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Chapter 138: Heroes and Monsters
For Salem the destruction of her body had never been a permanent affliction even before her defeat at the battle of Menagerie, where her tide of rapidly forming bodies had fought Ruby Rose and Oscar Pine to the brink of victory before she had been torn from reality itself and left stranded in the abyss beyond time and space, though it had always been a painful experience to say the least.
The shard of fossilised, condensed Grimm tissue which Pantheon had torn from their own chest and plunged into the heart of Ozymandias Eldritch had not only allowed Salem to tear her way back into the material plane that she had been cast from; it had also, through Pantheon re-established her link to the Hive Mind shared by all Grimm, as fractured as it was even after her efforts to restore and reconnect the individual shards. As a result of this connection she and Pantheon had been spared from the destruction of her domain in the swamplands beyond New Vale's borders, though the loss was still an infuriating one which the Queen of Grimm vowed to take great pleasure in repaying.
Salem and Pantheon had been vacated from her fledgeling, living fortress before the first volley of missiles and lasers from New Vale's warship had begun to impact against its' surface. The pod of Grimm tissue which had encased them like some twisted parody of rosebud was no mere shield, Salem and Pantheon's bodies had liquefied and broken down to their raw primordial essence whilst their consciousnesses had been ripped free of their physical confines. In this purely mental and astral state Salem had scoured the various Spawning Pits which had been brought under her sway once again by Pantheon's actions, searching for any sign of a concerted attack on her enemies part.
Eventually such a sign presented itself and had she been present in the physical realm her rage would reduced everything around her to ruins.
Her specially crafted Maggot Grimm had wormed their way into the Kingdom and were using the bodies of its' denizens as hosts, carriers and breeding grounds; spreading terror as they went whilst burrowing deep under the heart of New Vale and forming the beginnings of a vast network of interconnected Spawning Pits which would all play a role of the Queen of Grimm's grand plan to not simply invade and wage war against the Kingdoms, but subsume them entirely into the endless silence and darkness of oblivion.
Her enemies had sought to destroy one such Spawning Pit before it had fully formed.
Salem's initial instinct had been to dispatch her Chimera into the bowels of the Hive City and have her tear those who dared meddle in her plans limb from limb yet upon attempting to mentally direct Yang Branwen towards the source of the offence she found herself unable to do so. The Grimm tissue which formed the Chimera's right arm and incorporated itself into every facet of her being in a horrific symbiosis was currently in what could only be described as a feeding frenzy, its' own base instincts fuelled by Yang's fiery rage and Salem realised as she sensed the droves of other Creatures of Grimm flooding towards New Vale that Yang and Pyrrha had put their own plans into action and that this was certainly some form of distraction to allow the Bandit Queen to attack their true targets with impunity.
Salem realised that she would have to attend to matters herself and sent her consciousness toward it.
Somewhere deep below New Vale, even beneath the vast networks of tunnels and corridors which formed the rat-runs under the Hive Towers which in turn led out to the greater body of the maze that was the Kingdoms' power grid existed a small series of caves and chambers that had been hollowed out of the dense earth; presumably by the unintended detonation of some undiscovered pockets of Dust Crystals in the cities' construction. In truth their reason for being was unimportant, what mattered was that the winding, matted and grasping tendrils of the proto-Spawning Pits which Salem's Maggot and Botfly Grimm left in their wake and slithered and wormed their way downwards through the bottommost depths of New Vale and into these empty chambers; coalescing into small, bubbling vats of liquid darkness.
One such pool began to form a thin and translucent skin across its' surface, before beginning to rapidly congeal and condense in a truly sickening display; the consistency of the primordial Grimm matter thickening and becoming first viscous and them solid, the muscular black and fleshy substance growing bone white armour plates until what burst from the egg-sac like veil of translucent skin resembled an armoured pod which promptly split open, fleshy tendrils reaching out and connecting it to the vast webs of Grimm matting.
Salem stepped forth.
Her body was still reforming as she strode out of the pod, yet even as the broken crescent moon comprised of chitinous fragments which formed her scythe sprouted from her back and her obsidian robes and armour solidified whilst her flesh and hair took on their proper alabaster hue complete with pulsing veins of midnight black her eyes blazed with hateful red light.
A pained whimpering sound caused her to turn around and see that Pantheon had reformed their own body behind her, their thick layers of bone-white armour solidifying and Flesh-Seeker sinking into the ground behind them as the monstrous creature continued to let out sounds more akin to a wounded animal, their clawed and winding tail coiled around their body whilst they attempted to shield themselves from view behind their wings.
"Stand you worthless fool" Salem demanded harshly; entertaining the notion of simply beheading them for their failures there and then before deciding against it yet Pantheon refused to rise despite her orders and she realised the source of their misery; the psychic feedback of so many Grimm to which Pantheon had been connected in one fell swoop had sent them into shock and they were currently in a near catatonic state as their mind attempted to repair itself.
"No matter" Salem sighed before casting her eyes around her new surroundings and finding them in no way fitting, barely more than a hole to lick ones' wounds in; yet as she reached out into the Grimm Hive Mind once again she saw that the immediate threat to her network of Spawning Pits beneath the city had ended, though she would examine them more closely and it seemed infinitely less likely to her that her enemies would kill hundreds of thousands of civilians and destroy their own stronghold in order to perform an air-strike on this particular hiding place.
The Queen of Grimm allowed herself a smile as she realised that her plans were still in place.
Team FADE had known that something was amiss from the moment their transport had drawn close enough for them to see New Vale and yet had been powerless to intervene.
From their approaching transport Team FADE, Brick and their pilot had each seen vast pillars of acrid black smoke rising from the city; the fires and activity seeming to be largely focused on a certain spot, which the six of them quickly realised with a sinking feeling of stomach churning dread was the docks; one of the weaker points of New Vale's defences simply by virtue of their nature.
A swarm of Bull-Heads and other transports alongside other smaller craft including fighter and bomber craft flitted through the skies above the docks, many of the transports bore Halo Academies' emblem on their wings whilst others had been deployed from either the various aerial platforms hovering above the city as part of its' defensive perimeter or from the several larger warships which hung in the air above the city, circling the burning docks like gargantuan metallic birds of prey with their vast weapon batteries scouring the waters for anything that might dare approach the coastline from the sea.
Hailing those ships had yielded little results however and Team FADE had been surprised to be informed, upon contacting the Captain of one such vessel and requesting to be integrated into the ongoing operation that the matter was in hand and no further forces were required.
