Chapter 12 – The Alternate Fall of Beacon Part I
The next round of the Vytal Festival Tournament was about to start. The event had been delayed until the evening to let as many as people as possible get away from their jobs so that they could see it. At this point during the schedule, no one wishes to be doing anything else other than watching two talented individuals interlocked in a show of a spectacular melee.
The cheering and the tension were just as omnipresent as they were during the first round of the finals. So far it seemed that the outrage surrounding Yang and Mercury had temporarily been suspended in favour of another exciting fight that was hopefully going to conclude with a cleaner ending.
'Alright, it is now time to begin the randomisation process for our next fight!' Oobleck said over the speakers.
The randomiser began scrolling through the remaining six combatants. 'It looks like our first contender is… Penny Polendina from Atlas!' Port announced to Remnant. 'And her opponent will be… Pyrrha Nikos of Beacon!'
Once again the small platform elevated, confining the two into a small area with an edge to fall off of and limited room to fight.
Penny was jovial and looked like she was ready for anything. Pyrrha by contrast looked melancholic. She could have looked far worse for sure, but the pressing matter of the Fall Maiden going missing was still biting at her ankles. Once again, she was thinking about what Professor Ozpin had wanted with her. She couldn't say for sure, but she was beginning to speculate that he and the other Huntsmen had wanted her to be the next Fall Maiden. She was asking herself if it was her destiny to become a Huntress, and if she was fated to become the Fall Maiden as well. She pondered these thoughts. They were unhelpful and intrusive on the task that stood right in front of her. Ren had wisely said that she should not over-concern herself with Yang's disqualification, but he and the rest of Team JNPR had no idea what was pulsating in Pyrrha's mind.
'Sal-u-tations Pyrrha Nikos!' Penny said merrily. 'It's an honour to finally meet you.'
Pyrrha said nothing in return. Instead, she looked at her hands and the pads around her wrists.
'This is going to be so much fun!'
'Fighters, are you ready?!' said Oobleck. The crowd cheered in response, as though he had also asked if the audience was ready too. He then began the countdown with purposefully long pauses between each number to increase the hype.
'Three!'
'Two!'
'One!'
'Begin!'
Penny summoned her blades – ten of them – which she twirled in mid-air. It was mostly a display of how much control she had over them at first to get the crowd going, but she soon afterwards sent them flying at Pyrrha.
The star pupil of Beacon weaved between them and rushed towards Penny.
She called back her blades and spun them around to prevent Pyrrha from landing any hits.
'My word! What a tremendous display from Miss Polendina.' Port commentated.
Pyrrha was overwhelmed by Penny's unbelievable control over her blades. She was pushed backwards but managed to catch herself by placing both her hands on the floor to stop herself from falling over. She then charged at Penny once again, using the levitating blades as aerial footstools to get in close. Pyrrha aimed for Penny's head with the sharp edge of her weapon Miló, but still couldn't even touch her without blatantly revealing that her Semblance was polarity.
Penny thrust Pyrrha off of her blades and went in for a serious of rapid slashes. Pyrrha only just managed to land on her feet in time for her to block the attack. Any sooner and she might have taken a lot of damage. But Pyrrha was still inundated by the amount of control Penny had over the battlefield. Every attempt at hitting her was met with a barricade of ferocious blades that were like of a pack of Rapier Wasps.
Pyrrha brought her shield Akoúo̱ down to her left wrist. She had refrained from using it thus far, but it seemed like it would be essential if she was to win this match.
She was becoming increasingly frustrated and therefore more aggressive. She tested her Semblance on her own weapons before continuing the fight.
The shield was now giving Pyrrha more of a leg up. She could defend herself more reliably, whilst being able to use spear more offensively. It was her turn to take control of the match. Her natural speed allowed her to finally land some hits. She struck Penny in the face with the hilt of her spear and sent her flying backwards. She then jumped after her to strike again, but Penny managed to dodge each swing.
Penny landed perfectly on her feet and arranged her blades into pairs to fire green lasers at Pyrrha. It was a move that she had not anticipated and was back on the defensive. She swiftly dodged the blasts and then the blades flying straight towards her.
The robot's versatility was proving almost too much for Pyrrha to handle. She was jumping around like a flea and expending all her efforts into simply not getting hit.
But after Penny had used everything in her arsenal, Pyrrha saw an opening and launched herself at the blade ballerina. The strike sent Penny flying backwards and gave her a moment to catch her breath.
But she took too long of a rest. Penny propelled herself towards Pyrrha with her blades casting lasers behind her. She kicked Pyrrha with full force and sent her rocketing to the floor. Upon picking herself up, Penny sent two blades to disarm her. Pyrrha quickly responded by using her Semblance to instantly retrieve her arsenal.
Penny called back all of her blades and posed like a tiger ready to pounce. Pyrrha stood, terrified at something that only she could see. Twenty more blades materialised out of nowhere.
Then it was one hundred.
Then it was one thousand!
She dropped her weapons and staggered backwards. It looked like Penny was going to win. She sent her blades hurtling at Pyrrha. Pyrrha did nothing to defend herself. The blades were directed straight at her like a hailstorm of bullets. She was going to get impaled!
and then…
Penny recalled all of her blades before they could hit Pyrrha and they both stopped what they were doing.
An ear-splitting screech erupted over the Colosseum.
Three giant Nevermore Grimm had landed on top of it and started pecking aggressively at the force-field on top. The mere sight of them caused equanimity to be evaporated in an instance and the sirens indicating a Grimm attack were set off.
'Alert. Incoming Grimm attack. Threat level: nine. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner.'
General Ironwood went up to the announcer's box and picked up the microphone. 'Ladies and gentlemen, please! There is no need for panic.' he said, but his voice was drowned out by the agonising sound of the Nevermores, which continued their assault. All of the audience fled, leaving only the Huntsmen and Huntresses left in the stadium.
