The Beginning of the End
5:30 PM
Friday
A cheering crowd can be heard as the view pans down from a now setting sun, a beautiful floating arena colored silver can be seen floating over Vale's Academy Beacon. This is the time of the Vytal Festival an international event encompassing the four kingdoms of Remnant. It is held to celebrate the many years of peace between them while allowing each other to take in the different cultures. However what truly draws many in is the tournament between the four academies from each Kingdom, indeed it is an exhilarating time. At this current time there is already a match in progress between a home team of Vale and another that comes from the Kingdom of Vacuo. Let us see how it ends...
"And that wraps up this stellar match between team GMTL's (Gunmetal) Tess Fenchurch and Lila Marigold with team DNIM's (Denim) Dante Nav and Jessica Mell! Congratulations to team DNIM you move on to the finals, and for you team GMTL it pains me to say better luck next time. We shall be taking a short recess while the arena is being prepared for the next match up! And for those who are just tuning in to the broadcast we hope you enjoy the 40th Vytal Festival, there is still much to see! Anything you wish to add Barty?"speaks one of the announcers of the festival who many know as Professor Port.
"Very much so, while our very own Tess and Lila of team GMTL put up a valiant fight against team DNIM's Dante and Jessica of Vacuo it was not enough for them to fully grasp the victory. Perhaps team communication would have done them better than perfecting what they call...signature moves. Nevertheless it was an entertaining battle indeed and I do sincerely hope both teams learn from this experience as a whole" finished the other announcer known as Professor Oobleck.
In a locker room in the Stadium
"Damn, why the hell did you get in my way Tess?! I had a perfect shot to take them both out and you ruined it!" Lila exclaimed at me.
I looked up to her and met her orange yellow eyes which were slowly getting covered with a tuft dirty blonde hair. A feeling of annoyance and anger began to creep up my very being but I kept it in check. I looked back down to my left arm and sighed as I was patching up a small cut I received during the battle.
"Are you even listening to me?! You sure those ears of yours are working properly because I think they aren't!" she continued to elevate her voice.
"I can hear you perfectly Lila, but I'm gonna wait till you cool off first, I'd rather not have my face punched in by you. But since I know how impatient you can be I'll say what I was going to, I pushed you because you were on top of a geyser" I explained in a calm manner.
"The hell are you talking about Tess, I was nowhere near a geyser and if you would've left me alone we may have won the match. But no, you messed me up and I missed costing us the win" Lila said with somewhat less anger in her voice but enough to make anyone weary.
My right arm was now fully bandaged, I stood up and motioned for Lila to turn around. She complied, albeit with no enthusiasm whatsoever, as I began removing the armor she wore to reach her undershirt. I began to lift the undershirt so I could see the damaged area, as I saw it I physically cringed. When I had pushed her a sharp rock from the arena had pierced the armor and left a large cut on her back. So now I had to treat it, I was usually very squeamish when it came to anything with blood but I couldn't allow that now, I began treating the cut. I reached into the medical kit beside me and opened up a bottle of peroxide to disinfect the area.
"This may sting quite a bit" I let Lila know.
"Just get it over with, the rock was the worst part to begin with" she responded.
I gave a small shrug and began to pour the contents on the cut. I could hear the fizzing begin immediately as it made contact, Lila made a quick motion as it happened.
"You alright?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's just cold. How's it looking?" she asked.
"Bubbly, very bubbly but that's a good sign that it's doing its job" I said now setting the bottle down and grabbing a rather large bandage and gauze.
"Listen, I'm sorry for getting angry like that. I just wanted to win so badly I didn't take your feelings into consideration" Lila said trying to turn her head to me.
I made her turn it back softly while I was applying the bandage. I placed it on the cut and began to wrap the gauze around her to cover it completely. I looked at my handiwork and gave a quick nod.
"Don't worry about it, I'm used to it at this point. With you, and everyone else out there, you wouldn't believe the stuff I've been called" I explained closing the medkit.
"Yeah, but I know for a fact it still must hurt. Just remember if anyone gives you a hard time let me know, nobody messes with my teammates especially when they're my friends" Lila told me with a reassuring tone.
"Thanks, now I feel much better knowing you'll beat people up for me" I said in a somewhat sarcastic tone but with actual truth behind my words.
"Y'know I'm glad I got to meet you Tess, for being a faunus you guys get such a bad rap" Lila told me.
"I agree with you for the most part, it's mostly the White Fang that give us a bad name, so much for being a peaceful organization I guess. But there's nothing I can really do, I'm one person after all" I said.
"Yeah, sorry about making fun of your ears by the way" she said quickly.
"Don't worry about it" I said with a slight chuckle.
We both stood up while Lila was rolling down her shirt to place her armor back on. As she was done we grabbed our weapons and began to stow them, her's was a scimitar that functioned as a form of carbine and was named Dream Cutter. Somewhat ironic since her dream of winning the tournament was cut up into pieces. Mine on the other hand was a sword that could transform into a high impact sniper rifle with a special shot mode. The name I came up for it was partly inspired by something I had read in a few books and and so I named it Izanagi's Burden. I placed it on my back under my cloak in a special magnetic "sheath" which allowed me to grab it with ease. Lila looked at it and even now stared with fascination, it was a special weapon indeed.