Additional attempts to reason with the Captain of the warship had been made only to fall upon deaf ears before the communication channels had been closed leaving the students baffled and Brick grumbling under his breath, explaining to them that the current situation had all the signs of a heavy handed information blackout being enforced directly by the Kingdoms' ruling Council and whilst none of them liked it there was currently very little they could do without risking their own freedom or complicating matters further unintentionally; leaving Team FADE forced to deal with an enemy far more heinous than the Grimm, bureaucracy.
Their transport had finally landed at Styx and Stones Industrials' industrial estate and upon disembarking Team FADE had found the place to be a bustling hive of activity far beyond what they assumed to be its' norm; an almost endless supply of building materials being loaded into a fleet of transports whilst those involved in the operation stated bluntly that whilst they may not know exactly what was going on at the docks or any specifics beyond an attack taking place, they would certainly be ready to begin work the moment the all-clear was given.
It was here that Team FADE had parted ways with Brick, the mercenary leaving to find the rest of the Inedibles who had flown ahead of them and Doctor Loam; although the hired gun had promised to take a small team of his best people as close to whatever was happening at the docks as he could get and learn what he could. Team FADE however had been forced to report to an office within the companies' building and spend well over an hour in a debriefing to explain in painstaking detail exactly what had transpired on their mission and why they felt that the operation needed to be abandoned before a group of men and women in business suits who had likely never set foot outside of the protection of the Kingdoms were satisfied.
Finally however they were free.
"Oh thank Oum, I thought I was actually gonna reach over that table and wring someone's neck!" Diamond exclaimed
"Right!" Arctus let out a long, slow sigh as he tried to focus himself "Fluffy someone's gotta say this man but honestly….even if Styx and Stones do offer us a job after this, I'm not sure we should take it" Felix raised an eyebrow in response to that assertion though before he could comment on it Eagle spoke up to remind them all of what was important.
"We can worry about that later" she insisted, concern filling her crimson eyes "We need to know what's going on"
"Let me call Uncle Qrow" Felix nodded "Whatever the Council are trying to hide he'll know about it" with that the Lion Faunus produced his Scroll and quickly began contacting his Great Uncle; the device ringing for a few moments before the video call was answered.
"Fluffy, Eagle it's good to see you-"
"Yeah we just got got back from our mission and-"
"No time for talking" Qrow interrupted, silencing Felix immediately "Things have all gone to shit; that fake Yang that we've been looking for started an attack on the docks and drew all the Grimm in-"
"Holy Oum that's what that is?" Felix's eyes widened in surprise
"Listen" Qrow insisted harshly "There's more going on, there must be but right now I need you to carry on Team NEON's mission for me-
"What happened?"
"Damn it Felix, focus on-
"WHAT HAPPENED?" the Faunus's voice rose to a furious snarl and Qrow was forced to run a hand through his grey hair in annoyance, quickly making the decision of how much information to give
"They ran into a series of proto-Spawning Pits under the city" he grizzled veteran eventually sighed, drawing gasps of horrified surprise from each of Team FADE "Nyanza was hurt, Helios called me and I sent Rover; he got Nyanza to a hospital and the rest of Team NEON are getting civilians out of the power grid" there was a moment of tense silence, Felix knew that there was more to the situation than he was being told and the idea of his boyfriend and oldest friend being injured or in danger left ice running through the Lion Faunus's veins and a lump in his throat which he quickly swallowed as he stood straight and focused; forcing his worries aside
"What do you need us to do?"
"I expected them to run into something like what they did, just not in those numbers" Qrow lamented "Team NEON rigged a series of thermal charges but Nyanza dropped the detonator when he was injured. Rover ripped his way into the tower through an old access point which I'm sending you the coordinates for along with where the detonator is, I need you to get into the rat-runs under the city and retrieve the detonator, get clear and pull the trigger"
"Civilians-" Diamond's concerns were quickly alleviated
"Have already been evacuated" Qrow's eyes became distant and he seemed to stare straight passed the students, as if he saw the faces of others who had fallen in the line of duty before them "I wouldn't ask you to do this, but you're the only people I have on hand and something bigger is going on, the attack was a distraction for something I can sense it"
"We'll do it" Felix assured him "Send us those coordinates and we'll handle it"
"Report back when you do" Qrow nodded before ending the call and leaving Team FADE standing just outside of the industrial estate that they had returned to, the normalcy of the scene juxtaposed harshly with the situation they had found themselves in.
Without a single word the four Hunters gave each other looks that conveyed countless emotions, worry, suspicion, unspoken yet implicit trust and above all simple determination.
Team FADE set off once they received the coordinates and prepared themselves for whatever they might find.
Ren and Nora had been warned.
Qrow had held them back as he took charge of overseeing the counter-attack against what had been described as a rogue Huntress on a rampage, inadvertently drawing Grimm towards the city. That explanation had been laughably false and the veteran Huntsman who had served alongside the married couple in Winter Schnee's black-ops unit in the war against Salem had explained to them that this was a deliberate attempt to draw attention away from some other goal, which Qrow feared may be the academy itself; he had ordered Ren and Nora to remain behind as the other Professors were deployed to the incursion along with the students.
He had also warned them that the attacker may be wearing the face of Pyrrha Nikos, though there was no warning that could adequately prepare them for the reality.
"Nora Valkyrie" the older, battle-scarred Pyrrha with mechanical forearms snarled, her voice almost vibrating with an eagerness that spoke of insatiable hate and bloodlust "I challenge you to single combat, armed and to the death"
It was Ren that answered her
"Who are you really?" he demanded as he took a single step forwards, placing himself in front of his wife, eyes filled with unfettered anger whilst tears fell from them in streams as his teeth clenched and his voice wavered and cracked
"You're not really her!" he continued, growing louder and more enraged with each word "You're not really Pyrrha! So show us who you really are stop hiding behind-"
"Shh" the Bandit Queen raised a single cybernetic finger to her lips and silenced him the way one might an upset child, striding between the twin rows of golden statues before coming a stop perhaps twenty feet away from the steps leading to Halo Academies' grand entrance
"In all honesty Lie this doesn't concern you; you could walk away from this right now, in fact I advise it….you're not one of my Queen's intended targets and I have no feud with you" her smile widened and became more sinister as her acid green eyes seemed to flash with malevolence "After all, I've already killed you once"
"What are you talking about? Pyrrha's dead, she would never hurt any of us!" Nora demanded, placing herself beside her husband despite his efforts to shield her and drawing Magnhild, acutely aware of the way Pyrrha's eyes narrowed and the sight of the unfurling hammer.
