Chapter Eight: Rampage

Breathe in

Breathe out

279

Breathe in

Breathe out

280

Now Jaune did not know the world record for the most amount of push ups done at once, but he did know that he could easily beat it and then some, but due to him being scientifically enhanced, there is a chance that it would not actually count. However he did enjoy the change up in exercise from running around the compound several times in the morning, while running was indeed relaxing and also strenuous, push ups had always been a challenge for him especially during the army training. During that time he had only managed to ever do two push ups in a row, with a one minute break in-between them, compare that to now and Jaune was only sweating lightly and not even feeling a strain.

Speaking of relaxing; Ren sat still in his usual place next to Jaune's running path, where he and Nora would often meditate together once the goddess had woken up. Today however she was not in this Realm as she had returned home to visit her Mother for her birthday; which was quite refreshing to know that even gods celebrated their coming to existence, and given that Nora's Mother was the queen of all the Realms it was sure to be a long and large birthday party, so this meant that the team would be without one of their heavy hitters for a couple of days at least.

The other heavy hitter right now had actually woken up fairly early, especially for her. Yang never usually managed to wake up at any time before nine O'clock, but today for some random reason she had woken up quite early and decided to eat her breakfast outside in the garden. Soaking in the morning sun, smelling the flowers and of course enjoying the yummy sights of Captain Vale in a tight t-shirt doing push ups. She suspected that she could make a lot of money right now if she chose to take a few photos or make a video of him working out; hell if Ren joined in it would probably break the internet, but there was always the added horror of Nora deciding to BREAK the internet if that did happen. The girl had it bad for the quiet boy, and quite frankly it was always the highlight of Yang's day when she got to tease the two of them, she just wished that more people were around to appreciate her jokes.

"OI REN! WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE DAY?" Yelled Yang across the garden; disturbing the peace and causing a few birds that were nesting in the trees to fly away in fear.

Ren sighed in response and shot a sideways look at Jaune who just shrugged apologetically at him and then continued on with his push ups, all be it a lot quicker now, maybe hoping that if he looked extra determined then Yang would not disturb him as well.

Ren ran his hand along the grass and managed to find a small mushroom and without revealing it to Yang managed to pick it up and tuck it in to his fist. He then stood up from his meditating position and turned to face her and looked above her pointedly.

"Watch Ruby pour a bucket of water on your hair." Ren replied in a monotone.

Yang freaked out and jumped up from her seat and leaped away from it with fear ensuring that she left her breakfast unattended, this allowed Ren to throw the mushroom and land it right in the middle of her porridge where it sunk quickly and was hidden.

Once Yang had stopped and realised that it was two hours way too early for their local genius and coffee addict to be up, she turned back to glare at Ren, but he had already made himself quite comfortable opposite her at the table outdoors drinking his obscenely green smoothie, health freak.

"Grrr, don't think for one second that this is over." Yang then spoons her porridge viciously and takes a big bite all while still glaring at Ren, the texture and taste is slightly different but it will take more than that to throw off her anger.

"It's an edible mushroom so don't worry about it too much, I figured that you could use some more nutrients in your breakfast as you refused to drink my smoothie the other morning." Ren states calmly, taking another smug sip of his drink.

Very loud chocking noises soon follow.

Jaune sighed, a whole month spent together and he still couldn't get how much that Yang was both Tai and Raven mixed into one person, yet had barely spent much of her life with either of them. The whole month in general had been very strange; more and more unnatural disasters had been cropping up all across Remnant. It seemed like the organization that Ruby, Yang, Nora and Ren found in the mountains had other locations dotted around the continent and every time the Hunters managed to find one and shut it down, they found two more. It was reminding Jaune a lot of the Deathstalkers, but that organisation was said to have been destroyed the day that Dr Watts died, but if somebody was trying to bring them back and move them into the new era, then they had a much bigger problem on their hands.

The mechanical beasts also looked remarkably like the Grimm to a very scary degree, some even moved much like they did and after finding a mysterious black substance leaking out of one of the machines Nora had promptly taken it away and left the planet, saying she had seen this before and needed to talk to the smartest being alive. Needless to say Ruby and Yang were slightly disappointed that they didn't get a chance to study it; Ruby far more as Yang didn't want to get any on her hair.

With Nora off planet for the last four days, the team was now down to five members, which was okay as no major villains had popped up, and General Ironwood hadn't come back for Yang or to talk with Ruby. This did mean that Yang had lost her workout buddy and sparring partner, so she had roped in Jaune, and while it was interesting going up against someone so much vastly stronger than himself, Jaune really did prefer to exercise by himself as he didn't have to focus on anybody else.

500

That will do for now. Standing up and turning to face his teammates, he was greeted by Yang sitting in a chair very close to him, fanning herself with a big grin… it was scary.

"Um, good morning?"

"Mmmmmmmmm."

"Do you know where Ren went?"

"I threw him in the pond."

"Oh… do you want to spar again today?"

"You sure do know the words to a woman's heart."

"Oh I wasn't tryin- I didn't mean to sound- uh what I meant is- FIGHT, let's just fight okay!"

"So much to learn, and I will be more than happy to teach you." Oh no.

Lightning cracked across the sky outside the window and the rolling thunder shook the house, rattling the glass and shaking the contents of the building, the wind howled louder than the wolves on the night of a full moon. The lonely man resting on the bed was promptly shaken off on to the floor. As the man crashed onto the ground he shattered several glasses that were lying down beside his bed, thus gaining several cuts across his body. Crying out in pain, that echoed louder than the thunder and sharper than the lightening, he stood up quickly and stumbled his way across the room to the bathroom to pull the glass out and wipe the blood away.

Looking in the mirror, the man's Hazel eyes reflected back at him, his weathered and worn face showed just how tired and run down this man really was, coupled with his skinny frame and short stature, he looked very ill and like he was one his last legs. Which was very true, losing his sister had taken it all out of him, she was his best friend, the only person who could make him smile and the only person who looked after him when the doctors all turned him away.

