Titus, Natalia, I want the two of you to take down Quake by any means necessary. The man needs to be put away again. Ilia and the rest of you, fend off Stardust until Neela can let the police in. Also, can someone get me a visual on Emerald, I haven't heard from her in a while and it's starting to worry me.
"Does it have to be Nat and me?" Titus asked.
I don't know what happened with you two, but yes… you're the two heaviest hitters in there right now, and trust me, Quake hits pretty hard as well.
"Afraid I'll show you up?" Natalia laughed, hitting him in the shoulder and watching the brute march towards them.
"Afraid you're rusty," Titus corrected with a smirk and she laughed again.
"So that's how it is," she noted with a smile.
"I'd love to watch you two keep flirting, but look," Ilia declared pointing at Eren who was cracking his back before jogging in place.
"I guess you're the new obstacle in my way!" Eren yelled at Quake.
"Ilia," Titus began.
"Yes?" She asked.
"Subdue him," Titus replied. She nodded.
"On it," she answered. Ilia took off towards Eren who had somehow completely stolen Quake's attention from the rest of the building, sliding past the beast as she sliced his legs with her blades and he took a step back. Eren glared at her as he blasted her away from him taking her completely off guard. She slid across the floor, glancing at Quake before looking back at Eren. "Hey, I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that his eyes aren't normally completely red and glowing."
"Sounds like Dread," Natalia noted.
"Would make sense, there is a lot of Grimms Bane around here for some reason and Neela found that the Stardust Gang was dealing with it last year," Titus added.
"Great, so he's drugged," Ilia said.
"I'll take him down just the same," Eren declared as he loaded gravity Dust into his gun and aimed it at the hulking man.
"Do you even know what he can do?" Ilia asked. Eren fired, which didn't faze Quake in the slightest. He turned to Eren, trapping him in a tomb of earth and Ilia rolled out of the way of a second similar attack directed at her.
"What's wrong with him again?" Natalia asked as she stretched.
"We're not sure, to be honest," Titus replied shaking his head. "Ilia, if he gets out of there, just grab him."
"Right," Ilia nodded.
"Oh and Ilia…" Titus started. "Stand back." Quake lifted the blade off of his shoulder, preparing to attack Ilia as Natalia took off and used her semblance to reach him at breakneck speed. He turned quickly for his size, his blade meeting her fist as she swung and her artificial limb met his weapon. Titus swiped the air, gravity Dust crashing through the air and into Quake, forcing him to step back again and allowing Natalia to overpower him, knocking the sword out of his hands and across the room. He grumbled, cocking back to swing around. He brought down the full force of his swing onto Natalia, or at least that was his plan. Instead, Titus stood in her place, covered in stone with one arm up to stop the blow. Titus smirked.
"Where's the girl?" Quake asked angrily. Titus gestured up with his head. Natalia came down from her jump, nailing Quake in the jaw which was enough to get a few steps out of him this time as Titus slammed into his gut with a haymaker. Quake chuckled as he met Natalia's next attack with a kick, knocking her away and backhanding Titus as he took them both off of their feet with his semblance. Ilia opened fire but he ignored her, bending down and picking up his sword.
"I'm not finished fighting you yet!" Eren shouted breaking free of the earth he'd been sealed inside of.
"You heard Coco, we're supposed to let Titus and Natalia handle Quake," Ilia reminded him.
"Why, so they can have all the praise and acknowledgment? Coco just doesn't realize my full potential yet," Eren explained. Titus threw one of his swords and it stuck in the wall behind Eren, Natalia activated the gravity Dust in them while holding onto his other blade, sending her screaming through the air towards Quake who didn't see her coming. She kicked his shoulder, making him stumble slightly before swinging for her but Titus had already closed in and grappled with him for the sword. Natalia activated Titus's sword again, this time acting as the anchor as the second sword flew from the wall and glanced off of the brute.
"This guy has an unreal amount of aura!" Natalia noted.
"I've… noticed…" Titus grunted, failing to wrench the sword away. Quake filled the blade with his semblance and released it as he slammed it into Titus, launching him towards the far side of the building. Natalia glanced back to make sure he was okay.