"Perhaps the Pyrrha you knew….I've read about her, she was an interesting girl; misguided to say the least but certainly a respectable warrior" Pyrrha made no effort to ready her own weapons, whilst Milo and Akuo were in her hands her arms remained at her sides, splayed wide so that Ren and Nora could see the point where her cybernetic limbs met her flesh.
"But I am not that Pyrrha" the Bandit Queen continued feeling compelled to explain; after all, her vengeance wouldn't give her the same satisfaction if the target of her hatred didn't know why they had to die "There are many Remnants, countless variations of how history could have unfolded and I hail from one where you took my honour Nora….I killed my Remnant's Lie Ren in honourable single combat at the Vytal Tournament, I gave him a warriors' death as custom dictates. Naturally you didn't appreciate my kindness and as my Queens' war against the Kingdoms continued we met again on the field of battle"
"And that Nora took your arms" Nora realised, eyes widening; still unable to believe that what she was hearing was the truth yet sensing deep in her gut that it must be. Pyrrha scoffed coldly at the assumption.
"Warriors are wounded in every battle, were it that simple I would have honoured you as a worthy opponent" Pyrrha snarled, mechanical fists whining as she clenched them
"You crushed my arms and refused to kill me. You refused to end the battle" Her voice wavered as though the memory still haunted her "Then you turned to Cinder and made to take the Maiden Powers from her; I had to stop you….I channelled every ounce of my remaining strength into my Semblance, the human mind is controlled by electromagnetic impulses; you never awoke from the coma I put you in. So here we are Nora Valkyrie of Team RVEN, you made me resort to the foulest trickery and I still couldn't kill you and yet you wouldn't let me die. Now, space and time have been torn apart so that our battle can end"
"We're not the people you knew, this Remnant has nothing to do with your war" Ren's voice was almost a sob as he pleaded "We don't have to do this"
"Yes we do" Nora stated coldly, twirling Magnhild and bracing herself "She won't let this happen any other way"
"Always more observant than people gave you credit for" Pyrrha chuckled darkly before stretching her arms outwards, the rippling blackness of her Semblance engulfing her as she gave this Remnants' Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie a taste of her power and showed them just how far removed she was from the bashful little girl, ashamed of her own abilities that they had known.
The golden statues in honour of fallen students came to life.
Giant metallic constructs began to move in a cacophony of screeching metal, each of them leaping from the plinths that supported them and forming a circle around the three soon to be combatants, each then taking several giant steps backwards and pointing their weapons into the centre of the arena they had formed.
"Shall we?" Pyrrha twirled her sword and extended it out into its' spear form as she raised her shield.
Nora and Ren burst forwards in unison and with stunning coordination, but this was a fight that Pyrrha Nikos had prepared herself for both physically and mentally for almost a decade and met their attack with equal force and skill.
Nora hurtled directly at her, Magnhild trailing behind her as she raced between the twin rows of now empty plinths and brought the hammer around in an earth shattering swing aimed at Pyrrha's ribs.
The blow never reached her.
A quick flick of the Bandit Queen's Semblance forced Nora off balance as her weapon was dragged downwards, allowing Pyrrha to leap onto its' shaft and deliver a swift kick to the diminutive woman's' chin as she used the hammer as a springboard. Ren had leapt from one empty plinth to the next in an attempt to catch her unaware as she grappled with his wife; Instead Pyrrha brought her shield crashing into his face as they collided and instantly robbed him of his momentum, kicking him in the gut and using the action to launch herself into a backflip that saw her land on the opposite vacant platform, her enemies crumpled and reeling beneath.
Just as they were destined to be.
Ren was the first to recover and aimed the Storm-Flowers and the redhead woman's head and torso, the twin machine-pistols unleashing a barrage of bullets which Pyrrha countered by using her Semblance to have her spear levitate at her side before extending a now empty palm forward and simply halting the bullets in mid air.
With a cruel smile she made a chopping motion and her spear surged downwards, directly towards Ren's face whilst the history teacher found himself rooted to the spot by magnetic forces acting on every piece of metal he carried; his reactions were swift as always however and he caught the blade of the weapon between his palms a moment before it could strike him.
Then Nora reminded Pyrrha of her presence, swinging her hammer into the platform on which she stood and discharging several of Magnhild's grenades as she did so resulting in an explosion which sent the twisted mirror of her long lost friend flying into the air. Pyrrha however was far from beaten and used her Semblance twice in quick succession, the first was to hurl Akuo at towards Nora with a roar of pure hatred and whilst the smaller woman managed to avoid the blow by weaving aside the redheads' true intention became clear as the edge of the shield ripped into the shaft of Magnhild, breaking the weapon in half in a shower of sparks and flying components; the second was to use envelop herself in her Semblance and use the metal beneath the surface of the campus to send herself crashing downwards like a golden meteor and crater the ground around her as she flung her opponents aside.
They were on her again in an instant
Without her weapon to be used against her Nora was a dangerous opponent indeed and she unleashed a maelstrom of punches, kicks and elbow strikes which the Bandit Queen struggled to keep pace with, though she succeeded and began to gain ground after the smaller woman's initial onslaught until she was caught unawares by a pair of blades hooking into the back of her armour and dragging her backwards from her feet, Ren's foot colliding with her back as they fell to they fell to the ground.
"NORA GO!" whatever they intended went unspoken between them and Pyrrha was preoccupied by ripping herself free of the Storm-Flowers' retractable blades; flipping from her back onto her hands and knees she saw Milo laying behind Ren where he had discarded it and made a show of reaching out to summon the spear back to herself with her Semblance, its' shaft positioned to strike the backs of Ren's knees as he leapt to his feet.
Ren back-flipped over the telegraphed attack only to fall prey to Pyrrha's true intentions, before his feet could touch the ground her shield struck him in the chest and sent his limp and dazed body clattering off the golden shield of a statue of Jaune Arc; Akuo flew to her hand a moment before he could aim and fire his weapons and their salvo pattered harmlessly off of its' surface before Pyrrha shifted Milo into its' rifle form and fired an explosive round into his chest, following up by using her Semblance to animate the statue of Team JNPR's leader and have it swat him away.
