Chapter 9…
"MAUVE!" Cried a familiar voice.
"MAUVE!?" Cried another familiar voice.
"MAUVE! CAN YOU HEAR US!?" Cried another.
The lynx girl barely processed the voices screaming at her. Her breath was frozen in her throat, her limbs felt as if they were made out of lead.
A hulking shadow loomed over the lynx girl. The shadow moved on two powerful legs, its hands dripped with fresh blood, and it observed her with a single hate-filled red eye. Each step shook the ground, making the lynx girl feel weaker and weaker by the second…
"MAUVE!?"
The hulking form curled its bloody hand into a car-sized fist. Rearing back its arm, it released a downwards punch that would most certainly grind Mauve into a paste…
But Mauve still sat oblivious to the danger. Across the inside of eyelids the same scene was being replayed. Her teacher, spitting and swearing in one final act of defiance before being viciously torn in two…
It was not the first time Mauve had seen death…
The first time Mauve saw someone die it was during the fall of Beacon; when Asher shot dead a White Fang member who had pulled a knife on her. Mauve saw even more death that day when the two White Fang pilots her team had forced into helping them were killed in a bullhead crash.
The first time Mauve saw someone die… it was because somebody had been protecting her. Over half a year later she found herself in the exact same position - watching another die brutally for her sake.
Despite his uncouth mouth and eccentricities, Grey had willingly sacrificed himself for her…
…and that was the exact reason why Mauve couldn't sit around and wait for death.
In a sudden motion Mauve scrambled to her feet and leapt into a backwards roll. The yeti's incoming fist missed her by mere inches and smashed the ground where she was standing into smithereens.
Gripping her electrified blades, Mauve stormed forwards and raked their edges against the yeti's already weakened finger joints. The creature roared in rage and agony as Mauve's blades succeeded where Grey's scythe had failed - successfully slicing off the monster's meaty fingers.
The yeti stumbled backwards, clutching its now fingerless hand towards its chest in an eerily human motion. Mauve took this as her opportunity to sprint towards her companions.
"Mauve, are you alright!?" Asher cried out in shock, his hands reaching forwards to steady his partner's shoulders. "Grey-"
"I know," Mauve spoke abruptly, her teeth grinding together in her mouth. "Let's not let it be in vain."
Mauve spared a quick glance at her other two teammates. Rust and Sage were wide-eyed and frightened, looking to Mauve for reassurance.
"We're going to take out its other eye!" Mauve ordered. "Rust, Sage… spiked wall! Asher, you're with me! Hit and stun!"
The lynx girl peered further backwards at the team's companion. "Marrow! Whatever you did, keep doing it!"
"Wait!" Marrow cried, one hand outstretched. The Atlesian huntsman had a strange worried expression in his eyes. "I can't help you yet!"
"Why not!?" Sage cried out.
The group was interrupted by the sound of the yeti roaring angrily in the distance. Spurred on by the pain it's opponents had caused it, the yeti began scraping it's feet against the ground in preparation for a charge.
"Look… it's hard to explain under the circumstances…" Marrow blinked and gulped, his eyes flicking around nervously. "But I need to go help Grey… I'll be back!"
"What!?" Rust cried out in shock. "But Grey is-"
The conversation was cut short as the yeti began its destructive charge towards the group. Marrow offered the members of MARS a nod and an informal salute as he ran off in another direction…
"What the hell is he thinking!?" Asher cried.
"He's in shock-"
"Forget him!" Mauve spat. "Let's deal with the immediate issue! Follow my lead! Rust and Sage, Spiked Wall! Asher, Hit and Stun!"
Sage and Rust quickly grouped up and began enacting the "spiked wall" strategy. Rust readied his weapon and took cover behind Sage - who had both his shield and launcher at the ready.
The grimm yeti, enraged by the loss of its eye and its fingers, turned its attention on Sage and Rust. It crawled on all fours to close the distance, each stomp shaking the ground.