Ironwood felt his scroll vibrating. He saw that Ozpin was calling and answered. 'Ozpin, I- I don't know how the Grimm-'
'You brought your army to my Kingdom, James.' Ozpin interrupted. 'Use it.'
Many of Ironwood's ships were under attack by multiple Nevermores and the captains were calling for as much backup as possible.
'This is Blue Four. Blue's Two and Three, fall into defensive position!' ordered the Atlas Captain of Blue Four.
'Roger! Blue Three, in position!'
'Blue Two, what's your status?'
There was no answer.
'Blue Two, come in! Someone answer me, dammit!'
Little did he know that the crew had been assaulted by the taciturn associate of the man who was being kept prisoner on that very ship: Neopolitan. She was an incredibly short woman with a flamboyant attire of pink, white and brown, was ruthless in direct combat and said virtually nothing with her own mouth. Neo was unorthodox in her fighting style and wielded an umbrella, which she used as a shield and distract her opponents. It also had a razor-sharp needle blade that was revealed when she closed the umbrella.
She found the cell where Roman Torchwick was being kept and unlocked it, holding his cane and bowler hat too.
'Well… it's about time.' he said with a grin. He couldn't have been happier to see her.
Roman skipped merrily to the cockpit and took control over the ship. He turned it to face the other squadrons and fired lasers at them. Blue Three and Four were sent crashing to the ground. 'Woohoo-hahahaha! Oh, it is good to be back!' he remarked joyfully.
Back down on the ground, a carrier jet arrived at Beacon on the ground.
Outstepped members of the White Fang and the current leader of the unit in Vale: Adam Taurus. 'Bring them to their knees!' he said.
A multitude of species of Grimm were sprinting across the Campus and the immediate area surrounding Beacon. The Atlesian Knights were doing their best to kill as many as possible, but there were just too many.
Weiss and Blake ran through the fair grounds. They were distressed and shocked at the sight of the inordinate chaos.
'I don't believe this.' said Weiss dejectedly.
Blake took her scroll out of her pocket and called for her partner. 'Yang, are you okay?' she asked.
Yang was running across the dormitory corridor with her dog Zwei after watching the match from her dorm. 'I'm fine. Is Ruby with you? She's not answering her scroll.' she asked worryingly.
Little did they know that during the fight between Pyrrha and Penny, Ruby went into the corridors under the stadium to find Mercury, walking perfectly and carrying a sinister look on his person. He had destroyed Ruby's scroll with a shot from his boots before she could call for backup.
'No, she isn't.' Blake answered. 'But Yang, I'm sure she's fine. She's our leader, she can take care of herself.'
Yang clenched her fist, reassuring herself that her little sister was capable of handling whatever situation she was currently in. 'I'm heading to the docks near the courtyard. White Fang are releasing Grimm into the school!' she added.
'The White Fang is here?!' Blake exclaimed.
Before Yang could reply though, the signal between the two was becoming faulty. All she could say was: 'Got to go! Be careful!'
Weiss turned to Blake. 'Blake, what are we going to do?' she asked.
Blake tapped her scroll, calling for her locker to be sent to her location. 'We're going to the docks, and we're doing our job.' she replied firmly.
The locker crashed into the grass behind her and opened to reveal Gambol Shroud.
Weiss nodded and did the same.
The Nevermores were still continuing their assault on the Colosseum force-field. Pyrrha and Penny were staring up at them in a trance.
Ruby ran onto the stage. She put her hands around Penny and hugged her tightly. 'Oh, Penny! I'm so glad you're okay!' she cried.
'I'm glad to see that you're okay too, Ruby.' Penny replied in a slightly dreamlike tone.
'We've got to move, now!' Ruby went on to say.
'Ruby, what is going on?' Penny asked, unaware of the situation they were in.
Jaune came running onto the stage as well, hurrying towards Pyrrha. 'Pyrrha, please, snap out of it!' he yelled. She seemed to be having an absence and was completely oblivious to what was going on around her.
The three Nevermores soared up into the air. They were getting annoyed. With tremendous force, they nosedived towards the stadium and smashed their way through the defences. They landed in a heap on the stage and emitted a shockwave that sent the Ruby, Penny, Pyrrha and Jaune flying backwards.
As the Nevermores got up they prepared to attack by flying off the ground and speeding towards them. The four were still on the floor, in moderate pain. There was no way they could move out of the way in time.
But as if on cue, a whole bunch of lockers came pelleting out of the sky. They all landed directly on top of the three Nevemores. They fell to the ground once again and skidded on their breasts until they came to a halt right in front of the four Huntsmen and Huntresses. The Nevermores gasped for air right in front of their faces. Their breath stunk.
The lockers hissed open. Inside each were the respective weapons of many of the teams and their members that had fought in the Tournament. Besides the weapons of Team JNPR, everyone else had gathered in the colosseum: Team SSSN, Team ABRN, Team CFVY and Team FNKI.
They all stood on top of the Nevermores, no longer engaged in friendly competition. It was a time for alliance. All the animosity towards each other was gone in a heartbeat.
Without much warning, the Nevermores regained enough strength to stand up again. The opportunity for teamwork and synergy to manifest did so. Team JNPR focused on one Nevermore. Jaune slashed at its feet whilst Ren leaped into the air and tore at its face. Pyrrha stabbed the bird from behind and Nora used her hammer to crush its head.
Arslan swung from the second Nevermore's beak and picked up Yatsuhashi with one arm around his torso. Sage then entered in the fray by using his immense muscle strength to leap into the air and join Yatsuhashi as they both used their massive swords to cleave the head of the Nevermore straight off of its body.
Flynt Coal of Team FNKI blasted his trumpet at the third Nevermore whilst Coco mowed it down with her minigun and Sun bashed it with his cudgel.
