The teams had all settled in for the flight to Mountain Glenn. Summer was in the cockpit talking to the pilot with Coco and Jaune hanging out not far behind in the door, Team CFVY were in their own little corner either meditating or, in Velvet's case, going through her picture album for the upcoming fights. Qrow and Taiyang were gently ribbing Raven as much as they dared while she glared down at her mask. Finally, JNPR were chatting amongst themselves while occasionally glancing at the other teams, Ren mostly at Velvet.
"Something on your mind?" Velvet asked after the fifth time Ren looked at her.
"Oh, no. I was just… admiring your weapon," Ren replied. Velvet looked up from her camera and quirked an eyebrow at Ren. "What?"
"It's not what you thought it was, was it?"
"...No."
"Everyone has a different answer before they find out. So, what's yours?"
"I don't want to say."
"No one ever does."
"Just tell her," Nora interrupted and nudged Ren's shoulder, "because I will if you don't."
"You wouldn't dare." Nora narrowed her eyes and Ren knew, deep in his soul, that she absolutely would and would probably add something else just for defying her. So, after a few moments of locking eyes, Ren sighed and looked at Velvet to give his answer. "I thought it was a rabbit cage and you carried a rabbit everywhere."
Velvet blinked a few times at that, slowly processing what Ren had just said. In fact, everyone in the ship not on his team was silently staring at him. "That's… a new one. How would a rabbit help?"
"The… idea was that the rabbit would attack Grimm." Velvet could only give a nonplussed stare at Ren, who after a moment gave a small shrug. "I got it from Jaune."
"Don't throw me under the bus!" Jaune shouted back at Ren, "besides you know we both got it from Nora."
"Well I got it from Pyrrha!" Nora shouted aghast. Velvet, Ren, and Jaune looked at Pyrrha, blushing madly from embarrassment, and could only offer a simple shrug.
"I'm sorry?" She said and gave Velvet her most apologetic smile. For her part, Velvet stared for a couple moments before breaking out into a giggle fit that soon became full forced laughter. Fox was doing better than her in that he was simply chuckling and Yatsuhashi gave a small smirk.
"Jaune, your team broke mine," Coco said and gave Jaune a smirk.
"Sorry," Jaune said and looked at Pyrrha with a small smile. "Pyrrha, don't break our upperclassmen."
"I didn't mean to!"
"We don't mean to do a lot of things," Summer said as she walked into the passenger area, "but we still end up doing them. Isn't that right Rae?"
"Oh fuck you, it was one time!" Raven shouted back, which got a laugh from Summer.
"Yeah, you get it. Anyway, we got our flight plan set in, so you all need to hear how we're doing this." Summer waited a moment for the two laughing members of CFVY to get themselves under control, which gave the leaders enough time to settle at the front.
"Oh, I really needed that laugh," Velvet said and wiped a tear from her eyes. "I appreciate you guys."
"At least one of us is happy," Pyrrha muttered to herself before Summer cleared her throat.
"We're all aware of the mission, so I won't go into that again. The basic plan is as follows." Summer gestured at Jaune, who took out his scroll and pulled up a map of Mountain Glenn with a red dot in one section. "Our main objective is the Merlot Industries Headquarters here. It's in an area of Mountain Glenn that wasn't hit too badly from the Grimm attacks, but still enough to prove hazardous to traverse."
"In terms of Grimm forecast," Coco started, "we have the Vale standard mostly: Beowolves, Creeps, Ursa. Alphas and Ursa Major are a possibility but unconfirmed. Since this was a starting point for the recent breach, we were told it was possible that the chaos brought Goliaths into the city. Let's hope that's not the case." The second years shuddered at the thought, which didn't help with JNPR's underlying nervousness.
"WITH THAT IN MIND!" Jaune started loudly before clearing his throat and resuming at a more normal tone, "In order to avoid drawing unwanted attention from being in a large group, it was decided the best way to go was to have each team drop off at different points and meet up in the plaza in front of the HQ." Jaune tapped his scroll and three more yellow dots popped up on the map.
"The three spots are called Delta, Iota, and Sigma respectively," Summer added.
"I hate those names. What do they even mean?"
"Shut up."
"Anyway," Coco continued while stifling laughter, "Team JNPR will drop off first at Delta, my team will stop second, and Summer will be last. When you're on the ground, make your way through the city to the HQ Plaza."
"What about when we get there?" Velvet asked.
"That'll mostly be a 'when we get there' problem after most of the rough parts are behind us, and trust me when I say Mountain Glenn is rough," Summer answered and checked her watch. "We still have some time before we're there, so make any last minute preparations you can and get ready for your drop off."
