Disclaimer: I don't own anything I only own the characters I have personally created. The character of Nicholas Arc is also one that is based off of Coeur Al'Aran's works.

A/N: Just FYI Alex Stone is not an OC, he's actually a canon character in Mortal Kombat, he just wasn't named or voiced and only appeared in one character's ending in MKX

Lastly: please read and give thoughts, theories and criticisms in a review, I always enjoy constructive feedback.

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-Forests, Thirty Miles Outside of Vale-


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Travel via portals was what every first timer would consider…weird. It wasn't like stepping through a doorway and then all of the sudden you were in another room. No at first it felt like you were stepping into a pool of water, but you weren't getting wet, then you got the sensation of something grabbing you by each and every pore of your skin and then that force pulling you through it. It was a very odd feeling that everyone who had traveled to other realms said that it was simply something that one got used to. For first timers though, it could easily result in nausea and headaches.

Corporal Alex Stone wished that someone had told him this before he stepped through the portal from Earthrealm to Remnant. The Special Forces corporal leaned forwards in his seat in the Stryker and tried to reorient himself as well as keep his stomach contents inside where they belonged. From further down Cassie Cage looked at him with a mix of amusement and pity "Frist time through a portal right?"

Alex gave small nod and lurched forward in his seat "Yeah, it's certainly…eventful." Cassie gave a small chuckle from her seat and said "Don't worry you get used to it after a while."

Soon though, Alex noticed that Cassie elbowed her dad who was sitting right next to her and seemed rather disappointed about something.

"Yeah, yeah. Bleed me dry why don't ya?" he complained but despite his words, it was obvious that he was just complaining for the sake of it. He looked like was about to try and fish some extra cash out of his pockets but soon realized that due to the mission parameters he had to leave anything behind that could cause too much suspicion, which included currency. The weapons, vehicles and equipment they could get away with by saying that their PMC had built them on their own but even then there would be some suspicions so it would be best to keep them to a minimum.

Johnny Cage then put up his hands in a placating manner, as though he was addressing a particularly impatient loan shark "I'll pay you once we get back, I promise." Cassie only cocked an eyebrow upwards making Alex wonder if this kind of thing had happened before.

In response Cassie's father put a hand over his chest in an almost overdramatic fashion "I Johnny Cage, swear on my immortal soul that I will give my daughter the twelve dollars I owe her on the bet we made."

The other soldiers in the Stryker started snickering, especially Jacqui and it was then that Stone realized that Cassie and her dad had made a bet on whether or not he would puke during the journey through the portal. He honestly had no idea how to feel about that one given how both Cages enjoyed trying their hardest to get a rise out of everyone around them (to the point that he wondered whether such a condition was genetic). Still though he supposed that he should probably feel some semblance of satisfaction that his commanding officer had at least some faith in him.

The group had come with over a platoon's worth of soldiers, and that wasn't including the representatives from the Shaolin, Shirai-Ryu or the Lin Kuei, all of which were packed into Strykers and Humvees. The Strykers were equipped with either the standard M151 Protector System turret, 40mm cannons, though there was one that had a 105mm mobile gun system. The Humvees were more heavily armored than the standard variant that the military used all the while making sure that it still maintained decent speed and maneuverability. The turret mounted Browning machine guns had all been replaced with GAU miniguns or an anti-air/anti-ground missile system, because like the old saying goes "There's no such thing as overkill."

For the next few minutes the ride proceeded relatively quietly, of course everyone was on alert for the slightest sign of Grimm. This was their first time on Remnant and if they encountered the Grimm it would be the first time anyone from Earthrealm had ever dealt with entities like this so it was best to remain as cautious as possible. Even if they didn't prove to be as dangerous as the army of demons that inhabited the Netherrealm or Shao Kahn's armies from twenty years ago, it paid to be prepared.

Eventually though one of the other soldiers in the platoon looked over at the unit's commanding officer, a captain by the name of Faulkner and asked "Hey cap, is it true you once took out an undead dragon with a pistol during the Netherrealm war?"

Faulkner was a balding man in his mid-forties and his face had numerous scars that a few people might call 'disturbing' on his face. The most prevalent of which were a trio of claw mark like scars that crossed from his forehead down past his left eye and down to his jaw in a diagonal fashion. Many people who encountered Faulkner were put off by his appearance and given the slight rasp in his voice…he had a hard time socializing outside of his circle of friends in the military.

The captain gave his subordinate a flat look for a second before sighing and massaging his temples, trying to fend off annoyance "For the love of…look I didn't kill one with a damn pistol I was part of a unit that was using guided missiles on it, I just happened to fire the one that finished it off, that's it." He declared, somewhat annoyed.

There were a number of stories as to Captain Faulkner's exploits. He wasn't as well-known as Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Jackson Briggs or the others but there were those who knew of his exploits.

It was then that Johnny Cage gave a comically offended look "You know how come everyone always asks Faulkner about his badass moments, especially when the guy who beat the hell out of Shinnok is sitting right here."