The three Nevermore's turned to ashes. The amount of coordination was astounding, especially since the teams from the different Kingdoms barely knew each other, but this was testimony to how training as a Huntsman or Huntress makes you adaptable to many different situations.
Every one of them stood in a crowd, pleased with what they had just done, but it wasn't over. Of course it wasn't over yet.
An army of Griffons swarmed around the Colosseum. They all stood, armed and ready to fend them off.
'Anybody got a plan of attack?' Neptune asked.
'Sun. I need your scroll.' said Ruby.
Sun threw it too her with his tail. She then used it to summon Crescent Rose in her locker.
Ruby ran over to it as it opened, but a Griffon landed before she could reach it. It roared at her and she backed away nervously.
A gunshot exploded from behind her and a shot was fired into the Griffon's shoulder. It flew away in pain.
Ruby turned around to see Professor Port and Dr Oobleck.
'Students. I think it would be best for you to leave.' Port said as though he were giving out helpful advice on any old day in the classroom.
'But we can fi-' Ruby began to say, but was interrupted by Oobleck.
'Miss Rose.' he said. 'This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I'd prefer it if my students could live to tell about it.'
Ruby nodded in compliance. All the students ran towards the exit – except for Velvet, who took a picture of Ruby holding her scythe first.
Port and Oobleck stayed behind to deal with the Griffons.
Evacuation was a nightmare. The Amity Colosseum was a floating arena, so transportation consisted of meagre aircraft that could only hold a set number of people at once.
As this was happening, ships were being deployed onto the walkways, letting loose more Grimm. Ironwood saw his Knights getting ripped apart by Beowolves. One of them noticed him and Ironwood glared at it as if to say: 'Oh now you've done it!'.
The Beowolf and the General charged at each other. The Grimm was on all fours and Ironwood picked up the pace, letting loose a shout of anger that was unprecedented for someone as sophisticated as him. To anyone watching, it seemed as though Ironwood had lost his marbles. But he hadn't. Ironwood pulled out a revolver from his jacket, slid under the Beowolf – that had thought Ironwood was going to jump over him – and shot its belly twice.
The two of them stopped themselves and turned around to confront each other once again, with Ironwood tearing away at the ground with his bare hands to stop himself from sliding away. The Beowolf ran at him once for a second round. Ironwood shot at it again, but it was unfaltering.
As it reached Ironwood, it swung its hand, trying to claw the General's head off with its right hand, but Ironwood ducked under it and then did the unimaginable, in what can only be described as 'freaking awesome!'.
He caught the Beowolf's left hand, shot its right foot to make it jump off the ground in pain, and then swung it in the air with one hand before slamming it into the ground and putting a lethal bullet through its skull.
The creature dissolved to ashes.
The Teams all came running out of the stadium towards Ironwood, just after he had displayed his flashy moves.
'What's going on?' Ruby asked.
'Grimm are crawling all over the city. The White Fang has invaded Beacon and to make matters worse, some- vagabond has seized one of my ships. Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control. So I'm-' he pulled out his revolver and shot a Grimm Creep that had sneaked up upon the teams. He shot it in the head and it stood no more. '-going to take it back.' he finished. 'Penny, please come with me.' he said.
'Yes, Sir.' she replied and strolled onto the dropship with her father.
Before they could leave though, Jaune asked: 'What should we do?'
'You have two choices: Defend your Kingdom and your school… or save yourselves.' The teams looked around at each other, giving and receiving glances. 'No one will fault you if you leave. Let's move out!'
Ironwood and Penny moved onto the ramp. Penny waved at Ruby and gave her a reassuring smile before the back closed and the aircraft took off.
The teams still said nothing and continued to exchange glances, trying to come to an agreement on what to do without using words.
Sun eventually broke the silence. 'I mean- come on.'
'We can take a ship to Beacon.' Jaune suggested.
Everyone jogged to the nearest aircraft, save for Ruby, who stared fixatedly at the dropship that took Penny away.
Back aboard Blue Two, Torchwick was having the time of his life, experimenting with the control panel. 'Hmm, let's see. What does- this button do?' He pressed it and a rumbling sound in the distance went off. 'Oh, fun!' he remarked cheerfully. 'How about- this one?'
All the Atlesian Knights in the cargo hold were ejected and they fell down to earth.
'Hmph.' said Torchwick who hadn't noticed anything happen. 'Alright… Nothing.'
Neo approached Torchwick and handed him a scroll. 'Oh, ho ho.' he said with a mischievous smile. He held it close to his face before inserting it into a slot for scrolls. 'Now, this one, this one's gonna be fun.'
The scroll was infected with a computer virus: one which would make all of the Atlesian Androids go rogue.
In the city, Goodwitch, Qrow and Cardin Winchester were fighting off Grimm with the Atlesian Knights, only to find that their eyes became red and turned their weapons on them.
This also happened to the Aircraft that Ironwood and Penny were on. The Knights inside the ship fired the guns, causing it to crash.
Ruby witnessed this from the window of the ship that she and the teams had taken to get to Beacon. She clasped her hand over her mouth and ran to the back of the door.
'Ruby! What are you doing?!' Sun cried out, but Ruby did not stop. Her mind was set: set on taking out the perpetrators on Blue Two. She jumped off her ship and used her Semblance to get back to the Colosseum lobby. She ran into the stadium and made a dash towards her locker. In a daring feet that you would've expected from someone as tenacious as Ruby, she punched in a custom code to send herself to Blue Two and held onto the locker as it rocketed into the air.
She saw the ship and landed clumsily onto its left wing.
Inside the cockpit, Roman felt and heard the impact and growled in frustration. 'Go see what that is.' he instructed to Neo in a very monotonous tone.
Neo nodded and skipped outside.
Roman cracked his neck. He had a funny feeling of what or who had made landed on the ship.
Weiss and Blake arrived at the Beacon courtyard to see the rogue Atlesian Knights. They aimed their crosshairs at the two Huntresses.