"A peaceful life has cost you your strength, you should have died a hero when you had the chance" the Bandit Queen noted dispassionately as she watched him struggle to rise before disregarding him and shifting Milo back into its' sword form as she turned her attention to Nora.
What she saw terrified her and forced memories of lying broken and screaming on the battlefield to the surface of her mind.
Nora had rushed beyond the golden statues and a large gyroscope like structure had formed around her whilst she had ripped into the machinery below it and seized a pair of power cables; lightning danced across her body and her turquoise eyes crackled and blazed; Pyrrha was sure that if it were night then the floodlights around them would have flickered and failed dramatically as Nora used her Semblance to absorb the bulk of Halo Academies' power into herself.
"NO!" Pyrrha was almost entirely engulfed by the darkness of her own Semblance as it manifested, becoming for an instant a living shadow with a pair of hateful, vivid green eyes staring out from within. The gyroscope which had once been used to launch students for their initiations tore itself apart and formed cruel hooked claws of twisted metal which grasped Nora's arms and hoisted her above the ground, a roar of exertion from the enraged redhead tore the ground from beneath her opponent until she was suspended above a chasm down into the depths of the currently inactive anti-gravity generators, leaving nothing in reach for Nora to drain electricity from.
"I think not" Pyrrha chuckled coldly as she stalked towards her trapped victim, it had taxed her but it was over; her victory was at hand and the battle had been a tremendous one, all that remained was to land the killing blow before turning her attention towards Goodwitch and Branwen whom she assumed were hiding somewhere within the campus.
"Ripping into the power supply of wherever you find yourself fighting" Pyrrha chuckled "It's a clever trick and a powerful Semblance, such a shame that the last Nora Valkyrie I fought used it as well"
"My names' not Nora Valkyrie" the diminutive and copper haired woman answered as she continued to struggle, though her face morphed into a twisted smirk as she added "I'm Nora Ren"
Pyrrha knew immediately that she had made an error and turned around just in time to see Ren heft the severed head of Magnhild and fire a cluster of grenades faster than she could hope to react.
The first grenade impacted against her shield and sent her sliding backwards, Pyrrha thought she might be sent toppling into the hole she had torn into the academy until the remaining explosives ripped Nora free of her bonds and the smaller woman grabbed her the scruff of the neck, held her over her head and delivered a single blow which seemed to make the entire academy tremble.
Pyrrha wasn't aware of sailing through the air, one moment she was in Nora's grip a moment later she was bouncing and rolling to a stop after having been smashed through several statues and empty plinths and tearing a trench into the ground. As she rose to her feet on shaky legs and summoned her dropped weapons back to her she glanced down at her armour and saw that the tightness in her chest could be explained by the breastplate of her armour having collapsed, with a mere thought she repaired the crumpled metal though there was nothing she could do for the fact that it had been scorched, blackened and weakened by the blow.
"We can stop this now" Nora's voice forced the Bandit Queen to focus her attention on her adversaries again "You wanted a fight to restore your honour, you've had it. You can walk away now and find peace" Nora's eyes and fists still crackled with electricity though it was greatly lessened, clearly she hadn't been able to charge herself up and become the titanic force of destruction that she had the potential to be, whilst beside her Ren had reloaded the Storm-Flowers and was eyeing her warily.
Pyrrha let out an entirely mirthless laugh
"Did you ever know me? Or was this Remnants' Pyrrha utterly ashamed of who she was?" the redhead demanded as she shifted her stance and readied her weapons "This kind of combat is what I was born for! This is destiny!" with that she charged, sprinting toward and using her Semblance to send the pipes and other metal beneath her feet surging upwards; forming a makeshift ramp which she sprinted upwards and leapt into the air.
Ren and Nora shared solemn but resolute expressions as they leapt aside from the spear that came hurtling towards them, signalling the renewal of their hostilities.
The journey towards the Hive Tower which Team NEON had been rescued from beneath had been a tense one, the severity of the situation juxtaposed starkly against how oddly normal their approach seemed to be. Despite the attack from the sea causing the districts of New Vale's capital closest to the sea being locked down, vast barriers between each district closing and sealing them shut whilst Hunters worked alongside the military scouring the area for any remaining Grimm and their destination had been evacuated, the thousands upon thousands of inhabitants of the Hive Tower being relocated to elsewhere in the city or the aerial platforms which hung above it the majority of the city was left unharmed and unaffected, the denizens of New Vale having experienced so many similar tribulations in such a short time that life continued on seemingly without a care and services such as public transport remained in operation.
This had proved to be fortuitous for Team FADE as when they had departed for their mission they had done so without the Lightning Bug, meaning that Eagle did not have her car at her disposal and so the four of them, still covered in mud and sweat from their mission had taken the cities' monorails and been the subject of countless confused stares and amused whispers until they had arrived as close to the evacuated tower as the service would take them; swiftly crossing the rest of the distance on foot and searching for the opening Rover Tan had made to get Nyanza to a hospital.
Upon finding the entrance to the rat-runs Team FADE and descended beneath the city and into the horrors that seemed to be laying in wait for them.
"Don't get hit by those stingers!" Felix warned as Hack and Slash tore through the bloated and pulpy bodies of Maggot and Botfly Grimm by the score, obsidian viscera splashing against a moment before it dissolved into nothingness in a revolting display that made his stomach churn even despite his experience in fighting the Creatures of Grimm.
"Really? No shit!" Diamond snapped as she reached out from behind one of Arctus's Glyphs to fire a volley of Ice Dust rounds into the approaching tide of Grimm, including the Maggot Grimm attempting to slither up the shields' glowing surface whilst the Bear Faunus's laser weapon burned putrid and distended bodies apart in flashes of searing light until the stench of rotting and burning flesh hung in the air assaulting his nostrils. Eagle attempted to fight with her usual flair, her Semblance allowing her to weave around the disgusting monsters she fought even in the cramped confines of their current location, her black bladed sword bursting through fleshy skulls with ease; she soon realised however that they were vastly outnumbered and that that a more heavy handed approach needed to be taken
"Guys, we need to hit 'em all at once!" she declared
"You heard her!" Felix called out "Form up!" he watched as Eagle shifted into her avian form once again and soared passed him as he retreated backwards, shifting his weapons into their machine-pistol forms and unloading countless rounds into the steadily approaching Grimm until he stood alongside his team-mates at one end of a narrow corridor, the tide of slithering and hovering monsters approaching from a single direction.
