Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.
Ch 38
"Oh wow this good!" said Trey as he ate bowl of the rice and seafood porridge Lan just made. "I can't believe you made this out of the canned things we had on board."
"Yeah, well, when you're constantly under the pressure of making something tasty with whatever's on hand, or eating Grandpa's poisonous purple goo, you tend to become very resourceful" said Lan as he ladled the porridge into several bowls. "Please take these to the conscious patients, and make sure the little guys don't steal any."
"You got it bro" said Trey who picked up the tray. He then walked out of the room where he found the little guys waiting for him.
"No!" said Trey, who covered the food with his arm and backed up a few steps "This is for the patients!"
Ignis, George, and Edel looked at each other for a brief moment before turning their gaze back on Trey and beginning to whimper, giving Trey their cutest sad eyes.
"Ahhh no, anything but that please no!" said Trey as he recoiled.
The little guys continued whimpering and edged closer and closer.
"NOOOOOOO!" shouted Trey who began running in the opposite direction with the little ones hot on his tail.
Back in the kitchen, Lan added a few more cans of seafood things into the bubbling pot in front of him before tasting it and nodding his head.
"That should do it" he said, and set the stove to a low simmer.
At that moment Christopher's voice came on the intercom.
"We are now flying over Patch everyone, please prepare yourselves and the injured for landing."
Lan looked out the window as he washed his hands, and saw a green forest spread out beneath the ship.
The ship headed towards a mountainous area in the middle of the forest, and landed on a plane of flat land hidden amongst the crags.
The ship let out a hiss of black smoke, before the landing hatch slowly and sporadically opened, with the ramp slowly extending to the ground.
"Alright, all personnel off the ship" said Christopher.
The crew slowly filed down the ramp, with those of able bodies pushing down stretcher's holding those who were best left as undisturbed as possible.
Christopher then walked over to a mountainside and began rummaging amongst the vines. A minute later there was a small click and a cranking sound before a part of the rock-face slid aside revealing a large warehouse filled with a multitude of crates.
"Alright, first of all get the medical facilities up and running, after that start working on the repairs for the ship" said Christopher "We want to spend as little time here as possible. Oh! And also get the comms back on line, we need to tell everyone else about the little scuffle we just had."
"I finished the porridge for everyone" said Lan who came down the ramp, pushing a huge cauldron of the bubbling dish. "What should I help with next?"
"Well, we're pretty good here right now." Said Christopher as he oversaw his crew setting things up. "Why don't you go take a little break, maybe look around the area? Just remember to stay out of sight of the locals. We don't want them to know that some sky pirates have a supply depot on their island, and also be back here before dark."
"Alright." Said Lan who snatched up his backpack and bow. He then took off, with his little friends close behind him.
"Wait up!" shouted Trey, who was unsuccessfully trying to chase after them.
"Hold it right there Trey." Said Christopher, who grabbed his son's shoulder "We need you to help get some of this equipment back online.
"Oh okay." Said Trey "Just happy to know that I'm needed."
He then took a large bite of a chocolate bar that had been in his pocket.
Back on Lan's side, the boy was quickly climbing down the side of the mountain.
"Pretty nice" said Lan as he looked out over the sea of trees "the perfect environment that someone would want to peacefully raise their family in."
At that moment a large group of birds suddenly flew away from a group of shaking trees.
"Seems I spoke too soon." Said Lan as he dropped onto a ledge below and pulled out a spyglass. He zoomed in on the location of the disturbance. It was hard to make anything out through the dense foliage, but he spotted hints of black, white, and the occasional red eye.
"Grimm!" said Lan as he put away his spyglass, he then thought for a moment, then smiled as he shrugged his shoulders.
"It's always better to have less of them in the world" he said as he pulled out his bow and quiver arrows.
He then turned to his little buddies and said "You guys do some reconnaissance, tell me where to shoot."
The group then dispersed, with Lan jumping onto the tree in front of him and beginning to leap from branch to branch towards the Grimm that he just saw.
After around a minute of jumping from tree branch to tree branch Lan spotted the Grimm in a clearing up ahead. It was a pack of Beowolves, and since they weren't running in his direction with the intent of turning him into little meat shreds, it is likely that they hadn't spotted him yet.