Rearing up its remaining fist, the yeti lashed out an unpredictable strike to hit Sage in the side. Anticipating this, Sage angled his shield to ricochet the massive hand away. With the monster momentarily stunned, Rust jumped out from behind Sage; he slashed open the yeti's large palm - leaving a cut so deep that he nearly slashed apart the black bones hidden beneath the leathery skin.
Roaring in rage, the yeti crawled closer. But Sage and Rust were already on the retreat, the former pelting the grimm with grenades as he backed up.
The yeti continued to crawl forward… taking the bait… rinse and repeat…
As it crawled, a large bolt of electricity impacted its furry torso, singing its heavy fur.
As Rust and Sage distracted the monster from the front, Asher and Mauve assaulted it from all sides.
Electricity flew from the barrel of Mauve's arcing gun, sending painful jolts through the grimm yeti's body. But before it could retaliate Asher whisked his partner away with his semblance - bringing her to a new location. This was the "hit and stun", a new attack strategy developed by Mauve; although Asher had been the one to coin the name.
And so far, the synthesis was working…
Sage and Rust baited the monster into attacking, but left the yeti with even more injuries. Mauve and Asher were relentless, with the latter constantly relocating the former and unleashing electrical attacks.
But Team MARS weren't the only ones with tricks up their sleeves…
In a sudden motion, the yeti rose from its crouched position. It rose with such force that it smashed apart the ground in front of it - sending both Rust and Sage flying off of their feet.
Stretching out its neck and tilting back its head, the yeti released a shriek so shrill that Mauve and Sage were forced to clamp their hands over their extra ears.
"What the fuck was that!?" Sage yelled as he scrambled back up to his feet, his arm weighed down by his heavy shield.
Sage's question was answered by the arrival of dozens of new enemies. From the ground, walls, and ceiling of the cavern burst insect-like grimm; they scuttled on hundreds of legs and snapped their mandibles with malicious intent.
"Did it just call for backup!?" Sage shrieked, observing the newest contenders with horror.
"More like it rang the dinner bell…" Rust grumbled.
Wordlessly, the members of MARS turned their attention to the centinels. The insect grimm scuttled around and over each other in a tumbling horde as they closed in on their prey.
"Mauve!" Asher shouted. "Stay close!"
"Regroup!" Mauve yelled out.
Asher quickly threw his rifle back onto his back. Reaching down, Asher withdrew his hand cannon from its thigh-mounted holster. Slipping into his left hand into the pocket of his jacket, Asher withdrew a small metal cylinder.
With the simple flick of a wrist, the cylinder in Asher's left hand extended outwards. Now clenched in his grasp was a telescoping baton, made from high quality steel.
The two partners worked in tandem as they confronted the tumbling horde of centinels. Mauve opened up with a flurry of strikes from her electricity-infused blades, tearing apart five of the grimm before their jaws even had a chance to pinch her. Asher watched the sides, relying more on his pistol than his new baton.
Taking aim, Asher squeezed the trigger on his hand cannon. A single .44 round flew from the barrel, quite literally liquefying the head of a centinel that was bearing down on him.
The helmeted boy emptied his pistol into the horde - the .44 rounds being so large that accuracy was not a total necessity. With his gun empty, Asher placed the pistol back into its holster and tossed his baton into his right hand.
One centinel got past Mauve's whirling blades, but the insect was batted away by a well placed smack from Asher's baton. For a moment, the grimm insect regarded Asher with a hateful look before he promptly caved it's head in…
"Mauve!?" Asher frantically shouted. He continued to bat away centinels with his hard metal baton.
"What!?" Mauve spat back. The lynx girl was just as preoccupied as her partner. In a flourish, she decapitated a centinel with one of her blades; her other was in its pistol form, which she used to score a perfect headshot on another incoming grimm.
"I'm relying on my baton here!" Asher shouted. "We need to regroup!"
"You think I don't know that!?"
"I think that you need to hold on!"
Without waiting for his partner to respond, Asher grabbed Mauve by the collar of her jacket. He used his dashing semblance to relocate them, smoke rising from his body as he closed the distance between himself and his other teammates.
Despite the sudden shock of Asher's semblance, Mauve succeeded in working her arcing gun into one hand. She fired the device recklessly behind her, frying centinels into blackened crisps.