'Look out!' Blake cried out and tackled Weiss to the floor to protect her from the oncoming shots. Five Atlesian Knight surrounded them, all in point-blank range of shooting them.
The two of them slowly stood up, readying themselves to move like lightning and make a counterattack.
But before they could do anything, a surge of blue energy balls came from the front of the courtyard. The balls of energy knocked over three of the Knights and obliterated them. A ring went around the last two and held them in place before they too were destroyed.
Weiss and Blake turned around to see a man with entirely blue skin and tattoos over his body. He carried a large scroll on his back and had a face of utmost urgency, as though the world was nearly at its end.
They raised their weapons and put themselves in a stance to defend themselves against the blue stranger.
'You two girls leave!' he ordered. 'It's not safe here!' His voice was coarse and agitated. He looked hostile with his glowing blue eyes and very alien-like appearance, but he didn't seem interested in harming the two Huntresses.
'We can defend ourselves, you know.' said Blake.
'Yes.' agreed Weiss. 'And who are you exactly?''
'It doesn't matter who I am, but if you say that you know your way around a fight, then help me destroy these robots! We can't let them destroy this place!'
Weiss and Blake nodded. They weren't sure if they could trust this person, but the imminent forthcoming situation called for as many hands as possible. The three of them teamed up to rid the area of Atlesian Knights.
Ryze shot blasts of runic energy all around him, spraying the Knights with hexes before finishing them off with amplified blasts of magic.
Weiss danced around the courtyard at a blistering speed with her glyphs and sliced the Knights in two with her Myrtenaster rapier. She was making quick work of them.
Blake noticed members of the White Fang approaching, and she ran towards the Beacon tower to deal with them. They were all novices compared to Blake and she used Gambol Shroud, cleaving nearby crooks and hitting ones that were further away with its kusarigama function.
Weiss launched herself off of one of her glyphs to join in the fray against the White Fang after the Atlesian Knights were mostly all gone.
As he defeated the last of the Knights, Ryze sprinted over to where the action was and cast his runic energy against the suspicious gang members that the two girls were attacking. He gritted his teeth as he found that his magic wasn't as potent against these people as he had anticipated. They seemed to have a protective shield around them: like a force-field, and he was having to concentrate to make his spells have any sort of damaging effect against them.
Nevertheless, as a trio, they subdued the members of the White Fang who had just arrived, and sent only the few remaining ones scampering away in fright.
They caught their breath before turning to their left to see Atlesian soldiers struggling to fend off rogue Atlesian Paladins.
But this wasn't the end. Grimm were swarming into the courtyard, starting with an Alpha Beowolf, which was massive in size.
'Split up!' Ryze yelled. I'll take the front, you two go somewhere else!'
'Alright, let's do it.' Weiss said in agreement. She stayed to cover the immediate area.
Blake ran towards the dining hall, thinking that more members of the White Fang must surely be coming from an unpredictable angle.
The hall was in ruins. All the windows were smashed, and most of the tables were either toppled over or decommissioned with broken legs.
She heard the yell of a person in pain and looked inside the hall to see who was in need of help.
An expression of mortified shock splattered itself across her visage. 'No.' she moaned fearfully.
For a split second, she thought that her eyes were deceiving her, just like Yang's had, but there was no denying the distinct outfit, hairstyle and sword that the person she saw was wearing.
'Adam?'
'Hello, my darling.' He replied with mixed emotions for seeing her again.
The teams arrived at the courtyard and saw the mayhem, just in time to give the help that Weiss, Blake, Ryze and the Atlesian Soldiers desperately needed. They all found a Grimm each and began to take it on.
The distribution of the work was proving to be effective, but they were still being overpowered by the sheer number of Grimm.
On a rooftop in the city nearby, Cinder, Emerald and Mercury were observing the battle from a distance. The three of them were perturbed.
'You think this is gonna work?' Mercury asked, who was doubtful at how things had gone so far. 'The robot girl isn't dead and you didn't get the opportunity to make the broadcast to give your speech.'
'Thing's… aren't all going according to plan.' Cinder admitted. She was mildly anxious.
'Ugh, if only those stupid Nevermores hadn't attacked prematurely, then this would all be going more swimmingly.' Emerald groaned.
'Still, the Grimm seem to be doing exactly what we wanted them to do, even without my threatening message and the Robot's death.' Cinder commented.
The three of them said nothing momentarily.
'Why do you think the Nevermores came when they did though?' Emerald asked. 'Pyrrha hadn't killed the robot and the match was going fine from the audience's perspective. It's the Grimm that have caused the chaos themselves.'
'Something else must have brought them here – or someone.' Cinder surmised. 'Someone with emotions so full of despair and anger that none of us can comprehend it. Someone who has lived through the worst possible life imaginable.'
'But who could that person be, other than Ozpin?' Emerald responded.
'I don't know.' said Cinder. 'But whoever it is…' Emerald and Mercury turned to face her. 'I am glad that they have met woes for our cause.'
Professor Ozpin was standing in his office, both of his hands on his desk and his eyes focused on the screen in front of him. He could see Atlesian Soldiers struggling to take on just one Grimm Deathstalker; buildings on fire; people on rooftops waving for help, and even more Grimm fighting their way into the city and the academy.
He had avoided going into combat himself, so as to gauge the situation and how to approach it from his office above the ground, but he could no longer stand around and simply just observe the battle: he had to get his hands dirty himself.
Ozpin picked up his cane and walked towards the elevator.
Before he could cross the room however, the ground shook; like a two second earthquake. It could be felt from miles around, and whilst it was only for a moment, it was most certainly not a good sign.
The outer layers of Mountain Glenn fissured. Beneath it, a terror was unfolding. Two set of claws kicked their way out of the rock. One second later, a pair of glowing eyes peered through a crack in the mountain; and then it exploded as a ginormous Grimm Dragon escaped from its tomb. It rose into the air, screeched and then made a direct beeline towards Beacon Academy.