Hazel Reinhart had a debilitating disease, it was chronic and soon he would die a pain filled death, wrought with agony, there were some days where it felt like his body was on fire, others where he was in the freezing Atlas winds and now days it often seemed like his brain was going to melt. He has spent his entire life feeling everything with extreme detail, pain especially; if he could have one thing in this world he would wish for the ability to not feel anything, soon though he had a solution to not feel anything ever again.

His sister had stood by him through all of these pains and eased his soul, with her by his side he could face any problem that came up. But now she was gone, taken from him by BEACON, the very people designed and made to keep Remnant and everyone on it safe. She went out for a mission and never came back; all he got was a letter, nobody even thought he was worth the time to talk to about her, to help arrange a proper funeral, they couldn't even find the body so there was nothing to burry but a picture of a cheerful young woman.

Hazel may not have had much strength left, but he had enough to be angry, it was their entire fault, they had ruined his life and more importantly they had taken away probably the purest soul on the planet. But what could he do? He was weak, he couldn't fight them if he tried, but he knew a way he could see his sister again, a very easy way.

Picking up the box he made his way out of his house at the edge of the village and deep into the forest, nobody came this far out anyway, they all knew about the man who screams murder at even the slightest but of pain. With the wind and rain whipping at his face Hazel was tempted to just stop here, but he pressed on, it had to be at her favourite spot, the place he could be closest to HER, so he kept going.

Five minutes later, covered in mud, wet, cold and with several cuts from thorny bushes, Hazel stumbled into the clearing. The pond was overflowing due to the rain, the flowers were all down facing and the cave was, actually the cave was the only thing that stilled looked okay. That would do.

Making his way in to the cave Hazel pulled out the gun, it was the only thing that he had left of his sister, she had used this for practice before joining up to BEACON and then BEACON supplied all their agents with their own weapons so she had left her own personal one back at home in his safe hands; she claimed it was so that she always had a reason to come back and visit.

And now Hazel was going to use it to visit her.

Taking a few last deep breaths Hazel points the barrel under his chin, his hands shaking from the weight and the force required to complete this act. He closed his eyes darkening the world around him and just as he was about to squeeze.

"Be seeing you soon."

CRACK

Lightning tore through the air blasting the roof of the cave causing the whole cavern to shake and knocking Hazel off his feet, sending the gun flying out of his hands and out into the rain. Hazel flew back from the force and hit the opposite wall, his back gaining scratches and his head smashing against the wall. Crying out in anguish, Hazel slammed his fist into the wall; could nothing go right for him? All he wanted was one thing, not even the heavens would allow it, it seemed. Opening his eyes Hazel saw that part of the caves wall opposite him had cracked open and there was a golden glow emanating from the small gap. Curious Hazel crawled towards the gap and squeezed his way through, grunting as he scrapped against the hard rock, still scorched from the lightning, then he saw the cause of the glow.

Sat in the middle of the new room was a bright rock, resting on a little pedestal. The rock was completely gold and the pedestal was completely black, however they were not the only two inhabitants of this new room; littered around the floor were swords and skeletons. At least thirty of them all over the floor, one was one his stomach with a sword stabbed in his back, another was holding the skull of the skeleton next to him. Only one of the skeletons appeared to not have died from the battle, he was sat leaning against the wall with his sword at his side and a scrawl of parchment in his hands. Edging closer, Hazel saw that written on the parchment were four words:

It is a curse

Disregarding the letter Hazel turned to the rock and took a step forward with his hand out; he managed to get with a centimetre of the rock before the entire glow died down. Hazel faltered for a moment and then placed his hand on the rock, then the glow returned stronger than ever, to strong even.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH"

The blast of light is so strong that it creates cracks all around the cavern; the ceiling was shattering and falling around him, as his vision was failing him a rock fell and smacked him on the back knocking him to the ground. After a few minutes the cavern stopped shaking and the glow of the rock died back down to nothing, then the rock shattered and turned into dust.

Hazel pushed himself to his knees and then stood up and rolled his shoulders, hearing a loud thud he turned around and noticed that a large rock had just toppled off of him and fallen behind him. Shocked by the size and the fact that he had managed to push it off of him without any effort Hazel put his hand on the rock to check if it was real, that's when he noticed how large his hand and by extension his arm was, he then noticed how tall he was now standing, way above his previous height, as well as boarder, as his shirt had ripped apart and was now in tatters around his massive torso. The scars on his body were also completely faded from earlier, however older ones had not, but they also hadn't grown in size along with his new body. Speaking of his new body, he had now grown a considerable amount. Hazel reckoned he towered over his last height as well as being far more muscular as well; he looked like one of those people who competed in the international tournaments for weight lifting. He also felt… he felt…

Nothing.

He couldn't feel a thing, not the cold rock beneath his hands, the drops of water from the caves ceiling, the breeze coming in through the cracks or the temperature of the area. He knew that before he had felt all of this to an incredible degree, but now…

Nothing.

He finally got his wish, he was without pain.

Grabbing the rock in his hand, Hazel lifted it high above his head and launched it at the far wall, where it shattered into pieces and cracked the wall. Charging up to the wall Hazel led with his shoulder and broke through the wall and back out into the forest, creating a tempest of rubble and dust, where he stood at the epicentre.

Nothing.

He shook his head and cleared out the dust, finally he was strong, he was powerful and he was without a weakness, now he could get retribution. BEACON deserved to know that they should treat people with more care, Ozpin needed to know he should treat people with more care. Time to pay them a visit.

"AAARRRGGGGHHHHH." Screams Yang as she lands on her back for the hundredth time in the last half an hour, rolling over she looks at her victor, standing there in his infuriatingly good looking glory.

"You got to watch that back foot, you put way too much weight on to it and a simple move means you are air-born and then that power means nothing." Says Jaune as he offers Yang a hand up, full expecting her to not take it like she hasn't for the last hundred times, but he is persistent.