"Ready to head out Tess?" Lila asked.
"Yeah, gimme a sec" I said lifting the hood of my cloak over my head.
The familiar dark purple interior of the hood brought me comfort since it shared the color of my hair albeit darker. The outside was slightly different as near the edges the same dark purple was clearly seen but as you looked towards the more central part of the cloak it gradually turned black. My attire also consisted of a similar color scheme of a black shirt coupled with a hoodie of the same color, a gradual black and purple skirt with shorts underneath, some striped purple thigh high socks and black shoes. The cloak is what completed the look as it hid my ears and tail from those who had an outspoken hatred for faunus.
"Why do you always gotta put on your hood whenever we go out, you shouldn't hide who you are all the time" Lila said trying to lower my hood.
I tried to stop her but as always she was the brawn of the team and was stronger than any of us. Her hand lowered my hood and left my ears exposed for the world to see, I felt the annoyance from before coming back but I controlled myself once more. She smiled as we began to walk out of the locker room. The sun was even lower now and as expected our other team mates were waiting for us.
"Mark, Grey, fancy meeting you two here" Lila joked.
"Likewise, are you two ok? You both took a pretty big beating in the last match" Grey asked.
Grey was the leader of our team, he had silverish grey hair which ironically fit with his name with deep black eyes. His attire consisted of a thick brown leather trench coat with black jeans and boots. His weapon was a lance which extended via a chain to get greater range. It was also useful to hook onto ledges with the chain. He was effectively the oldest in the group.
"We're fine Tess got the better end of the stick than me in terms of damage" Lila told Grey.
"Well as long as you two are ok we shouldn't be too worried. Anyway, the next match isn't for another 10 minutes or so, so let's get a bite to eat I'm starving" Mark said making a rubbing motion on his stomach.
Unlike Grey, Mark was more unkempt with his appearance. He had long brown hair which covered his right eye, his eyes were similar to Lila's albeit a bit more orange than yellow. He wore a something akin to a dark red ninja outfit with many pockets to house any smoke bombs or ammo he had. His weapon consisted of a long pair of nunchucks which when put together became a decent bolt action rifle. He was just a year older than me but always tried to convince us he was older and more mature, it never worked.
"You're always hungry Mark plus I think we should cater to their feelings first before thinking of food" Grey said smacking the back of Mark's head.
"Oh what I meant to say was, how about we get something to eat so we can take our minds off of the whole loss situation. Better?" Mark asked Grey.
Grey sighed and rubbed his forehead and he looked at both Lila and I with a look of "got any better ideas?". I shook my head Lila did the same, and with this he gave another sigh.
"Fine Mark, let's go get something to eat to cheer the girls up" he said with a major amount of sarcasm in his voice.
Mark fiist pumped his arm while letting out a slight "Yes" under his breath. We began walking toward the exit towards the shuttles that would take us down to the ground level. Just as we began to board a shuttle Mark looked at me.
"Y'know, I just noticed you aren't wearing your hood like usual. Did you have a change of heart of something?" he asked getting a closer look at me.
"Now that you mention it I just noticed too, it's a nice change for you Tess" Grey added while moving to one of the shuttles windows.
"Don't get too used to it, I'm just trying it for now while we go eat" I explained as some nervousness was taking hold of me.
"Well you definitely look cuter than usual, no offence to how you previously were." Mark tried to recover from what he just said.
"I'll take that as a compliment and we'll leave it there" I finished turning my head to face the window to hide any form of acknowledgment to the compliment. I never was one to receive compliments about my looks.
The shuttle took off taking us down, I had a pretty good view of Beacon and since the ride down wasn't too quick or too slow I could admire the sunset behind the academy. Unlike Lila I was actually content we didn't advance farther than we did, I knew that the stress of being in the finals would have eaten us up whole. So in an ironic way we benefited from the loss rather than not I can only imagine what the other two were probably thinking. As I finished my thought we had finished landing and Mark began leading me out of the shuttle.
"I'm not a kid you know Mark, you don't gotta hold my hand as we leave" I said speeding up a bit.
"I know that but you're still younger than me, so it's kinda like instinct or something" he spoke back.
"Yeah right, Mark the only instinct you have is knowing the exact time lunch is and how to push peoples buttons" Lila said as I was walking down the exit ramp with Mark.
"Shut" was the only thing he could really say since she had described him perfectly, I tried really hard not to chuckle but I let out a quick exhalation of breath instead. For Lila this was enough as she continued to follow Grey off campus. We passed through a small portion which was connected to the town off campus. Many shops were closed due to the festival so there weren't any restaurants available. After what had seemed like 5-6 good minutes of walking we finally made it to a lower area of concession stands. A good few of them sold souvenirs while others sold different foods.