Jaune put his scroll away and moved over to his team while Summer and Coco joined their respective though he was quite justifiably nervous about the mission, he still managed a reassuring smile and said, "We got this, right?"
"Yes," Pyrrha answered with a nod, "and it's not like we're going into this completely alone."
"Exactly!" Nora said excitedly pressing her cheek to Pyrrha's, "dropping off into a destroyed city filled with dangerous monsters with some of the best Huntsmen in our age group? It's going to be awesome!"
"Let's hope it's not too difficult," Ren commented and immediately flinched when Raven groaned aloud.
"DON'T SAY THAT!"
"We're coming up to the Delta landing point. Get ready for drop off."
"You heard him, Jaune," Summer said with a small wave to the underclassmen. Jaune rolled his eyes and clutched his sword as the side doors opened to reveal the dilapidated city of Mountain Glenn passing by outside. The ship slowed to a hover over a small road going into the city and Jaune took a breath to calm himself. "Give them hell, and don't die."
"Sure thing," Jaune replied and watched as Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren jumped out before doing the same. The fall lasted a few seconds and Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha landed perfectly while Jaune lost his footing slightly, but managed to transition into a roll that left him crouching in front of his team.
"You're getting better at that," Nora commented as the airship left for its next stop.
"You think so?" Jaune asked and looked back at her. She nodded along with Ren and Pyrrha and Jaune couldn't help the smile. "Nice. Well, let's get moving."
The team had dropped in a section of forest on the outskirts of the ruined city. When they moved uphill and saw Mountain Glenn proper, they paused to just absorb the sheer devastation.
"Wow, it's… a lot worse than I thought," Jaune said as looked around. If he looked really carefully he could make out something resembling a city layout with roads stretching out with bridges stretching over a canal off to the right, probably for a river when the city was still alive. Most of the buildings were hollow ruins or piles of rubble now, barely recognizable from what they once were.
Pyrrha clenched her hands tighter around her rifle as she looked around and Jaune noticed Ren and Nora looking a little more disturbed than normal with the latter even looking like she was shaking a little. "Are you two going to be ok?"
"Y-yeah," Nora replied and took a breath before reaffirming her grip on her hammer. "Just bad memories. I'll be fine." She looked at Ren and smiled when he nodded in agreement.
"STUDENTS!" A loud voice echoed in the team's ears, causing all of them to jump in shock. "SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG, I JUST NOTICED YOU HAD TOUCHED DOWN!"
"Oh yeah, did we forget to mention Oobleck would be supporting us on this mission?" Summer said, her smug cheer obvious over the radio.
"Yes, you did," Jaune answered.
"I thought so. Well now you know."
"Thanks." Jaune said and lowered himself out of Ren's arms. "Sorry about that Ren."
"It's ok," Ren said and shrugged Nora off his back, causing her to land on her butt with a small 'ow'.
"So you're about to head into Mountain Glenn to uncover the technological solution to our problem with… technology," Oobleck continued, "Now it could be nothing… OR IT COULD BE EVERYTHING!"
"Gah, stop yelling," Jaune whined holding his right ear while Pyrrha actually took her earpiece out to clean the inside of her ear.
"Now start making your way to Merlot Industries HQ. It's the tallest building in that area, you cannot miss it! I have to talk to the other teams now, so good luck!" The coms went silent and Jaune let out a heavy sigh.
"At least he didn't say 'try not to die," he said and drew his sword, attached his shield, and led the way into the city proper. The crunch of dirt under their feet was replaced by the quiet echo of footsteps on asphalt and any annoyance Jaune felt was smothered by the atmosphere of the city.
"Did anyone else hear a scream just now?" Pyrrha asked and raised her rifle a little.
"I think that was just the wind," Ren said.
"Ugh, I hate places like this," Nora said with a shiver.
"You said it," Jaune agreed. They reached an intersection and looked around until they saw a building jutting out over the skyline. "So I guess that's where we need to go?" Jaune asked and gestured at the building.
"It is pretty tall," Nora said.
"And it has that 'M' logo," Ren added.
"And it's still pretty far," Jaune finished and sighed, "We have a lot of walking to do."
"There are Grimm watching us," Pyrrha said.
"What?" Jaune asked and leaned around Pyrrha to see what she meant with Nora and Ren leaning in a more exaggerated manner to see past him at the Beowolf and trio of Creeps staring at them.
"How long have they been there?" Nora asked.
"Too long," Pyrrha answered. That seemed to break the tension as the Beowolf roared and charged along with the creeps. Pyrrha dropped to a knee and started firing along with Ren, who had stepped past Nora and Jaune to get a better sight. The bullets fell two of the Creeps before they came close to them before they had to switch to close combat. Jaune rushed forward and rolled under a swipe from the Beowolf to focus on the Creep. A short burst from Ren kept the Beowolf's attention on them while Pyrrha closed in.