Yang sighs, while her boxing and Tae Kwan Doe were both excellent, she had nothing on Jaune's level of experience or know how in Judo or Akido, which meant that the moment it got within grappling distance, the fight turned in his favour, and with Yang promising not to use all of her strength to match his level, the fight had been in his favour more than a couple of times. She finally took his hand and accepted to pull up to her feet.

"You don't even seem to be putting that strength into these attacks."

"Technique over strength, spirit over technique." He quoted with a smile on his face, looking annoyingly proud that she finally accepted help from him.

"Let me guess, that's from the Art of War?" Asks Yang; sarcastically rolling her eyes with hands on her hips, to which Jaune chuckles.

"Never read that book, Ren says it's a good read so maybe one day… No that is actually from a guy that lived in my building, he used to go to a karate dojo before going off to war and that was their little motto, he ended up being in my battalion and teaching a bunch of us karate, came in handy a couple of times."

"And where did you learn the others?"

Jaune sighs and moves over to where they put their waters and sits on one of the chairs. "Ozpins dad taught me Judo, and then another guy in my squad, Tuckson, taught me almost every other martial art that he knew. He never said how he knew them, but I could tell it was because of someone special to him."

Yang goes silent as Jaune looks of into the middle distance fondly remembering memories that didn't make him want to cry… yet. The Captain was a very emotional person; Yang was half surprised that he only gave one inspirational speech a day and not one for each of them per day.

"You know we could try again, this time I'll use all my strength and we can test that phrase?"

Jaune pales. "I don't have that strong a spirit."

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP

"Oh thank Oum." Mutters Jaune "That's the alarm right? Well time to get into action, no time to fight again, let's go suit up." Then Jaune left the room at a speed Yang had only ever seen Ruby move at in her amour.

"Men." Yang said to herself as she started to walk out the door to the briefing room.

"That saying is very 2009 Yang." Came PENNY's robotic voice over the speakers.

"Trust me Penny, it still applies today, especially to certain individuals…" Yang trails off, thinking about the mushroom incident with Ren and then Jaune being a scared-y cat.

Entering the meeting room, Yang saw that Ren was already in his suit and had his weapons on him and was sitting in his usual seat, next to him was Nora's seat, which she had painted a pink hammer on to the head rest. Unfortunately she didn't leave it to dry for long enough and when she was in a meeting before she put her head against the rest and left for the mission with pink paint on the back of her head, she only seemed embarrassed when she got back and Ren asked her why her hair was really sticky. Next to Nora was her seat and she had painted a yellow flower on the back of her chair, and she had left it for the right amount of time before trying to touch it up again with a second coat, next to Yang was Ruby and her chair was rarely sat on as her sister couldn't really sit still to save her life so she just stood most of the time. Then the final chair was Jaune's next to Ruby and Ren, this meant that they all circled the table in the middle and were quite spread out, however there was certainly room for them to add more chairs for more people.

"Alright then, what's the stitch?" Yang asks.

"I don't think you can say that." Ren says in response.

"You know that show?"

"I had somewhat of a childhood before my village had been destroyed."

"Fair." Nods Yang.

"ANYWAY, I have gathered you all hear for a very important reason-"

"-You've finally got a boyfriend?"

"YANG! NO!"

"Girlfriend? No judgement, from us."

"EARTHQUAKE!" Ruby coughs a little to clear up speech before continuing. "There was a small earthquake and the BEACON building in Mistral was extremely affected by the aftershocks, as such they need help, people are already trapped on several floors and the building is slightly unstable."

"We're always saving those guys, I feel like they should start paying us for it."

"They barely paid me anything when I worked for them, most of the money went into recreational services, every agent had a coffee machine near their desks, the director believed it would improve productivity."

"Did it?" Jaune finally piped up leaning forward to engage himself more in the conversation, he was still not quite good at modern day humour and the amount of sarcasm we used.

"No, Goodwitch closed down the idea before the day was out and nobody has brought it up since."

"Well either way, coffee or not I believe we should head over. I guess this means we are flying again?" Jaune says sadly, he knows the answer already.

"Yeah and I'm sorry to let you know that the pill doesn't work on your incredible immune system. I have PENNY working on a solution but I would rather it be further tested as I don't usually deal with pharmaceuticals personally." Ruby responds.

"Great, well we still got the bucket on board right?" asks Jaune.

Five minutes later.

"I SWEAR TO GOD REN THE NEXT TIME YOU FORGET THE BUCKET I AM GOING TO THROW YOU SO HARD INTO THE WALL THAT NORA IS GOING TO BE ABLE TO SEE YOU FOREVER AS A PAINTING, HE GOT IT IN MY HAIR AGAIN, DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TAKES ME TO GET IT OUT OF MY HAIR? YES I KNOW IT IS ONLY THE TIP AND IT ACTUALLY BARELY GOT IN MY HAIR RUBY BUT IT IS STILL IN MY HAIR, AND YOU PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, SOME SUPER SOLDIER YOU ARE IF YOU CANT EVEN FLY WITHOUT CHUCKING UP YOUR BREAKFAST!"

Five minutes later.

"I would like to say sorry for losing my temper… again… for the same reason as the last six times we've flown together."

Five minutes later.

"HOW IS THERE STILL MORE TO COME? YOU HAD TWO SLICES OF TOAST FOR BREAKFAST, HOW IS THERE STILL MORE TO COME?"

After landing.

Jaune stumbles off the airship and falls to his knees for a second but then stands up immediately afterwards and then shakes his head to clear his thoughts, he then places his helmet cap on and adjusts his shield straps on his back. Turing back to his team, he sees that Yang is still fuming, Ren is twirling an arrow around and looking past him to see the building and Ruby is just getting the last of her suit on as the helmet clicks and slots into place.

"Alright, so PENNY tells me that there are several people trapped on the higher floors and the foundations and support columns are starting to break, Ren and I will head up to the top floors and I can fly people down while he gets them out, Cap, you and Yang stay down here get people out and away from the building until we can secure its structure." Orders Ruby, eyeing up the buildings schematics from her on-board display, identifying the weak points and heat signatures; the STRQ satellites were fantastic pieces of technology.