At that Jacqui rolled her eyes at her honorary uncle's display "Well, considering you won't stop bragging about it to everyone, I'd say that everyone back home knows about it, especially when the news programs wouldn't shut up about it for months afterwards and you gave several interviews. So yeah, we aren't going to stroke your ego Johnny."

Johnny gave his daughter a desperate look for support who just shrugged, not even bothering to resist the urge to mess with her father "Sorry pops but you have told the story so many times that it's kinda getting old."

The former actor gave a mock-affronted look and held his hand up in front of his face in an overdramatic fashion "Even my own child has turned against me! Oh how will I go on?"

Everyone, (especially Johnny) started to break out into laughter at the over-the-top performance he was giving. Eventually though the laughter stated to die down and it became clear that everyone was in relatively good spirits and when one considering that these 'Grimm' were attracted to negative emotions that may very well just prove to be a good thing. Sure it probably wouldn't keep a few strays from showing up along their path to Vale but at least they were relatively secure in the knowledge that they wouldn't have to deal with a whole horde of those things every step of the way. Besides it was always fun to mess with Johnny when given the opportunity.

It was only a few minutes later that the voice of the other soldiers in the platoon came over the radio. "Captain Faulkner, this is Corporal Keegan," the voice declared.

It wasn't even a second later that the captain gave his response "What's going on soldier?" he asked. "Sir we were monitoring any traffic on the air, figured that we should know ahead of time if someone important from Vale contacts us but we quickly found this on an open channel, I'll patch it through."

There was a second or two before another voice came over the radio, only this one seemed like it was on the verge of complete and utter panic. "If anyone can hear me I'm from a small settlement south-westof Vale called Ansel, we are under attack by Grimm. Hunters from Vale are on their way but we can't last that long we need help now! Anyone listening to this transmission please! We need help!"

For several seconds silence reigned before another voice, this one was of Kung Jin, the Shaolin selected to represent the White Lotus "Captain Faulkner, we cannot leave those people to die."

The way he spoke told everyone that even if the captain decided not to help, he would just get out of the transport he was in and walk. Not only that but other voices soon joined him. Most notably the representatives from the Shirai Ryu and the Lin Kuei but that wasn't to say that the VSSE operators were silent as well

"I gotta agree with Jin, we can't just let them die."

"The Lin Kuei did not change from killers of the innocent to their protectors simply abandon those in need."

"I didn't join VSSE to just sit and watch innocent people get slaughtered."

"Same here."

Judging by the looks on everyone else's face they seemed like they had similar opinions. Granted it was unlikely that the soldiers in the APCs would disobey orders but they clearly wouldn't be happy about. Besides Faulkner wasn't a heartless monster, he would help if it was within his power to do so, and the more pragmatic part of him knew that when the time came for Earthrealm to make official contact with the locals, having their military save some of the locals would go a long way to help relations.

At last Faulkner spoke, assuaging his subordinates "Don't worry we're not going to leave them. Corporal patch me through now." There was a quick "yes sir!" before he got to work.

Within a few seconds the job was done. The captain immediately spoke into the radio while the man was in the middle of repeating his plea for help "Alright calm down, calm down, this is Captain Faulkner of Nimbus Security Solutions, who am I speaking with?"

"I-I-I'm D-Dudley, I'm in the v-village militia," he managed to get out.

"Okay Dudley do you have exact geographic coordinates for your town?" Faulkner asked. The militiaman fumbled for several seconds before he managed to give a response. The terrified young man managed to stutter out the coordinates and after a few seconds of checking a map the SF commander smiled when he found that they were actually only a ten minute drive away at full speed.

"Alright kid I've got some good news, we're roughly ten minutes away so just hang in there alright? Help is on the way!"

The relief and happy tears were palpable even through the radio as he said "Thank you!" over and over.

Faulkner looked back to address the rest of the unit sitting in their seats "Alright lock-and-load ladies and gentlemen, we got ourselves a settlement to save!"

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-Bullhead, currently en-route to Ansel-


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A little over two hours ago a radio transmission from a small town called Ansel that indicated that it was under attack by Grimm and that the town's militia was holding them off but more and more Grimm were arriving every few minutes. To make matters even worse, most of the hunters in Vale were already out on duty dealing with similar problems all over the territories. The only hunters available were faculty from Beacon and some of their students.

Given the situation Vale's council ordered the immediate deployment of whoever was ready at the time. This included several members of Beacon's faculty along with three full teams of students, one second year and two first years. Ordinarily first years wouldn't be sent off to fight in a Grimm incursion but given the situation there weren't many options. Fortunately though some of the visiting Atlesian students had volunteered to join the mission.

Inside one of the bullheads was team JNPR lead by one Jaune Arc. The instant that the announcement came that Ansel was under attack he was the first to volunteer their team to go there and help with the defense. The other members of his team were somewhat surprised by his eagerness to go on this particular mission, especially his partner, Pyrrha Nikos. While Jaune had shown more confidence (especially where his crush on Weiss was concerned) since standing up to Cardin he still had some hesitation in regards to other things.