Lan slowly examined the pack and quickly found the Alpha near the center of the pack. The Alphas were always the most intelligent and could order the rest of them to attack in a more coordinated manner, so if possible it was always best to take them out first.
Lan pulled his quiver in front of him and sorted through his arrows until he found his deadliest one. It was his special 3 in one explosive arrow which would not only explode when striking its target, but also release a cloud of poisonous gas (which Lan had made from a variety of sea creatures he had caught) and a volley of shrapnel. He pushed some buttons and pulled some switches on the shaft of the arrow to prime it (he of course didn't want it exploding in his quiver by accident), knocked the arrow, and aimed at the Alpha.
He waited a full minute, until finally the Alpha had its back turned and the wind began blowing in a favorable way. Lan let the arrow fly, and then quickly leapt off of his branch to find a new sniper point. The moment he landed on one, the arrow struck the back of the Alpha's head. The explosion blew the Alpha's head apart, and the poison gas and shrapnel quickly killed off the Beowolves that had been positioned nearby. The Beowolves on the outer edges, confused by the sudden turn of events, began to look left and right to get some indication of who or what was attacking them. Taking advantage of this, Lan began to fire arrows into the Beowolves' skulls. Before they had gathered their senses, more than half of their numbers had been taken care of.
Knowing that they were going to die if they just stood there and unable to find the location of their attacker, the remaining Beowolves howled and began running in a random direction.
Lan gave chase to the pack, and with the help of his little friends who the Grimm mostly ignored, Lan was able to keep track of them and pick them off one by one.
The hunting group and prey soon entered an area that had a larger concentration of dead, leafless trees, so Lan had to maintain a larger following distance if he wanted to remain undetected. However, he was still able to pick off Grimm here and there as he ghosted from tree to tree.
"Hmmm?" said Lan as he saw something up ahead.
It was an old abandoned barn, and the Grimm had run inside it to take cover from Lan's assault.
"Uh-huh" said Lan, who slowed his assault.
He knew that it was wisest to kill all Grimm that you engaged, because if you didn't they would learn from the experience and grow more fearsome later on, as he had read in All About Grimm Vol. 1, but he hadn't yet recovered enough aura to confidently face them head on. So he looked around and found a tall tree from which he could get a bird's eye view of all the entrances and exits to the barn.
After making his way over to it and climbing to its highest sturdy branch, he pulled out and blew a whistle. Within a minute, his little buddies were cuddled in his lap as the group stared at the barn, waiting.
"Good thing I brought manga and snacks" said Lan, who passed around termites and jerky as he flipped through the newest issue of the Preteen Leap manga magazine.
Around an hour later, one of the beowolves attempted to make a beeline for the treeline, but Lan shot an arrow into its skull before it had even ran a mile. Another hour later, Lan and his little friends were snoring on the tree branch.
'squeak'
Lan's ears twitched as a gentle squeaking sound began to fill the air.
'squeak'
Lan snorted, and reached up to remove the magazine that was covering his face. He looked around in confusion as he blinked the last bits of sleep out of his eye.
'squeak'
The sound was even louder now, and he looked left and right to find its origin. He soon discovered it as he found a trail that was mostly covered up by trees.
Appearing and disappearing from his view as she moved along obscured and open parts of a trail was a little girl with golden hair arranged into little pigtails. She appeared to be a few years younger than Lan and was pulling a little red wagon which held a little toddler with black and red hair who was fast asleep.
"What's she doing here?" thought Lan, as the little girl once again disappeared from his sight behind a mass of dead trees. "It's dangerous this far out in the wilderness."
Lan settled back into his seat to continue observing the girl, but as soon as she appeared again the boy's blood ran cold. The little girl had come to a halt right in front of the barn where the Beowolves were hiding, and was looking around expectantly, trying to find something. Suddenly, the air was filled with growling, and Lan saw the little girl freeze in fear. The remaining Beowolves leapt out of the entrance of the Barn, charging towards the young girl.