It tried to bite down on her, though it was knocked off course when her weapon extended suddenly and scraped along the side of its face. Her weapon retracted and Pyrrha jumped over it and sliced along its arm when it tried to swipe at her. When Pyrrha was out of sight Ren charged in, fired another burst at the Beowolf's head and ducked under a retaliatory swipe while using his blades to cut the arm off at the elbow. The Beowolf looked down at its arm and back up at Nora mid swing. It was soon flying into a nearby building that collapsed on top of the Beowolf, leaving a hind leg exposed to disintegrate.
Jaune had finished the last Creep and looked back at the rest of the team, who all nodded to show they were okay, and flinched when the building collapsed more. After a moment of the crash echoing around them, Jaune said, "We should probably go before more Grimm show up." After a chorus of agreements the team started running through the streets.
The Grimm may have been the most prevalent obstacle, but it wasn't the only one. As Team JNPR stared at the most recent one, the coms crackled to life with Coco's voice.
"Team CFVY reporting, we're on the ground and on the move."
"Excellent! If you can avoid most of the Grimm we'll make good time!" Oobleck answered, "Though it seems Team JNPR have stalled."
"Really? What's wrong?"
"What's wrong," Jaune said over the coms, "is that all the bridges to the side of town we need to go to are out or blocked." Indeed this was the third bridge they tried; the first was completely destroyed and the second, much like the one they were looking at, was blocked by a makeshift barricade of cars and anything else that could slow the Grimm down even a little. This, along with a solid block of destroyed buildings, made it hard to get anywhere even without monsters hounding them.
"Yeah, that does sound like a problem. Like what we have here. Two seconds!"
"One moment. If your position is correct, there should be a water channel nearby that should lead you closer to your objective." The team looked to the right at the long dried out canal.
"Are you sure?" Jaune asked as he and Ren looked over the edge of the bridge into the channel. A pile of rubble at the bottom made it easier to get down into than anywhere else along it.
"Of course! As long as you mind your step and head further into the district, you should have no problem finding your way back!" Jaune and Ren shared a look and a shrug before jumping into the channel with Pyrrha and Nora right behind them. They walked along the bed carefully and checked inside each of the myriad gated entrances to the sewer system in case a Beowolf or something was hiding in it.
"How do you think the others are doing?" Jaune asked after a moment.
"We do have radios to check," Nora said flatly. Jaune nodded a couple of times before putting a finger to his earpiece.
"Uh, Jaune here. Just checking in with everyone… over?" After a few seconds of silence the coms opened up with the sound of slightly heavy breathing.
"Coco here, sorry for dropping off like that. Ran across a pack of Grimm that needed dealing with. And don't say 'over' when you're done talking, we can tell when you are done."
"Um… ok? And don't worry about it, I just wanted to make sure you all were doing ok."
"Well we're doing fine over here. Dunno about Summer though. They should have dropped off by now and I haven't heard anything from them." Jaune silently agreed and looked back to ask one of his teammates to call them only to stop in his tracks when he saw Pyrrha with her finger to her ear and a very concerned look on her face.
"Pyrrha, what's wrong?" he asked, which caused Pyrrha to jump, take her finger off her ear, and give him an overly eager smile.
"Sorry! I was just checking on STRQ. They're… doing fine," she said and cradled her rifle carefully.
"Fine?" Ren asked.
"Well fine for them," Nora clarified, "I heard a bit of it and there was a lot of swearing, shouting, and I'm pretty sure I heard a Grimm roar." Coco's laugh filled Jaune's ear and he realized she probably heard all of that.
"They probably landed on top of a fucking Taijitu or something. They'll be okay."
"Are you sure?" Jaune asked.
"If they needed help they'd call for it. I wouldn't worry about it too much." The coms went silent and Jaune made it about a step before they came back.
"While you're on the line, mind if we pass down some advice?" Velvet asked."
"Is it actual advice?" Jaune asked.
"Yes."
"Go ahead."
"Be careful if you end up finding a giant door that looks like it'll take forever to open. Because it will, it will be loud doing so, and you'll be forced to wait near it until it is open. The Grimm just love those three happening at once."
"That's… very specific, but thanks anyway. But what are the chances of us running into something like that out here?" That small bit of confidence lasted until they turned the corner and saw a giant rusted canal lock ahead of them. The other path going forward was barred by a fallen bridge and they couldn't go back, which meant only one thing.
"You just ran into one, didn't you?" Velvet asked.
"Yup," Nora answered. The coms were quiet for a moment before Fox came on.