Ruby grabbed Ren and then they took off into the air like a rocket, Yang and Jaune then sprinted at full speed to the base of the building and Yang lifts the large piece of rubble out of the way of the door and hefts it above her head.

"Bet your technique can't do this." She quips at Jaune before placing it to the side. Jaune gives her a little smile before it turns to shock and he readies his shield and prepares to throw it. Yang turns around at the last second and then gets sent flying away by a very powerful strike that sends her tumbling down the street and into a car, causing a small explosion.

Jaune throws his shield at the beast and clocks it around the head, however if it hurt he had no idea, all he saw was the head turn to the side and then it began moving towards him and swung an arm downwards towards him which he rolled out of the way for, caught his shield and then struck the back of the beasts leg with a shield punch, which forced the beast to bend the knee, but his arm came around and back handed Jaune. And despite the shield being in-between them he still found himself crashing through the glass at the bottom of the building.

Yang roars and leaps at him bringing both her fists down over its head slamming it into the ground, before kicking its body and rolling it over a couple of times. This doesn't seem to do anything as the monster still stands and then charges at her, Yang grins cockily and reaches out to catch its hands. When they meet, there is a small shockwave of energy blasting away from them, the beast snarls at her and she growls back as she is forced to her knee, but then she decided to head butt it as hard as she could in that moment, freeing her hands of its grip, Yang then punches it hard twice in the chest, forcing it back away from Jaune who manages to stumble out of the building and run over to them.

The beast roars again and swings with a wild right hook that Yang ducks under with a perfect boxers bob and weave, and retaliates with a lovely left body shot and then a quick left hook of her own across the cheek and then a right to the nose, usually that sound is followed by a grunt or pain of a satisfying crunch as the nose is broken. This beast gives neither as its head snaps back and its left hand grabs Yang around the waist and picks her up before slamming her down into the ground and stamping on her with one of its legs.

This is the moment that Jaune comes in and shield bashes the monster in the chest, then strikes it in the chin with an uppercut that honestly hurt his hand more than he thinks it hurt the beast. However the goal is achieved, its attention is now on him and not Yang as she pulls herself out of the ground to see Jaune cartwheel out of range and then front handspring over a car to put more distance between him and the threat. His shield flies between its legs and Yang catches it and launches it at the back of the monsters skull sending it forwards as Jaune jumps off the car and dropkicks it in the face. They had spent a long time trying to practice this move as Yang really wanted to try throwing his shield around and Jaune had relented provided that she was properly taught how, it was not a toy.

Jaune then leaps over the beast as his drop kick did very little in its affect, to actually hurt the monster, it more just irritated it. Jaune lands and rolls and Yang hands him his shield back.

"I believe this is yours Captain Old man."

"Back in my day there was more respect for the elders." He quipped as he took it off and strapped it on to his left arm again, he had a feeling it would be used for a lot of throwing in this fight; mostly to give Yang openings to deal the real damage.

The beast turned around to face them and panted heavily, and Yang and Jaune stepped away from each other so that they gave him multiple targets to strike at. No matter how big he was this thing could not be in two places at the same time so one of them could attack while the other was on the defence.

"I'm only gonna say this once." Jaune began. "Stand down now, or this is going to end badly for you."

"I'd listen to him, I'm only gonna hit you harder." Yang said as she pounded her knuckles together.

The beast grunted and then spoke his first words to the pair.

"No, he must pay, they must pay, and NOW YOU MUST PAY!" He roared as he charged and punched at Jaune, who back-flipped away and launched the shield at his chin. Yang the leaped and tackled him and they rolled down the street, trading punches and kneeing each other as best as they could.

"Captain, how's it going down there?" Ren asks in Jaune's ear.

"Not good, new player on the field. Strong and doesn't seem to be feeling anything that we've thrown at him so far, but Yang's upping the ante right now, could still use some back up though."

"Acknowledged, I see them, coming down to provide some shots."

Just then a smoke arrow flies down and strikes the big man in the face, disorientating him for a second and then Yang rolls back over on top and elbow drops him and then puts him in a choke hold that Jaune showed her earlier. Unsurprisingly the beast doesn't take to kindly to that and lifts himself and Yang off the floor and then jumps in the air and lands back down on her, breaking the hold, and then throwing her back through towards and then through the ground floor of the BEACON building.

"Ruby please say you got everyone out."

BRZZZZZ

As a beam of silver light blasts the monster back down the street and into a crater, Reaper then lands next to the Captain, with a satisfying clang and a cool super landing.

"Yep." She replies popping the 'p' as per usual.

"Good because we need the fire power; Ren rooftops and keep your distance, I'm feeling his hits behind my shield, you get hit then you're out for the count and we can't have that. Ruby I recommend hit and run like me, we need to keep the pressure on when Yang isn't there, otherwise we let her do as much damage as we can."

"Might need to think of a new plan there Cap." Came Yang's strained voice.

"Cap he's getting up." Ren supplied.

Jaune took a second to think. "Ren run interference for a minute, have my shield." As Jaune threw it at a roof top and then Ren caught it and started shooting different types of trick arrows, and alternating with the shield at different times. Luckily the big guy didn't really have a tactic, he just locked on to whoever hit him last, this did mean that he started throwing things randomly at the rooftops in hopes of hitting Ren. Eventually Ren managed to lead him further and further away from the original point of the battle, however Ruby and Jaune could still see little bits of debris flying through the air as well as here the roars from the monster as he failed to hit Ren.

"Yang talk to us."

"Big boy threw me through the main support columns, I let go and this whole place comes down." Yang grunts as she digs her feet into the ground and adjusts her hold on the building, cracks already starting to spread, however at a slow rate. "Unless that large amour is ready for deployment Ruby, I can't move from here for a while."

"If it helps Yang, I miss you in this fight." Came Ren's ragged breath as he slid under a car door.

"PENNY, how is the amour coming along?"

