People have asked about the pairing of this fic. Truth is, I didn't have any in mind when planning it. Still don't. Could be anything.
Unlike other fics I have planned, shipping won't play much of a role here.
Individual System
"Rider Jaune! If we do not act soon, Grimm will be released on civilians!"
Penny's warning rang in Jaune's ears, her voice loud and clear. Even so, he struggled to wrap his mind around it. How did Penny know something like that? How was Penny even speaking to him? Wasn't she back in Atlas?
"Penny? What are you doing here? No, wait! What do you mean Grimm will be released on civilians!?"
Beyond Fort Grey, the only settlement around was a small mining town, wasn't it? That was miles away!
"Look!"
This time Penny's voice came not only from within his helmet but also from the speakers on IXA, allowing Winter to hear her as well. IXA's black visor lit up and projected an image on the wall. Jaune hadn't even known his suit could do that.
It didn't take Jaune long to recognize the projection was a map of the facility. If it was remotely accurate, this place was far larger than Jaune's already considerable estimates.
It wasn't particularly deep, having only three levels in total. However, the lab was several times wider than the building directly above it. If it were located above ground, the whole thing would occupy a greater land area than Fort Grey.
"As IXA's virus started taking control of the system, father allowed me to sift through the data."
Wait, father? Did Penny mean Dr. Polendina?
Dr. Polendina was Penny's father!?
"While looking through the available data, I noticed the virus had triggered a security mechanism." As Penny spoke, several areas in the map became red. "In just a few minutes, every Grimm being held in this facility will be released."
"Can you stop it?" Winter asked. She didn't look at Jaune as she spoke. Instead, her eyes were taking in every detail of the map, already committing it to memory.
"I am afraid not, Specialist Schnee."
It was curious. Penny was speaking quite fast, and there was an undeniable urgency in her voice, yet not a single slurred word had left her mouth. If it were Jaune, he'd be tripping over his own words.
"The virus has not yet run its course. As of this moment, I only have partial control over this facility. Not enough to stop the Grimm from being released in time."
New sections of the map became highlighted, this time in green.
"These are all the emergency exits that exist in the facility. Once released, the Grimm will be herded towards them. From there, they will seek the nearest source of negativity."
Winter frowned.
"The mines,"
The moment she said it, Jaune realized she was right. While Fort Grey and the mines were equidistant from Merlot Industries, one was a military base with well-fed soldiers. The other was a mine ran by the SDC with all the usual troubles that entailed. The negativity would draw the Grimm like moths to flames.
"Precisely! While the defensive perimeter around Merlot Industries should be able to stop most of the Grimm, I am afraid there was no way for it to take into account the location of the emergency exits. Quite a few of them will bypass it entirely. Father has already notified the soldiers of this, but it is imperative we stop the most dangerous Grimm."
And that was where they came in.
"Lead the way."
Penny's limited control over the lab allowed her to lift the locks on the room. From there, she started leading them to the deepest level, where the most dangerous Grimm were kept. The task proved harder than expected as the security systems were not fully disabled yet. The turrets were still up and running, and many droids waited in their path.
Jaune charged through it all like a bull in a china shop. If a droid got in his path, he punched it to pieces. If the turrets fired at him, he kept running. Either Jaune got to the turret before the turret could aim at him or the bullets bounced off his suit.
Winter just obliterated everything in her path.
Even though they were fighting in narrow hallways, her glyphs allowed her an incredible degree of maneuverability. She attacked from above, from the sides, and even from below. Winter was a streak of white zipping around, Jaune only occasionally catching glimpses of her sword. While Jaune left the broken remains of droids in his path, Winter neatly cut them down, each slash a work of art.
It was a stark reminder of what Huntresses were capable of. Even with IXA, Jaune wasn't there yet.
"Penny?" Jaune asked as he threw the head of a droid at another. The power behind his throw was enough for the projectile to go right through the android. "Just what type of Grimm are down here? What can we expect?"
Jaune felt it was a pertinent question, yet Penny's answer surprised him.
"I am afraid I do not know, Rider Jaune."
"You don't know?" Jaune echoed. From the urgency in Penny's voice, he had been guessing they were on their way to meet something like an Ursa Major or even a Giant Deathstalker. If she didn't know what type of Grimm were down there, why was she so sure they were the most dangerous ones?