Not to mention that when he had first boarded the Bullhead along with the rest of his team he had shown an almost ridiculous amount of anxiety and even fear that was only comparable to when the boy had first shown up at Beacon. Still though he hadn't been nearly as bad as Ruby had been back then, and there was something to be said for that. It was odd, seeing an eagerness mixed with fear and anxiety in Jaune.

Pyrrha wasn't the only one to notice as Jaune continued to fidget in his seat. For a while Pyrrha just thought that it was his motion sickness as he had used several paper bags as the flight continued but it quickly became clear that there was something more going on. She had been around him long enough to recognize at least some of his tics and it was obvious to her that there was something more going on here.

"Jaune are you okay?" she asked kindly trying to get the boy's attention. Jaune had just finished using up yet another paper bag for ensuring that his stomach contents didn't litter the floor of the Bullhead.

Jaune had just finished emptying what was hopefully the last of his stomach contents into the bag, "Y-yeah, I'm fine" he managed to get out.

Nora and Ren looked at one another before the short ginger looked at him with a cocked eyebrow "You're looking a bit weirder than normal fearless leader." Jaune attempted an offended look at that in addition to asking whether the pot and kettle had met but couldn't manage it due to the nausea.

Lie Ren ever the mediator decided to translate "What Nora means is that you seem very anxious." While his perky childhood friend nodded before looking at him with and blinked in confusion "Isn't that what I just said?"

The leader of JNPR sighed, he figured that they would all find out about this sooner or later so may as well just tell them now. "Ansel, it's my hometown, my entire family lives there."

Suddenly everyone in the Bullhead knew exactly why he was so worried.

Pyrrha gave her partner a compassionate look and placed a hand on his shoulder "Jaune, I'm sure they'll be okay," she said trying to reassure him despite the possibility of darker fates befalling his family. Still though it did seem to reassure Jaune somewhat as he managed a smile that while it didn't quite reach his ears it was still somewhat better than how he had been feeling ever since he had heard of the attack on Ansel.

"Still maybe I'm worrying for nothing I mean my dad has been a Huntsman since forever so he's probably down there taking charge of the militia and by the time we get there everyone will be cleaning up what's left of the Grimm." Jaune tried to let out a half-hearted chuckle but it was interrupted once again by another bout of motion-sickness.

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-Ansel, 30 miles outside of Vale-


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Things weren't going very well at Ansel to say the least. The militia had managed to hold the walls but they had never expected something like this to happen. Ever since it had been first founded, Ansel had for the most part been left relatively alone by such large packs of Grimm. Sure there were always a few stray packs of Grimm every now and then but it was nothing that the town militia or even the resident Hunters could handle. This however was something that none of them had ever seen before. No matter what they did, no matter how many Grimm they killed, they just kept coming. It was like something out of a horror movie, where the monsters would just keep coming no matter what was thrown at them.

It made absolutely no sense, there had been no unrest in the town in ages, and all of the militia scouts that they had sent out had reported only a handful of scattered Grimm every few miles. This kind of massive attack shouldn't be happening, and yet, here it was, a nightmare made reality. The militia had been caught almost completely off-guard and it was only because there were already a number of Hunters living in the town that it had managed to keep the Grimm from breaching the walls.

So far the Grimm were entirely focused solely on the southern walls, which was a blessing in some respects because it allowed the defenders to focus all of their efforts in one area rather than be spread too thin. This was perhaps the only thing that had allowed the defenders to hold out for so long but it was clear that if they didn't get any relief soon, it was only a matter of time before the walls were breached and the defenders overrun.

On the head of one of the walls was one Nicholas Arc. Nicholas arc was a man in his early-forties and had been a huntsman for most of his life. As a result he had been through more than his fair share of near hopeless situations but this was quite possibly one of the worst he'd ever been in.

He and the rest of the defenders had only just managed to fight off another wave of Grimm. He finally allowed himself to relax slightly at the reprieve. It was unlikely that he and the rest of the militia would be able to catch their breath for much longer if the next wave hit as quickly as the last one did. To make matters worse, it wasn't the entirety of the militia that was at the walls, instead there were more than a fair number of them that were trying to get the civilians that lived near the southern walls away from them and deeper into the settlement.

A few minutes earlier one of the guys trying to raise someone over the radio reported back that a group calling themselves "Nimbus Security Solutions" had heard their distress call and were coming over to help. They sounded like some kind of group of mercenaries but at this point Arc couldn't be bothered to care. If this continued they weren't going to be able to hold out until anyone finally arrived.

It was at that point when he heard the tell-tale howls of Beowolves but that wasn't the only thing he heard. There was a series of loud screeching noises that were coming from the woods. It was a sound that Arc knew all too well; a Death Stalker, and a big one.

As if to foreshadow the monster's approach the trees in the forest beyond the clearing began to fall and within mere moments the chittering monster covered in white bony plates emerged before letting out a hellish screech. Immediately Nicholas Arc turned his attention to the monster with his weapon, a rifle/greatsword that he had named Ascalon and opened fire. Under normal circumstances he would use armor piercing rounds to get through the armor and do damage to the thing's interior. Alternatively explosive dust ammo could be used to chip away at the armor from a distance until the armor cracked open enough to use regular bullets to do the real damage. Unfortunately Nicholas had neither the proper ammunition nor the distance to use such a strategy.

