PART 4
"The automatic controls must be locked down because of the invasion" Winter said.
Penny shouldered open the heavy steel door that lead from the hangar to the lower halls of Atlas academy. Ruby ducked through followed by Weiss and Winter. Once into the hall, Ruby expected red flashing lights and blaring alarms but was greeted with only silence and darkness. "I think its a power outage." She said.
"Great. We can add that on to our list of problems." Weiss complained.
"At least you can see." Ruby addressed Penny who's eyes glowed green.
"UV, visual, and thermal." Penny replied cheerily.
"The vault's that way." Winter indicated, pointing down the dark hall.
Penny drew one of her glowing swords, shedding a faint green light around them all. They couldn't see far or well, but ruby could at least see it when she waved her hand in front of her face.
The silence was broken by low creaking and metallic thuds. Every so often they'd hear the drip of water. "Its creepy down here." Weiss whispered.
"Yes. I can't help but feeling like we're not alone." Winter replied.
"That doesn't help." Weiss said.
"Don't tell me you two are afraid of the dark!" Ruby chuckled. She couldn't see it, but knew instinctively that Weiss rolled her eyes.
"Shhh." Winter said.
"What?" Ruby asked.
"Nevermind. I thought I'd heard something. It's nothing." Winter answered.
"You're right!" Penny chimed.
"What?" The trio asked.
"We're not alone." Penny said. "There's something up ahead. Its beyond my sight-range, but the floor vibrates when it moves."
"Do you know how big it is?" Ruby asked.
"I'm not sure. I think its small. Its moving a lot but doesn't seem to get any closer." Penny said.
"Could it be something mechanical?" Winter asked.
"No, its not regular enough for that." Penny answered. "Wait, it stopped moving."
"Maybe it went away." Weiss hoped.
"More likely its hiding." Winter said.
Ruby drew Crescent Rose. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears but she managed a calm voice for the others. "We don't know what we're facing, so lets be careful." The others followed suit.
They crept down the hall at a more considerate pace. Penny lead them, circling her six swords in the air, ready for a fight. Ruby collapsed Crescent Rose into its rifle configuration because the hallway was too narrow for her to get a good swing of the scythe. Weiss and Winter both advanced with their swords, Myrtenaster and Schierling, ahead of them.
A clicking noise came from the darkness, followed by chittering then the rapid tap of claws on metal. "Centinels!" Penny announced.
Weiss launched a ball of flame from her rapier. It carried down the hall and illuminated the shiny black forms of three centinels, a kind of large, segmented, insectoid Grimm, with dozens of legs. They skittered along the walls and ceiling towards the group.
Penny swirled her swords in a wide circle and sent them spinning forward towards the bugs. Three slices could be heard, followed by squelching and thumps as the lifeless bodies dropped.
"Well that was easy." Weiss said.
"They're not alone." Penny noted.
Winter shot flames down the hall with her saber. The flame lit along the hallway but fizzled out in a writhing black mass containing more than a dozen centinels. Penny took the lead, twirling her swords ahead of them. Weiss and Winter flanked her, shooting balls of flame from their swords and picking off the centinels that made it past Penny. Ruby took the rear, sniping at the insectoid mass with Crescent Rose, the high-caliber bullets driving through three or more centinels before losing momentum.
The centinel swarm proved easy work and the small group quickly dispatched them all with only Winter showing signs of fatigue. Soon they resumed their journey in the silent dark.
"Behind us." Ruby said. She heard the triple thump of galloping paws.
Penny turned and peered behind them with her thermal vision. "Its a beowulf."
"Alright. Weiss, shoot a fireball down the hall and I'll shoot the Grimm." Ruby planned.
Weiss obeyed, sending a burst of fire from Myrtenaster. Ruby readied herself behind Crescent Rose and followed the fireball down the hallway. The firelight glowed red against the Grimm's pearly white teeth and reflected in its red eyes. The fire hit the Grimm in the chest, knocking it back and singing its fur. Ruby took her shot. The yelp told her it hit and the silence that followed told her she'd aimed true.