"Hey, this stand looks good" Mark pointed to a red and yellow concession stand.
"Looks good, what do you two think?" Grey asked me and Lila.
"It looks fine, I'm just a little bit hungry" I answered as my stomach finally began to grumble.
"Same here, I could eat a horse if we wait any longer" Lila said aloud.
This garnered a few quick looks from some faunus in the area. She looked around and said "What? It's a figure of speech". They all went back to their business like normal leaving her a bit embarrassed.
"Tough crowd huh? I think it's best we keep those figures of speech to ourselves" Mark joked.
Lila motioned to punch his left arm and he flinched before she even made contact, she looked satisfied with herself at this. We reached the stand could see that the next match was nearly about to start.
"So what'll it be?" asked a woman behind the counter.
"Gimme the biggest thing you got with extra hot sauce if you got any" Mark asked.
"I'll take a small bowl of noodles with a side of rice" Grey said.
"I'll take whatever Mark ordered, biggest thing you got with extra hot sauce. Wanna see who can eat faster?" Lila ordered while speaking to Mark.
"Oh you're on" he retorted prepping a fork.
"And for you dear?" the woman asked.
"Do you have anything with a lot of meat?" I asked somewhat shyly.
She looked at me then my ears, thought about it for a second, and silently nodded. A few moments later she came back with a large tray with our orders on top. Lila and Mark got a behemoth sized bowl of noodles with red broth that seemed like it was boiling due to the hot sauce. They both looked at each other with a hint of fear and determination. Grey got a decent sized bowl of noodles with beef and a small bowl of white rice on the side. And as for me, I was given a slightly bigger bowl of noodles with a mound of well marinated beef and an extra bowl with more if I wanted any. My stomach rumbled louder as I saw it in front of me, it smelled absolutely delicious. I couldn't wait any longer, so I dug in rather quickly. My tail unconsciously began to wag rapidly under my cloak making it move.
"Huh, I guess the phrase wolfing down your food was accurate after all" Mark joked nervously as he was about to take his first bite.
I gave Mark a quick look of annoyance in between my next bite and forgot he said anything. Grey on the other hand was eating rather calmly compared to us, he was watching the tv waiting for the match to start up. After my initial action of stuffing my face I slowed down and joined him in watching. The announcers were preparing while the randomizer was going at it.
"I wonder who it'll be, what do you think Tess?" Grey asked looking at me.
"No clue, but whoever it's gonna be we're in for a wild ride" I finished.
"True, I'm hoping it's that Yang girl from team RWBY, she's got an interesting fighting style" Grey said with a bit of fascination in his voice.
"Eh, she's an up close and personal fighter, I tend to prefer range than full on melee. Hence why I use Izanagi's sword mode sparingly, I'm not a brawler" I explained to Grey but he was instead watching the screen.
"I don't know if you've noticed Tess but Grey's got a thing for Yang, even though she's never noticed him" Mark whispered into my ear, while Grey still looked transfixed to the screen.
"Geez, he really is absent minded" I thought to myself as the randomizer was slowing down. As it stopped I could see who exactly was going to be fighting. It was Yang of team RWBY and Mercury from the other team I had forgotten the name of, they had won their previous match flawlessly and it seemed Mercury was the final choice. From what I had seen they were both close range fighters, Yang used her fists while Mercury used his legs for the most part. This would definitely be a match that was going to be talked about for a while. Professors Port and Oobleck began to moderate as the camera panned to the center of the arena showing Mercury and Yang approaching each other both seeming very determined to win. I turned away from the tv and continued eating I'd rather leave it up to my imagination while listening than seeing the battle. I could hear their blows connecting to and fro with every waking moment. Both had the the stamina and strength to continue, but instead of being in a state of awe during the battle I had a growing sense of uneasiness. If Lila and I had won our match one of us would've had to progress and neither of us had the sheer strength Yang had, I was more of a quick fighter. Lila on the other hand while the strongest on our team would quickly lose, and even if she got close to winning Yang would just demolish her with that semblance of her's. All in all we would have been out matched if put against her, as for the other competitors it would have been a bit more even. As I continued my thought I decided to look at the tv to see if the match was nearing it's end. The blows had gotten slower and reduced in number so I assumed the fight was about to be at it's climax. I was correct in my assumption as I heard a sort of whistle sound signifying someone's Aura had dropped below the required threshold.
Professor Port announced as I turned that the match was over and that Yang had won, and in that moment as I opened my eyes I could see Yang facing away from Mercury as he lunged at her, his foot aimed at her head. Then the image changed as I saw him now on the ground rather than lunging, Yang circled him and punched his right leg. Everyone around gasped in horror as they witnessed this, I however was in a state of confusion on what just happened. The broadcast was cut just mere seconds after this happened everyone around was extremely quiet trying to process what they had seen. I looked at Grey and his face was that of disbelief and disappointment, he seemed hurt.
"Grey, are you alright?" I asked quietly while placing my hand on his shoulder.