Springing up in alarm, Lan quickly knocked an arrow and prepared to fire, but he was way too far away to make it in time. The Beowolves were already upon the girls as he took aim and then…
'Swish'
Out of nowhere came a man with spiky black hair who was brandishing a large scythe. He promptly tore apart the attacking Beowolves faster than Lan could see, before transforming his scythe into a sword-like form and sheathing it at his waist.
The little girl yelled something, than ran forward and hugged the man's leg as she began to cry. The man gently pet the girl on the head then turned his gaze upwards and stared right in Lan's direction.
Lan felt a chill run through his body. The two of them must have been almost a kilometer apart, but he could feel the man's eyes staring directly into his. Lan choked a little bit and started making clumsy apologetic gestures, but the man waived them off before giving Lan an evil eye. He then made a rude hand gesture at Lan, and then motioned for the boy to go away before returning his attention to the little girl.
Lan stared at the group for little while, his insides churning as though insects were crawling among his entrails, he then nudged his little buddies awake and motioned that they were returning. Lan then began to slowly making his way down the tree, feeling like complete garbage as he mulled over the fact that his actions had almost resulted in the death of two innocent little girls. As he neared the bottom of the tree one of the limbs below his feet cracked and he fell, smashing through three branches before landing face first in the mud down below.
He pulled himself up and stared down at the insects crawling in the muck below before he turned his gaze skywards towards the gray cloudy sky. It was then that hot tears began to roll down his face as he began to feel the emotional impact of the event just now. He sat there for a short while, just silently crying until the little guys, who were now concerned for him, came up to him. Ignis started licking Lan's muddy face, George crawled onto his lap and hugged him, and Edel landed on his shoulder and started nuzzling his face.
"Thanks guys" said Lan, who choked back tears and rose to his feet. He then began a long trudge back to the ship, the gray sky above him began to boom with thunder and lightning as he entered the forest, and it soon began to rain.
.
.
.
"So the other ships were attacked too?" said Christopher.
"Yeah" boss, said the man at the comm. "Seems as though we got the worst one though."
"Well, at least they're getting the defenses back at the cove set up." Said Christopher, "But we're too vulnerable out here, we need to get back as soon as we can."
He then switched on his headpiece and walked out of the warehouse.
"Are the shields recharged?" asked Christopher as he stood outside the ship in a raincoat.
"Just about!" said an engineer.
"Great! That means we can start moving again after we finish the repairs and transfer those medical supplies and devices." Said Christopher, who wiped some rain off of his face. "Whew, it's really coming down though. Anyone know where Lan is?"
"Right here" came a despondent voice from right behind him.
"Whoa!" said Christopher jumping in surprise before turning around.
What came into his view was Lan. The boy had mud splattered all over his body and was covered in cuts and bruises, these were from him repeatedly slipping and falling and being smacked by branches as he made his way back.
"My gods man what happened?!" said Christopher, as he stared at Lan wide eyed.
"Would…rather not talk about it." Said Lan despondently as he stared at his own feet.
"I…see" said Christopher, who shuffled uncomfortable. He then turned to the ship and yelled "Trey!"
"Yeah dad?" said Trey who popped out of the ship wearing a janitor's suit, rubber gloves, and was covered here and there in many different unmentionable substances.
"Woah, Lan bro, you look like you've been through a shit storm." Said Trey, while chuckling.
Christopher gave his son the evil eye while Lan looked him despondently.
"Sorry, just boom" Trey pointed to his head "just popped in the moment I saw him."
"Can I go to my room now?" said Lan.
"Uh yeah sure" said Christopher, who then turned to Trey "Are the showers operational yet?"
"They will be soon, just as soon as I turn on the water, which will be right after I go into the plumbing and remove that mass of hair and—"
"Okay!" interrupted Christopher "Tell us when you finish with that!"
"…I'll…go in now" said Lan who slowly marched up the ramp and into the ship.
"Yeesh" said Christopher as he watched Lan tromp up the ramp "What happened to him?"
Lan slowly walked through the halls of the ship until he arrived in front of his room. He punched the button to open the door and traipsed in. The little guys all clambered onto Lan's bed and gave him concerned looks, but he paid them no mind. He just trudged over to his desk and pulled out journal that he had been keeping and recorded the day's events. As he wrote about the event that just occurred, his find felt as black as the ink he was using.