"I don't think so!" She shouted at him. She swiped at him, having the sword knocked out of her hands as an even stronger shockwave was generated and pushed not only her back but caused the rest of her team fighting the Stardust Gang behind her to stumble. "You alright?"
"Of course…" He groaned as he stood, his breathing heavy as he checked his aura on his scroll. Quake had taken half of it in a single blow, and they didn't seem to be making any headway. Would they be able to defeat him? He had already considered that maybe Neela would have an idea, but she needed to make it in first, and Titus considered that she might enter in through the skylight that Orin had entered through, but much like Titus's earth dome attack using Dust, Quake had somehow used his Semblance to place one over the entirety of the building. Was this only the work of the Dread… or had they become stronger some other way?
"Having a hard time breaking through this!" Neela told them over her comms as she tried everything from firing explosive arrows at it to slicing away at it with her sword.
"What else can we do to get her in here?" Natalia asked heading in once more and not letting the constant shock waves deter her from trying.
"Xavier!" Orin declared. "You ready for a round trip out and back in?"
"You taking me?" Xavier asked as he phased his arm through Orion's shield and punched him in the face.
"Nat will have to throw you," he noted, clashing with Sirius before firing at him. "I need to hold these guys off so NITE can work."
"Coming to you!" Natalia yelled charging full speed at Xavier.
"That works too!" Xavier declared. As the twins moved in to attack Xavier, a spinning chakram glanced off of both blades startling them before it returned to Yin. Nat reached Xavier, planting her feet with an abrupt stop and grabbing Xavier by the waist before launching him into the air. He soared through the rock, gripping Neela on his way back down and pulling her through, making them tangible again so that she could pull him down to safety.
"Eren!" Ilia shouted at him, struggling to keep him back. "Don't make me do this!"
"Do what?" He scoffed.
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" She shouted before jumping into his body with her semblance.
"Hey!" His shout echoed in her head as she fully immersed herself in his mind and found it to be a pitch-black void full of silence.
"Huh…" Ilia stated. "This isn't exactly what I expected." She just needed to take full control and make sure that he didn't do anything stupid so that Natalia, Titus, and Neela could take down Quake, nothing to it. She leapt lightly up and down, wondering what was taking the transition so long before a bright light shone behind her and she turned around to face it. She was no longer surrounded by void, the emptiness that previously filled his mind was replaced by the sights and smells that Ilia identified despite only being there once. Shion Village. It was bustling with life and tourists, as per usual these days, and Eren was standing in the middle of the marketplace, looking at a selection of fruit before picking up an apple and nodding to the vendor, handing him lien in exchange. He took a bite, taking the time to enjoy the flavor as he made small talk with the man working at the fruit cart.
The two of them laughed, Eren pausing for a moment to check his scroll before saying goodbye and heading down the road into the residential areas.
"Hey! What's up, man?!" Eren shouted into his scroll, though Ilia couldn't hear what the other person was saying. "Really? But they told us that we could have the week off. Yeah, that's true, Grimm don't wait, do they? Alright, I'll be there in a few. Yep. Later." Was this the same guy that was on their team? He seemed way too personable and upbeat. She continued to follow him, the scene shifting to a fire that had spread through the houses, and Grimm were running amok. He finished one off as the scene completely reformed, he was out of breath, and confusion and terror filled his eyes.
"What the hell is going on!?" He yelled at people that were scattering about in fear. An explosion knocked him off of his feet and he sat there dazed for a long moment. "What…"
"We got to get out of here!" Someone commanded as they ran up to him and helped him to his feet. Their face was covered with a shadow of sorts as if he was trying to forget what they looked like.
"Not until I find my parents, you and the guys said you'd keep them safe!" Eren reminded him, shoving him away.
"We didn't get there in time!" the other kid blurted. Eren's eyes narrowed as he glared at him.
"What?" Eren asked.
"It all happened so fast, we tried our best to get to them, we really did!" He exclaimed.
"No!" Eren shouted as he raced into the flames and headed towards his house.
"We can't stay here!" Another voice without a face yelled. Eren's eyes darkened.
"I trusted you to save my family!" He thundered as he blasted away the door. The front entrance collapsed in before he could enter, the flames growing even higher and trapping him outside. "No!"