Up ahead, Rust and Sage were fighting on two fronts.
Asher watched in interest as Rust tossed a centinel up into the air - only to cleave the nasty little monster in half with the sharpened end of his maul. The imposingly tall boy swung the hammer end around recklessly, the head of the weapon imbued with his wind manipulation semblance and smashing grimm into bloody pulp as it went.
To Rust's back was Sage, who had shrunk his shield down into a smaller form. Now a two-foot long wedge of metal on his forearm, Sage was using it as a bludgeon. He held his Rampart in his right hand, which he was swinging around erratically.
Marrow stood off in the distance. Despite his exhausted state the Atlesian huntsman was proving his credentials. The dog faunus was surrounded by an ever-growing pile of grimm, his boomerang/rifle combination slowly being stained black with blood.
Draped across Marrow's shoulder were Grey's limp arms… his bisected torso hanging from Marrow's back…
"We're here!" Asher huffed as he finally pulled Mauve to a stop. He could hear the lynx girl's teeth chattering from the high speed, but decided that there were more pressing matters.
"G- Group up!" Mauve stuttered, her teeth still chattering. "Asher!?"
"Yeah!?"
"Do your disappearing act!" Mauve ordered. "Electric smokescreen!"
"Electric what!?" Marrow yelled out in the distance, dodging his head to the side to avoid a centinel's mandibles.
"Stay close to us!" Rust shot back. "Unless you want to get fried!"
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Marrow stumbled in the team's direction. As he came closer the members of MARS realized in a shock that Grey's limp hands were anything but. Grey's hands were interlaced and tightly grasping one another, his loose torso swinging around wildly.
"What the fuck are you doing!?" Asher cried out in shock.
"No… what the fuck are you doing!" Grey's head lifted over Marrow's shoulder.
"Mister Grey!?" Mauve cried out in shock, her amber eyes growing wide. A centinel approached the lynx girl from the side with the intention of biting her, but Mauve stabbed the creature through the roof of its mouth before it had the chance. "You're-"
"Alive!? Yeah!" Grey spat, his wrinkled face twisting into an unpleasant look. "And I'm living my best life as a human fucking backpack! Disappearing-Act, get moving already!"
"I have so many questions!" Sage retched in horror at this teacher's bisected body.
"Shut up!"
Shaking his head and slipping his baton back into his pocket, Asher imagined a door. His body became immaterial as he left the plane of Remnant. Now able to phase through the grimm, the grey-eyed boy got to work.
Using his semblance while still immaterial, Asher began darting around his grouped up teammates. Every moment or so he stopped and returned to the plane of Remnant - each time leaving behind a massive puff of smoke. He repeated the process close to a dozen times, until Team MARS and their one-and-a-half were surrounded by a ringed cloud of smoky haze.
"Done!" Asher shouted as he rematerialized next to his teammates - startling Marrow greatly.
"Rust!" Mauve ordered, her hands on her arcing gun. "Blow the smoke outwards!"
Rust did as commanded, using his semblance to blow the thick ring of smoke away from the team. As he did so, Mauve aimed her arcing gun at the retreating cloud.
The smell of ozone filled the air as a bolt of electricity sprang from the rounded tip of the arcing gun. In a yellow flash the stream impacted the cloud of smoke, reacting with the molecules in the air to form a ring of electrical death around the teammates.
Within moments, the air was filled with death-screeches of centinels. The dozens that remained began to keel over as they were enveloped in the electrified smoke - the charge jumping between them.
After about fifteen seconds, every centinel had been fried. The scent of blood, and ozone, hung in the air…
"That's that…" Asher sighed, reaching back to pull his rifle off of his back.
"Uh…" Marrow muttered, his eyes glossing over. "Guys?"
"What?" Mauve questioned.
"Look over there…"
It suddenly occurred to the teammates that they hadn't been accosted by their lumbering foe in the last few minutes. As every pair of eyes turned to look at where Marrow was gesturing, they suddenly knew why.