"Eagle get Sentinel ready" Arctus instructed as he planted his feet and conjured a vast Glyph which expanded outwards to fill the limited space of the rat-run; a moment later the incandescent form of his Minotaur construct burst forth and rampaged through the tide of Grimm, doing likely catastrophic damage to the infrastructure of the Hive Tower above but that was a price that Team FADE were more than willing to pay, a moment later Eagle drove her shield into the ground and Sentinel unfolded; the android aiming and opening fire on what few Grimm remained the moment its' singular optic flickered into life.
"Think that's all of 'em" Felix murmured the moment the ringing in his ears that the maelstrom of gunfire had caused subsided; as if taking his words as a challenge a lone maggot Grimm burst upwards only to be instantly quartered by Arctus's sword and Diamond's glaive.
"Come on" the Lion Faunus continued "We're close" nodding in agreement his friends followed his lead and the four of them delved deeper into the underbelly of New Vale. Continuing onwards with no resistance other than a handful of Grimm which were dispatched by a well placed round from Diamond until eventually Arctus turned to Felix as a now familiar scent reached his sensitive nose
"You can smell that right?" he asked, his disgusted expression making it very clear that this was a discussion that he would rather not be having "Burning meat….and not what the Grimm smelled of" Felix nodded silently until the four of them rounded a corner perilously close to their destination and saw something that almost made the Lion Faunus wretch
"Oh shit" he choked out as he saw what was undeniably half of a persons' leg, moreover a single detail stood out to the blonde and made his eyes fill with tears and his fists clench with white-knuckled rage in the same instant
"That's one of Nyanza's trainers" he managed to grind out
"Qrow told us he got hurt" Diamond noted gently
"Hurt, not that he lost a leg!" the Lion Faunus snapped, struggling to keep calm in spite of the macabre sight before him and taking several deep breaths to steady himself whilst silently resolving to find out what hospital his childhood friend had been taken to the moment their mission was complete
"Come on" Eagle urged him, tone soft but insistent "Let's get that detonator and get out of here" with that Felix swallowed a sudden lump in his throat and the four of them continued towards the coordinates they had been given before finally coming to a ladder from which a mass of Grimm webbing sprouted
"This is it" Arctus noted "I'll take point, cover me" the towering Faunus manifested a Glyph in front of himself as a shield and leapt down into the hole, his team-mates behind him again a moment later and all of them shocked to see the narrow and unlit corridor entirely devoid of Grimm
"Think they all crawled out after Team NEON?" Diamond offered "That was probably them we dealt with back there"
"Doesn't matter" Felix noted bluntly, nodding to something laying several dozen feet away "There's the detonator" the small and blocky device lay on the ground whilst the last charge Nyanza had planted could be seen further ahead where it had rolled to a stop; seeing nothing to stop him Felix began to walk slowly towards their target.
He never reached it.
A blast of concussive force, like a gust of wind with the rage and power of a wrathful titan hurled Team FADE backwards, slamming them into the wall behind them with crushing force and when the four of them scrabbled to their feet they saw that they were no longer alone.
A single figure stood before them, an alabaster skinned woman whose age was impossible to guess with braids of snow white hair trailing down her back and wearing robes and armour that seemed to be made from Grimm tissue; eyes glowing a furious red as she hefted a crescent-bladed scythe all whilst an aura of palpable wrongness and primal terror cascaded from her in waves.
"I know all of you" the woman noted as she took a single step forwards "I remember you from Ozymandias. Hunters….Hunters who enjoy interfering with things that are beyond you just as much as your families did. That interference ends today"
With that Salem charged at them.
Helios had been unable to stay at the hospital with Nyanza and found himself disgusted by his own weakness for it.
He, Ether and Olivine had rushed Sooty and his engineering crew to safety, leaving the equipment that had formed their base camp behind and frantically rushing towards the hospital his partner had been taken to the moment that the three of them were above ground.
Upon arriving Helios had been left broken by the revelation that he had failed.
The bushy-tailed Feline Faunus had been placed in a controlled coma and taken into isolation as the doctors and surgeons saw that the parasitic Grimm had continued to infect his body even after the amputation of his right leg. Specialists had been called in and an armed guard had been placed around Nyanza's unconscious form as his motionless body had been placed into an Atlesian made stasis pod designed to stave off even the most horrific of fatal injuries.
This had all been done before the rest of Team NEON had arrived and the attack on the docks had resulted in New Vale's coastline being locked down and transport between the mainland and the isle of Patch had been halted entirely, leaving Nyanza's parents stranded and unable to come to their sons' side. Nyanza had been alone and terrified in his final waking moments' and the knowledge was enough for Helios to be utterly sickened at himself and his failures, the armoured redhead fleeing the hospital in grief and shame and leaving Ether and Olivine behind, the pair promising to contact him if any new information was given.
Helios had made his way through the city and into the ruins that had once been the Exclusion Zone; intending to vent his rage on Qrow Branwen but mostly needing some solitude and space to work through his cluttered emotions.
As he had drawn close to the grounded anti-gravity platform which housed the academy and its' campus however he realised that something was amiss beyond the absence of students and overall air of urgency caused by an attack on part of the city.
A series of booming impacts shaking the air sent him springing into action.
Sprinting towards the academy Helios gathered his Semblance around him and was enveloped in the darkness of his Aura as he inverted his command of gravity and leapt upwards, flinging himself several stories into the air in a single inhuman bound; arcing towards the edge of the campus and grasping onto it with both hands before pulling himself upwards and readying his weapons.
The sight that greeted him made Helios freeze in abject shock for a moment.
Pyrrha Nikos, or at the very least the woman who appeared to be her was locked in combat with Professors Ren and Nora amidst the wreckage of a courtyard that had been all but entirely destroyed.
Helios watched as Ren flipped off of the surface of Pyrrha's raised shield and attempted to launch into a flurry of attacks only to be kicked back and sent crashing to the ground by his opponent; Nora quickly rushed into the fray with her fists wreathed in arcing bolts of lightning yet despite her immense power the Bandit Queen proved herself to be the more capable fighter, blocking a pair of crushing blows with her spear before driving the edge of her shield into the smaller woman's hip and bringing her knee crashing into Nora's face as she fell, keen to press the advantage Pyrrha focused her Semblance on her shield so that it span like the blade of a buzz-saw and hurled it Ren who was struggling to rise once again.