"Good luck," was all he said before the coms went silent again. JNPR slowly walked up to the gate and looked it over for a way past it that didn't involve actually opening the thing.
There was none.
"Okay… how long do you guys think this will take?" Jaune asked solemnly.
"I don't know, four or five waves?" Nora answered.
"...Well, no use in delaying it," Ren said and walked to the side where an emergency open lever was set into the gate. He pulled the lever down, which caused the gate to groan in protest as it started the process of opening, and drew his weapons when the howls of approaching Grimm filled the air.
"Dangit. I hate this city," Jaune muttered and drew his sword.
After five waves the gate finally opened and JNPR could get through and back up onto the streets. Jaune wasn't sure if a single Ursa could qualify as a 'wave', but he was more concerned about how easy it was getting for him to kill them. That probably wasn't a good sign. In any case, they stopped for a moment to catch their breath once they were on the streets, mostly because Nora saw a half standing comic store and immediately started digging through it for 'treasure'.
"Is this going to take long?" Jaune asked from the demolished entrance.
"It'll take as long as it needs to!" Nora called back, and crawled into Jaune's line of sight and back out again, "Come on, there's gotta be some good cards somewhere."
"Nora, there's glass on the floor," Ren said and crossed his arms.
"You're glass on the floor!"
Ren sighed and turned to Jaune. "I'll keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't hurt herself."
"Right," Jaune said and rubbed the back of his neck, "I'll watch the front with Pyrrha. Just come back out when she gives up." Ren nodded and moved to follow Nora while Jaune walked out to stand next to the door. Pyrrha was on the other side, Miló in one hand and a canteen in the other.
"So are we waiting a little longer?" she asked.
"Yep. Don't know why a card is more important than the mission, but I don't think even Ren can pull her away from this." Pyrrha made a hum and took a drink from her canteen. A few seconds of quiet passed and Jaune coughed into his hand and asked, "So, how are the others doing?"
"I checked in on both of them a bit ago. CFVY are making slow and steady progress and…" Pyrrha paused for a moment and shrugged with an apologetic grin, "STRQ are the same as last time? All I heard was Raven just screaming the F-word into the coms."
"I hope they're doing ok." Pyrrha nodded and they stood in silence for a few moments until Jaune shivered. "I don't like the wind here. It always sounds like someone's crying. Is that normal for places like this?"
"I'm not certain, this is my first time in a place like this too." Pyrrha looked up at the sky with a frown and added, "Though from what I heard, they are. I don't like it here either. It feels like the air is trying to suffocate us just for being here."
"Yeah, I've been trying to ignore that." Silence fell over them again as they both listened for something far more dangerous than wind. Soon Ren came out with a pouting Nora. "You didn't find what you were looking for, I take it?"
"No. The worst part was there definitely opened card packs too, so somebody had the same idea I had!" Jaune couldn't help but balk at that spectacular display of skewed priorities while Ren placed a comforting hand on Nora's shoulder.
"It's alright Nora, you'll find the card somewhere else," he said. Nora looked up at his smile and smiled in return. Which dropped once he happily added, "And you still won't be able to beat me."
"Why you little—!"
"Guys, can you please not?" Jaune said as he pushed his way in between them, "Especially when we're in the middle of a place like this?" As if to punctuate his point a howl filled the air suddenly, causing all of them to flinch and look around.
"That's too close," Pyrrha said, putting away her canteen and hefting Miló up, "and it came from where we came from."
"Then we better get a move on. I don't want to be bogged down by Grimm here." Everyone nodded while Jaune drew his sword and led them away from the store. Along the way Nora gave Ren a quick look.
"We're not done discussing this, Lie Ren!" She muttered.
"Sure Nora," he answered with a chuckle.
The rest of the route to Merlot HQ was easy enough for JNPR, with only a few scuffles and an extensive detour through a supermarket to get away from a particularly sticky Alpha Beowolf to speak of. Once they lost it and got back onto the street, they continued on with the building looking closer than ever.
"We might actually get there first," Jaune noted as he checked both ways of an intersection they came up on. With the coast clear they went down the way toward Merlot HQ. "And there's not that many Grimm around either. Think it's because the others have been drawing them away?"
"It might just be STRQ," Nora answered and cleaned out an ear, "it feels like it with how loud they shout when I check the coms."
"In any case we should take advantage of it and press on," Ren said, "The Plaza's not far off."
"Right. The faster we get this finished, the better." Jaune turned another corner and saw the towering building of Merlot HQ in front of them. "Oh wow, we really made great time! We'll have to thank the others for helping us out later."
"We're not done yet," Pyrrha said and checked her rifle, "We still need to secure it, remember?"
"Yeah, I do." Jaune sheathed his sword and put a hand to his ear, "JNPR to Beacon, do you read?"