Immediately he yelled for any nearby militiamen to focus fire on the Death Stalker, even as it began to charge at the wall. It wasn't likely that it could breach their defenses but it was sure as hell more than capable of climbing up and over it. And if the thing was too heavy well, it just may end up bringing a good chunk of the wall down during its climb.

The defenders knew that the people still living close the walls were still trying to evacuate deeper into the settlement. If a breach happened or the Death Stalker got in it would mean a massacre! For the defenders the day was truly at its darkest. But even on this darkest of days, a miracle happened!

The first the beleaguered defenders knew of their salvation was when a series of loud explosions filled their ears. Less than a second afterwards The Death Stalker that had been charging at the wall tumbled down, one of its legs blown clean off its body by something while cracks and fissures appeared on its armored carapace as a result of the impacts.

Nicholas turned his head to look at the source of the noise and saw some of the most heavily armed and armored vehicles he had ever seen in his life.

There were several of them that looked like five seater armored off-road trucks, but each one had a multi-barreled turret mounted on the roof, which were now unleashing a torrent of firepower into the tide of Grimm that were attempting to besiege the walls. Whatever those guns were firing, they were literally chewing through the smaller Grimm like tissue paper. Not only that but directly beside them were several far larger eight wheeled vehicles, several of which had some of the largest guns that Nicholas had ever seen. Almost all of them were already focusing their fire on the Death Stalker. The only ones that weren't were the ones that had some kind of missile launchers built onto their turrets and those were the ones being fired at the Nevermore in the air to great effect.

The vehicle with the biggest gun of the bunch had already swiveled its turret to aim directly at the beast but didn't fire, even as the thing started to pick itself back up. Nicholas was curious as to why it was when the weapon finally fired with bone jarring force and a massive roar, forcing the man and several of his comrades to cover their ears at the sound.

The results however, were incredible, the Death Stalker had been all but blown in half by the round and it was already starting to disintegrate like all Grimm would upon death.

Not waiting at all for the Grimm to continue the attack the vehicles surged forwards, firing their guns at anything that so much as twitched. The defenders let out a cheer, finally their prayers had been answered, that group, Nimbus something-or-other had come for them.

It was only when the vehicles had established a perimeter around the southern gate that the larger vehicles lowered their boarding ramps and dozens of armed men and women poured out of them. The smaller trucks also disgorged their own cargo, even more armed soldiers but there were also three uniquely dressed individuals with them. Two of them looked like…well ninjas for the lack of a better word while the other looked odd, but given his appearance it seemed as though he was from Mistral.

Almost immediately one of the soldiers seemingly looked directly at him and called out "Hey, whoever's in charge up there, you mind if you get down here? We got a bit of a situation."

Well if that wasn't the truth Arc didn't know what was.

It took a few moments but Nicholas Arc found himself outside the gates and in front of the soldiers several of whom were setting up multi-barreled turrets just outside the perimeter of vehicles. The man whom Arc thought was in charge stretched out his arm "Captain Faulkner, Nimbus Security Solutions."

Nicholas Arc gave the man a thankful look and shook his hand "Nicholas Arc. Thanks for the help captain we-" Nicholas Arc cut himself off when he noticed that there was a dire look about the other man's face.

"Mr. Arc I'm sorry but I'm afraid we'll have to cut the pleasantries for now. What we've just dealt with here, is just a small force ahead of something much larger. Our equipment shows that we've got maybe a few minutes at most to get ready for an even bigger horde of these bastards."

There was a look of pure horror on Arc's face for a split second before he regained his composure "Alright, alright…we still have some people living near the walls, can you have some of your people help evacuate them deeper into the town?" he asked.

Immediately Captain Faulkner turned to one of his subordinates a young woman who was probably only a year or so older than Nicholas' only son. "Sergeant Cage, take your team, Lambert and Dunaway and assist with the evacuation, take a couple of Strykers along with you-know-who with."

'You-know-who?' thought Nicholas while the young lady shrugged "Yes sir, Come on guys, you too dad!" she called. At that an older man wearing a similar yet slightly more casual outfit in comparison to the other soldiers began to follow said daughter into one of the Strykers. The guy had a small grin on his face and a pair of shades over his eyes and was carrying the same kind of rifle that his allies were using, but he also had a pistol and a knife attached to his belt. All in all, he looked more like an actor who was pretending to be a Huntsman than an actual Huntsman.

He also noticed a pair of individuals who were dressed in even more casual wear than the one with the sunglasses and were carrying similar weaponry.

Nicholas however was brought out of his thoughts when he thought he heard what sounded like more roars coming from the tree line beyond them. They only had minutes at most before the next wave hit. He watched as Faulkner gave orders to his men to either man the guns on their vehicles or head up to the walls and aid the defenders there.

The Huntsman however, noticed that the town's militia were working with renewed vigor as they prepared barricades and gathered more ammunition. Now that they had a real chance of holding out long enough for Vale to send support, they figured they had a chance of getting out of this mess alive.