"Eren!" A third demanded. "Come on!"
"This is all my fault for trusting the three of you!" Eren screamed.
"We tried! There's nothing more you could have done if you'd been here too!" He explained. Something snapped inside of Eren as he scoffed, he took a deep breath before swinging around and punching the man square in the gut blasting him away.
"I quit this team," Eren said as he looked for another way into the building which had now all but collapsed in on itself completely. "If I can't trust others then what's the point?"
"Eren…" The other two took a step towards him. He turned to look at him, the fire not reflecting off of his eyes but rather burning within them.
"Don't take another step closer or I'll end the three of you as well," Eren raged. They looked at each other before walking away, heads hanging low.
"If you change your mind, man…" The first said quietly before they disappeared completely. Eren sat in a chair before a large desk, another faceless individual sat before him, Eren slumped back, breathing slowly and hardly paying the man any attention as he stared off into space.
"Mr. Prince, have you heard a single word that I've said?" The man asked as Eren sighed and looked at him with a roll of his eyes.
"And once again I repeat, I have no interest in transferring to Haven Academy," Eren spoke slowly as if the man hadn't heard him the first time.
"But why? They have a better program than we could ever hope to have. Not to mention you'd be able to get to know your teammates right away. We wouldn't want you at the disadvantage of only having three years of team experience before you start accepting missions, now would we?" He explained to Eren. Eren sat up and stared at the man.
"The less I have to work with others the better. As soon as I graduate, I'm gonna be a solo act again anyway," Eren told him. "The only strength you can rely on is your own, other people are weak and will let you down. So I have to do everything in my power to work on my strength, I don't have the time or energy to waste on teammates."
"One more year," the professor said, Ilia had now gathered that much. "Then I will be sending you to Haven whether you like it or not. There will always be someone stronger than you are, and someday you'll need their help." Eren scoffed and waved him off as he stood.
"Nah… I'll just need to prove to them that I'm the better Huntsman," Eren told him as he left the room and his mind once again faded to black. It lasted only for a minute when light flooded Ilia's eyes and she found that she had control of Eren's body, though only a second had passed in the real world.
"Ilia?" Neela asked.
"I got him," Ilia replied. "Though he's really fighting back."
"It doesn't matter how many of you come at me now!" Quake thundered. "With my power's boosted and this Dread coursing through my veins, I'm unstoppable!" He slammed his blade into the floor, this time sending all of his power through it and shaking the building itself.
"We have to keep him busy so the whole place doesn't come down!" Neela shouted to her teammates.
"Sure, no sweat," Titus replied as he and Nat charged back in and attempted another barrage. Quake proved to be quicker now and swung his sword around, using his semblance to knock them away, even though the swing came up empty. Neela needed to think of something…
"How much more can you take, Em?" Aurora asked as she nailed the woman in the temple again with her meteor hammer, driving her back to the floor and causing her aura to falter for a third time. "It's so much fun pushing you right to the edge of what you can take and letting your aura build back up. That hope in your eyes that you might figure something out to get out of here. You might know where the door is now, right? But you can't move, and none of those children down there are close enough for you to let them know you're still here."
"Doesn't Mercury need you yet?" Emerald spat.
"He can hold his own for a while, we've all been getting stronger thanks to Salem's power," Aurora explained disappearing and reappearing on the far side of the room. "I can't wait until she comes back. I wonder what she'll be like. I bet she's really pretty and loving, like a mother, you know?"
"I do know, and she's not anything like that," Emerald insisted. "The way that she controlled me and Merc with fear… and Cinder with the promise of power…" Cinder! That was it! "But Cinder never obtained that power, and Merc's still afraid of her!"
"And you're not?" Aurora inquired. "It's normal to have a healthy amount of fear of those that have power over you. I hear that you and her other disciples at the time failed over and over again, but she never disposed of any of you…"
"She hurt Hazel!" Emerald exclaimed. Aurora laughed loudly.
"Oh please!" She argued. "I heard his semblance was blocking out pain anyway."