"I can hear you, anything to report?" Oobleck answered almost immediately. Jaune silently hoped he hadn't been sitting uninformed before now as he answered.
"My team's just coming up to the building. Is there anything we need to know about the building itself?"
"Ah yes, Merlot Industries headquarters. It was quite fortified back in its day, filled with great minds and even greater technology! Now, probably less fortified and empty of life, but not treasure. It should be simple to find what you're looking for in there!"
"And you're sure it's safe to go in there? I mean, how long has it just been sitting there?"
"Decades! But danger is just something you'll get used to, lad, especially in places like Mountain Glenn. I'll let you get back to work, call me when you're done or need assistance!" The coms went silent and Jaune shook his head slightly and drew his sword again.
"Well, guess we'll worry about the inside when we get there. Let's focus on clearing the plaza first. What are the odds of that being easy?"
"Only one way to find out," Pyrrha answered and jogged ahead with the others right behind her. They stopped at a small drop from the road having given way some time ago and looked around the area immediately in front of Merlot HQ. While on paper it may have once been described as a 'plaza', now it was little more than a sunken parking lot with only a small climb separating it from the Merlot building itself. And as of right now, home to a small group of Grimm.
"That doesn't look too bad," Nora said while rubbing her chin, "I think we can take them."
"Those Ursa might be a problem," Jaune said warily, "let's see where the others are before we do anything." Jaune pressed a finger to his ear while Nora shifted Manghild into a grenade launcher and knelt down to keep an eye on the Grimm. "JNPR calling out, we're at the HQ, are you close by?"
"You guys are there already?" Coco asked slightly impressed, "damn, you made great time. My team is still a few blocks away and I think STRQ is still screaming."
"So we're on our own for now?"
"If you think you can handle what's there, go for it. If not, there's nothing wrong with waiting a few minutes."
Jaune bit his lip and looked at his teammates, who looked back at him with small nods. After one last look at the Grimm, Jaune made his decision.
"We'll get started then. It wouldn't hurt to know you were coming though."
"We'll do what we can to get there faster, but don't wait on us. Don't worry, you got this."
"Right," Jaune answered and closed the coms. After taking a moment to take a deep breath, he drew his sword and nodded. "Let's get started then! Nora…"
"Boom?" Nora asked with a grin.
"Big boom." Nora's grin grew wider and she stood up, flicked the front of her launcher up into its 'special fire' mode, and fired. The Grimm in the lot looked up at the sound and the incoming whizz of grenades, just in time for a heart shaped cluster of them to land in the middle of the group and scatter them explosively. Once the grenades hit the team jumped down and moved to fight.
"Nora, focus on the big ones!" Jaune shouted. Nora changed directions to the closest Ursa while Jaune blocked a swipe from a Beowolf. The Beowolf growled and started rearing its other arm back when Ren slid under it and cut off the arm on Jaune's shield at the elbow. Suddenly thrown off balance, it was easy for Ren to knock off its feet with a swift kick to its legs and for Jaune to finish off with a stab to the throat. Once it stopped twitching and started disintegrating, the two moved on to other threats.
Pyrrha had cleared out a trio of Creeps that had survived the initial barrage and turned to watch Nora as she engaged an Ursa. While they weren't as fast as other Grimm, it was still enough to keep Nora at arm's length. Pyrrha shifted Miló into a rifle and fired two shots at the Ursa's head, the first whizzing past it while the second hit the bone plate. It was enough to distract it away from Nora, who took the chance to take a swing at the Ursa and managed to connect on its arm in a way to snap it backwards at the elbow.
Roaring at the attack, the Ursa swung its unbroken arm at Nora, who ducked it and spun around to build enough speed to land a solid hit under its chin and send it flying. The Ursa had barely landed on its back when Pyrrha jumped on it and plunged her blade into its throat. It struggled enough for Pyrrha to jump off it in a flip, though she made sure to drag the blade along the throat as she did so. She had barely landed when she had to roll to the side to avoid the claws of another Ursa and barely got to her feet in time to get her shield up and between its jaws.
The Ursa growled and Pyrrha could feel the heat of its breath on her arm as it started pushing her back. With a shout, Nora suddenly ran up from behind it and slammed her hammer into the inside of a rear leg. The Ursa made a noise as it was suddenly off balance and let go of Pyrrha's shield, letting her take a step back, turn Miló into a javelin, and fit it into a notch in her shield for a counter-attack. She waited for the Ursa to open its mouth again before she hit the trigger on Miló, extending the javelin into the Ursa's mouth where it tore into its throat. Pyrrha quickly moved her hand to the end of the javelin and pushed it further into the Ursa's throat before pulling it out and jumping away so Nora could finish it with one last swing that sent it careening into a nearby building.