"Merlot did not classify Grimm by species, but rather by what purpose they served in his research."
Wait, so it was Merlot behind this? Didn't Winter say that guy died over a decade ago?
"Recently captured specimens are left in the first two levels for study and observation," Penny explained as Jaune leaped over a droid. His hands pushed against the ceiling as he came down with a kick. "However, the specimens in the third basement are classified as successes. They are currently restrained but will be released in under a minute if we do not hurry."
There were more questions Jaune wanted to ask. What exactly did it mean that a specimen was successful? What type of people went about experimenting on Grimm anyway? Hell, how did one even do something like that?
Attempts to keep Grimm in captivity failed because the violent nature of the creatures of Grimm led them to destroy themselves trying to escape. Jaune may not have been the best student, but he knew that line by heart because it had been on every single one of his Natural History textbooks. For that reason, most of what people knew about Grimm came from others (usually Huntsmen) interacting with them in the wild, a dangerous task as Grimm existed to kill people.
How were there so many captured Grimm down here?
"You are two hundred yards away from your target. The process of releasing the Grimm is already going underway. Emergency exits are being opened all over the base. You must stop them."
"Is our path a straight line?"
"Affirmative."
Winter did not answer. She acted. A path of glowing white glyphs appeared before them. The moment Jaune stepped on them, he felt his body being propelled by an invisible force. Time slowed down around him, and his surroundings became a blur. One step. Two steps. Three steps. Jaune had never moved faster.
His body crashed into the steel doors like a cannonball, blasting them open.
"Up ahead," Winter called out while Jaune was still trying to orient himself after suddenly having undergone time dilation.
Alarms blared and multicolored lights blinked all around them. On the opposite side of the room, there was a large exit marked with bold red letters over a white sign. However, that was not what Winter was calling his attention to. In the center of the room, there were four large glass tubes, each one large enough to contain five people and then some. Green light glowed within them.
They were breaking.
"We are too late."
The glass shattered, and the dark shapes within burst into action. Three leaped towards them. A fourth dashed for the exit.
Many things happened at once.
First, Winter grabbed Jaune and threw him. The blond didn't even have time to cry in surprise before he was sailing through the air. A myriad of glyphs appeared around the room. Jaune's body bounced between them like a pinball, his body speeding each time he hit them. The path created by the glyphs neatly allowed him to avoid the three Grimm charging at them. His body sailed through the emergency exit.
Winter stepped on her glyphs and followed after Jaune. The Grimm's claws ended up hitting nothing but air. However, unlike Jaune, who was sent all the way through the doorway, Winter created one final glyph at the last moment, which let her stop right in front of the exit. She took a vial of Ice Dust from her holster and stabbed it against the ground.
A sharp, controlled burst of Aura caused a large, thick wall of ice to rise between Winter and Jaune, completely sealing off the exit.
The whole thing did not even take a hundredth of a second.
"What?"
It was not Jaune's greatest moment, yet he felt the reaction was merited as he suddenly found himself separated from Winter by a wall of ice.
"Go chase after the other one," Winter ordered, her sword pointed at her foes. "I'll handle the ones here."
"But there are three of them!" Jaune protested. "Those are not even the only Grimm here and—"
"Arc!" Winter snapped with such authority that Jaune's mouth closed with a very audible click. "You will follow your orders! If you don't, the Grimm that just got away will reach the town and kill everyone there. Do you want that to happen?"
"What? No!"
"Good. Then you know what to do."
Jaune wavered. She was right. He knew Winter was right. He couldn't let that Grimm reach the settlement.
But chasing after it meant leaving Winter alone with three Grimm of unknown strength.
Winter was stronger than him. Jaune had no illusions about that. She had proven that just now by doing a bunch of things before he could so much as blink. In a fight, he might even end up getting in Winter's way.
However, to just leave her alone like this…
Jaune's hands clenched into fists. His teeth gnashed against each other.
Damn it!
Jaune turned away from Winter and ran.
xXx
Winter breathed a little easier after she heard Jaune running.
Sending him away had been a snap judgment, a decision made in less than a thousandth of a second. Yet now that it had been made, Winter could only feel confident she had made the right call.
There were four enemies of unknown strength and only two of them. Of those four, three chose to attack them, and one decided to flee. Fighting them three on two had been a possibility, yet Winter had opted against it. She didn't know how strong these Grimm were or how much time it would have taken them to kill them. It could have been one minute. It could have been ten.