As it flew across the landscape, it oozed dark, sticky liquid that dripped off of its body. There were a multitude of these black blobs. The sight of this Dragon was horrifying enough, but as the liquid made contact with the floor, each puddle spawned another creature of Grimm. They littered the streets of Mountain Glenn and the city nearby Beacon.
The Headmaster returned to the office window and watched with a grimace expression at the sight of the Dragon flying towards his school. He knew that he should help the battle, but it was imperative that the tower did not fall.
Thousands of miles away, the screech of the Grimm Dragon stirred a fire in a monster's heart.
Blake dubiously backed away. Every inch of her body was screaming for her to turn her back on Adam. On top of everything that this evening had brought, her ex-partner was not something she wanted to deal with.
'Running away again?' said Adam with a twisted expression. 'Is that what you've become my love? A coward?'
'Why are you doing this?'
'You and I were going to change the world, remember? We were destined to light the fires of revolution!'
Adam stamped his foot on a civilian at his feet. 'Consider this the spark.' He raised his katana and was about the stab him in the chest, when Blake rushed in with her own blade to force Adam away from the victim. With gritted teeth, she held him back.
The edged of their blades wrestled against each other, creating sparks as their sharp edges generated friction. 'I'm. Not. Running!' she said.
'You. Will.' Adam said in retaliation. He was naturally stronger than Blake and could withstand the pressure being forced upon him for longer. With this advantage, he used the element of surprise to boot Blake squarely in the jaw, kicking her backwards.
A Grimm Creep rushed towards the vulnerable Blake, but Adam shot it with the gun component of his sheath: Blush. 'But not, before you've suffered for your betrayal, my love.'
Blake's mind was working against her. She still felt marginal levels of interest for Adam and was finding it almost impossible to fight back. But even if he was nothing more than a generic thug whom Blake had no connection with, she was exhausted from fighting the Atlesian Knights, and the White Fang that night. She was also tired and sleep deprived.
Adam continued to kick her as she lay on the floor. 'This could have been our day! Can't you see that?!'
'I never wanted this!' Blake shouted back. 'I wanted equality! I wanted peace!' She staggered to her knees and made a feeble attempt to shoot him, but Adam effortlessly blocked the bullets with his blade.
'What you want is impossible!' he yelled, and smacked her in the face. She dropped back to her defenceless position on the floor. 'But I understand. Because all I want… is you, Blake.' He kicked her weapon out of her hand before she could make another move with it. 'And as I set upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves… I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love.'
'Blake!' called out a familiar voice. It was Yang's. She quickly took down a White Fang Member. 'Blake! Where are you?!'
A petrified Blake stared in the direction of Yang's voice. She was just outside the dining hall, no more than ten metres away.
'Starting with her.' said Adam ruthlessly. He raised his sword to stab Blake in the abdomen.
But he was interrupted.
The ground shook as something fell out of the sky. It landed just outside the dining hall, on the opposite side of where Yang stood, making a large impact crater around it.
'Stop right where you are!' bellowed an unfamiliar voice.
Adam turned around to see what the disturbance was, but did not react in time to an extremely long spear that was sent through his sword arm. He dropped Wilt and Blush, clutching his arm in pain and tried to pull the spear out. 'Argh! Who dare-'
A figure flew forward and hit Adam in the face with a massive shield. Adam was launched across the dining hall and collided with the wall. He rebounded off of it and his neck fell into the grasp of the person who had bashed him with a shield.
He wore a golden helm alight with a small flame on top. His thick beard and fierce brown eyes could be seen beneath. He wore a blue cape around his neck, and a blue codpiece. His shield was embellished with a golden rim, two large and two small spikes at the top, and a symbol of a sword was crested on its face. His spear, majestically carved and ornamented, was longer than the man himself. His muscles were large, but arguable the most fascinating feature of all however, was his bare chest and a giant scar that rode across it.
The man punched Adam in the face hard and then dropped him.
Adam collapsed and looked up at the man. There was something so imposing about this man. He had not felt this frightened in a long time.
'You pick on the weak, do you?' said the man. His voice was surprisingly calm up close, yet it spoke with might (and a strange accent) like that of a humble warrior. He certainly looked like one. Blake and Yang just stared at him in perplexed shock.
'Piss off! What I do is none of your conc- argh!'
The warrior pulled his spear out of Adam's arm and stabbed it through his left knee cap. 'Speak again with your forked tongue and my spear shall find its way through your other leg. What has this young lady done to provoke you?'
Adam clutched his nose where he had been hit. 'She betrayed me! I am bringing justice upon her and mankind!' Adam shouted. 'Who are you and who do you think you are, barging into our business?!'
'I am merely a man, but you, you are not a man, only a coward.' said the warrior. 'I only see you attacking a person who does not deserve your corrupted attitude and your blade that is stained with evil. Leave this place now and recognise the error of your ways, or I shall stab you again and again, and teach you that lesson myself.'
'Grrr, like hell…' Adam muttered, but these were the wrong words.
The warrior stamped on Adam's torso, pulled out the spear from Adam's leg and then thrust it into his abdomen: where Adam himself had attempted to impale Blake. He then brought down his shield and slammed it into Adam's throat.
He gagged violently, kicked his legs and put his hangs against his shield, struggling to breathe.
'Stop!' Blake cried out all of a sudden. 'Don't kill him!'
The warrior turned around to see Blake getting off the floor and running over to him. 'I'm will not kill him, but he must realise his flaws.' he responded. The warrior lifted his shield and let Adam breath again. 'Flee now, and do not show your face here again.' he ordered.
Adam staggered to his feet and attempted to reach for his weapon, but the warrior jabbed his spear into Adam's arm once again. 'Ahh!'