The grimm yeti had retreated, limping away from the humans and faunus who had caused it so much damage. It now stood between the central pillars that held up the roof of the cavern…
… and the dust transport was in its hands…
The teammates watched in a mixture of fascination and horror as the massive yeti tipped the ruptured end of the tanker into its mouth. An entire stream of loose fire dust disappeared down its gullet…
"Holy shit…" Asher muttered, his eyes widening behind his visor. "What is it doing…!?"
With the tanker drained, the yeti dropped the twisted vehicle unceremoniously to the floor.
The monster lurched for a moment, doubling over and clutching tenderly at its stomach. With a sinister sounding cackle, it reared its head back in the team's direction - its single remaining eye glowing with hatred.
A hiss escaped from the monster's toothy maw… followed by the sparking of flames…
"Marrow…" Grey whispered in an uncharacteristically meek tone. "Find my legs…"
Without a word of warning, Marrow sprinted off in an unseen direction - carrying Grey along with him…
"Scatter…" Mauve's eyes widened in horror as she took a nervous step back. "SCATTER!"
Rearing back its head before lurching forward, the yeti released a violent scream. Worse than the noise was the massive stream of flame which escaped the yeti's toothy maw. The flames flew with the intensity of a speeding wind - and left a sticky patch of burning flames on the ground.
"Since when did grimm have the ability to do that!?" Rust cried, leaping out of the way of another jet of flame.
"Since now!" Asher cried back. The helmeted boy raised his rifle in preparation to fire but the yeti was faster; it raised its bloodied palm and used its leathery skin to shield its face from the incoming round. Spitting flames, the yeti began advancing on Asher's position.
"Asher!" Rust cried. "Watch out!"
The imposingly tall boy withdrew a shotgun slug from his pocket and deftly loaded it into his weapon. Firing off the round, there was an ear-splitting crack as the massive slug smashed into the side of the yeti's head. Rust's action tore the yeti's attention away from Asher, Rust now the object of its malintent.
"Sage!?" Rust cried as he turned tail and fled. He held out his hand behind him as he ran, generating a gust of wind which temporarily staved off the encroaching flames. "A little help!?"
"What the hell do you want me to do!?" Sage called back from his position, his shield fully extended and held aloft. "I can't block flames!"
Rust was narrowly saved by Mauve, who re-entered the fight with her usual dramatic flare. A large bolt of lightning cracked into the monster's side - leaving a singe mark and eliciting a roar of rage from the beast.
"Go for the other eye!" Mauve commanded, slipping her arcing gun back onto her hips. "Asher! Line up a shot! Sage, give him the angle! Meteor Strike!"
"Rust!" Mauve began strafing around the massive grimm. "Buy them time! Marrow!?"
"I'm a little busy!" Marrow called from off in the distance. The dog faunus had found Grey's other half and had it lined up with Grey's torso. Despite being sliced in half the teacher was still very animated, flinging his arms around angrily and swearing up a storm.
Shockingly… the separated lower half of Grey's body was… twitching…
"We need you!" Mauve cried out.
"Go! Go!" Grey repeatedly slapped Marrow's arm. "Help those idiots!"
Reluctantly, Marrow dropped Grey's torso and ran in Mauve's direction.
"When I give the signal, do that freezing thing that you can do!" Mauve ordered.
"Roger!"
With the plan set in motion, Mauve turned her attention back to the fight. She sprinted straight towards the advancing yeti, her arms pumping at her sides. Observing her with a single hate-filled eye, the yeti raised its foot with the intention of stomping down on Mauve.
But Rust was faster…
Using his semblance to increase his speed, Rust briefly placed himself underneath the foot of the yeti. He aimed the barrel in Ruination's hilt upwards, squeezing his hands against the shaft before firing a shotgun slug straight into the monster's heel. Rust ignored the yeti's pained shriek and spun Ruination in his hands, dragging the axe blade through the monster's foot and lopping off two of its toes.
"Mauve! Aim for the wound!" Rust cried out to his team leader. The imposingly tall boy darted backwards and with a colossal hurl threw Ruination like a spinning baton. Using his semblance, Rust articulated the hammer mid air so that it smashed into the chest of the yeti before rebounding back to him. "MAUVE!?"