"D-don't worry about the food guys I'll foot the bill. Just give me a minute, I need to process some things" he said voice trembling.
"Sit down man, I think we all need to process this" Mark said trying to persuade him.
"Yeah, just calm down. No need to do anything hasty, we're a team remember that" Lila added.
"You guys are right, I'm just..." his voice lowered.
He reached into his trenchcoat pocket and pulled out his wallet and handed the woman behind the counter, she swiped it and handed it back quietly.
"I know a place that's secluded around here, let's go there so we can talk" I suggested politely.
Lila and Mark both nodded and pulled Grey along behind them, he was still a little out of it so it was easy to do. I led them a farther into the trees until we made it to a large hedge covered with multiple purple perennials. I got close to it and reached into the hedge.
"Um, I thought you said it would be secluded. Doesn't seem like it to me, and why are you reaching into the hedge?" Mark asked.
"It is secluded, you just gotta know where to look and it's a matter of perspective as well" I said finally finding what I was looking for.
My hand came into contact with a doorknob hidden within the hedge, I turned it and the door opened, the perennials and leaves that covered it were separated from the rest of the hedge to avoid breaking it. Only those with a keen eye could see the very faint outline of the door while normal people would just assume it was a random hedge deep in the trees. I turned to Mark and Lila who were dumbfounded at the sight of the door.
"What the hell, why is there a door all the way out here, and on a hedge no less!" Lila exclaimed.
"Be quiet, I told you this place is secluded, meaning I only know this is out here" I said making sure she understood.
"But how did it get here is my question" Mark said puzzled.
"I'll explain inside, get in here quickly I'd rather not have my hiding place discovered" I responded ushering them inside.
After they entered I carefully closed the door behind me and locked it. The inside led to a small set of downward spiral stairs that also led to a rather large room a few meters underground. I went down the stairs to see that Lila Mark and Grey had taken a seat on a couch.
"Already made yourselves at home I see" I joked stepping off the stairs.
"Well we're still waiting on your explanation, you haven't exactly been very vocal about this place" Grey finally said snapping out of his state of shock.
"Then listen up because I'm only gonna say this once" I said hanging my cloak on a hook.
"Go ahead we're all ears" Mark replied somewhat jokingly.
"This place was a sort of hideout me and my friend Umbra used to use all the time when we were little. My dad and her dad somehow convinced Ozpin to allow them to build this here and so they got to work and let us keep it, the hedge above was my idea as a disguise for the door while this room down here was decorated by Umbra" I explained motioning to the sleeping bags books and tv with a console and movie player.
"I'm not gonna lie Tess that's a pretty neat story and all, but who exactly is this Umbra person you're talking about? You never mentioned her before" Lila asked standing up and grabbing one of the books.
"You see, it's been years since we've even spoken with each other after she moved to Atlas. And right after the move when they arrived her family didn't contact us at all. So, I assumed they moved on and so did I, but hopefully I get to see her again at one point" I continued explaining.
They seemed quite satisfied with the answer I had given them and began to look around. Mark looked at the support beams of the room and his eyes locked onto a small mini fridge in the corner. He got up slowly as I turned my back to them to see an old picture of me and Umbra on the wall. I saw myself when I was younger and Umbra, she was a cat faunus, one of her features that everyone always noticed before anything else was her eyes. She had a heterochromia making her left eye pink instead of the dark red that her right eye had which was covered by a longer portion of black hair, I wondered how she was doing at this very moment. My right ear twitched as I was reminiscing and I could hear Marks quiet but audible footsteps. He still thought I hadn't noticed until he tripped on something to make him fall forwards.
"Trying to be sneaky as always eh Mark? I heard you making your way to the fridge from a mile away, so I tripped you, there's nothing in it anyway just so you know" I said walking over to it myself.
He looked at the ground and could see the extended entity that was my shadow grabbing his own which is what caused him to trip. He smiled and started to get up while my shadow was coming back to me and taunting him, he looked surprised at this. I on the other hand grabbed a remote from atop the mini fridge and turned on the tv and then I grabbed a foldable chair and placed it next to the couch. I changed the channel to the Vytal Festival broadcast, it was back on air like nothing had happened. I looked at Grey.
"You're looking much better Grey, you sure you gonna be ok?" I asked sitting down.
"Yeah I'll be fine but why would Yang do that in the first place?" he questioned with a very serious tone.
"Listen, I don't know about you but I think she didn't do anything at all, she probably did it to defend herself" I said with a firm belief.
"But we all saw her literally break Mercury's leg, Live!" Mark said sitting back on the couch and over exaggerating his words.
"Yeah, I didn't see any self defense in her actions at all. I think she simply just broke his leg for the hell of it" Lila said agreeing with Mark.
"But you didn't see what I did, he lunged at her ready to kick her, then the screen changed and he was on the ground for some reason even though he was in the air an instant before. I don't wanna say this is a possibility but something's not adding up, she might've been set up" I explained to them with clear sincerity in my voice.