A moment after he had dotted the last period, Trey knocked on the door and said. "Dude, the shower's ready now, you better use it before it gets clogged with everyone else's hair."
"Mmmm" mumbled Lan, who got up, threw his muddy clothes into the laundry shoot, and headed to the showers.
Once he was in the showers, with the warm soothing rain falling on his head he thought back to his grave mistake this day.
"Shouldn't have just gone after those Grimm like that." He thought.
He hadn't needed to kill those Grimm, but he just went for it just for the heck of it. And because of that he had almost gotten two little girls killed. He then remembered something a wise sensei had said in one of his favorite anime: "One must not go seeking conflict, for every battle has the possibility of spiraling out of one's control in unexpected ways."
"So true" thought Lan as he soaped his body. "So so true."
He then remembered something his grandpa said "If you ever do something wrong, get stronger so you can just blow through all the problems you cause by tearing them to pieces."
"Also true" thought Lan as he rinsed off the soap "If I was faster, I could have closed the distance between those Beowolves before they could have even reached the girls. Also, if I hadn't of waited in that tree and just dove in to finish them off, despite my low aura…'sigh'."
Thoughts like these rumbled through the boy's mind as he slowly trudged back to his room, however they all came to a halt the moment he entered.
"Hey buddy!" said Trey, as Lan walked in.
Trey was currently sitting on Lan's floor in his underwear, while the little guys were snuggling in his lap.
"One, please put your shirt on" said Lan, "Two, isn't your room a few doors over?"
"Yeah, well I finished all my work for today and I noticed you were feeling pretty down." Said Trey "I found a nice TV in the warehouse and have brought DVD's for a whole season of my favorite cartoon series 'Heavy Cataracts'. Watching cartoons always makes me feel better when I'm feeling down, so I thought it could help you too!"
"…have you showered yet?" asked Lan.
"Why do you think I'm in my underpants? I am in my after shower steaming phase." Said Trey
Lan looked at Trey, then at the TV, then at the DVD's next to the TV and finally shrugged his shoulders.
"Put one in." said Lan, as he pulled out some bags of chips he had hidden under his bed.
The two spent the rest of the night watching cartoons together, and the next morning Lan was sleeping on his bed while Trey was curled up on the floor with the little guys. Soon after, the repairs were finished, and the crew began to return home.
.
.
.
The crew returned to the cove three days later where they found the area in complete defense mode. Dozens of turrets had sprung up out of nowhere and an anti-projectile shield had been raised over the whole area.
"This is Christopher, open the shields."
A small hole opened in the barrier to allow the ship through.
"A lot of birds today." Said Trey as he looked out the window.
"Dust eagles son" said Christopher "Always there to welcome us home."
"Ohhhhh!" said Trey "I love what they've done with their feathers." He said as a black feather floated by.
With Christopher's ship returned, the entire fleet was accounted for, so everyone hunkered down and awaited the coming attack.
A week passed, then 2, but still no attack. Ships had to leave once in a while to resupply (mostly snacks, alcohol, and meat), but strangely, they weren't attacked during any of their excursions. Lan spent his time training, brainstorming weapon designs, and watching cartoons with Trey. But the whole time, he couldn't stop thinking about those two girls, and how he shouldn't have just gone looking for trouble. However, almost everything his grandpa taught went against the very concept of letting things be, so he was getting more and more confused the more he thought about it.
One such thought he had during the third week went like this:
"I shouldn't get, involved, there's no telling what kind of problems my intervention could cause!" muttered Lan to himself as he stirred a pot of tomato basil. "But grandpa always says that curiosity is the key to a wanderer's life and that you should always act on it, and that you should just do what you want! Ahhh! I don't know!"
At the time, Lan was distributing soup he made in the mess hall/gazebo, in the corner of which Tora and Nyataro were sitting together.
"It's been three weeks since the attacks, must have scared them off" said Tora as he stared into the sky. He was then hit across the heat with a chicken bone. "Ow!"
"Don't get complacent little brother" said Nyataro, who slurped up some cup ramen "All this means is that whatever their planning requires more prep time."
"Yeah, so maybe we should strike first…bro you got a noodle just hanging on your right whiskers."