Rust was wordlessly answered when a storm of electric charge railed into the yeti's body. Mauve slid out from underneath Rust's legs, her arcing gun tucked underneath her arms.
"Rust! Cannonball!"
Recognizing the order, Rust surged his brawny hands down and snatched his team leader by her ankles. He pivoted his torso and whirled Mauve into a powerful spin, using both momentum and his semblance to send the lynx girl flying.
Mauve flew as straight as an arrow, manipulating her body mid-air as she went. Despite the twists and turns the lynx girl managed to work her blades out of her sheathes; and with the tips of the weapons she anchored herself onto the yeti's fur-covered flesh.
The monster roared in agony, flames spitting from its maw as Mauve began to scale its chest. She ascended as if she was scaling a cliff, using her blades as anchor points to hoist herself up; with every stab she made, black blood oozed from the wounds.
Moving its hands inwards, the yeti moved to crush Mauve. But within moments ice was blooming on its palms - courtesy of Asher's rifle. The monster roared in rage as it tried in vain to shake off the ice - right before Marrow pelted it with a volley of shots. In the confusion caused by her teammates, Mauve managed to pull herself up atop the yeti's shoulders. She dug her blades into the back of its meaty neck, but its heavy fur and leathery skin prevented her from severing its brain stem.
"ASHER! SAGE!" Mauve shrieked as the yeti began to thrash around. As a consequence of its anatomical structure, it was unable to grab exactly where Mauve was sitting. "WHAT THE FUCK DID I SAY!? METEOR STRIKE!"
"Oh, right!" Asher cleared his throat and lowered his rifle. "Sage!"
"I'm here!"
The green haired faunus came sprinting in, his shield extended out in its full form. Asher too began to sprint, the distance between the two teammates rapidly closing within a matter of seconds.
"Marrow!?" Mauve cried out.
"I'm ready!" The Atlesian huntsman replied.
Before Asher and Sage collided, the latter broke into a controlled slide. He angled his shield in front of him, creating a bounce pad for Asher. The helmeted boy leapt up and planted his boots atop Sage's shield - only to be blasted into the air by Sage's ricochet semblance.
Rust held up his hand and generated a gust of wind that blew Asher higher…
And higher…
And higher…
Now thirty feet above the towering yeti, Asher began to take aim. He tucked into a roll as gravity began to force him back down, angling the barrel of his rifle so that it was pointing at his target.
"MARROW, NOW!" Mauve roared. As she screamed this, she wrenched her blades deeper into the back of the yeti's neck and gave a vicious tug. The monster roared as its head was forced upwards, its sole remaining eye now pointing at Asher.
"STAY!" Marrow shouted, outstretching one finger to point at the towering monstrosity. In an instant, the yeti was unable to move.
The timing was impeccable… and Asher took the shot…
A single bullet flew from the elongated barrel of the Jackhammer MKIII. It sailed through the air, its tip glowing red from the heat, and buried itself deep into the yeti's remaining eye.
"BULLSEYE!" Asher cheered in honor of himself. Continuing his descent, Asher slapped his rifle onto his back, tucking in his arms and legs to decrease drag.
"I can't do it anymore!" Marrow cried in exhaustion, falling to one foot. As soon as he stopped pointing, the yeti resumed its thrashing. The colossal monster roared in rage over the loss of its vision, still trying in vain to tear Mauve off of its neck.
Luckily for the lynx girl, her partner wouldn't allow this to happen…
Imagining a door, Asher quickly phased off of Remnant. In his ghostly state, the helmeted boy activated his semblance, creating a zig-zag pattern in the direction of the monstrous yeti. Re-entering Remnant at the last moment, Asher joined his partner in hitching a ride, grabbing fistfuls of the monster's fur as handholds.
"Hey!" Asher greeted his partner.
Mauve wordlessly responded by shooting Asher a thoroughly unamused look.
Rolling his eyes underneath his visor, Asher grabbed Mauve by her jacket collar and used his semblance to carry them away. They landed on the ground in a heap, each breaking into rolls to hasten their recovery.
"Watch out!" Marrow warned.