'Did you not hear me? I said leave.' the warrior reiterated. He pulled out the spear and swung it to hit Adam on the left side of his head with its hilt.
Adam scrambled away from the warrior and Blake. He leaned against the back wall with one arm, the other clutching the wound through his intestines. 'You'll pay for this!' he said. 'Both of you will!'
The warrior threw his spear with incredible speed and it went through Adam's left arm, pinning him to the wall. 'What a pathetic creature you are.' he said. He walked up to Adam and punched him multiple times in the face before kicking his groin, hard. He pulled the spear out of the wall. 'Do you have any more bravado? Any more petty words you wish to dribble?'
Adam said nothing more and half ran – half limped away, utterly humiliated and defeated.
'Precisely what I would have done, had I been him...'
'Blake!' Yang called out, who had been watching the scene from outside the hall.
Blake got up and saw Yang running towards her.
Yang put her arms around her partner and embraced her in a tight hug. 'Are you okay?' she asked concernedly.
'I'm… okay.' she said in nothing more than a whisper.
Both Blake and Yang turned to face the warrior. 'Thank you.' Blake said simply.
'Thanking me is not necessary.' he said humbly.
'W-who are you?' Blake asked.
'Who am I?'
The two girls nodded.
He took off his helmet and placed it on top of the tip of his spear. 'I am a from another world. My birth name is Atreus: a man of war. Some know me as the "Pantheon", once a god in the body of a man, but that is no longer who I am.'
Blake and Yang looked at each other, thoroughly intrigued by Atreus.
'It is probably hard to believe, but I sensed a battle somewhere far from my home and knew that there must be something worth fighting for. It seems I was right. You and that parasite were the first things I saw.'
'I'm… I'm very grateful.' Blake replied. 'And I believe you too: that you're from another world.'
'Me too, I believe you.' Yang nodded in agreement.
'I have already made a friendly encounter. My heart beats with relief.' said Pantheon. 'However, I sense a battle in progress over there.' he said, pointing towards the courtyard.
'Yeah,' Blake confirmed. 'And we could use all the help we can get.'
'Then I will gladly fight with you for a land that is in need of assistance.' said Pantheon.
'You're looking for these black creatures known as the "Grimm", as well as robotic androids and people who look similar to the man that you just beat up.' Blake explained. 'They're everywhere. You can't miss them.'
'I understand. Thank you.' Pantheon nodded. He put his helmet back on his head.
The three of them ran towards the courtyard. All the students, soldiers and Ryze had a corner covered with an enemy occupying their time and weaponry, but there was still room for more fighters to get their slice of the action.
'Blake…' Yang said.
'Hmm?'
'Who was that guy?'
Blake paused before answering. 'That guy… he's my… old partner.'
'Someone you used to work with?'
'Yes…' They were distracted briefly. 'We'll talk about it later.' said Blake as they ducked under the swipe of a Grimm Beowolf and began to fight it.
Ruby climbed onto the deck of Blue Two and watched as the Grimm Dragon and schools of Nevermores and Griffons flew past her. She had never seem so many Grimm at a time, and the sound they emitted made her want to pull her ears out.
A Griffon landed on the deck and Ruby proceeded to kill it. She made quick work of it, running rings around it as she swung her scythe, but had to catch her breath after the Griffon succumbed to loss.
She turned around once she had recovered enough stamina to see Neo holding a scroll about fifteen metres away from her.
She took a picture of Ruby. As she did, her outfit began to change from an Atlesian uniform to her regular ornate clothes of pink, white and brown – starting at her feet and up to her top, as though it were a hologram. She winked at Ruby.
Roman received the photo of a startled Ruby, with a caption of "Guess who?"
He looked at the photo for less than a second before groaning. 'Oh, you can NOT be serious.' he said to himself. He picked up the scroll and walked out of the cockpit to go and deal with the exasperating thorn of roses is his side. Roman had secretly enjoyed some of the encounters he had had with Ruby up until then. He had gleaned mild amusement and pleasure from how cute her persistence was.
But this time, he was sick of her indefatigability. Enough was enough. Right now, he could not afford her getting in the way of this crucial moment.
Ruby and Neo were locked in a skirmish – well more specifically, Ruby was attempting to hit Neo, but she was untouchable: too nimble and agile to even be grazed. She shot from her rifle, but Neo created a physical illusion of herself with her Semblance. It shattered to reveal Roman behind it, who stepped into the fight and fired a blast of Dust from his cane at Ruby.
She did not block it in time and was launched back by both the force of the shot and the strong wind. Ruby used her scythe to stop herself from sliding any further across the deck.
Roman managed to keep his cool demeanour and strolled up to Ruby, who was lying on her front, holding onto the handle of her scythe. He rested both of his hands on his cane and eyed Ruby as though he possessed the power and control of the situation between the two of them. Even if Ruby made any sudden movements, Neo was there to back him up. 'Little Red, little Red… You are just determined to be the hero of Vale, aren't you?'
'What are you doing? Without these ships, the Grimm will destroy everything!'
'That's the plan!' he pointed his cane at Ruby's head, but she reflexively swiped it out of the way behind her, so that he missed his shot at her head.
Ruby stood up, but was instantly taken down by Neo, who danced over her head before kicking Ruby on the side of her face. Even though Ruby instantly recovered, Neo kicked her multiple times where she was uncovered and almost sent her falling off of the ship. Ruby managed to regain her balance and turned around to try and reason with Roman. 'But why?! What do you get out of it?!'
'You're asking the wrong questions, Red. It's not what I have to gain. It's that I can't afford to lose!'
She wasn't going to give up. Ruby dashed at Roman, but Neo jumped in to parry the attack with her boots.
Ruby was like a tennis ball, and Neo and Roman were the rackets.
The sinister accomplice moved swiftly around Ruby, disarming and throwing her into the air before kicking her towards Roman.