"It is still in the early development stage Ruby, you had a lot of things left trailing off and I can't seem to work out what it is you actually wanted for the specifics of the design."

"Ren and I will hold down the fort, head back to base and finish that amour, then Yang will be freed, also see if you can contact Nora, we might need her." Ruby then blasts off into the air without another word and heads back to Vale; at her top speed she should be there in 15 minutes.

Charging as fast as he can, Jaune manages to locate his teammate very easily due to the intense sounds of the cat and mouse game that they were playing. Jaune stands down the street from the man as he splits a car and then throws both halves at Ren who dives through the middle and then shoots a flash arrow to blind him for a second, this is then followed by Jaune's shield to his face that then rebounds back towards Ren, who then throws it towards the Captain, who then launches it with even more power right at the bridge of his nose, tilting his head back for another flash arrow to stun him temporarily.

"I gave you the offer to stand down before, and I'm going to offer it again, because I can do this all day." Jaune called out, as he caught his shield again.

"Nothing will stop me from getting what I deserve, Ozpin must pay for what he did."

"What did he do?" asked Jaune, still ready for a fight and subtly signalling Ren to hold for a second.

"He took my sister from me! He must pay; she was the only person who cared for me! And he sent her to her death!"

Jaune faltered for a second and then steeled himself, his sister must have been an agent and the mission must have gone very badly. "She must have made the choice to put her life on the line, as much as it hurts, you need to take more time to grieve. This path of vengeance that you are heading down; it doesn't reward you with anything, except pain."

"That's where you're wrong Captain, I can't feel anything anymore. Least of all pain!"

Jaune's eyes widened at that and he charged forward as fast as he could, like an unstoppable juggernaut of pure power, however Jaune knew that the monster didn't really have much in the way of turning ability when he was on the move so he dived to the side, leaving him to collide with a parked car.

Another arrow hit its mark as Ren soared above Jaune and rolled upon landing, the two then dived out of the way of a flying car and Jaune then raised his shield to block the swing of a telephone pole that sent him flying down the street into a wedding dress shop.

Shaking his head and once again praising whatever craftsman made his shied, he struggled up and charged back to where the explosions were coming from, so long as he heard them then he knew that Ren was still standing and still fighting. With the two of them being the most vulnerable of the team they had originally made a plan to made sure to keep their distance at first and try to run interference and focus on getting people far away from the threat and let Yang and Ruby fight instead, however Ruby had to leave halfway through because she went back to go and go upgrade her amour, so she had left for the STRQ mansion to build something better to support the BEACON building to stop it from collapsing.

And while that was only a few minutes at best, it felt like it was two hours ago and Jaune was running close to his last legs, he could only imagine how tired Ren must be feeling right now what with all the jumping and running he has had to do all day to avoid being hit, because one hit would put him out of the fight for good. The hits that Jaune had taken on his shield were enough to drain him as it was.

Yang was still up but she was currently holding up the building from collapsing while everyone else was escaping it, which was why Jaune had to get back to the fight as fast as possible. The building was in-fact a BEACON building built here in Mistral and the beast had seemed hell bent on bringing it down until Ren had started shooting his trick arrows to annoy him, and then launched himself at him. They were now thirteen blocks away from where they had started and the monster showed no signs of slowing down. This was why Jaune needed to get back as fast as possible; if he could take its attention off Ren then maybe it would forget about the BEACON building, because if it went there right now it would kill everyone that was still trying to get out.

Hopefully Yang could hold that building long enough for everyone to get out because they really needed their heavy hitter right now, she was the only person of the four teammates that actually did any damage to the beast before it knocked her through the buildings foundations and turned its attention to Ren. Taking stock of his allies, Jaune realised several things:

Ruby was back in Vale

Yang was occupied

Nora was off world

Pyrrha hadn't been seen in two weeks

And the cat woman hadn't come back after the little stunt in the graveyard

They needed help, and they needed help fast… Because they really couldn't last much longer.

Jumping out of the wrecked shop Jaune saw that Ren had just reached for his last arrow, and then put it back in his quiver and collapsed his bow, opting to use his guns instead. Peppering the beast with bullets that did absolutely nothing but irritate him. Jaune then used a broken car as a spring board and jumped in-front of his face and punched as hard as he could, it felt like he had just punched Yang so he imagined that it was about as useless as actually punching this thing, but surely Ren would give him points for trying. As Jaune rolled out of the mid-air punch he got up next to Ren and the two started a very tactical retreat of throwing everything within grabbing distance while flipping over, sliding under and diving around whatever he threw back at them.

"Not to poke holes in the plan Captain, but what did you expect that was going to do?"

"Honestly I thought it would make me feel better-DUCK!"

"And did it? On your left!"

"No I think I broke my hand, give me five and it will be back to normal."

"At this rate Jaune we aren't going to last five seconds."

"We have to."

Jaune is then caught off guard with a very strong punch that sends him flying down the street, however he doesn't hit the hard ground like he thought he was going to, instead he is caught. It's not the gentlest catch but then again it's not the gentlest person that is catching him.

"Falling for me already oh Captain, my Captain"

"Um, yes?"

"Oh such worded wonders win my heart, now did you save enough for me I wonder?"

"Just warming him up for you."

Dropping Jaune down gracefully to one side, Yang bounded forward back into battle taking heavy steps forward and launched herself as hard as she could and punched the juggernaut hard around the face, sending him flying away from Ren and through a buildings wall. Cracking her knuckles Yang walked up to where the man was pushing rubble off him and stood in front of him while Ren retreated further down the street next to Jaune.

"Round two big boy."

"I will break you!" he roared at her, charging into tackle her. However Yang had learned from the last time and went with the flow falling on to her back and flinging the beast over her head, causing him to fly over and land head first in the ground. This did very little in damage to him, but it did irritate him greatly.