The two partners scattered in opposite directions as a massive foot slammed into the ground. Driven berserk from rage, the now-blind grimm yeti was reacting with even more violence than before. It swept its furry arms along the ground in wide sweeping blows, flinging its limbs around in a desperate gamble to strike the team members.
"Draw it this way!" Sage shouted. The faunus boy shrunk his shield into its mobile form and rested his grenade launcher along its top. "Over here!"
"Asher, Hit and Stun!" Mauve shouted out to her partner. "Marrow, Rust! Help us out!"
Asher and Mauve linked up and the former began using his semblance. Like before, they appeared in one spot, Mauve fired an electrical blast, and then they promptly relocated. Instead of random locations, Asher carried Mauve backwards in a straight line towards Sage, who was patiently waiting.
Marrow and Rust assisted their allies. The two stood behind Sage and repeatedly fired their weapons, further drawing the yeti's attention.
Dropping onto its hands and knees, the bipedal monstrosity began to crawl in the direction of its foes. It was now led by only sound and pain, it's once glowing eye sockets now eerily dark.
As it pulled its breaking body within range of the teammates it began to open its jaw; sticky dust-infused fire spilled from the cavernous opening, visibly melting the enamel of the monster's razor sharp teeth.
It would not get the chance to spew flames again…
With a savage yell, Grey re-entered the fight. The serrated blade of his scythe was held low as the man darted underneath the yeti's bobbing chin. Twisting the shaft of the weapon in his hands, Grey dragged his blade from one end of the yeti's jaw to the other. Black blood spewed like fountains from the deep lacerations now cut into the muscle.
"THAT FUCKING HURT!" Grey roared in rage, his beady eyes narrowed. "AND NOW I HAVE TO BUY NEW CLOTHES!"
Canceling out his momentum by lashing out his foot, Grey spun his scythe in his hands again and flung it outwards in a slashing arc. The second cut achieved what the first cut had not, and there was the sickening sound of flesh being torn as the yeti's mangled jaw was separated from its body.
Grey turned to view his shocked companions, a sadistic gleam in his beady eyes.
"Ricochet-Kid!" Grey shouted at Sage. "Give this bastard a tablet for his indigestion, would you?"
"If you insist!" Sage cried and nodded. Squeezing the barrel of his launcher, Sage ricocheted a round straight into the yeti's open mouth. The explosive ordnance sailed down the monster's throat and disappeared…
Grey took this opportunity to dash away, backing up to join the rest of his companions.
For a moment, the monster looked incredibly confused… before the flesh of its stomach bulged as the grenade detonated. With a pathetic moan and a ground-shattering crash, the yeti fell to the ground, looking defeated…
"Nice shot!" Marrow congratulated Sage.
"Did you not see mine?" Asher scoffed. The helmeted boy received a glare from his wolf faunus teammate but ignored it.
"It's not dead!" Mauve cried.
The lynx girl was right… the yeti was beginning to stir…
Raising itself off of the ground, the monster suddenly kicked off into a sprint. It ran without purpose or direction, smashing its arms around and careening its body into the walls of the cavern.
"Jump!" Rust warned.
He, his teammates, and their companions scattered as the yeti ran through where they had been standing. The fire escaping from its now-permanently opened mouth was beginning to spread to the coarse fur covering its body, giving the monster a truly hellish look.
Mauve watched in horror and amazement as the monstrous grimm continued its path of destruction. It repeatedly charged like a bull, rebounding off of the cavern walls and leaving pools of fire in its wake.
"What the hell is it doing!?" Marrow cried out in shock.
"I don't-" Asher started, but he was cut off.
From the roof of the cavern, chunks of rock and ice began to fall. The teammates looked around at the ice holding up the walls of the cavern - noting how slick it looked in the presence of such intense heat.
But the dust deposits in the walls were what really worried the companions…
Given that dust mechanics were a part of Team MARS' curriculum, they all knew the basics. Dust, at its core, was essentially a chemical; and like any chemical dust would react in the presence of a catalyst…
...sometimes that catalyst was other dust, sometimes it was extreme heat…
"Run…" Mauve gasped in horror. She whirled around, pointing an outstretched finger in the original passage they had all taken to the cavern. "RUN!"