They went quiet. I simply sat there waiting for a response, and right when I thought I would get one they'd go back on it. What I said might've triggered them to rethink the entire situation, I by no means was a liar and even if I were lying I suck at it completely. So that, coupled with me seeing something completely different, caused a complete fact check of what I said.
"Alright, I believe you Tess. But mostly due to the fact that you are a terrible liar" Lila said breaking the deafening silence.
"I gotta agree too for the most part. But even if you are telling the truth how can you prove it?" Gray added.
"That's the thing, we can't. Whatever caused the change affected a live broadcast" I said racking my brains.
My frustration was beginning to well up inside. I looked at the shadow I was casting on the wall behind me, due to the tv casting light, and it was visibly expressing frustration that I wasn't. This was my semblance, I usually never used it out of combat but it had its uses, I made it stop moving to avoid it from trashing the room with its tantrum.
"Let's talk about this after the festival is over I'd rather not cause any trouble for anyone enjoying it" I told the others.
"I'm fine with that" Mark said agreeing with me.
"Same here" Lila added.
Grey nodded silently as we all turned to the tv to watch the next match. I could see Professor's Port and Oobleck were back to their normal demeanor, I could tell deep down that the shock from before was still lingering, they couldn't have canceled the next match even if they wanted to because of the sheer amount of people watching the broadcast. The randomizer had come on screen, it looked like the next match was about to be underway. Part of me hoped it wouldn't end like the previous one had.
"Now, let us see who will be participating in this next match! Let us all hope it is very thrilling as all the others from earlier today have been! Anything you wish to add Barty?" Professor Port asked as the randomizer began to slow down.
"At this point in time I do not, however I do express your enthusiasm for this match. Let's see if the randomizer has given us a battle worth remembering shall we?" Professor Oobleck said reaching for a mug of tea or coffee.
The randomizer stopped, the next two combatants going at it would be Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina. Both were admirable opponents with mountains of skill on their shoulders, if I had to face either of them I'd be taken out quickly even if I had kept my distance. This was going to be somewhat of a stalemate match between them, even so, one of them was going to come out on top. The camera began to pan to the center of the arena and I could see them preparing for their fight. Unlike the match between Yang and Mercury they met at the center and shook hands before the buzzer went off. As soon as it did the battle quickly turned into one of range and evasion as Pyrrha had to avoid Penny's swords to even get close. However when she did Penny had to quickly attempt to move away as fast as possible, these openings were what Pyrrha needed to land direct blows. The peculiar thing about the swords Penny used was that they also and shoot powerful green lasers when coming together to form a triangle in small numbers. After for what seemed longer than five minutes Penny re-called all her swords while still firing lasers and began preparing for what looked to be a devastating attack when they formed a large circle of them above her yet they weren't charging up their lazer. I didn't need to see Pyrrha's face to know that she was in trouble if the attack landed, everyone else was holding their breath in suspense as Penny was finally ready to attack. Then something strange happened to Pyrrha, her entire demeanor which was being stoic and calm in battle fell as she was visibly trembling and quickly looking around without looking at Penny, something wasn't right. Then not a moment later just as Penny sent out her swords Pyrrha launched a visibly dark wave at her, and the attack suddenly stopped not even a few meters away from Penny before her swords came back to her and got stuck. My eyes widened in horror as I saw the three that were farthest rapidly came back to her, how she made them "float" was due to metal wires connected to her swords. They were practically invisible before due to the rapid movements but now that they were stuck to her they were visible.
They began to wrap around her arms tightly as I could see her skin buckle from all the pressure, and the final one wrapped around her waist doing the same thing causing it to buckle. Then the wires reached the point of no return and completely dismembered Penny right in front of a huge live audience. Her Torso and arms were completely separated at this point as she fell with a great weight that shouldn't have been normal. With a quick glimpse I could see that she wasn't bleeding like one should have been. I could hear the Professors attempting to cut the broadcast but it they couldn't as the screen was taken over by a symbol, something really was going on, and whatever it was it wasn't good for anyone at all. Before anything else happened I felt a low rumbling throughout the entire room, I looked at my team and they looked horrified and had noticed it too. It became more and more prominent with each passing second. I motined everyone to stay put while I checked it out. I began climbing the stairs and could feel the rumbling much more as I rose to ground level, I unlocked the door and opened it. The sun was pretty much gone at this point revealing the dark forest and the night sky, the moon was the only thing illuminating the area and I could see in the dark either way. But I didn't need any light to see what was happening, I could see in the distance an enormous amount of faint red lights coming this direction, my stomach sank as I knew what was approaching. I quickly bolted down the stairs almost tripping but catching myself, everyone looked at me.
"We need to get the hell outta here right now! And when I say it I mean it! RUN!" I yelled at them as I began running back up the stairs.