The crime lord used the gun feature of his cane to launch it with great force directly into Ruby's nose before catching it and firing another shot of red dust at her.
She only managed to save herself from falling straight off the ship by catching her scythe, which was miraculously dug into the edge of the deck and gave her something to hang onto. Still, Ruby was in a precarious position and at the complete mercy of the two criminals who had overpowered her.
Roman walked over to where Ruby dangled. 'I may be a gambling man, but even I know there's some bets you just don't take.'
Neo closed her umbrella to unsheathe the needle in her umbrella. She dragged it along the deck and pointed it straight at Ruby.
'Like it or not,' Roman continued. 'the people who hired me are going to change the world. You can't stop 'em. I can't stop 'em!
Ruby kicked a Nevermore that tried to bite her leg as Roman was giving his exposition. She then noticed the button that opened Neo's umbrella.
'You know the old saying. If you can't beat 'em-' but before he could say "join 'em.", Ruby pressed the button on Neo's umbrella. She gasped as her tiny body was jerked forward and carried away by the wind.
'NEO!' Roman cried out after her.
Ruby took this moment of distraction to climb back onto the deck. 'I don't care what you say! We will stop them, and I will stop you! BET ON THAT!' She rushed headfirst at Roman, but without her scythe.
Roman fired Red dust and managed to catch it in mid-air with his handle and sent it in a wave at Ruby. She tripped over the blast and fell backwards. Roman ran up to her and bludgeoned her with his cane and then fired it point-blank at her chest, which sent her gliding across the deck on her back.
He walked over to her once again and began to chastise her. 'Ya got spirit Red, but this is the real world!'
He hit her.
'The real world is cold!'
He hit her again as she was on the floor.
'The real world doesn't care about spirit!'
He raised his cane again, but this time Ruby kicked him in the kneecap and he jumped backwards. Ruby got up and glared at him. Roman was not finished with his reprimand though. This was the last straw. He was genuinely angry. He hated Ruby with every fibre of his being. 'You wanna be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history!'
He hit Ruby one last time with as much force as he could muster. 'As for me, I'll do what I do best. Lie. Steal. Cheat. And Sur-'
Roman Torchwick didn't get to finish speaking.
Something tore its way through the ship, cutting it in two and creating an empty gap between them. It was a blur of red: almost like Ruby's Semblance, but it didn't leave behind rose petals. It was massive and flew past them, leaving behind a small line of red light and red ashes behind it.
Both Ruby and Roman didn't see what it was, but Blue Two's power and autopilot cut out. The ship began to fall.
With no time to haste, Ruby used her Semblance to rush back to her scythe and tugged it out of the deck.
Roman ran up to the bow of the ship and looked for a place to secure himself with his hook.
Ruby jumped off the ship and used the rifle to propel herself and break her fall as she landed on a flat roof in the city. She saw the two halves of the ship fall away from each other. Ruby could make out Roman's white coat and orange hair, holding on for dear life. When he was close enough to the ground, he jumped and only just managed to grab hold of the ledge of a building. The ship crashed and the engine exploded.
Squinting her eyes, Ruby thought she could see a tiny little golden thing flying away from the wreckage.
There was just no end to the Grimm and other enemies in the courtyard .The Grimm Dragon was circling, dropping in even more Grimm that needed to be dealt with.
Jaune was tiring out. This level of combat was still beyond what he was yet capable of and needed the help of Pyrrha to simply defend himself.
Ren's bullets were doing virtually nothing to the bigger, tougher Grimm, and StormFlower's blades were a bit too short for him to do any lasting damage.
Sage and Yatsuhashi had been swinging their swords around for ages. Lactic acid was building up in their arms and they struggled to even lift their large, heavily blades, let alone hit Grimm with them.
Coco had almost run out of ammunition for her minigun and Velvet had already used up all of her photographed weapons from her camera.
Neon and Reese had been acting as distractions by speedily moving in and out of combat with Grimm, playing a hit-and-run game, but their tactics were becoming impotent – nothing more than tired tricks.
Ryze's accuracy and power in his spells were becoming weaker as he became more and more exhausted.
They were all enervated, but no matter how you viewed the situation, they had all done a marvellous job at protecting Beacon as well as they could.
But nothing could have prepared them for what came next…
Something landed at the front of the courtyard, squashing a few Grimm Creeps underneath it. In an instant, everyone backed away. It was an enormous towering beast of some sort, standing at over fifty feet tall. It had the body dimensions of a human, but it was far from being one. Its legs, shoulders and head looked like they were made of reinforced armour, mixed with rock. The head had two massive horns and glowing red eyes on its face. The rest of its body was red, including a large pair of wings on its back. Its chest had a red heart pulsating in it.
If that wasn't enough, it carried a gigantic red sword that was bigger than a dozen people combined, with incredibly hard and sharp edges. To top it all off, the sword itself had a heart that was pumping to the same rhythm as the beast's own one.
The monster starred at the people in front of him. No one was sure what it was looking for, but if it was a fight, then there was no way they could win against it. Even the Grimm had stopped in their tracks.
Ozpin saw the beast from his office. After the Dragon had appeared, he had decided to stay inside and protect the tower, should it directly attack it. But this was no Grimm. He had absolutely no idea what it was, but there was no other word to describe it other than "intimidating".
He left his desk, this time actually running towards the elevator and made his way to the ground floor. He opened his scroll and called Goodwitch. It took her a moment to answer. She must have been busy with a Grimm.
'Glynda, did you hear that roar?' Ozpin asked.
'I did, Ozpin. What was it?'
'Get Ironwood, Qrow, Port, Oobleck and as many reinforcements as you can and come back to Beacon now!'
'Was it the Dragon?'
'No, it was something different. It's landed in the courtyard and we need you here immediately!'
'Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can!' said Glynda, and she hung up.
The Headmaster made his way into the courtyard. Everyone was huddled near the fountain.