She was grabbed and steadied by Grey.
"I'm the one calling the shots here, Lightning-Chick!" Grey spat, his beady eyes narrowed into slits.
The four members of MARS and Marrow watched in fear and confusion as Grey glanced almost casually around the cave. Grey's eyes narrowed in on both the dust deposits in the walls and the enraged flaming grimm still flailing about the area.
"BLITZ!" Grey suddenly shrieked, turning on his heel and running at full tilt to the mouth of the passage.
Team MARS, their teacher, and the sole survivor of the Atlesian convoy broke into a sprint to escape the cavern. Behind them, the dust deposits finally began reacting to the heat given off by the flaming yeti. With the ear-cracking sounds of explosions, the walls of the cavern began to blow apart in a series of colorful detonations - raining chunks of debris and destabilizing the natural architecture of the cave.
The yeti was not spared from this destruction…
Marrow looked over his shoulder as he ran, spotting the colossal creature through the dust and debris. It made one last attempt to charge at the fleeing teammates before the roof of the cavern began to cave in. The monster who had killed his company and shattered the convoy was buried alive beneath the rocks.
"Run!" Mauve yelled. "Keep running!"
Despite the intense situation that was the cave literally crumbling around them, Mauve succeeded in lighting the last of the emergency flares. Carrying the only light source available to the team, Mauve led her allies through the darkness.
"Is it dead!?" Sage asked as he ran, his shield compressed onto his forearm.
"It got buried!" Marrow answered. "No less than it fucking deserved!"
The six allies reached the end of the straight passage and began their ascent to the mouth of the cave.
"Consider yourself lucky, Marrow!" Asher gulped.
"Lucky!?" Marrow scoffed. "Look around you, does any of this seem lucky to you!?"
"Disappearing-Act is referring to the fact that we managed to find you in time!" Grey answered for his student.
"So!?"
"So!?" Grey cried in shock. "Why do you think you were strung up on the ceiling, kid? You were the next in line to be eaten!"
Far up ahead, starlight was visible through the mouth of the cave. The walls continued to shake as the collapse continued - with falling rocks biting at the heels of the team.
Sage was the first to trip…
"Fuck!" Sage shouted as he sprawled onto the ground. His grenade launcher flew from its spot on his back and clattered off into the darkness.
"Shit!" Sage moved to go grab his launcher, but he was heaved away by Rust.
"No time!" Rust cried. "Just leave it!"
The six continued to scramble for the exit… the open sky was above and the mouth of the cave only meters away…
Asher was the second to trip… but unlike with Sage, no one noticed…
Five of the six allies leapt through the mouth of the cave and into the waiting snow banks. Behind them, the rocks shifted and crumbled, kicking up a thick cloud of dust that obscured the teammates' view. Where there had once been a foreboding cave entrance there was now only a pile of rubble.
"Fuck…" Sage coughed, spitting snow and dirt out of his mouth as he did so.
The faunus boy crawled to his feet and brushed the snow off of his clothes. He heard rustling to his left and turned his head, spying his team leader rising from the snow herself. Rust and Marrow were off to his right, the both of them also cleaning themselves up. Grey was already to his feet, grumbling as he brushed rock dust off of his sleeves.
"Everyone alright…?" Mauve sighed, finally tearing the gaiter off of her mouth. "Statuses?"
"That's my job to ask that…" Grey grumbled as he turned around to view his companions. "Now, what she said…?"
"I'm okay…" Sage sighed.
"All good," Rust nodded.
"Still in one piece…" Marrow answered. The dog faunus carefully patted at his chest for a moment, as if he was confirming his claims to himself.
"Asher?" Mauve asked, peering around the snowy clearing for her partner. "Asher?"
Mauve's companions also began to look around for their missing teammates. Grey grumbled something that no one else could hear, his beady eyes flicking around the area and his hands curling up into tight fists.
Her breath hitching in her throat, Mauve swiveled her wide-eyed gaze towards the pile of rubble that was once the cave.
"Asher?"