In one minute, the Grimm that escaped would have already reached the outside. According to the map Penny had shown them, they were so far away from the main building, the Grimm would have skipped the containment perimeter entirely. There was a chance it would head for the soldiers, but the negativity coming from the mines would make a far more tempting target.
While mining settlements usually had security, Winter knew how much of a penny-pincher her father was. Whatever security there was would be subpar at best.
Jacques Schnee had probably taken one look at the location and thought to himself, "There is a military base a few miles away, so there's no need to invest too much in security. The soldiers will take care of the Grimm."
Judging by the speed with which the Grimm had moved, five minutes would be more than enough time for the Grimm to reach the town. Had Winter not sent Jaune away, death would have been inevitable. Those deaths would increase the negativity of the miners, drawing even more Grimm to the area. That could not be allowed to happen.
Yes, sending Jaune away and taking the remaining three Grimm on her own was the correct choice.
A nagging voice in the back of her head reminded her that Jaune Arc had been a civilian until just a few months ago. Large Aura or not, he was at best at the level of a combat school student. IXA amplified his best attributes, but that strength came with a time limit, and Jaune had already been using IXA to fight inside the lab.
Winter did her best to ignore that voice. Jaune was not helpless.
Even without IXA, Jaune was more than strong enough to deal with a small pack of Beowolves. With IXA, Winter would place good odds on him defeating an Ursa Major without breaking a sweat.
However, the enemy is not an Ursa or a Beowolf now, is it?
The three Grimm that remained in the room turned to face her, their heads moving in random jerking motions. They were humanoid in shape, each with two long arms and bodies that were entirely too thin. Their skin was pulled so tightly against their bodies Winter could see their bones pushing against it. Like all Grimm, they were as black as tar with bits of hardened white forming armor haphazardly over their bodies.
Their faces were almost completely encased in white, almost as if they wore skulls over them. From the top of their heads, two long horns grew. They almost looked like antlers, but these were no jolly reindeers.
They were Wendigos.
From afar, one may confuse them with Apathy, but their abilities could not be more different. Apathy were weak Grimm who could manipulate a person's emotions with their wails. For an experienced Huntsmen, they were a minor threat unless in extreme situations.
Wendigos were not weak. In spite of their overly thin bodies that looked like they would break if one squeezed them too hard, the Grimm were physical powerhouses that specialized in close combat. They were vicious hunters and a nightmare to face during a snowstorm.
They were not supposed to be glowing green.
Instead of the usual red, the Wendigos had sunken glowing green eyes. Their claws and the spikes that grew from their backs were supposed to be bone white, yet they also glowed green as if someone had dumped fluorescent paint on them.
Winter doubted Merlot's experiments involved something so simple. A pity.
Two icy blue eyes met six green ones. Since Jaune had left, not even ten seconds had passed. Both sides studied each other carefully. No signal passed between them. There was no agreement of any kind.
Yet they all sprung to action simultaneously.
One of the Wendigos rushed to meet her head on, and Winter responded in kind. Two circled around her to catch her in a pincer. They were fast, far faster than any Beowolf. The Wendigos moved with such force their feet tore the steel-plated floor beneath them.
Winter was faster.
She reached the middle Wendigo first, her sword moving in to stab it. To the beast's credit, it lifted its arms to slam them down on her. Five Glyphs appeared around the room, one directly beneath Winter's feet.
Time sped up.
Before the Wendigo could so much as touch her, Winter became a blur of white. She moved not towards the Wendigo but away from it. She flowed from one glyph to the next until she was directly above the Wendigo coming at her from the left, her sword poised for a thrust.
Her weapon slammed into the beast with all the force of her acceleration behind it. The Wendigo was driven into the hard floor so harshly it broke underneath it.
Yet it didn't die.
Her aura-reinforced blade failed to pierce the Wendigo's skin. Winter frowned.
Not good.
To her left, the middle Wendigo's fists finally slammed against the floor, tearing it apart. It roared as it found its target suddenly gone. Green glowing eyes did not take long to find her. It and the other Wendigo moved to attack. Meanwhile, the Wendigo underneath Winter started to shake off the dizziness from Winter's sudden attack.
Not good at all.