I could see the once faint red lights much more clearly now, the rumbling was even louder and more intense. Grey, Lila, and Mark came back up and also noticed the lights. Before I did anything else I closed the door and motioned everyone to run. We began making our way back to the concession area, it was empty. The stands were torn to shreds and pools of blood could be seen around the area, we could see a flickering tv screen at one of the stands on the ground. We approached it and could see a warning being issued for the evacuation of Beacon and its neighboring town as multiple amounts of large Grim were on the approach. As of now we could tell the smaller Grim had arrived first and caused havoc around this area, we had no time to waste as the evacuation zones were at Beacon. I grabbed Izanagi from my back and loaded a cartridge of fire dust, Grey readied his Lance, Mark prepared his nunchucks, and Lila her scimitar. We began to make our way towards the shuttle area on campus, it was a ways away from the concession area and along the way we'd have to deal with Grim. We pressed forward making our way up the hill trail to the town area above. Unlike before it was eerily quiet.
"I don't like that it's quiet, we gotta hurry" Mark expressed.
"Agreed, but we have to also move slowly or else we'll be worse off" Grey said to Mark while he went ahead.
My left ear twitched as I picked up an extremely light and distant noise, something fast was on its way to our position.
"Grey! Somethings come-
I tried to call out to him but it was too late. Instead of being from above ground a large mole Grim broke through the surface from under him, its white bony carapace was visible to me and I attempted to shoot it. Then without a second to lose Grey twirled his lance around and stabbed the Grim in the eye. It howled in pain as this happened and swung its claw at Grey breaking through his Aura and creating 3 large gashes on his legs. He fell backwards as Mark took this moment to use his rifle mode with his nunchucks, he fired a round of ice dust right into the Grim's already wounded eye and it dug in deep before exploding with ice spikes visible on the outside. It howled in pain once more as it swung wildly again to attempt to hit Mark however Lila was ready and used her scimitar to cut through the claws with immense speed and force. I switched Izanagi to sword mode and jumped into the air while thrusting my sword deep to where its brain would be then I began to twist and shift the sword to cause even more damage. It gave off one more wail of pain as it began dissipating away as they normally do.
"Grey are you alright!" I wasted no time in asking.
"The damn thing broke through my Aura and got my legs, we need to get out of here" he said with pain in his voice.
The eyes of the Grim from before far out in the forest were inching closer with each passing second. Mark and Lila began picking Grey up but his legs wouldn't allow him to stand at all.
"Mark you're gonna have to carry Grey if we want to get to safety" Lila said attempting to take charge.
"I agree, in this case he's in no condition to walk or fight" he said.
Mark picked up Grey and let him lay on his back while Lila stayed behind them and I was upfront.
"Mark do your thing, we need every advantage possible if we wanna make it out of Beacon alive" Lila called out.
"Gotcha" Mark responded.
He took a deep breath and he began to glow a low orange outline. He had activated his semblance, he was able to sense any friendly or harmful entities within a hundred meter radius. The unfortunate part was he had a cool down between each "ping" he did so the information he gave us would be both old and new. And for now we were lucky to have nothing near us that was dangerous. We continued making our way up the hill and we heard a large distant explosion from a mountain range to our right. I turned to look at it, my heart sank as I saw it. One of the biggest Grim I had ever seen had burst out of the mountain itself and it was making it's way to the clock tower of Beacon in the distance. I began thinking to myself that it couldn't possibly get any more worse. We continued up the hill and made it to a lone street that was battered up and covered in massive amounts of debris. Mark let off another ping and told us that there were multiple Grimm a large distance ahead. I nodded as I scoped in with Izanagi to confirm, I could see the black and white figures of an Ursa accompanied by about 3 beowolves. I let the others know about it and Lila kept her Scimitar readied, while I was internally debating on using a new feature on Izanagi. I shook my head as I knew any noise would attract them to us. Mark let out another ping and said behind us there were obscene amounts of large Grimm approaching quickly. It was do or die.
"Guys, we're gonna have to make a full on run for it past the Grimm ahead of us. As we are right now we won't last a minute so we gotta do it" Grey siad through a pained grunt.
"Yeah I hate to say it even with our training, be it quite little, we are no match for all of those Grimm" Lila added sheathing her Scimitar.
"Are you sure about this Grey?" Mark asked to make sure this is what we were planning.
Grey nodded silently. I holstered Izanagi on my back and looked ahead.
"I got another ping ready to go, this'll be the last one, so make it count. I'm gonna need my concentration for running" Mark said letting a final ping of his semblance go out.