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-Ansel, Interior, near the walls-


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The second that Cassie and her team were inside the walls they immediately set to work to help get as many of the civilians out of the area as possible. She could already see that there were already a number of militia trying to get people into trucks or their own personal vehicles so they could be taken deeper into the settlement. Immediately she directed her team to start assisting with the evacuation in any way they could.

They were already putting in civvies that were considered high risk for this sort of thing into the Strykers, the sick, the elderly and the kids. Though with the latter it was somewhat different to separate the younger kids from their older family members.

"I don't wanna go!" a little girl roughly six or seven years of age with dog ears begged as she attached herself to an older individual, more specifically another girl that appeared to be in her early teens with the same kind of ears on her head. She and her siblings had been placed into the Stryker's well protected interior along with several other residents. The girl's older sibling was desperately trying to dislodge the child-like growth from her body but was thus far unsuccessful.

"Come on I'll be right behind you, you don't have to worry," the girl claimed. Her younger sister however just kept crying and shoved her face into her shoulder and sobbed harder.

Cassie was about to head over there to try and talk some sense into the kid when she saw Alex moving towards them. He had his AA12 slung and a concerned look on his face. "Hey are you two alright?" he asked.

The thirteen year old girl looked a bit nervous at the human who was approaching them. "Look I'm sorry she's just scared-" she started but Alex just held up both his hands in a placating gesture and his facial expression changed to one of compassion "Don't worry, I know how this is. Can I try talking to her?"

The girl shrugged as best she could with her little sister wrapped around her before the soldier looked directly at the six year-old "Hey kid? What's your name?" he asked. The little girl seemed extremely reluctant to even utter a word but eventually answered the question.

"V-V-Violet" the younger sibling managed to stutter out. "Alright Violet my name is Alex Stone. Now I know you're scared, we're all scared, but we all need to be brave right now. Can you be brave for your sister and let go?"

Violet looked extremely reluctant to comply "B-but w-what if-" she started before she began to break down into sobs.

"I promise she'll be right behind you and you can hug her as much as you want when we get you both to safety. But you need to be strong for your sister and let go for right now." Reluctantly, and still sniffling the little girl let go of her older sister and rejoined the rest of her siblings in the Stryker. Once she was inside the vehicle, the ramp raised up and the Stryker began to move out.

For a few seconds the older sister simply stood there watching as the Stryker drove away deeper into the settlement. Eventually though Cassie's voice broke through "Hey what are you waiting for? Get to the trucks so you can rejoin your siblings!" she called out.

Immediately the girl complied and started to make her way over to the town's trucks. As she did, Cassie walked over to her teammate and asked "Where'd you learn how to do that?"

At that Alex actually looked at Cassie somewhat sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head with his free hand "Well actually it's something that my little sister would do whenever dad would go out on deployment when we were younger. He'd calm her down in a similar manner so I figured I'd try something similar."

Cassie looked as though she was about so say something when sounds of gunfire and missiles being launched filled the air. Almost immediately Captain Faulkner's voice came through the comm. "Hurry up with the evacuations we've got a fuck-ton of Grimm bearing down on us! Support from Vale is still a few minutes out!" Despite yelling his voice was nearly drowned out by the cacophony of gunfire.

Sure enough the Refugees all stopped what they were doing and turned to look in the direction of the noise almost simultaneously. In fact all of them had the exact same deer-in-the-headlights expression.

A few meters away Kung Jin and the others could be heard directing orders to the other refugees to continue boarding the trucks despite the gunfire and inhuman roars that resounded throughout the area. Sure enough that seemed to manage to snap the civvies out of their bizarre trance and make them start moving.

They continued to board the trucks for several seconds until there was a loud boom coming from the settlement's walls. Immediately the team turned to see what was happening and saw what they had all expected to see; an oversized hole where a once sturdy fortification once stood, there was only rubble and dust was spread throughout the immediate area around it. Despite the lowered visibility everyone saw the glowing red eyes beyond the dust.

In less than a second, the team had already drawn their weapons, Cassie and her dad with their rifles, The VSSE agents drew their rifles while keeping their trusty pistols at the ready, Kung Jin with his bow, Jacqui with her power gauntlets/machineguns, Glacier formed a pair of kori-axes in his hands and Takeda already had his whip in one hand while clutching a kunai in-between each knuckle.

They were flanked by several militia members who, while having what could only really be described as semi-automatic rifles or crossbows but it was still better than nothing.

"Get ready to fire on my command!" ordered Cassie as she flipped the safety off on her rifle. Sure enough there were howls, hisses and shrieks coming from just behind the dust.

"FIRE!" She yelled.

Those armed with ranged weapons immediately complied, even as the Grimm surged forwards past the breach. Everything from bullets to arrows were fired, even as the Grimm started to stream into the breach.

The Grimm charged forwards, unheeding of the casualties they were suffering. Unfortunately for the defenders it was clear that they needed to reload their weapons. However at this point Glacier stepped forwards and spread his arms out, the air becoming colder and colder around his comrades. Despite the charge of the Grimm, Glacier, true to his namesake did not move nor show any signs of fear.