While he was still on the ground Yang rolled over and then jumped a short height in the air and knee dropped onto his back, this was then met with a back fist that knocked Yang off and allowed him to stand again and swing a punch at Yang, a punch that was knocked off target by Jane throwing his shield and knocking his arm to the side slightly. Yang then stepped outside the punch and hooked him in the stomach with swift punch and the retreated as Ren shot a couple of bullets at the monsters face to disorientate him, this did however cause him to start wildly swinging around, but Yang weaved in and out of the strikes and grabbed around his waist once she was behind him and then suplex-ed him after jumping with him up into the air.

Yang rolls off of him and then pushes herself up off the ground and wipes some hair out of her eyes, Ren takes a position on the rooftop opposite and readies his guns, Jaune preps his shield. Hazel manages to pull himself out of the ground and then spits out a rock from his mouth, then quick as a flash he grabs Yang around the waist and throws her through a building wall and then stomps on her, crushing her beneath the rubble, and then he keeps stomping even though he is getting shoot with bullets and Cap is throwing his shield and bricks at him.

"Now that is no way to treat a lady!" Calls out a voice as a fast swinging object appears out of nowhere and kicks him across the face, forcing him off of Yang and back a couple of steps. This new comer then backflips out of the swing kick and then lands on a lamppost, in a crouched position hands on his knees.

"I don't have much, if any experience trying to get a girls attention, but I've heard that flowers are a good idea. That's what my aunt used to say."

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

"Why your kind, local Monkey-King of course; although Mistral is on the other side of Remnant than Vacuo, but next to it I guess if you go around the other way. Wait you're not a flat Remnant guy are you? Because there is some serious science behind the planet being round, in fact I have some diagrams and maps as well. They're star charts and also some other geographical points which prove the curvature of the planet, I mean you are entitled to your own opinion, but not if it is so wrong."

By this point Hazel had been throwing things at the Monkey-King for the entire time that he had been talking; cars, rubble, bins and even a hotdog stand as well, which the Monkey-King managed to swing back around and throw at him with his vines. He then manages to grab a traffic cone and throws it on to Hazels head, while jumping onto the side of a building.

"Hey! I got that thing! Do I get a prize?"

"YOU!"

"I- well that makes no sense."

Jaune throws his shield and knocks his head down while Yang sneaks up and grabs his leg and throws him around like a hammer and then down the street.

"Few, thanks for that, I might have run out of words if that kept going."

"Who are you?"

"Oh wow, Captain Vale, it is an honour sir, you're so cool. I'm Monkey-King."

"We can save those introductions for latter Cap." Says Ruby as she lands next to Ren and gives him a full quiver of arrows, to which Ren almost hugs them out of joy. Ruby had gotten her amour to stabilise the building so Yang could come and then go around quickly welding metal back together with her lasers.

Just as Hazel come charging back towards them, Monkey-King shoots him in the eyes with a vine blast and then Ruby blasts him with a sonic shot which disorientates him massively and Yang smacks him with a car and then throws him again down the street.

"How long is this street? Yang has thrown him several miles at this point" Ren asks nobody in particular.

"His skin is way too tough for us to get through so I had to think of some other things, his internal organs should still be like ours, even you flinch at high noises Yang, so does Nora so it is bound to hurt him as well."

"I'm just going to punch it some more, I doubt it will do anything, but I really want to hit him."

Yang, Ruby and Ren all charge after Hazel, Ruby flying Ren up to the rooftops and then floating around Hazel shooting small blast of energy to blind him and heat him up, while Yang trades blows with the monster, meanwhile more and more debris is flying away from them as they crash into things and throw stuff at each other.

"Alright Monkey-King while they fight we have the important job, we need a perimeter and to secure the civilians and make sure they can get away. Catch anything they throw past each other and stabilise the building if they look to be falling, I'm going to get people out."

"Yes sir Captain Vale."

And so the two of them rushed into action, Sun was swinging around the fighters and catching cars and other items that the two were throwing past each other, most of the time it was Hazel throwing things that Yang and Ruby dodge, he also shot large vines that blocked off access to other roads so that no civilians would accidentally come into the middle of the fight. Meanwhile Captain Vale was running from place to place leaping out of windows carrying multiple people and getting them into the hands of the emergency services, whenever Sun had a moment he would also dive into buildings and grab people as well to get them away from the battle, he even saved a little rabbit for a little girl, she in turn offered him her balloon.

Ren flips onto a more unstable building and Hazel sees him out of the corner of his eyes and then throws a bin at him, which hits the building and knocks him thought the ceiling and into the wedding shop. As Ren is fumbling around and recovering himself, Hazel picks up a bus and prepares to slam it down onto the building and crush the marksman, however just in the nick of time Ruby blasts him with a full force chest beam, knocking him away from the store and the bus into the air. Yang then strides forward and then catches the bus before it hits the ground, holding it up in the air.

"Good call Yang, no need for any more destruction than we ne-" begins Ruby as she thinks of all the damage that has been caused from the large scale fight.

"ARGH!" Cries Yang as she launches herself up into the air and then down onto Hazel, smashing him with the bus as hard she could and then jumping up and down on top of it to beak it even further.

"God damn it Yang." Mutters Ruby as she shakes her head at the violent and destructive actions of her sister; couldn't they have one day where she didn't break something that Ruby was going to have to pay for later?

Under the crumpled scrap of the bus, Hazel bursts free and the force of the action upsets Yangs footing greatly causing her to fall through the air and that's when Hazel kicks her mid air across the square that they were currently fighting in.

"I GOT HER!" Yells Monkey-King as his swings over and manages to shoot some vines to slow her down before she hit the buildings and broke them as well. Ruby realises that the tensile strength and the strength of this newcomer must be astonishing if he is able to catch an object moving at that high velocity and with such force. Ruby is then knocked out of her thoughts very violently by Hazel as he rips a lamppost out of the ground and then uses it as a baseball bat and swats her out of the air smashing down into her own little trench.

"ugh – damage report PENNY?"

BRIZTZZZZZ

"Yeah I feel that." Muttered Ruby as she began a system reset by quickly shutting down her amour and then rebooting it up again, she needed PENNY running in the background to operate the Yangbuster back at BEACON's HQ so it could stabilise the building safely.