No sooner had they dispatched the Beowulf than a group of Taijitu slithered in. Had they come from the Ventilation? From some offshoot hallway they'd missed? Ruby didn't know. She fired blindly into the mass, no doubt killing a few. Weiss used a set of glyphs to send numerous icicles flying into the snakes. Penny again stepped in with her swords but it seemed like for every head they cut off, two more replaced it. Still they held their ground.
Beyond the hissing and clashing of their weapons, on the opposite side of the mass, they heard pounding and the sound of gunfire. "Everyone backup!" Ruby said.
The group retreated but held their weapons at the ready. Ruby held her breath. Ren burst through the Taijitu wall and froze in shock before melting with a chuckle.
"Well that was unexpected." He said.
Nora burst through behind him and skid to a halt. "Hey guys!" She cheered.
"No luck finding Oscar?" Ruby asked.
"No, not so much." Ren said.
"Well, its good to see you two anyway." Weiss added. Winter huffed.
Their reunion was cut short as an explosion sounded in the dark. Penny shouted. "More centinels! Two of them. They just drilled through the wall."
Nora flipped her hammer, Magnhild, into its grenade-launcher configuration. She fired a single shot down the hall. Ruby could trace the pink-heart of the canister as it arced through the air then watched it explode in to an electric-pink cloud, turning the centinels into black, fleshy, chunks and leaving flaming metal in pieces on the floor. "Hah! Take that!" Nora yelled.
From the hole the centinels had made, a large sabyr crashed into the hallway. Ruby fired at it but even her direct hit didn't slow it down. Ren fired a flurry of shots but only seemed to annoy it. Weiss and Winter both shot fire and ice at it to no avail. "Get down!" Penny shouted. All dropped to the floor.
Penny circled her swords, spinning them incredibly fast, and shot forward a powerful beam of plasma. The whole hallway hummed with its energy. For a split second the sabyr charged against its power, but it inevitably was reduced to ash.
Behind it smaller Grimm poured through the opening the centinels had made. The group rallied together and beat them back, but the onslaught only grew.
"This isn't working." Ren said as the Grimm pushed them back. "We're just getting more tired."
"We can't let them block off the vault." Ruby said.
"No. Boy-in-green, you're right. We can't keep doing this. The mission is the Staff, not this." Winter said, breathing heavily. "There's only one of us needed for that." She looked at Penny.
"No." Penny said.
"You go get the staff. We'll hold them off." Winter said.
"I won't leave you." Penny said, looking to Ruby for support.
"Go on, Penny. Winter is right. Think of what would happen to all the people if Salem got it instead." Ruby said.
Penny frowned. Ruby imagined that if she could cry, Penny would be. "I'll come back for you." Penny said.
She ran away into the darkness.
Nora shot out a volley of canisters. They burst among the horde of Grimm annihilating not only the evil creatures but most of the hallway, leaving the floor and walls on fire. "At least we can see now." Ren said.
"That's not necessarily a good thing." Weiss argued, beholding the dozens of Grimm charging down the hall. Centinels had opened up more holes in the walls through which Grimm poured in. Weiss and Winter alternated in the lead. The first fought with her summon while the second created a new one. When the summon was killed, they switched. It worked well enough, but involved a constant retreat, a pattern they could not hold for long. Ruby stepped in, firing her high caliber rounds at the largest Grimm while Ren peppered the smaller ones with his pistols. When the leaders were thinned, Nora gained ground, swinging her hammer with flair.
Ruby didn't know whether the Grimm increased in number or whether they just got tired, but soon Nora could barely make up the ground lost by the Schnees. Then the summons got smaller and slower.
The next sign of trouble came when Weiss' knight was felled by a beowulf. Winter could not complete her own summon and it dissolved as the beowulf brought down its great paw over her head. She struck upward with Schierling, piercing the paw then drawing out the inner saber to stab the creature through the heart. It dissolved into ash, but was soon replaced by another. Weiss pushed her sister aside and blasted it with dust. Nora followed with a canister that blew away the closest group of Grimm.
Ren and Ruby closed ranks, firing upon the horde as it advanced again. "Stay back!" Weiss told her sister. Winter nodded, falling against the wall.