"Well, that was easy," Nora said and slung her hammer across her shoulders while looking back at Ren finishing off the last of the Creeps with a few gunshots and Jaune stabbing down into a Beowolf's chest. "Not that I'm complaining, I like it when it's ea—"
The building the Ursa had sailed into suddenly exploded out with a cloud of dust as an Ursa Major hopped out and stood up on its hind legs to roar angrily. It looked around the area before settling on the two girls in front of it and lowering down onto all fours again. Pyrrha shot a glare at Nora, who gave a sheepish shrug in response, before the two of them were forced on the defensive by a swipe of the Major's claws. They both jumped away and Pyrrha moved in to attack what she saw as an opening, only to realize too late that the Major was rearing its arms back and over its head for an attack.
She managed to get her shield up just as the Major slammed its arms into the ground, causing a shockwave and cracking the ground enough for pillars of earth to shoot out in waves in front of it before collapsing back down. Even with her shield up, Pyrrha was sent flying by one of these pillars while Nora had to ride the shockwave back to relative safety.
"Could… they always do that?" Jaune asked, more than a little stunned by that display. Ren could only shrug and reload his weapons as the Major looked at them. When he was done, Ren and Jaune ran at the Major and broke off left and right respectively. Ren fired a short burst at it to draw the Major's attention to him so Jaune could run in and strike its side. Unfortunately he found its skin to be very thick and the blow was barely a scratch at best. The Major growled and swung its arm back to try and hit Jaune, which it would have if he hadn't dodge rolled out of the way.
"Well that's not good," Jaune muttered as stood up and watched as Ren backpedaled away from the Major doing that earth pillar attack again. "Seriously, when could they do that?"
"I think it's something they only do when they're really mad," Pyrrha said as she stopped next to Jaune, "Oh, and I'm fine by the way."
"That's good. Any ideas?"
"Not at the moment. The hide's too thick for blades and bullets and I'm pretty sure it can shrug off one of Nora's grenades." Pyrrha paused thanks to a loud explosion from one of Nora's grenades, which served to prove Pyrrha right and get the Major to charge after Nora, with only a small crack to the bone on its head to show for the attack. "Well crap, the grenades were my best plan."
"There's got to be something else we can do." Aside from waiting for CFVY and STRQ to help them out, a small part of Jaune's mind wanted to do this without them. To prove to himself, if not them, that his team deserved to be out there with them. With that thought in mind he watched carefully as the Major continued to give them a hard time with that pillar attack, which was how he noticed the Major swaying on its feet after the attack.
"Wait, it stuns itself with that attack? What an idiot."
"The blowback has to go somewhere I guess," Pyrrha said with a shrug and looked at Jaune, who was rapidly looking at the Major shaking off its stupor, to Nora rolling back onto her feet and Ren dashing in to land some hits. His eyes landed on Pyrrha for a second before looking back at the scene before grinning and bouncing on his feet a little.
"I HAVE AN IDEA!"
"You do?"
"Yeah." Jaune rested his sword against his leg to quickly explain what his idea was to Pyrrha, his free hand making motions the whole way. When he was done he was still excited and Pyrrha, while understanding of it, couldn't help some skepticism.
"That sounds… a little complicated for this," she said cautiously before jumping at the sound of crashing earth and a grunting shout from Ren.
"Maybe. If it doesn't work, then we'll just harass it until the others get here. Whenever that is…" Pyrrha blinked at the small burst of anger from Jaune while he moved on from it and picked up his sword. "Go help Nora and tell her what's happening. I'll tell Ren his part." Pyrrha nodded and started running to Nora, her sword shifting to a rifle so a few bullets could draw some attention away from Nora. Jaune meanwhile ran up to Ren, who was busy reloading again, and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Yes?" Ren asked.
"I think I have a plan to take care of that thing. First of all, do you remember that palm thrust martial arts move you do?"
"Which one?"
"Nora said you used one to blow up a King Taijitu's head back in initiation?"
"Oh yes, I remember that. What about it?" Jaune's response was to silently look at the Ursa Major before looking back at Ren. "Oh, I see… I don't feel comfortable getting close to it."
"If my idea works, you'll have a clear shot with no worries. Just remember that you go after Nora."
"Anything else you'd like to share?"
"Ah yeah, try to get its attention on me and… try to stay in front of it." Ren raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't have time to say anything when they heard a loud whistle and saw Pyrrha waving at them before she had to dodge a swipe from the Major. "Ok, the girls are ready! Good talk Ren, get ready!"