While she is lying there and unable to defend herself; Hazel sees her as the perfect target and then strides over; ready to stomp her into the ground. Ren fires several bullets at his face but he blinks them out, Jaune then runs in-front of her and stands protectively, but Hazel overpowers him by slaming down on his shield from one direction and then swinging his other arm in a wide arc to smack Jaune to the side and send him tumbling into Ren. He then raised his foot up and brought it down onto the Iron Reaper's shield.

THUD

THUD

THUD

There was then a sound like shattering glass as the shield broke after such raw power, and Hazel lifted his foot up for a fourth time.

Yang had watched this all happen while Sun managed to stop her flight and after the third strike she had finally lost it; all she saw was red…

… and a target.

What happened next was a blur of rage for her but the others remembered it very clearly.

Yang launched herself across the battlefield as fast as she could and caught the foot had a chance to connect with her defenceless sister, moving it off to the side of her she creamed out in anger and uppercutted Hazel in the stomach, lifting him off the ground and into the air. Monkey-King sees an opportunity for a quick and devastating team attack moment and shoots a vine on to Hazel catching a ride up into the air with him, while also making sure that he had two vines still attached to the ground. While they were still going up he was punching Hazel around the face, they might not have done as much damage as Yangs, but he was doing more than he believed. Soon they reached the limits of the vine shooters on Monkey-King's wrists and that's when he planted both feet on Hazel's chest and then with all his might he pulled them back down to Remnant like a sling shot.

Far to say Hazel was not expecting this and the speed of which it all happened surprised him greatly as he shot back down to the ground. He smashed head first through three stories of an abandoned building and into the basement below, and for the first time he struggled to get back up a little as he was shaking some debris off of him. He didn't have any time to think at all as Yang then landed heavily on top of him forcing him further into the ground and then came the punches, hard, fast, brutal and un yielding. Hazel tried to retaliate with a weak strike, but Yang wasn't having any of it she punched that arm out of the way and then continued to hammer down onto his face as hard as she could, that was when they both realised he was bleeding finally, but still Yang did not stop, she kept going.

Its only when she hears the sound of a rocket landing besides her and the whirling of her sisters amour that she finally relents and pounds one last time, examining the broken face of the villain then she stands on shaky legs and says.

"You're done." She lets out a sigh of relief as Hazel remains unmoved, finally the beast has been put down.

"An anti-gravity cell should hold him, quite literally, if he can't touch the ground then he can't use any force what so ever, all that power taken away by being in the air." Says Ruby.

"…yeah." Yang says after a beat, still staring intently at Hazel, daring him to make a move, even though it was clear he was out for the count.

"I thought I was going to have to get captain goodie-goodie to stop you then."

"What were you going to get him to do? Shirtless push ups?" And just like that her sister was back in the room.

"YYYYAAAAANNNNGGGGGG!"

"Sorry to interrupt Boss, but the Rose Relief team is here for clean up."

Back with Jaune and Ren they are getting some injuries tended too, well Jaune is, Ren managed to only come out with some light scratches while it seems Jaune had a bruised everything from taking hits from Hazel all over. Monkey-King was currently stood with them, tail waggling about happily.

"Well that was different to what I'm used to, usually there are more guns and explosives involved, maybe a sword or two…"

"Give me Deathstalkers over that guy any day." Said Jaune. "Ren; remind me to make up a plan that involves us talking this out instead of fighting it out."

"Jaune next time make a plan to talk it out with the monster."

"Thank you."

Monkey-King smiled a little under his mask at the conversation the two heroes had with each other.

"Heh, well I'm happy to have helped out this time guys, but I got to get back home, I think I left the milk out and in Vaccuo that's worse than… I can't think of anything right now but it's bad."

"Wait Monkey-King." Called out Jaune as he stood up.

"Yes sir, Uh Mr Captain Vale-"

"Monke-"

"Sir"

"Just call me Jaune."

"You don't understand how much I can't do that sir."

"Okay, well you got a good heart buddy where you from? And I don't mean just Vaccuo."

"I was from a little village but it was overrun with bandits when I was younger before I got my powers, since then I moved to the city in Vaccuo, it's a bit more civilised over there, you get to be yourself, rather than what the bandits want you to be."

Jaune is overcome with a similar feeling to another person who he knew a long time ago now with a similar story. The good Dr would probably very much like to meet this man, he seemed humble and earnest, traits which he valued highly.

"I'm from a little village that used to be outside of Vale as well-"

"I know Captain, I studied you a lot in school, you were my hero. Your catch phrase 'I can do this all day' was something that I used to say to bullies when they were picking on kids who couldn't look out for themselves."

"Wow, I didn't know I was inspiring kids nearly 100 years into the future." Jaune mused. "You said you used to say that; why you? Why not someone else?"

"My uncle once told me that 'with great power, there must also come great responsibility.' I got my powers when I was 14 years old, and I've been doing this for eight years, and I still have a long way to go. I'm only 22 after all."

"That is a good saying." Jaune then held his hand out to the fellow hero who was only one year younger than him. "If you need us, you know where we are."

Monkey-King grasped the hand tightly. "Likewise Captain, I'm here to help." Then he leaped into the air and swung away, performing several acrobatic flips and twirls through the air, heading back to where the main BEACON HQ building was, Ozpin would be there with a ride to drop him off over Vaccuo city so that he could go about his day, besides he hadn't really had a rest since that Goblin monster guy had attacked him, and he suspected that was not the last of there interactions. Landing in front of Ozpin, Monkey-King gave a little wave and sat down on a crate next to the director.

"Alright Ozzy, time to take me home now, I got some shopping to do tomorrow, running out of shampoo. Do you know how much I got to put on this tail?"

"I thought you would be heading back with the others?"

"Nah they don't need me, they got this, I'm just the external back up for when it really gets bad, besides I'm sure kids are gonna be having the debate if Monkey-King could beat the Hunters for a couple of months so I'm good with that."