He told us the Grimm behind us were now close enough to feel and hear if we listened closely while the ones ahead took a right turn to another street. This was the opening we needed to get to Beacon. He readjusted Grey on his shoulder and we all began sprinting. Because of my improved hearing I could hear the roars of the Grimm behind us was getting closer. Beads of sweat were forming on my brow as we were about to pass where the Ursa and Beowolves turned. Lila rushed ahead of me with a determined look on her face, all the while Mark was behind me because he was carrying Grey. I then remembered about the monstrous Grimm that bursted from the mountain. It was now extremely close to town and I could see its large shadow passing over us and letting out a deafening roar. It began to fly higher heading toward the clock tower of Beacon, then as if on a cue the tower exploded launching hulking pieces of gears debris and steel to the ground. I wanted to stop and look at it but our situation took precedent. We passed the street the Grimm had turned on and they were somewhat far away from us. Luckily they were focused on destroying the buildings instead of the 3 kids and an injured running past. Just then a large wave of sound washed over us as the explosion from the clock tower finally reached us. I continued running at the cost of almost all my hearing as we were still quite a ways away from the shuttles. Ahead of me Lila was still going strong and using up every ounce of her energy to get to the shuttles quickly. I could see multiple flashes high in the sky, the airships that the Atlas military had brought to guard the stadium and festival were turning on each other while others began firing upon the school itself. I could feel the vibrations of the explosions as my hearing had not returned yet. I could see large black figures flying around a few airships and not attacking.
Then without any sort of warning to the right of Lila a building exploded and throwing debris her way. She easily avoided the larger pieces but just as she was in the clear smaller portion of debris with a large piece of rebar sticking out pierced her leg pinning her to the ground. It happened so quickly we almost ran past her completely. I stopped and tried to assist her but I couldn't move her without causing large amounts of pain. Mark set down Grey next to us as he tried to help me, Lila grabbed my arm and squeezed it tightly as Mark began to pull the rebar from her leg. I could hear her screams very faintly as my hearing was just about coming back, tears streamed down her face as we were close to removing it. I pushed her leg down as mark pulled the rebar for the last time and it came loose. He reached within one of the pockets on his clothes and pulled out an orange bandana to wrap around her leg wound.
I was about to try and pull Lila to her feet but Mark picked her up instead. I was confused because he was supposed to be carrying Grey. Through whatever faint sounds I could hear I made out a name being said with Grey's voice, to me it simply said "Mark..." and I couldn't make anything more from it. Grey grabbed his lance and used it to stand up as I was being forcefully pulled by Mark toward the shuttle area which wasn't too far now. I could see the look on his face, it was cold empty and stoic as if there were no instance of his personality within his body.
"Grey! Get over here!" I yelled but he didn't turn to look.
He slammed the bottom portion of his lance into the ground cracking the asphalt and planting it there. Because of the building that injured exploded it got the attention of the Grimm near us. I could see them charging toward us as fast as they were able to go. Smaller grim from within the shops we passed were also alerted and followed close behind. Grey stood there unmoving while staring at this approaching mob of monsters. His body began to glow with a bright white outline and he began to run towards the Grimm as if he were never injured. The Ursa was the first he encountered and as it swiped at him its claw met the lance and caused it to reel back in pain as it had broken the claw. Grey used this opening to thrust his lance with blinding speed into the Ursa's body starting with the belly and finishing with the eyes. It collapsed and he turned to the Beowolves thrusting and penetrating through their carapises of bone causing them to roar in large amounts of pain. He killed 2 out of the 3 as he was beginning to slow down. He had the signs of limping while avoiding and attacking the last Beowolf, he thrusted one more time breaking through the eye of the Beowolf and into where its brain is meant to be and he extended the lance using the inner chain. He used what little strength he had left to jump high enough to clear the head of the Beowolf. The chain was now wrapped around its neck and he tightened it crushing its windpipe and practically decapitating it. It let out one final roar as the body began disappearing to a black dust. The once bright white glow Grey had around him was growing dimmer as much smaller Grimm surrounded him. He slammed his lance into the asphalt once more the dimming light he had around him began to expand from an outline to a bubble. Eventually it engulfed all the Grimm surrounding him as they jumped towards in tandem. My hearing came back just as the bubble of white light exploded with the final pained scream of Grey as all the Grimm around him were vaporised and destroyed. The light disappeared as quickly as it came and all that was left behind was a sizable crater with Grey's lance still stuck into the ground worn and with dark marks of what seemed to be handprints wrapped around the center of its shaft.
I wanted to let out a scream but nothing came out as my body continued to be pulled by Mark who had large streams of tears on his cheek. Lila was the same as she could see everything that happened behind us. We finally reached the shuttle area and could see there was one more being loaded up. The shuttle depot looked as if it was about to fall apart as the roof had large cracks and was letting dust fall down. I didn't think anything of it since we had finally made it to a form of safety. We weakly made our way to it as we heard more rumbling coming from the stadium and school above us. Lila was now on her two legs as Mark helped her walk toward the shuttle. I let out a sigh of relief as I took a step forward. "Tess look out!" was the last thing I heard Lila scream as I was pushed forward and a large portion of the roof fell behind me. I fell on my back and I saw the debris on the ground and a hand reaching out from under a portion of it. It was moving sporadically, I quickly realized what had happened as I scrambled to it. I grabbed it and it calmed down as it gripped mine tightly, through the small holes of the debris I could see the pained face of Lila and her orange-yellow eyes covered with her dirty blonde hair. Her eyes locked with mine as her labored breathing began to slow down. Her hand still tightly gripped to mine began to loosen up as the light in her eyes left them making them seem dull and flat. Mark pulled me to my feet, I could barely stand now as the weight of having lost 2 close friends and team members dawn on me. "Why did this all have to happen?" I thought to myself as we stepped into the shuttle. The doors closed as we were being taken up, outside the window showing the town I could see the large wave of Grimm rushing and flooding the streets attempting to reach the shuttle depot.