"Well, he was far better at that than I was," Emerald stated. Emerald flickered from Aurora's vision before her actual body crashed out of the door and headed for the stairs, nearly tumbling down them as her aura broke. Aurora stepped out onto the balcony, shaking her head as she watched Emerald crumple in a heap. The students were fully engaged in their fight with Quake and the rest of Stardust. Her scroll vibrated.
"Coco's chasing you?" Aurora stammered. "I'll be there as soon as I can, Master!" Aurora glared at Emerald one last time. "I never thought that she'd use her semblance on herself."
"His power seems to be getting greater by the moment, Neela!" Titus shouted. He and Nat both crashed their fists off of the giant broadsword, having no luck in damaging it or even knocking it away from the man as he instead powered through their attack and pushed them away. Nat slid further than Titus who was running out of ideas as Neela continued assessing the situation, trying to come up with anything to help. She hadn't actually joined them for training in some time due to the issues with her semblance, and it seemed that some of her mind's sharp and keen decision making had worn slightly.
"I'm thinking!" She assured him.
"I'm not sure we have time for that!" He yelled back impatiently. Titus rushed in by himself, blowing past Nat who barely had time to regain her wits, reaching out to stop him but failing to do so. She chased after him, knowing whatever he was planning would fail.
"We need to coordinate!" Nat shouted at him.
"I can do this!" He bellowed. He nearly reached Quake, coming within feet of striking the blade but being thrown back. His body soared away from Quake towards Nat who was directly behind him, she managed to grasp him under her arm and swing him around to safety without him taking much if any damage. That was when both Titus and Neela saw it.
"Come on, Titus, you know this will work better if we do it together," Nat said to him reaching down to help him up. The whole scene changed, Titus looked around to find they were in the sewers under Mantle, the oversized Saber they been sent to fight had run off for the time being, but he knew it couldn't have gone far. He let her help him up before brushing himself off and marching off without her again. "Titus! Please!"
"This is nothing, I can do it myself," Titus explained to her.
"But what if it is something," she asked rushing ahead of him and placing a hand on his chest. "You don't have to do this alone, I'm not calling you weak, you know all this. Admon has really gotten into your head and sometimes I wish that you weren't training with him."
"Are you saying that the General is wrong in his teachings?" Titus asked.
"Some of them, yes," she told him. He glared at her for a long moment. "You've been different since you've started working so closely with him. You don't have fun. You don't let loose. You just tackle problems head-on, by yourself, and you try to overpower them." He softened for a second.
"Nat…" He began.
"I miss how you were before…" Nat told him. "I just don't want to lose you, so let's work together, okay?"
It doesn't mean I'm weak… Titus told himself looking up at Natalia. He took her hand.
"Okay," he told her. He let her pull him up, finding his feet.
"Titus, I have an idea!" Neela shouted as she swung up to the balcony in front of the foreman's office to get a better angle.
"We're all ears," he informed her.
"Just get ready to attack!" She told him. She turned to Eren who was struggling against Ilia now.
"Get out of my head!" Eren shouted as he stumbled about clumsily. Neela fired an arrow between him and Quake as the man was making his way over, it exploded as it made contact with the ground, keeping him back for a moment.
"Eren!" Neela yelled.
"What?!" He asked, clearly annoyed.
"I bet you can't get in there and hit Quake's sword where I shoot it!" Neela scoffed. He glared at her for a few seconds, completely ignoring Ilia.
"You mocking me?" He growled.
"Nah, just don't think you can pull it off," Neela jested. He scowled and stared intently at his target.
"Just shoot him already!" Eren demanded.
"Ilia," Neela said into her comms.
"Yes?" Ilia replied.
"I need you to jump out in front of him just before he gets there," Neela instructed.
"I think I get what we're doing," Ilia noted. Neela rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath.
"Here goes nothing," Neela exhaled. She fired a quick arrow towards Quake which got his attention, his body violently turning to meet her gaze as the arrow was easily dropped by his semblance and she fired a second arrow with Gravity Dust. It made it most of the way, a second and third arrow following quickly behind through the split shockwaves, the final arrow reaching the sword and erupting in a cloud of Ice Dust, coating his sword. "Now, Eren!"