"Sure… whatever that means!" Ren called out and finished reloading before running to the left and firing at the Ursa. The bullets pinged off its bone armor and drew its attention that way, which is where it saw Jaune running right at it. It roared and charged at him on all fours while Jaune braced his shield arm. The Major slammed head first into the shield and Jaune felt the Aura in his arm flare for a moment before he found an angle to swing his sword at the Major's leg. It roared again and flung its head up to knock Jaune away a few feet before lifting its forelegs up behind it.
"Get ready!" he shouted again and flipped his sword into a reverse hold. He was sure the others were in place when the Major slammed its arms down and sent a wave of pillars out again. Fighting against his instincts, Jaune ran at the pillars and jumped forward so his shield was under him a pillar shot out under him. He grunted when it slammed into him and sent him further upwards in a flip and, thankfully, over the stunned Major.
While that was happening, Pyrrha stashed Miló and spun into launch position for Nora. Pyrrha had managed to brace herself when Nora had jumped on her shield hammer first and got the angle just right before Nora launched herself into the air with a bang. While in the air Nora covered her eyes from any sunlight and grinned at the Major.
Jaune had completed his flip and was falling toward the Ursa. With a shout he brought his sword over his head and stabbed it down onto the Major's head, stabbing it right in the middle of its forehead. Since it was still stunned from the blowback of its attack, the Major could only flail blindly at the sudden pain in its head. Jaune used the motion to fling himself safely away from the Major, leaving his sword embedded in its head. He landed on his back and rolled onto his knees in time to see Nora spinning down with her hammer.
"Smashy smashy!" she shouted just as her hammer connected with the Major's neck. The force sent it crashing to the ground, cracking the pavement and leaving its hind legs in the air momentarily. Magnhild glowed black momentarily as Pyrrha's magnetism took hold and whisked Nora back to Pyrrha. She couldn't help but shout "Whee!" at the sudden trip.
Here, with the Major dazed, downed, and with the perfect target, Ren saw his opportunity. He holstered his weapons and ran to the Major, his eyes never leaving Crocea Mors. He stopped right in front of the Major, took a deep breath as he drew a hand back, and shot it forward to hit the end of Crocea Mors with a flat palm. The air shot out from the impact, the skin of the Major seemed to ripple from the blow, and Ren was able to grab the handle of the sword and pull it out as the Major flew backwards. It crashed into a street light and fell to the ground before bloating in size.
"SHIELD!" Jaune shouted and ran up to Ren. Ren wasted no time in reaching back to grab Jaune's shoulder and twirl behind him, carefully positioning Jaune along the way so he'd have little difficulty shielding the both of them. Nora was much less graceful as she dove to the ground behind Pyrrha and covered her head with her arms while Pyrrha braced her shield. The Major finally burst and vanished in a spray of black mist and bone spikes. Jaune and Pyrrha grunted as several scraped along their shields and Nora let out a small yelp when a few got a little too close for comfort, though it ended just as quickly as it started and Team JNPR could peek out to the vacant spot where the Ursa Major once lay.
"Did we win?" Nora asked while resting her head on Pyrrha's shoulder.
"Yes, I think we did," Pyrrha answered.
"Okay, neat." Nora zipped away from Pyrrha long enough to get Magnhild and returned with the hammer slung over her shoulder. "I guess it was the last one too?"
"Let's keep our guard up until the others get here," Jaune said and took his sword back from Ren with a nod. "But good job everyone. I can now safely say I was kind of winging it at the end there." Pyrrha and Ren's pupils shrank a little and they both looked at Nora when she snorted.
"That's ok, I was too. I was actually aiming for your sword on the swing. It would have been an actual nail!"
"Please don't do that!" Jaune cried and hugged his sword protectively, "I don't know how sturdy this thing is and my dad would kill me if I broke it in half or something."
"You don't know it would have broken!"
"How about we make sure the perimeter is secure before more Grimm come, okay?" Pyrrha suggested hurriedly just as another wall came crashing down. The team instantly readied themselves, Jaune ready with Crocea Mors while everyone else had their guns trained on the wall of dust until Velvet came out with her hands held up.
"Easy! It's just us!" she said and coughed a little. JNPR relaxed a little as Yatsuhashi came out of the cloud with his sword over his shoulder and Coco and Fox right behind him.
"Did you guys have to scare the crap out of us?" Jaune asked and sheathed his sword.
"Sorry about that," Coco said as she took her beret off and shook it to get some dust off of it, "we were running late and took some shortcuts. But hey, we're here, unlike STRQ. Has anyone heard from them?"
A small thump came from behind JNPR and they all jumped with a few yelps and turned to Raven with her mask on standing up from a crouch. "Oh good, you're all here. Less work for us," she said before drawing her sword and swiping it down behind her to create a portal. Not long after it formed Summer, Qrow, and a very terrified Taiyang came out before shutting again.