"I-is it finally over?" I asked Mark weakly as he wrapped his arms around me.
"I think so, we'll be ok I promise. If we keep living then their sacrifice won't have been for nothing" he said in a warm tone.
I wrapped my arms around him and allowed myself to let all the tears I was holding back stream out. He placed his hand on my head and attempted to comfort me as we were rising to the evacuation area we could see Atlas airships landing and loading students and civilians into them. We were finally going to make it out of here. I saw the destroyed clock tower and a quick flash of white and silver light erupted from it for a split second causing the monstrous Grimm that was clinging to it to turn into what seemed to be stone. A large scraping noise sounded throughout the the shuttle as we began to quickly rise faster and higher than intended. I looked outside the window and above large white talons had broken through the shuttle roof and large black feathers were falling beside the windows. A loud screech was heard as we were starting to drop to the ground quickly.
"Everyone hold on to something!" Mark yelled to the other passengers.
"I can't stabilize us, we're going in for a crash landing! Brace yourselves!" yelled the pilot as the ground was now rapidly approaching.
The pilot maneuvered us away from the students and civilians being loaded up. Instead we crashed into one of the large pillars that were part of the courtyard portion of Beacon. Any loose items and objects coupled with the breaking of glass and stone were thrown about the cabin. I felt what I assumed to be a large portion of stone hit the back of my head with great force almost knocking me out completely as we began rolling. I couldn't move a muscle s the rolling slowed down.
We were upside down and immobile. It turned out that many of the people in the cabin didn't think of putting on the safety belts so they were thrown out of the shuttle completely. I could feel multiple bruises and cuts on my arms and legs. My Aura took the full brunt of the crash leaving me somewhat unscathed. The main problem was I couldn't move because of the stone that hit my head. The safety belt I had on gave way as I fell onto the roof, now floor, of the shuttle. The torn pieces of metal where the talons broke through pierced my back avoiding any internal organs. Even now I was still lucky to be alive, even if I was currently paralyzed, I could barely move my head while on the ground. I had a small trick up my sleeve however, I was able to move my shadow slowly but surely around the cabin. I could make out vague shapes of the people still inside, some were faunus and others weren't. My goal was to find Mark. I could hear low voices coming from outside the shuttle and clucking footsteps. I continued looking for Mark within the cabin, there was no sign of him on the ground.
"I got a body over here, he looks really banged up and-" I heard a voice get cut off with surprise.
"What's up, why did you-. Oh my god" said another voice, this one was female.
I used the last bit of my concentration to move my shadow outside the window. I made out two people standing over a body. I couldn't make out who it was but I had a feeling I knew who it might be. My shadow returned to me without my control and I connected the dots in my head. Mark wasn't in the cabin anymore and anyone who didn't wear a safety belt was launched out at high speeds. I had no more mental fortitude to hold back my feelings anymore. I attempted to call out to the 2 people outside but my body was so messed up I couldn't. I attempted to move but nothing did. All I could do was cry and lay in a growing pool of my own blood. I could see a suitcase teetering from a bottom compartment below one of the seats. It didn't look too heavy but it would still do damage. It reached its limit and began to fall, the world around me grew dark as I closed my eyes. The weight of it hitting my head, it wasn't enough to crush it like a melon. But I could feel myself drifting into unconsciousness. I hoped that the suitcase falling would attract the other two but it didn't. My breathing slowed and my last few thoughts were of my friends and the good times we had before today. I was at peace...
Somewhere else
"I take it the operation was a success?" voiced a disembodied female.
"Yep, it went off without a hitch. I told you I had a good mind for this sort of thing" said a male voice.
"Quite, now with the Kingdoms in a frenzy we can initiate phase 2 of our plan" the female voice said.
"Already ahead of you, I've been tipped off by my informant that they're prepping to send a message out to the other Kingdoms" said the male voice with confidence.
"I see, I shall use your information to stop this so called message from reaching anywhere else" she said menacingly.
"Very well my lady, I have also received the "care package" you've sent me" he replied.
"Good, she knows her mission quite well, just keep an eye on her. Do you understand?" the female voice ordered the male.
"Yes my lady, I understand. Is she to follow my orders?" he asked.
"Yes, she is to follow your orders completely. As per our promise she's been extremely loyal" the female said with an audible smile.
There was a quick woosh of what sounded like air and then silence. A door can be heard opening and the faint sound of rain outside, then an opening of an umbrella.
"Y'here that? You're under my jurisdiction now, so I expect you to follow my orders to a T. You understand?" the male voice called out towards the door.
The only response he received was a "hmph" of another female and the closing of a heavy door. Then silence.
END OF CHAPTER 1