Pantheon look at the sword the beast was holding. His perennial enemy. He felt uneasy, but knew that he could face him.
Ryze stood at the side of all the students. He gulped.
He had seen creatures just like this one before.
Cinder, Emerald and Mercury were still on the exact same rooftop, spectating the battle. They had seen Blue Two being split in half in a flash and the thing that had done it. The creature landed in the courtyard, and they could the side of its upper body.
'Umm, should we worry about that thing?' Mercury asked.
'If we're out of harm's way, we should be fine.' Cinder replied.
'We don't even know what it is though.' Emerald commented.
'Well it doesn't look like it's a friend of the enemies'.'
'But it's certainly not a friend of ours either. What if it's hazardous to our plan? We still need to find the Fall Maiden and the Relic, and we don't want that thing accidently destroying them.'
'It's most likely that both the Fall Maiden and the Relic are kept underground, out of the reaches of most people. Once this is all over, we'll go through the wreckage and find what we're looking for.'
'And you're sure this plan is going to work?' Mercury questioned.
Cinder looked at him and smiled. 'I'm sure.'
They noticed something above them: it was floating down towards them. It was gold and sparkling. The thing seemed to be sentient, for it whispered and made the sound of chime bells. The little thing had two legs, no set of arms and a large pair of eyes that were closed.
Cinder reached up to catch it. The critter felt oddly weightless in her hands. It was both hot and cold, as though it was usually full of life, but had recently been injured.
'It has… a lot of power in it.'
'What, that thing?' Mercury snorted. 'It's tiny and harmless looking.'
'I can feel its overwhelming power.' Cinder insisted.
'Again, you don't know what that thing is. Best let it go in case-' said Emerald.
Cinder squeezed it hard before Emerald could say anything more. Its eyes opened wide open and it squealed as a mist of golden air was emitted from them. Instinctively, she reached out her right hand, whilst still holding onto the little thing with her left one, and the golden mist was absorbed into her hand.
She began to glow and rose up into the air. Her aura was doused with energy she had never felt before.
Emerald and Mercury both took three steps back as they saw Cinder being empowered by this small bulb.
Cinder stuffed the little creature into her sleeve. She smiled euphorically and gently touched the ground again.
'H-how do you feel?' Emerald asked nervously.
'Never better.' Cinder replied with a demon's smile. 'This will make our search much easier.'
Another gigantic roar came from the direction of the red juggernaut that had landed in the Beacon Courtyard.
'Or… not.' said Mercury sarcastically.
The beast slammed its sword down to the ground with one hand. 'I. Sense. CHAOS! It screamed. The volume of its voice was beyond deafening. 'Kneel mortals! So I may split your shoulders from your spine!'
The Grimm recovered their bravery and followed their natural instinct to feast on negative emotions. They ran towards the monster. It swung its sword at the oncoming Beowolves and Ursa. The power in its swing was unreal. They all scattered, and were sent towards the academy. Everyone ducked just in time. 'Foolish animals!' it roared. 'I will kill all of you! I will destroy EVERYTHING!'
It walked towards the fountain where the makeshift army of Beacon stood.
'Everybody, spread out!' shouted Ryze.
The students were panic-stricken. The Grimm Dragon was at least mindless and had not yet even noticed the people on the ground. This was something else entirely.
'We can split up and attack it from all sides!' Pantheon suggested.
'Yes, let's do it!' said Nora.
'Be careful everyone! Only shoot at it from range! Do not go in close!' Ryze said to everyone.
Reese and Neon took the left and right respectively and stuck to the edges of the courtyard as they went around it, hoping to grab its attention away from everyone else.
Those with ranged weaponry all took a position around it and aimed their weapons.
The Atlesian Soldiers fired their weapons.
Nora fired her grenades.
Neptune shot blasts of electricity.
Sun disassembled his staff into his signature "gun-chucks".
Pyrrha used her Rifle.
Ren shot StormFlower rapidly.
Yang fired her gauntlets.
Ryze casted as many spells as he could.
Coco fired the remainder of her ammunition.
Pantheon threw his spears (unsure if he should confront him head on again).
Blake shot as many bullets as she could.
Flynt even blew his trumpet to try and push it back.
The rest had to stay back, so as not to be in the range of the monster's humongous sword.
Ozpin watched from the entrance to the academy. He was both proud of the students, but also worried for them.
But alas, the army of Beacon defenders were doing nothing to the juggernaut.
Velvet tried taking a picture of it, but it was impossible for her to mimic the movements and wield the weapon of a creature that large.
It was being pelleted with projectiles, but was unflinching. Flynt's trumpet could not budge it even slightly.
'Insects! I do NOT DIE!' It jumped into the air with its wings and slammed the ground where Flynt and Coco stood. They only just managed to jump out of the way, but the resulting shockwave toppled them off their feet, and as well as Yang, Blake, Ren and some Atlesian Soldiers. It laughed. 'Hahaha! Come closer! I will show you true ANNIHILATION!'
Ruby was running towards Beacon as fast as she could. The sounds of the beast's voice could be heard from miles away and she knew that help was needed.
But as she arrived, stopped and stared wide-eyed at the source of the diatribe.
'Death to ALL! I will bring destruction on this world!' It swept its sword around it, forcing everyone to run back.
It then looked up into the sky and saw the Grimm Dragon coming for it. The juggernaut flew up high into the air, grabbed its tail and slammed it into the ground.
Every single person fell down as the shockwave ruptured across the entire area.
It cut the Dragon's wings off and stabbed it through the neck. The Dragon screamed, but its dying cry was nothing compared to that of its slayer.
'I am a DARKIN!'
'I am AATROX!'
'I AM THE WORLD-ENDER!'
'EVERYTHING WILL DIE!'
Credit to 'brave kid' for suggesting that I make an addition where a champion comes in and stops Adam from harming Blake and cutting Yang's arm off.