"Sup guys," Summer said with a wave.
"What do you mean 'sup'!? Where the hell have you all been?" Coco asked angrily.
"We had… trouble," Summer replied and crossed her arms.
"That's an understatement," Qrow said with a roll of his eyes, "There was a Giant Deathstalker napping under our landing zone. We spent this whole time either trying to get away or kill it."
"Piece of shit," Raven muttered.
"Are you okay Tai?" Velvet asked.
"I fucking hate scorpions," was all Taiyang could reply before huddling into himself shivering. "Just… let me shake this off."
"Hopefully you guys didn't have the problems we had," Summer said, looking between Coco and Jaune.
"Nothing worth retelling," Coco said with a shrug, "These streets suck though."
"I would have liked to know that Ursa Major could create earth pillars to attack with," Jaune said with his teammates nodding in agreement.
"Wait, you fought one pissed off enough to do that?" Raven asked, which got an exasperated groan from Jaune.
"That's seriously a known thing? Why didn't you tell us!?"
"Because we didn't think you'd encounter one," Qrow answered.
"Did you kill it?" Summer asked.
"Yeah, just before CFVY got here," Nora answered.
"By yourselves? Nice work," Coco said and gave Jaune a light punch on the arm.
"That would explain the spikes," Velvet said while nudging a spike with her foot.
"Look, can we just finish here before something worse comes along?" Jaune asked.
"Good point, we don't really have time to waste." Summer moved past the group toward Merlot HQ and pressed a finger to her earpiece while looking up at the skyscraper. "Summer to Beacon, we're at the target. How do we proceed?"
"I have to say, it's a miracle this building is in such good condition for being in the middle of a Grimm hellhole," Coco added.
"Yes that is very lucky for all of us," Oobleck said over the sound of shuffling papers, "Its good condition might mean it should be easy for you to get inside and find a working computer terminal. If you manage to find one connected to the building's internal security network, you might be able to determine who has been stealing Merlot Industry technology to attack us. That is, if that person even exists!"
"Roger that, we'll figure something out," Summer said and shut off the coms before clapping her hands to get everyone's attention, save for Nora who was looking up at the sky. "Alright everyone, let's get this done fast. This lot is our extraction point, so I want everyone who isn't going into the HQ to make sure no Grimm gets anywhere close to here. If what Oobleck said is true, it shouldn't take very many people, two at most. Let's sort that out now along with where to keep an eye on the perimeter."
"I can go inside," Taiyang said, holding up a hand.
"Tai, why don't you leave computer shit to people who know what a cookie is." Taiyang glared at Summer, but didn't say anything as the conversation moved on.
Nora,however, had a question for Oobleck.
"Hey, Professor Oobleck?"
"Doctor."
"Whatever. How are you tracking us out here?"
"Now that's an astute question Ms. Valkyrie! It's not very robust, but I can use your Scroll's signals to get accurate coordinates through the CCT! That, along with some good old fashioned maps and some guess work, lets me get an accurate grasp on your progress through the city! It's quite exhilarating."
"Right… so you're not using drones?"
"I wish I could. Alas, unmanned aerial drones are expensive and as prone to attacks by the Creatures of Grimm as any other man made instrument. It's much easier and cheaper to do it the way I am. Why do you ask?"
"Because someone's watching us with a drone."
"…What?"
"What?" Raven asked and turned swiftly to Nora, everyone else doing the same once it hit them what she had said.
Nora simply pointed up to the sky and said, "Yeah, a drone has been up there for a while now." Everyone looked up and saw that there was a drone flying in the sky. From what they could see it was white with a circular body, hovering easily next to the roof of a nearby building.
"What do you mean 'a while'!? How long has it been there?" Summer asked and looked at Raven who was using her mask to zoom in on it.
"That's a Seahawk. Vale made I think." The drone's top mounted camera started blinking red before it flew away, after which Raven looked at Summer with a confused shake of her head. "What's something like that doing out—"
There was an explosion. The lobby of Merlot HQ erupted in a deafening fireball, followed swiftly by several other explosions up the building. The students stumbled away from the building, only to pause at the sound of groaning metal and cracking pavement.
"Shit, the ground!"
"The building's coming down!"
"There's nowhere to run!"
"Everyone group up! Pyrrha, Yats, do what I say!"
Merlot HQ fell over in a flurry of flame and destruction, a plume of dust covering the area for several blocks. The chaos was heard over the radio by Oobleck, who could only listen and shout into his microphone for anyone to answer.
"Students! Are you there? What happened?"
Static would be the only thing to answer him.
"Oh dear, that's not good."