The mob of Beowolves, Ursai, and Creeps were stopped quite literally dead in their tracks as dozens of spears made from razor sharp ice seemingly appeared from the ground skewering many of the charging Grimm. Almost immediately the dead Grimm began to evaporate, despite the brief reprieve however the Grimm began to spread out and the fighting began in earnest.

It was truly a chaotic mess of a battle, Takeda threw his kunai into the closest Ursa, the built-in explosives detonating the second they found purchase in the creature's skin, blowing huge chunks out of the beast, killing it almost instantly. A few moments later he coiled the barbed metallic whip around the head of a Beowolf and gave it a tug, decapitating it.

Kung Jin fired three arrows at a rather large King Taijitu's black half, however these arrows were not the normal ones that he used normally. Inside each arrow were two separated chemicals that would mix together the instant the arrow hit the target, creating an incendiary liquid that would instantly ignite, covering the target on fire. The black portion of the body instantly caught fire and began to burn through its scales at a remarkably fast rate. Not hesitating for even a second, Kung Jin slung his bow/staff and drew a pair of Chakram and threw them at the white half of the oversized snake. The highly sharpened blade sliced through a huge portion of the white portion's body, nearly severing it in half, while the other Chakram cut off the monster's head at the jawline. The oversized snake collapsed onto the ground and it also began evaporating into black particles that were swept up by the winds.

The two VSSE agents fell back as the fighting began to get closer and closer to their position and began to put their superior marksmanship training to good use. They targeted either the eyes of the Grimm or the joints in their limbs with armor piercing explosive rounds. The Grimm that had their eyes damaged flew into a rage as they began to strike out at random, hitting their own allies in the process.

One of the other Beowolves had managed to reach the group but before it could make any sort an attack, Johnny Cage burst forwards, leaving green afterimages in his wake. "Heeeeeerrrrres Johnny!" he yelled with a goofy looking grin on his face.

Cage tossed two orbs of green energy at the beast. Like with opponents he had faced in the past Johnny had expected the orbs to disorient or even knock the thing back. What he didn't expect was that the orbs seemed to literally melt through the beast's bone plating and into its body like a powerful acid. The Beowolf howled in a rage as it attempted to claw the orbs out of its body only for its own claws to start melting the more it struggled.

To make matters even more interesting a few seconds after the orbs impacted, they effectively exploded, destroying almost everything above the waist which stumbled forwards for a second or two before falling forwards onto the ground.

Johnny's eyebrows shot upwards past the rims of his sunglasses. "Okay, wasn't expecting that…awesome!" He then proceeded to toss more orbs at the monsters. Of course he couldn't keep such a pace up indefinitely, even Johnny as proficient as he was with Green Energy would need time to rest. He had found this out the hard way during the Netherrealm war where the near nonstop fighting had drained him.

Fortunately Johnny knew how to pace himself so when another Beowolf came close enough he ducked underneath a horizontal strike the creature made with its claws. He then proceeded to uppercut the beast with such force that one could hear the bones in its jaw shatter and head straight through its skull. The best fell backwards onto its back and begin to dissipate.

Jacqui meanwhile used both of her power gauntlet machineguns to riddle Grimm with bullets but prioritized striking at their legs in order to slow down their advance in a similar manner to the VSSE agents. She was joined by Cassie who, having just emptied her magazine into a Beowolf was pulling a pin out of one of her grenades. Once the pin was free of the explosive device Cass tossed the grenade into the gaping maw of a growling Creep that had gotten too close.

The Creep seemed to have realized its mistake when it accidentally swallowed the grenade and its eyes widened almost comically for a split-second before the weapon detonated. There wasn't anything left of the creep aside from a few limbs and chunks of flesh that fell to the ground before evaporating.

While these actions were slowing down the Grimm it ultimately wasn't stopping them and judging by the long bursts of gunfire coming from the walls it was clear that they were all but on their own for the time being. Sure a few of the other soldiers were providing some support but it wasn't enough. The Grimm were simply starting to gain more and more ground, slowly but surely.

To make matters even worse a pair of Ursai –both minors if she was correct- disengaged from the group and started making their way directly for the civilians that hadn't finished boarding the damn trucks. Immediately Cassie recognized this and turned to Alex with a determined look on her face "Corporal stop those things before they get to the civvies!"

Much to her un-surprise Corporal Stone immediately sprinted on ahead towards the Ursa his weapon at the ready. The damn thing seemed completely and utterly focused by the civilians who were all but scrambling over one another to get into the evac trucks; some of which had already started moving away, either filled up to capacity or they were simply trying to save whoever they could.

One of the Ursai was closer to the civilians than the other, most noticeably to a familiar looking young dog Faunus. Immediately Alex shouldered his AA-12 automatic shotgun and pulled the trigger, sending off six shells at the target. The armor piercing explosive slugs flew downrange, their flight patterns stabilized by metal fins. The shells struck the back of the beast and upon penetrating the creature's hide the shells exploded, blowing enormous holes in bear-like monster.