Milo was sent ricocheting away and sinking into the ground as it came to a stop, knocked off course by another shield.
"WHO DARES INTERVENE!" Pyrrha turned to the source of the attack and her eyes widened at the sight of her fellow Nikosi "Helios, did Kataigida not teach you our ways boy? This is honourable combat, walk away now!"
"Lower your weapon and surrender" Helios snarled, with his shield laying discarded some distance away he would be unable to form the ranged form of Olympus Enforcer yet he still readied his sword and prepared himself; seeing this caused Pyrrha to collapse Milo into its' own sword form and the two locked eyes and began to circle each other slowly, Ren and Nora momentarily forgotten
"Deserter?" Pyrrha demanded icily and somehow Helios sensed that the question was genuine
"Given leave of my duties"
"To serve the Kingdoms as a lapdog" the elder Nikosi spat "Your mother is a fool boy….I'll be sure to depose her and take my rightful place"
The threat was all the incentive Helios needed to rush towards his opponent with a wordless roar of rage and leap into the air, intending to stab downwards and skewer the heart of this sickening parody of his people. Pyrrha's Semblance struck him like a solid object and the redhead found himself seized and thrown to the floor by its' grip on the armour encasing his arms. Not wasting a moment the Bandit Queen charged and drove a booted foot into Helios's gut as he struggled to pull himself to his feet, the attack righting him but forcing the air from his lungs whilst his opponent continued her onslaught; the younger warriors' Aura rippling around him as each frantic attempt to block or parry her slashes was forced aside by her manipulation of his sword.
Then Nora collided with Pyrrha, the ground shaking with the force of her attack.
"GET AWAY FROM MY STUDENT!" she roared as she clasped both fists together and swung a mighty blow at her enemies' gut, crumpling Pyrrha's already weakened armour further still and lifting her from the ground as her body was folded in half by the blow.
Before Nora could continue her assault, her fists already brought over her head for another hammer-blow Pyrrha rolled into a crouch and countered by summoning both Akuo and Helios's shield, her magnetic Semblance turning them into a whirling barrier of destruction that enveloped her and lashed out to smash her enemies aside until Helios drove his sword into the spinning barrier and neatly cleaved his own shield in half. Pyrrha launched Akuo at Nora's face, sending her flying backwards with a bloody gash cut into her nose; the Bandit Queen sprung upwards from her crouch with a roared challenge as she prepared to charge her adversaries.
She was brought to an abrupt halt by Ren.
"I never wanted to do this, never to you" he told her, tears streaming down his face as he placed his palms over her temples and held her fast "I'm sorry"
With that Lie Ren unleashed his greatest attack.
Over the course of his life the taciturn man had realised that when he used his Semblance to calm traumatised civilians or students to mask their presence that he didn't simply cover their negative emotions in a psychic blanket of nothingness, he in fact absorbed a large part of that terror, grief or rage into himself and buried it within the deepest recesses of his own mind where the Grimm would never find it; his body became washed out in sepia tones whilst Pyrrha's body seemed to glow, shadows between each plate of her armour lengthening and the colours of her body growing more and more vibrant with a steadily more striking contrast between them; the Bandit Queen letting out a piercing scream of pain as decades of stolen emotions were forced into her mind, leaving blood trickling from her nose and behind her screwed shut eyes whilst Nora and Helios watched in pure horror, both unsure if they should risk attempting a killing blow simply to put her out of her misery.
Until Pyrrha broke free.
A low bass note preceded a wave of power that rippled the air and flung Helios, Ren and Nora aside in different directions as the Bandit Queen unleashed an electromagnetic pulse along with a blast of pure unfocused Aura.
Electronics within Halo Academy failed and the wave travelled outwards for miles, Pyrrha had intended to recreate the attack which had subdued, if not killed her own Remnants' Nora Valkyrie yet as she saw each of her enemies struggling to stand it became clear to her that Ren's own Semblance had left her unable to exert her full might.
"Then we settle this by the sword" Pyrrha panted, wiping blood away from her face and summoning Milo to her hand with her Semblance; only for the blade to be dragged downwards and wrested away from her grasp by another, equally powerful Semblance.
"No, we settle in this in single combat, unarmed" Helios retorted as he rose to his feet, weak an unsteady with blood dripping from his nose and ears after Pyrrha's pulse had left him dazed and blinded for a few moments. The elder Nikosi nodded with something akin to pride
"And to the death, naturally" she added before charging, she was upon Helios in an instant and landed a blow to his unprotected chest which sent him sliding backwards several feet and without hesitation Pyrrha brought both fists over her head and made to bring them crashing down on his shoulders.
Helios caught her wrists.
"Grappling?" Pyrrha noted with a note of bemusement which failed to hide the exhaustion and desperation in her voice "Is this really how you want this to end?"
"I wanted you to stand down" Helios countered as the two of them struggled against one another "You chose this" hearing this the Pyrrha let out a snarl and focused what little of her Aura still remained into her Semblance; Helios immediately let out a cry of pain as the armoured bracers around his forearms that bore Nikosi glyphs and runes and were as much a part of his cultural heritage as his armour began to collapse, the bones in his forearms began to fracture and blood ran down his arms as their edges bit into his flesh
Yet he refused to let go.
Instead Pyrrha was treated to a sudden crushing tightness in her chest and daring to glance down for a moment she felt an odd pang of countless emotions all at once as she saw that Helios's own Semblance manifested itself the same way as hers; far more importantly however the younger warrior had focused his gravity warping Semblance on her torso and was inflicting all the pressure of the deepest ocean on her breastplate. The two grappled and struggled for seconds that seemed to stretch out for an eternity, each of them refusing to relent even in the face of their seemingly ensured demise until finally Pyrrha felt the last of her strength leaving her and locked eyes with Helios, one pair of vibrant green orbs meeting another as she uttered her last words
"Give me a Nikosi funeral and tell our people of this battle" with that her Aura failed and she was subjected to the full destructive might of Helios's Semblance, her armour crumpling and her torso simply imploding in a shower of gore that spattered across Helios's face.
With a scream of rage and grief He sank to his knees and a moment later Ren and Nora were beside him, both of them bloodied and ashen faced.
"Oh my Oum" Nora gasped, eyes wide with horror as she struggled to comprehend what had just transpired
"Helios we need to get you to a medic" Ren urged, the removal of decades of buried emotions plucked from a thousand minds giving him a new sense of clarity; not that he needed it to see that the wounds Pyrrha had inflicted on Helios's arms were serious.