"Don't tell me what to do!" He bellowed rushing in, Ilia leaping out ahead of him as she was instructed. Quake's semblance struck her, throwing her back into Eren and she seamlessly rejoined his body. He slid in, charging his hand cannon with his semblance, and placed a solid blast on the frozen sword, shattering it in half. Eren smirked, proud of himself for a fleeting second as Quake swung the broken blade. Ilia leapt out of Eren's body over the sword, launching herself off of Eren's shoulders to push him back out of the way before landing on the other side of Quake and grabbing his neck, forcing him to toss the sword away.
"You two are up!" Neela shouted. Titus smirked and looked at Natalia who looked excited. This was familiar and warming.
"You ready?" He asked.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time," she said bouncing lightly on her feet. Natalia raced ahead of Titus, grabbing Quake by the arm as Ilia left his body and swinging him around with all of her strength, Titus using enough force to his lower torso to lift him off of the ground. Natalia swung the brute completely over her body, slamming him onto his back as his aura fizzled.
"One more should do it!" Titus declared. Quake blasted himself up to his feet using his semblance, allowing Neela to plant him to the floor with a flurry of earth arrows.
"Now!" Neela shouted. Titus and Natalia took a single step in, both of them nailing him in the jaw at the same time, shattering his aura and knocking him out cold instantly. Emerald and the Stardust Gang watched in awe before Sirius slowly raised his hands and backed away from Orin, Yin, and Xavier.
"What are you doing?" Orion asked. The twins followed Sirius's lead.
"Is that how you want to end up?" Sirius asked Orion. "They destroyed him. That much power would easily kill the four of us." Orion looked back at Quake before sighing and giving up as well. Emerald struggled to her feet, not sure if what she just witnessed was real, was it possible that she was still trapped within Aurora's semblance?
"We did it?!" Neela exclaimed, slightly in disbelief.
"No sweat," Eren chuckled as Ilia leapt out of his body and shuddered. He grabbed her arm. "Hey!"
"Before you start shouting, there was no other way to get you to…" She began. He cut her off.
"No," he replied. She stared into his eyes, he looked intense. "Don't tell anyone what you saw." He glared at her for a moment before she wrenched away and nodded.
"I get it," Ilia said as she walked towards Neela. He watched her, intrigued.
"We still got it," Titus laughed hard.
"Pfft, I've still got it," Natalia teased. "You were just there too."
"Yeah," he coughed. "Sure. Whatever you say."
"Felt good, didn't it?" She asked him. He looked away with a smirk.
"It was fine," he replied.
"Is my Gargoyle finally softening up a bit?" She jested. She reached her arms out for a hug and he folded his arms and shook his head. She shrugged. "Alright everybody, great job!" She smacked his ass and he jumped unexpectedly.
"We just have to hold them until the police can get in," Orin noted. At that moment, the bay door where all of the patrol cars had stopped was freed from the earthen blockade, Cerise standing out of breath on the other side. "And there we have it."
"Is everyone okay?" Sun asked, stepping into the building with Yatsu and Cerise.
"Emerald looks like she might need medical attention, but we're all okay," Neela noted, nodding to the woman.
"Great," Yatsu said as he walked to Quake. He looked back up at Neela and Ilia before turning to the brute again. "Incredible…"
"Was nothing really…" Eren bragged as he approached Yatsu.
"Don't touch me," Yatsu warned before the boy could reach him.
"Okay," he mumbled, changing course.
"Where's Coco? Is she still chasing Jett and Mercury?" Neela asked.
"Last we were told they were still after them, and Jaune and Nora are closing in on Paris," Yatsu informed her.
"Should we go help?" Neela questioned closing the gap between them.
"I think you guys have done enough for tonight," Neptune answered for him as he entered. "Go have fun or something."
"Yeah!" Sun agreed. "We know a great noodle place!"
"We're good," Titus waved them off.
NITE and ONYX takedown Quake! Will Coco catch Mercury finally? We're going to take off the next two weekends for the holidays, so we'll see you the weekend of January 9th with Chapter 16: Chase! Have a safe and happy holiday!
A big thank you to AG_Nonsuch, Helihi, Cadhla182, Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. The artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.
Until next week, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay classy!