Assuming all three Wendigos were similarly durable, it would take far too long for her to kill them. She'd need to use her Semblance to reliably stay one step ahead of them which would use much of her Aura. She'd win, but it would be risky. Under these circumstances, the safest option was…
Winter pulled all the remaining Dust vials out of her holster and shoved them into the Wendigo's mouth. Fire. Energy. Wind. A burst of Aura was all it took to activate them as she forced the beast to bite down the glass.
Even as Winter jumped back, the explosion crashed against her Aura and slammed her against the wall. Still, Winter smiled as she got up, her ears ringing. The two Wendigos that had been charging at her had been blown back by the explosion as well. As for the Wendigo she had forced to swallow all that Dust...
Its head had been blown off.
Winter started walking towards the two remaining Wendigos as the third one began fading away.
Once upon a time, Winter's fighting style had heavily relied on Dust. That had all changed the day her father cut her off. Atlas may give its students a sizable budget to buy Dust and ammunition, but not even that had been enough to cover the sheer amount of Dust her fighting style had demanded. From that day, Winter changed the way she fought, so it focused more on her Semblance and less on Dust.
Winter still carried some Dust vials on her person just in case, a decision she was certainly not regretting right now.
Just like she didn't regret focusing so much on mastering summoning.
A new glyph appeared next to her. A snowy white Wendigo rose from it, ready to fight for its new master.
Now it was two on two.
xXx
The snow was melting.
The path to the mines was a slope down that stretched for miles in a way that was sometimes gentle and sometimes steep. Even so, neither slowed down. Black and green raced against white and gold. Twin streaks crisscrossed each other over a dozen times in a single second.
Snow was blown away with each impact. Ice broke apart and melted. The earth cracked under their feet.
Never once did they stop.
Jaune gritted his teeth as he gave chase. His fist met the monster's face, a claw to the chest was his reward. Yet, the Grimm didn't stop to fight him. It just kept running towards the mines, just like it had been doing since the moment it woke up.
Did that make this Grimm smart because it kept going after the weakest prey? Or maybe it was the other way around? Was it too dumb to do anything other than follow its most basic instincts?
Jaune didn't know the answer to that. Right now, it didn't matter.
What mattered was this Grimm hit like a train.
Their exchanges didn't last more than the blink of an eye. They crashed into each other like two drunk drivers speeding through the highway. The Grimm's claws slashed at Jaune's armor. Furious blows came one after another.
They hurt.
Jaune had been hit by robots. He had been hit by Winter's summons and Winter herself. Less than half an hour ago, he had gotten his first taste of fighting real Grimm while being shot at.
None of those things hurt as much as this Grimm's claws.
Each hit bit into his Aura. Even though IXA and his Aura protected his body from injury, he still felt pain. Jaune could feel the vibrations traveling through his body, the bruises that were sure to form, his brain bouncing against his skull whenever his head was struck.
A slash from the Grimm's claw did not damage his armor, but sheer force blew him back.
A knee got him in the stomach, almost knocking the wind out of him.
One of the horns struck his head, cracking IXA's visor.
Never in his life had Jaune been in so much pain. By all means, he should be kneeling on the ground, yet Jaune Arc did not feel like stopping. Even though he should be in agony, Jaune felt like he could keep going. The pain he was feeling did not dampen his spirit but instead stoked the fire inside him.
It was almost funny. When Jaune had been a kid, he had been bullied a couple of times. His sisters tried their best to protect him, but they couldn't always be there. Being known as "the kid who had to hide behind his sisters" hadn't exactly helped things. Jaune was no stranger to getting beat up by bullies.
The pain from those hits was nothing compared to this, yet one or two punches had been enough to bring Jaune down back then. Each hit had left a crack in his confidence, leaving him burning with shame at his own inadequacies.
That was why he always fell. That was why he had never mustered the will to fight back.
The blows from the Grimm hurt in a completely different way. Each vicious blow showed Jaune a fundamental truth.
He could do this.
Dodging all those paintballs that had left him smelling of paint even after showering. Having to get up before the sun rose every morning. All that training with Winter. All those boring tests with IXA. Running through the snow. All that effort. None of it had been in vain. None of it had been worthless. The proof was right here, wasn't it? He, who had never once been good at anything, was fighting this Grimm!
Right now, he had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of!