The Ursa that was struck by the rounds went down fairly quickly, but unfortunately Stone's weapon was jammed and there was simply no time to remove the obstruction. Slinging his weapon he immediately pulled out his sidearm, an H&K Mark 23 pistol and fired off six shots at the Ursa. "Hey you ugly shit! Why go for the snacks when the main goddamn course is right here!" he yelled.

The wounds on the Grimm were superficial all things considered but it did have the effect of getting it to stop its charge. It then slowly turned its head towards its head to look directly at him, its red eyes glowing in what could only be described as fury "Yeah that's right you bastard! Come and get some grade-A meat right here!"

Stone could see the looks on the civilians who were still scrambling to get into the remaining trucks but the girl he had helped earlier was stuck on her rear adjacent to the trucks, staring at him incomprehensively. 'Go.' Alex mouthed.

Fortunately the girl seemed to take the hint and got up and made her way into the nearest truck. For a second the Ursa peered back at the civvies but Alex fired off another two shots at the Ursa, getting its attention "Oi! I'm not done with you yet asshole, eyes on me!" He shouted.

It seemed as though the Ursa finally got the hint and let out a growl at him and began to charge straight at the Special Forces operator. Alex holstered is pistol and drew his primary close combat weapon, a military grade machete that was equipped with a high-frequency blade. Meaning that the blade vibrated at such high speed that it would literally destabilize the molecular bonds of whatever it struck while it was active. Simply put, it could cut through most objects like tissue paper.

High frequency blades were a more recent invention but had seen widespread adoption in militaries around the world due to their usefulness as a close combat weapon. Soon the Ursa would find out just how useful.

The Grimm charged at Alex with a roar. Unlike the civilians Alex didn't run, instead he just stood there in a combat stance, seemingly heedless to the danger he was placing himself in. At the last second Alex jumped out of the way, but brought his machete down as he did, slicing off the right arm of the Ursa at the elbow, sending it careening into the ground.

Despite the wound the beast got back up and snarled at him viciously and stood up as best it could before it began charging at him again, swiping at him again with its remaining claw, overextending itself in the process. He managed to evade the blow and slice downwards once again with his blade, slicing off the limb. The Grimm reared back with a roar for a second even as the corporal lashed out in a horizontal strike with his machete, slicing open the Ursa's throat, causing it to fall backwards and begin to evaporate.

Alex didn't have long to enjoy his victory as another Grimm, this time it was a Beowolf pounced on him knocking him off his feet and onto the ground and his machete just out of his reach. The oversized wolf roared right in his face, sending spittle everywhere. It reared its head back before lunging it straight forwards. Alex was only able to move his head at the absolute last second, the monster's jaws narrowly missing his head by scant centimeters. The beast's head reared back once again, only this time there would be no dodging the blow.

Defiantly Alex pulled his pistol from its holster and shoved the barrel straight into the Beowolf's mouth with a growl "Argh! Eat this!" he yelled pulling the trigger sending a bullet straight into the beast's mouth and upwards into its cranium. He fired again and again even as he reached for his machete.

Once the blade was in his hands he struck upwards with it, decapitating the Beowolf with a single strike. The now dead Grimm fell on top of him the sheer size of the beast completely covering him, its weight pinning Alex to the ground even as he struggled wriggle out. It would disintegrate given time but time wasn't really on his side.

The corporal could hear footsteps coming in his direction for a second before he heard Sergeant Cage's voice "Corporal Stone! You okay?!" she asked.

Alex managed to get an arm free of the monster's bulk and started to wave it around to show that he was still in one piece "Get. This. Thing. Off. Of. Me!" he begged, his voice comically muffled.

He felt hands grab the dead and evaporating monster and pull it off of him. He saw Cassie, Takeda and Glacier looking him over, to check for any obvious size of injuries. They helped him up the second that they were satisfied that there weren't any injuries to attend to. "Are you well?" asked Glacier.

Alex gave a nod as he reloaded his pistol after sheathing his machete. Once that was done he cleared out the spent shell casing that was jamming up his AA-12. However there was little time for any of them to relax as the Grimm continued to advance on their location. To make matters even worse, one of the Grimm had managed to sneak up on them in their rapid movement to assist their teammate.

This one was a particularly large Grimm, a Beringel if the records that the group had seen were correct stood over them, and roared. The quartet readied themselves for a fight but before either the Grimm or the team could so much as make a move, a strange, white elegant runic symbol that looked remarkably like a snowflake appeared underneath the Grimm. Then ice began to form on its legs and before it could try to break out of it, a young woman with long white hair done up into a ponytail that hung off-center drove an elegantly crafted sabre into the head of the Beringel.

She looked upwards and shouted "Ruby now!" before jumping off the thing and right past the four she had just helped. The group looked up and saw several Bullheads flying over the town, with many people jumping from them despite the height.

Too make matters even more chaotic, a young girl wearing red skirt all but teleported in front of the group in a flurry of rose petals, a strange crimson colored rifle in hand. The girl fired off a single round at the Beringel, taking its head clean off its body. The girl then turned to the group with a friendly smile on her face as she shouldered her rifle causing it to transform into scythe that seemed oversized for her small frame.