"No" Helios managed to force between his sobs "Take me to Qrow! He….we all need to know what's going on!" Ren and Nora silently nodded and helped Helios to his feet, though the idea that whatever answers they received would be pleasant seemed unlikely in the extreme.
Salem was an opponent entirely unlike anything Team FADE had encountered before.
The Queen of Grimm fought with all of the inhuman speed and grace of the Wizard whom she had used to tear her way back into reality, coupled with the ferocity of the most savage of the Creatures of Grimm, the unmeasured skill of a Hunter who had lived several lifetimes and a simply insurmountable resilience which saw her body knit itself together in an instant on the few occasions that one of the desperate and struggling Hunters who stood against managed to land a blow.
The maze of Rat-runs had been torn apart in the fury of their battle and now an open area in which to fight had been turn into the space below one of New Vale's Hive Towers, the tremors caused by thundering impacts leaving debris raining down on the combatants and shaking the evacuated metropolis above them with no signs of stopping.
Felix and Eagle had charged in unison, swords drawn an approaching from Salem's sides only for the Queen of Grimm to slam the base of her scythe into the ground and unleash a shock-wave that lifted the pair from their feet and hurl them backwards. Felix hit the ground in a crumpled heap and rolled to a stop before glancing up and seeing that Arctus had used a Glyph as a shield to weather the worst of the blast whilst Diamond had used her own Semblance to leap onto the ceiling and avoid it entirely, the sniper having readied her glaive as she sprinted towards Salem intending to decapitate her in a single slash. The crescent-moon blade of Salem's scythe lashed out at blinding speed at caught Diamond's midsection and whilst her Aura managed to withstand the blow she was still plucked from the ceiling and sent crashing into the ground, pinned in place as Salem took a single step towards her, her gauntleted fingers growing long, serrated talons.
Before those talons could be used a shimmering and incorporeal Minotaur struck Salem like a speeding train.
The construct exploded into a shower of fragments like falling stars which flickered out of existence as they fell to the ground; Salem torn the summoned Grimm asunder with a single mighty swing of her bone scythe yet Arctus refused to relent and promptly unleashed another of his larger constructs at his human opponent, namely the head of the Hydrakken which swallowed Salem whole before its' surface began to crystallise and solidify as the vast amount of Ice Dust the Bear Faunus had infused the Glyph with was activated, turning the construct into an icy tomb.
It was destroyed from within in an instant and Arctus simply readied his broadsword and charged whilst Diamond returned to her feet and Eagle used her Semblance to fly into the fray, sword and shield in hand; the three of them attacked Salem in a way of blades to seemingly no effect, her speed was such that she seemed to be everywhere at once and yet nowhere at all and her strength was enough for the students' Auras to flicker and ripple with each blow that hurled them from their feet.
Felix however had seen his opening and rushed to take advantage of it.
The Lion Faunus crouched low and all but threw himself across the ground to snatch the detonator that had been Team FADE's entire reason for venturing below the Kingdoms' Capital without drawing Salem's attention, a moment later sheathing his swords and rushing over to where the explosive thermal charge Nyanza had planted lay
"FALL BACK!" he called, the Lion Faunus sprinted towards his battered and exhausted team-mates as they attempted to retreat; Arctus throwing up a Glyph to buy them a few more seconds as Eagle had Sentinel unleash a hailstorm of bullets, which Salem deflected with a twirl of her scythe at a speed that rendered it a simple blur of midnight black.
"Get a shield up!" Felix barked as he sprinted passed Arctus, his cousin barely having a moment to nod in understanding; sudden comprehension on Team FADE's faces as the Lion Faunus hurled the thermal charge in his hand directly at Salem and pressed the detonator.
The world erupted into flames.
Thermal charges erupted throughout the rat-runs and the Queen let out a scream of inhuman rage as Grimm matting and nightmarish monsters were simply unmade by the flames that cleansed the tunnels they inhabited. Not content to leave anything to chance Felix sprinted forwards with a roar that matched Salem's own fury, his golden Aura flaring into life around him and the Aura regulator integrated into his cybernetic tail whirring into life as the Faunus prepared to enter his Ultimate Balrog state.
"NO!" Salem's scream seemed to sunder reality around her as she swung her scythe in a wide horizontal arc and unleashed a wave of purest nothingness, a howling void of emptiness with a crimson light around its' edge as if a bleeding wound had been torn into existence itself.
Before Felix could fully enter his invulnerable form or before the wave of darkness could hit him the Lion Faunus was tackled to the ground. From that point events happened to rapidly to fully register in his mind; the first thing he was aware of was that it was Diamond who had tackled him to the ground, the sniper rushing out from behind Arctus's shield to drag Felix out of harms' way; the second thing Felix was aware of was that Salem's attack had ripped through the space Eagle and Arctus had occupied yet the Faunus could see no trace of them.
Then everything around them began to collapse as a section of Hive Towers' ground floor succumbed to the damage done to the structure beneath it and collapsed, sinking in on itself in an avalanche of stone and steel.
"FELIX WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" the next thing Felix knew was that his vision was swimming and his ears were ringing as he regained consciousness; looking around him he saw that he had made it above ground and Diamond was crouched over him, wearing an expression that conveyed unspeakable terror.
"What? Where?" Felix struggled to articulate his confusion as he dragged himself to his feet and realised that the two of them were inside of the evacuated Hive Tower, a yawning chasm close by with glowing flames still casting light on their surroundings as the thermal charges continued to burn and the Faunus quickly realised that Diamond had dragged him to safety, climbing through the rubble and that realisation was followed by a second, crushing epiphany a moment later; he turned to Diamond and saw her cherry red eyes fill with tears as she voiced Felix's worst fears
"Arctus and Eagle were behind us, I don't know where they are" with his stomach plummeting and ice his veins Felix sprinted to the mouth of the rubble filled hole and began trying to pull the debris aside by hand despite his depleted Aura, screaming until his throat was ragged and his voice hoarse
"EAGLE! ARCTUS!" WHERE ARE YOU? CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
No answer came.
Authors Notes:
Okay I want everyone to step back, take a deep breath….and then start taking notes because THAT is how you do a cliffhanger.
Also putting the pitchforks down would be a nice gesture.
I did tell you I had at least one more massive plot twist in store for you.