For every hit the Grimm landed, Jaune gave at least one in return.
A blow from his fist cracked the Grimm's armor. The next one broke it.
His hand managed to grab the monster's horn. Jaune gritted his teeth as he tried to bring the Grimm to the ground, but the horn broke at the last moment.
He caught the monster in a tackle. The two tumbled down through the snow for several yards, punching and kicking and clawing all the way down before getting up. The snow literally melted around Jaune from the sheer amount of heat radiating from IXA. His Aura was under 40% and dropping fast. The mines were already in sight.
There was no way he could stop.
Right now, the only shameful action he could take would be to give up. The moment he stopped fighting the Grimm, it would be free to kill everyone in the town. Even if the soldiers arrived on time, Jaune doubted they could stop this thing.
The moment he gave up. The moment he made even a single mistake and let this thing beat him would be the moment he doomed the people down there to their deaths. The stakes were so simple even a dumb guy like him could understand them.
Amazing.
Jaune roared as he headbutted the Grimm, staggering it. Three more punches followed before the Grimm copied him and slammed its remaining horn against Jaune's head. The IXA Knuckle in his belt yearned to be used, but he needed to wait for the right time. As Jaune was knocked back, his hands found nothing but snow which he threw at the Grimm's face. It blinded the monster temporarily. That was all Jaune needed to go on the offensive again.
Huntsmen. It was always like this for them, wasn't it? One wrong move and innocent people died. That was why it was so essential for them not to fail. His parents. His sisters. They probably had to deal with stuff like this before.
He had always known it in some way, but really, they were just so damn amazing!
The Grimm screeched as it managed to grab Jaune by the legs and threw him away. It didn't bother pressing its advantage, dashing for the town instead. It was close enough for the people there to catch sight of it. Someone screamed.
No!
Jaune got up and dashed with all his strength before leaping. He twisted in the air and landed by planting both his feet firmly on the Grimm's back.
The two crashed in and out of a cabin. The people around screamed and ran out of the way.
The Grimm managed to roll on top of Jaune. The sight of its massive claw filled his visor as it slammed his head again the cold once. Twice. Thrice.
IXA Knuckle
The electronic voice gave the Grimm pause. At that moment, it felt something connect with its chest.
Rise Up!
An explosion of heat rocked the Grimm, blasting a hole through its body. Its dying scream was heard for a mile.
Jaune gasped as he staggered to his feet while the Grimm faded away, the IXA Knuckle held firm in his hand, steam rising all around him as the snow evaporated. Everything hurt. His visor was filled with so many warning he could barely see in front of him. Penny... was she saying something? Had she been speaking all this time?
The people of the mining town, nearly all faunus, had crowded around him due to the commotion. Jaune tried to open his mouth to reassure them, but all that came out was a garbled mess. He couldn't talk. He couldn't move. His body was too tired for both.
A kid tried to get close to him only for his mother to quickly pull him away, eyes wide with panic.
It wasn't just her. They all looked at him with wariness and fear.
Jaune could understand that. A Grimm attack would scare most people. At least, that was the conclusion his mind came to. He couldn't have been more wrong. As the soldiers started pouring into the city, Jaune realized the truth.
The people saw them and fled, panic written all over their faces. Some even screamed. Doors closed, and windows snapped shut. They showed more fear to the soldiers than to the Grimm.
The people were scared of the soldiers. Scared of Atlas.
Scared of him.
AN:
Let's play spot the shounen reference. Can you spot them all?
Anyway, you thought it was going to be a Giant Deathstalker like in the game, but it was an original Grimm instead! A random big monster didn't really fit with what I was going for with this, so you get the Wendigo. By the way, they can imitate people's voices, but there wasn't a place where I could bring that up in the chapter.
According to WoR, keeping Grimm in captivity is hard. I'm guessing it's something like, if you put an animal in a cage, it will stop banging its head against the bars eventually. With a Grimm, it will keep trying to break the cage until either cage breaks or the Grimm dies. You can keep Grimm captive for a short amount of time (like the White Fang did to bring them to Vale during Vol 3), but not enough to study them in any significant way.
Merlot may have figured out something no one else has, but more on that next chapter.
Also, congratulations to KyubiSora. Some people got the first title reference. Some got the second. He's the first to call out the trend.
Till next chapter, everyone!