Goodwitch, who had been stood at Ozpins side this entire time, stared at Monkey-King with a look of distaste. How could this boy just turn his back first on BEACON and then on The Hunters like this? Did he believe that he was simply bigger than the group? Was he too good for even the ultimate agency on the planet, and the strongest group of individuals collected together? As much as she didn't like The Hunters it would have been nice to have all the abnormal in one group together.

"Typical child, not knowing when he has a great thing in-front of him, you should have taken our offer long ago and worked for us." Said Goodwitch haughtily.

Monkey-King let out a little laugh and then laid back against the crate and chuckled to himself, like he was privy to a joke that only he understood. Ozpin took a seat, he had asked this same question a few years ago and he had received a compelling answer.

"This is no laughing matter young man, BEACON is the most advanced intelligence agency on the planet, we ha-"

"Ben Wukong."

"-What?"

"Abigail Lawrence. Rachel Croft. Nathan Sky. May Wukong."

"What do those people have to do with your decisions?"

"Those are five people I failed to save when they needed me the most; two were shot, one was burned, one because I couldn't get them to a hospital in time, and one from a smoke inhalation. I haven't forgotten their names in all these years, I went to every single funeral, the families all forgave me saying that they were happy that someone tried so hard to save them and hasn't given up on still trying to save others. Can you name anyone you've lost from your missions? Not colleagues, but innocent people."

Goodwitch was silent, she couldn't, she had lost colleagues but that was years ago, now she just made the calls, and only looked at the numbers, not the names.

"They are the only five people I've lost and I will be damned if that number goes up. I have the power to save people and I will use it for as such until I am taking my last breath, nobody is going to stop me from doing that. I will save everyone, or I will die trying, those are my two options, not sacrifice one for a hundred. So either get on board or get out of my way."

Goodwitch was silent after that and Ozpin stood up from his crate seat and gave the young hero a small smile.

"Thank you Mr Wukong, your ship is read to take you back home now."

Sun flipped to his feet off the crate he had been lying on and stretched out. "Good was starting to get pins and needles from that crate, couldn't have put in a bed could you? Meh till next time Ozzy." And with a salute of his tail he wondered off in the direction that Ozpin gestured to.

"He is wrong, he must be wrong right?" asked Goodwitch

"In eight years of him being there for his city he has failed five times, two of which were his family, one at the start which kicked off his hero carrer into high speed, one half way through which strengthened his resolve, the others I suspect also made him even more determined. He will become the greatest hero of all time, of that I am certain, because he always finds a way to get up, to come back stronger."

"Still rocking the green hair Em."

"Well its better than trying to look like an old man Black."

"HAHA killing me with laughter there."

"I could use this sickle?"

"Want to see me move faster than your bullets?"

"Let's go Leg-less."

"Bring it Mint Leaf."

"My, my such rage between the two of you, what brought this about I wonder?"

"SHUT UP MERLOT!"

"CAN IT MERLOT!"

The science pioneer laughed out loud as he leaned back into his seat and clapped his hands together as he observed the two before him; Mercury Black, the world's deadliest assassin and Emerald Sustari, the current leader of the Deathstalkers. Merlot had, had dealings with them both seperatly in the past, but not together, but had he realised that he was missing out on this level of amusement he would have wanted to get them together sooner; this was spectacular!

Just as the two went to go in for the kill on each other, they found themselves in swaped places facing away from each other, but when they turned back around they were in there original places facing away from each other… confusing Isn't it?

"Now this simply will not do, surely you can act at least a little presentable in-front of new guests for a good first meeting." Came a sly drawl as a man emerged from the shadows, twirling his cane and tilting his hat back before taking a puff of his cigar. "I would hate for my executioner to have to take your heads."

Just then there was a shattering sound as a pint sized girl appeared in between Mercury and Emerald holding a comically large axe, she had a very deadly smile plastered on her face which didn't disappear as she folded the axe down into an umbrella.

"Think of this as a job interview kids; now what do you bring to the table?" The stranger questioned as he clicked his fingers and a table and chair appeared that he took a seat behind and then propped his feet up on, the pint sized girl then shattered into glass and was leaning on the back of his chair blowing a strand of hair out of her face, suddenly looking board at the thought of no murder.

Mercury growled and looked over at Merlot, who gave the gesture of 'Humour him'

"I'm Mercury Black, and I'm the world's deadliest assassin."

"Perhaps in this Relam yes." Muttered the newcomer. "Sounds good, I can work with murder, I am the son of the greatest in history, its literally my birth right!"

"I'm Emerald."

"I'm sensing a theme here." He whispered comically to the executioner who smiled and nodded at his observation.

"I am the world's greatest thief, and in charge of the largest terrorist organisation on Remnant."

"Thief! Now that is something I can respect! I wrote the book on trickery and thief-ery and deception… I wrote a lot in that book."

The silent girl glanced at Mercury and shrugged, as thought to say 'What you going to do with him'.

"Alright we got a killer and a stealer and a doctor, I'm sensing a punchline there somewhere but I'm going to let it go because I'm too excited right now. All we need is that maniac back and maybe a solider… oh and the hot chick as well that would be good, oof, that's a lot of work to do, but I'm sure you guys will be up for it, right?"

"What are you talking about?" Glared Mercury, who then jumped as he felt an arm around his shoulder as the man leant on him and the image of him at the table sparkled away.

"Why what you need for your revenge and what you need for your society to be properly feared." Said the mystery man as he pointed to Emerald.

"Some friends."

Well that's another chapter done, who we gonna check on next. Probably should be worried about Adam, sounds like he's planning something.

I tried not to make Sun to cheesy, but I think I failed, he is defiantly cheesy, but hey if I was basically Spider-Man I would be as well so cut me some slack.

Sorry if anyone reads this and actually likes this story that you might have had to wait. I've kinda failed at it, but if these heroes teach you anything its that despite the failures you gotta keep getting up and giving it a go.