"I know" said Nyataro who promptly ate it. "And maybe we should."
One week later the pirates had had enough.
Nyataro prepared his ship and men to for a recon mission near Blackstone Reefs.
"We'll do a brief reconnaissance of whatever new toys those boys and girls are playing with, be good while we're gone" said Nyataro, over the intercom.
"Aye Aye Admiral!" said the rest of the cove who were doing…whatever they were doing at the time.
His ship then hissed to life and headed up into the air, with the shields opening up to let it through.
"What's with all the black birds mommy?" asked a little girl who saw the birds enter through the opening in the shield.
"Hmm, I don't know sweetheart" said the woman "the Dust Eagles aren't usually too keen on other birds encroaching on their territory. Maybe those birds don't eat the same things the Dust Eagles do?"
A group of those birds landed on powerlines overlooking the town below, their eyes zooming in like camera lenses on the certain areas.
1 hour later
"Who wants corn chips?" shouted Trey, who held up an open bag up towards Edel and a group of Dust Eagles. The birds looked at each other for a brief moment, and then began to swarm Trey as they tore at the bag he was holding.
"Ahhhhhhh!" screamed Trey as he began running around in circles. "Ahhhhh, oh that actually feels nice, no wait a minute, ahhhh AHHHHHH!"
"Throw the bag of chips." Said Lan who didn't look up from an old book he was reading.
Trey, who was still screaming, did so and the birds flew after the bag.
"Whooo hah hah" Trey stood there in his shredded shirt panting for a few seconds before straightening up and saying "That was fun." Before the scraps of his shirt fell off.
"Here you go." Said Lan, who handed Trey a new T-shirt.
"Thanks bud" said Trey, who pulled it on. "I did not expect them to swarm me like that."
"Dude, what did you expect? They're birds. They love food" said Lan.
"But when I tried that earlier with the black birds, they just stood there looking at me." Said Trey.
"Black birds?" said Lan, who put the book down. "We don't have any black birds in the Cove."
"Yeah we do" said Trey, chuckling "They're over there, sitting on all of those powerlines, transistors, and energy cables."
"Really?" said Lan, who looked up and saw black birds flying from all over to cover any energy related structure they could land on. "What the—"
'Beep''Beep''Beep''.
"Hey look, their eyes turned red and they started beeping!" said Trey chuckling. His smile then disappeared realized as reality hit him in the face with a frying pan. "Uh Oh!"
"Hit the deck!" shouted Lan who knocked Trey to the ground.
With a deafening roar, the countless number of birds exploded, destroying all energy relay devices. With a low hum, the shields, turrets, and other devices powered down.
Debris flew all over the cove as people came out of their homes to stare at the black smoke that was rising into the sky.
"What's going on?" said Tora who gazed skywards.
At that moment, 16 large ships appeared out of nowhere, the sky warping and distorting as they de-cloaked. They had their main cannons fully charged already, and were right on the outskirts of the rock cliffs that surrounded the cove.
"Shit!" said Christopher as he pulled out his spyglass to get a look at them, he then pulled out his communicator and conveyed to everyone: "It's the Blackstones!"
The cannons on the 16 ships fired before any defense could be mounted, all shots aimed at the Beast ships that were currently docked and undefended. The beams tore through the hulls of the ships they struck, igniting dust fuel and causing dozens of structures to explode. A loud voice came on soon after, projected from the speaker of the front-most ship.
"Look at all the little vermin gathered around" said Goldhorn "But there shouldn't be any problems, because the exterminators are here!"
The bottoms of the enemy ships then opened, allowing thousands of drones to swarm out. These were followed by smaller aircrafts, which landed on the beach, allowing enemy droids and men to charge forwards to begin a ground assault.
"Damnit!" yelled Tora as he stared out the window of his home at the approaching dark cloud, he then pulled out his communicator, connected to the other nearby captains and said "Guys, we need a plan, and fast!"
Okay, the battle for the cove has begun.
What did you think of the Ruby and Yang cameo? I want to keep as consistent with the main story as possible, so I didn't want Lan to interfere too much.
And as always please give me any thoughts and suggestions.
Hope this will attract their attention back at RT HQ.
