at the same time I don't think going back and rewriting them would make it any better because I don't think I can live up to the hype I've set for myself.
Also….I've got one more big reveal that I'm holding into this volume, it's coming next chapter and I cannot wait for you to read it.
Anyway, let's summarise shall we:
Ozymandias getting pretty much zombiefied by his own powers at this point.
So Oz basically had to pull back and leave Pantheon to come and find him, if he'd been there when Pantheon woke up he would have had to subdue them.
Let's be honest that wasn't just typical villain overconfidence, Team FADE were in condition to fight.
You remember the kind of shit Oz did with that Scalpel in Second Year? He might be having to limit his use of his powers but still….
Trying to turn on the backup power supply; just be careful, there's raptors….wait, wrong franchise.
I know that just "Use something conductive" sounds like utter bullshit but take it from someone who's worked in engineering; you do not want to know the kinds of utter bullshit work-around solutions that have been put in place and worked.
Okay I never planned to kill any of Team GORE, the whole damaged power supply was just a convenient way to separate Team GORE and Team FADE because Oz and Pantheon needed to be kept apart….But writing Raffia getting fried and Carcharodon saying his goodbyes was rough.
Also, look how much Raffia's grown….He's still a bastard but now he's a heroic bastard.
Round of applause to Professor Jasper Cimmerian and her robot arm.
….Followed by a moment of silence.
Penny took the smart route by getting rid of Nickel's weapon first; that thing would have burned through her Aura with ease.
"If you're so sensational why are you so insecure about it?" who taught Penny psychological warfare?
The whole fight in the street between Nickel and Penny was nasty and I loved writing it.
I mentioned in First or Second year that Ruby and Penny's house is actually a fortress and well, they were moving out soon anyway….
When they can parry a gladius with a scalpel then just go home, you're not dealing with normal shit any more.
The whole thing where Oz switches hands, catches a bullet and then rag-dolls Eagle was cinematic as fuck in my head.
And also so was the part where he ripped the chainsaw blade out of one of Felix's swords.
On a related note, Felix was by far the hardest member of Team FADE to fight because his Semblance by nature makes him an 'Unstoppable Force' you can't just vanish his momentum.
Oz's powers are getting a bit wobbly.
And sorry but there is no way Diamond would be jumping around doing her usual shit in this fight, Aura stimulant or not.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" anyone get flashbacks to the fall of Beacon? Good.
Well….that is exactly what a Scalpel is for.
This is what Felix's cybernetic tail was for, the Aura regulator all the secrecy and hype; he's now got a stage that's beyond his Balrog State….I haven't named it though.
White glowing because white hot and blue flames because….well, I'm assuming you've seen a blowtorch before.
The twins asking the important questions.
Syneffo pretty much stepping into that role of adopted big sister.
Corey made the calls she had to make.
Silver Eyes ex Machina….which is of course the best kind of Silver Eyes, and I honestly think it's fair to say that Syneffo has 'got it' now; she's still got plenty of room left to grow and develop and she's light years away from being Ruby but the base is there.
That weapon in the hallway ceiling is the same one that Sentinel once had a stand-off with.
That Booster high would have made the fight too one-sided, even against someone as good as Penny.
"Well look at this….It's almost like Vytal Tournament isn't it" and that's just payback for the comment about her being insecure.
Okay, sans the screaming mental breakdown Nickel just beating the tar out of Penny kinda reminded me of Superman killing Cyborg in the Flashpoint Paradox animated movie.
Nickel was almost being smart there….Almost.
How many times have I mentioned Penny and Ruby making nanobot based rounds, specifically the name 'Hostile Takeover' rounds….Every single time I was juts sowing the seeds for this.
Remotely activating the other androids' self-destruct, damn that's cold.
Also come on, we all knew that I was never gonna kill Penny again and we all knew that Ruby was on the way so that save was expected.
Imagine having a character that you have two death scenes for, that gets put through both of them and you still can't bring yourself to kill….That's Nickel. She was always gonna die in Vol.9 but I was gonna have the way Felix took her wings off be fatal at one point, then the power supply removal and then I found myself not liking the idea of letting her die without ever being anything more than other peoples' tool.
So Pantheon thinks of Ozymandias as mother and the voice in Oz's head when he uses the Wizard's power is feminine….
"We meet again" followed by heavy weapons, admit it Team GORE are cool as fuck.
Hellion doesn't just Warg into Marauder, she can do it into any animal.
The way Team GORE just piled onto Pantheon and kept hacking bits of them off no matter what was brutal and enjoyable to write.
"I think I can stomach being a hero but at least we're not resorting to insufferable one liners when we deliver the killing blow" Raffia shut up you love it.
Felix is being honest, every time he uses his Balrog State he's on a timer and he knows that he's gonna be useless afterwards; Oz is not used to getting his hands dirty and has never had to pace himself like this before.
Just the image of Oz snapping broken limbs back into place and carrying on fighting is unsettling….with his age and speed he's basically the Old Guy SCP.
That bit where he leapt over Felix's leg and kicked him….Imagine that kick Trinity does in the Matrix.
Come on there's only so many hit like that you have before the whole arena gets a little unstable.
Nice save Eagle.
I feel like Felix's gambit there is definitely something Yang would pull.
I have wanted to have Hellion Warg Eagle since I decided what both of their Semblances were; under normal circumstances Hellion can't Warg people, Eagle is an exception and Qrow probably is as well.
"Believe me I'm as unhappy with this as you are" what was that about insufferable one-liners Raffia?
So, Pantheon and Ozymandias both went over the edge….no bodies and one chapter left; you know I'm gonna do something that sets up Fourth Year.
Thank you to SumoSnipe and Funlander for their reviews on the last chapter.
Violence indeed.
And the knock-downs only continued.
Yeah but Eagle can't fly fast enough to keep pace with a full sized Nevermore or the Hydrakken and creating multiple summons would have taken more effort and concentration so on balance it wouldn't have made much difference.
Definitely danger zone.
I mean they're Third Years, Second Year Corey managed to hold a Kaiju at bay on her own.
Never underestimate a psycho fighting style, look at Tyrian….a berserker is unpredictable and that can make a lot of difference.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.