Weiss summoned a knight that held off the Grimm again. Ruby and Ren retreated. As the knight was shattered, Nora Charged ahead while Weiss attempted another. Nora swung fiercely with Magnhild, but even she showed signs of slowing. "Nora!" Ren shouted as a beowulf flung her against the wall.
Weiss looked up from her summoning only to see the beowulf's claws sweeping back to her. In surprise, her half-formed knight dissolved and she could not lift Myrtenaster in time to deflect the blow. A glyph saved her, blocking the beowulf's strike. Weiss jumped back in surprise. The glyph was not her own. She looked back to see her sister leaned against the wall and huffing.
Ruby fired two shots in quick succession. They both hit home and the beowulf dissolved. Ren charged forward to see to Nora. Her aura had saved her, but it was now gone. The pair retreated as Ruby covered them.
Weiss fired the last of the dust from Myrtenaster. It illuminated the hallway revealing more Grimm than they could count. Nora emptied Magnhild, firing the last of her canisters before collapsing to the floor beside Winter. Ren and Ruby held the line with their guns while Weiss slashed at the survivors but took some hits, finishing her aura.
A large Sabyr charged down the hall. "Get back." Ruby said. She opened Crescent Rose into a scythe. The hallway was tight but she figured she'd get a few small swings and that would be enough. She swept the blade from her side and embedded it in the creature's skull. Not hard enough! She thought. It thrashed her against the wall, still growing and snapping. Ren shot at it. Ruby pulled back on the handle but it was stuck. She felt a sting as the claws grazed her belly and legs. She fired into the wall. The recoil jerked the blade backward, severing the beast's head. "NO!" a shout came from behind her.
She felt cold and dizzy. Crescent rose fell from her hands and she sat down against the wall. A blast of blue and green plasma whooshed past her. She watched the Grimm float away as ashen black flakes back-lit by the bright green beam. She even noticed spears of ice impaling them. Rime grew from the walls. As her vision blurred she made out a familiar figure. "Uncle Qrow?" She whispered.
Winter leaned against the wall struggling to catch her breath. Twice in a day had her aura been shattered and now the pain in her ribs returned. Beside her the chipper girl from Beacon also sat exhausted. She could barely make out the fighters in the dark. The huntsmen that still fought, Ruby and the boy-in-green were just blurs among the black, shadowy Grimm. Was Weiss among them? She hoped not but couldn't tell.
"NO!" A shout rang from the darkness.
Winter turned to see the Penny's glowing green eyes sprinting closer, accompanied by a tall, thin figure. Bitterness rose in her chest as she recognized it. Qrow Branwen, an insufferable drunk that Ozpin kept around. God's only know why. She searched the darkness. Had Penny found the Staff?
A beam of green plasma rushed forward from Penny's swords, followed by a whirlwind of icy spears. The pair dashed past her.
Her heart leapt as she noted the Staff in Penny's hand.
"We've gotta get her to Jaune." Weiss said.
Something was wrong. Winter mustered all her effort to rise to her feet. She leaned on Schierling like a cane. The Grimm were gone, annihilated by Penny's blast. Ruby lay crumpled on the floor, clutching her belly.
"You go and find Jaune. You're the fastest and can fly ahead. Take some dust and shoot it into the sky when you find him." The green boy said to Qrow who now knelt beside Ruby, holding her hand. "We'll follow in Winter's Jet." He continued.
"I'm all out." Weiss said.
Winter split open Schierling and tossed the dust to Qrow. "I'm not sure what he means, but here you go. That's the last of it." Noticing he lacked a weapon, she also tossed him the dagger that rested in the center of the blade.
Qrow nodded in thanks before transforming into a crow and flying off into the darkness. Winter blinked, not believing her eyes.
"Penny, you and I'll take Ruby. Weiss, help your sister. Nora, do you think you can make it?" The green boy instructed.
"Yeah. I'll be fine." Nora breathed.
The gang started back down the dark hallway, now lined with rime ice and little piles of ash where the Grimm had once stood.