I initially thought that this chapter was going to be shorter than average because there was a scene involving Adam that I pushed back to Chapter 139 to improve the overall flow of things, but then I had so much fun writing the Pyrrha fight scene it just went on for longer.
Obviously the title of this Chapter was an homage to RWBY Vol.3 and realistically….it probably should have served as a warning that things were gonna get messy this week.
So, this was the penultimate chapter of Vol.10, we wrap this volume up next week and then we've got the penultimate volume of the story….We are actually getting close to the end and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that.
I think I'm gonna post the finale next week and then take a break for a week or so (Yes I'm aware of how many times I've said that)
That being said let's summarise:
You didn't really think the bitch was gone? Surely?
Salem's link to the Grimm Hive Mind is not just because of Pantheon but 'Through' Pantheon, file that away for later.
Yeah in Downward Spiral Salem could hop from one Spawning Pit to another at will, basically fast travel between locations she's already taken over.
I promise Salem actually has a plan and I'm not just making shit up, I wanna show it off 'cos it's cool but I have to hold it back for Vol.11 'cos it's important.
That moment when both sides put their plans into action on the same day and now the big bad has to get involved herself.
Everything about Salem and the Grimm is body horror…..except when she forms out of goop, that's just straight up Ivan Ooze.
No Pantheon isn't out of commission, I just wanted them out of the way for this chapter so Salem and Team FADE could throw down in peace.
So yeah Team FADE got back into the city after Yang and Raffia had thrown down, or at least after she'd been knocked out of her giant body but whilst there was still some sort of Grimm presence in the area that needed to be swept up.
I assume with Hunters being the main line of defence against Grimm and Grim being drawn by negative emotions means that any instance of Hunter going rogue has to be dealt with quietly….or as quietly as you can when they go Megazord Power and throw a ship around.
Bureaucracy stops for nothing, especially not the apocalypse.
The company is doing its' part to help, because under my thick, armour plated layers of reinforced cynicism I'm an idealist at heart.
Oof, that first sign of being disillusioned with the job from Arctus.
That faith in Qrow, because whatever issues and tension Felix has with him; he knows that his Great Uncle really is about the business.
Qrow aint stupid, he knows a diversion when he sees it.
Also yes, Qrow deliberately undersold just how bad things are to get Team FADE moving.
That's why Ren and Nora weren't sent out with the other students, Pyrrha was seen around the campus by Helios a few chapters back, Qrow guessed she might show up whilst Yang was causing havoc.
Take the Vol.7 finale mini-breakdown that Ren had or his berserk mode in the Vol.4 finale and crank it up accordingly….Also Pyrrha just Shh-ing him was Ouch-inducing.
And Pyrrha is basically giving the game away, along with Team FADE actually seeing Salem Qrow and his people can now probably extrapolate what's going on.
And that's what happened between Pyrrha and her timelines' Nora, the thing about Pyrrha shutting down the electromagnetic signals in her opponents' brain was based on something from an X-Men comic, I think it was Professor X who just switched Magneto off.
Team RVEN because there was no Team JNPR.
Admit it, the trick with the statues was fucking cool and you know it.
I'm sorry but the fact that Pyrrha never had a moment where she stopped bullets like Neo in the matrix was a disgrace.
Oof, Magnhild got ripped in half….don't worry it'll fix; it's not the first time she's broken it in this story.
Yes I gave Ren the Vol.7 upgrades to his weapons….we'll say that in this timeline they were actually the inspiration for the Lightning Claws Eagle added to Sentinel.
Bandit Queen Pyrrha is a bitch, she had the Jaune statue swat Ren like a bug….And then paraphrased Bane in the Dark Knight Rising.
Remember "The Yashima Protocol" from First Year? The campus isn't hooked into the entire Cities' power supply but she was trying a scaled down version of that; she used the gyroscope thing from Team FADE's initiation because that was actually gonna be part of the fight with Ozymandias the way I initially planned it…..Unfortunately it's made of metal and that plan was doomed to failure from the start.
"I'm Nora Ren" if you imagined Nora with a big ol' shit-eating grin on her face when she said that I want you to know that you're valid.
She really needs to stop using the D word.
Seriously, New Vale has been slapped about so many times the just go about their business in an attack now….they're like New Yorkers.
Suppose it's a good thing that they didn't bring Eagle's car now, she probably wouldn't have been getting it back if they had.
"No shit" We're all Diamond sometimes aren't we.
The Arctus and Eagle/Sentinel tag-team was nice.
Yes, having them find Nyanza's leg was just me being cruel for giggles.
You knew what was coming, you knew the moment you saw that the corridor was empty and that the detonator wasn't exactly where Nyanza had dropped it.
So Nyanza is currently out of commission, but what if I told you that his condition is more important to the plot than it seems.
It was originally gonna just be Ren & Nora that fought Pyrrha but the more I thought about it Helios had to be the one to land the finishing blow….never meet your idols I suppose.
Yeah, it's really hard to sword fight someone who can move your sword out of the way when you try and block.
So Helios's shield is broken now.
Just take a minute to appreciate how brutal what Ren did was, some pure Green Mile fuckery….that was originally going to be the killing blow of the fight, a mirror to what Pyrrha did to her Remnants' Nora.
You know that the tide had turned the moment Helios used his Semblance to snatch Pyrrha's sword away.
Using the Nikosi armour to hack into him….on many levels, ouch.
The ULTIMATE Semblance Vs Semblance game of chicken, even Felix and Corvid using their Semblances against each other wasn't that nasty.
Oh yeah Salem can definitely throw down, honestly she's a better fighter now than she was before Ruby and Oscar banished her in the Downward Spiral.
Don't mess with the talons, Ruby has scars from 'em.
….These bad-guys really need to not touch Diamond while Arctus is there or vice-versa, it ends badly every single time.
The bomb was specifically called a thermal charge….THERMAL, you knew exactly what Fluffy was gonna do.
All I'm saying is that we've seen Salem use the Wizards' Power to tear a hole in reality before….
Oof, that ending though….Trust me, I know what I'm doing.
Thank you to SumoSnipe and Funlander for their reviews on the last chapter.
Raffia went full "Dinobot -Code of Hero" my Dude.
I think we'll give the puns a pass considering she put on a show.
I mean a lucky rabbits' foot obviously didn't help the rabbit much did it?
If only Team NEON had used landmines instead of something with a remote detonator.
Wow indeed sunshine and there's plenty more where that came from.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review