"Hinicetomeetyagottagotalktoyoulaterbye!" she said in rapid fire before zipping off in a flurry of rose petals towards the Grimm that were still in the area slicing any that she came across in the process to pieces leaving a rather stunned audience behind.

The white haired girl from earlier, whom Alex noted had the palest blue eyes he had ever seen outside of Sub-Zero and his two protégés looked over at them "I'm sorry but proper introductions will need to wait until later."

The white haired girl then ran off to help her friend in fighting off the Grimm. The group then also noticed that there were other Hunters as well. He noticed a girl in a Spartan-esque attire with a spear and shield, fighting along a blonde haired boy with a sword and shield. Though the latter's movements were indicative of someone who was only just learning proper techniques if Glacier's observations were correct.

There was also a girl with short curly orange hair who was using what was for lack of better terms an array of blades that seemed to be moved by metallic wires attached to the girl. She would gesture with her hands and the blades would move on their own volition or they would form a kind of floating laser turret.

They also noticed a dark haired boy with a single pink lock fighting with a pair of pistols that had blades attached to them firing rounds at the Grimm while nimbly dodging around each and every strike. Nearby was another short girl with short orange hair. She was wielding a grenade launcher that in-between firing off grenades and laughing almost maniacally would transform the weapon into an oversized hammer and literally begin smashing whatever Grimm came into her line of sight all while yelling "smash" whenever she hit something.

Meanwhile there were another two girls dealing with Grimm. One had long black hair with a bow on top and carried what looked like a sword/pistol that was being used in conjunction with its sheathe which seemed to also function in the same manner of a cleaver. The other had long blonde hair and apparently was using a pair of gauntleted weapons that fired shotgun shells. She also seemed to be using the blasts as a form of locomotion of all things.

Johnny Cage who had just walked up to the four of them along with the rest of the team looked over at Jacqui and smirked "Looks like you're going to need to get you a lawyer Jacqui, one of the locals seems to be committing copyright infringement."

Jacqui ignored her honorary uncle and Cassie instead turned to the rest of the group and asked "So are we going to just let these guys steal our thunder?"

The answer she got was the rest of the group readied their weapons and seemed more than eager to finish the fight. The team charged forwards to engage the few remaining Grimm that had managed to get through.

.


-Hilltop some distance away-


.

To say that recent developments were…unique would have been an understatement. From the tree-covered hilltop Schwarze Sanguine had been watching the entirety of the incident through his helmet's zoom function with more than just a little bit of interest. For over an hour the settlement had just barely been able to manage to keep the Grimm from breaching the walls as they tried to hold out for reinforcements from Vale. It didn't look as though the settlement would have lasted that long but then what could only have been members of Earthrealm's military had shown up.

With their support not only did they manage to hold out long enough for Vales hunters to arrive but they managed to do so without a single civilian casualty. Schwarze was many things but easy to impress was not one of them. Cinder would need to be told about this development.

The black knight immediately took out his scroll and contacted his lady. Within moments the rightful Fall Maiden answered, her visible eyebrow piqued in curiosity "Schwarze, you're late with your status report. I expected you to contact me almost an hour ago."

"My apologies Cinder but there were complications, it seems the substance we were given by Dr. Merlot is far more potent than anticipated."

Cinder's eyes immediately narrowed as she leaned forwards "Explain."

Schwarze nodded "I used a single vial of Nightshade a good ten miles south of the settlement of Ansel, the second the substance was exposed to enough heat it immediately evaporated into an aerosol and was carried by the wind nearly ten miles, attracting every single Grimm for miles along as it made its way to Ansel where it seemingly finished evaporating."

Cinder seemed more than surprised by the news but managed to hide it relatively well but it was still plain enough for Schwarze to see "Really, Merlot's concoction was that powerful?" she asked, considering the implications of such a formula.

"More like unstable, Nightshade appears to be attract Grimm for miles along if it is exposed to enough heat and this was only a single vial Cinder if we are to use such a substance and it gets out before everything is in place…" Schwarze trailed off letting Cinder fill in the blanks.

"I see, we will need to discuss this once you return," she stated and looked as though she was about to end the call when Schwarze interjected "There is one other thing Cinder. There are several soldiers that came to defend the settlement and they aren't from Vale or Atlas. In fact I would say that it is clear that these individuals are from another Realm entirely." He said before pointing the scroll's camera in the direction of the settlement, more specifically where the soldiers were.

He let Cinder see as much as the Scroll's camera allowed before he turned it back to look at his face. For several seconds, Cinder said nothing but eventually she spoke "I see, return at once, I can't risk anyone from Vale or our new acquaintances finding you. When you arrive I want you to tell me everything that transpired at Ansel."

Schwarze gave a curt nod "It will be done."

The Black Knight then retreated back into the forest and began to make his way back to the rightful Fall Maiden.

.


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To be continued.

A/N: So I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and I'm sorry that I didn't add in nearly as much of RWBY and JNPR as I would have liked but I couldn't fit them in until the end but I plan on having them take center stage next chapter as everyone meets one another and Jaune deals with an…impromptu family reunion.