[Nujabes – Battlecry (feat. Shing02)]
残り:四の影/ Remnant's Four Shadows
Volume 4, Episode 5: So-Called Good Fortune
[Atlas – Another Week Passes]
Currently, Camilla was out on the Atlas Tundra with Team KKSC aiding in their training wrapping a mission of 'fighting for Atlas' best interests'. Kelly had found taking out paramilitary terrorists a bit fun to do with the 'Metal Maiden'. Camilla's combat outfit was what Kelly would call intimidating and Neon would call 'super-cool'.
Camilla wore what seems to be a black body suit that covers her entire body except her lower torso and forearms, which are dark blue. For her arms, she has dark grey gauntlets, blue-gray gloves, and wears a gray utility belt. She has overlapping armor in certain spots of his body. The first is a gray neck guard that goes to her throat and to her chest, a guard on both shoulders, forearms, over her gauntlets, one for each of her thighs, knees, and the top and soles of her feet. Her emblem of a falcon in metallic armor painted on her shoulder guards. She also wore a military cloak.
"I will say your aim is getting better, but it can still be improved." Camilla said as Kelly slashed one of the terrorists with Armis-empowered tiger claws.
Kelly sighed pulling her pair of Glocks opening fire on the fleeing stragglers as Neon zipped around to aid in taking them down. Weiss and Flynt were working to disable the bomb and keep terrorists away from them.
"What's the progress, Schnee?" Camilla said shooting off two terrorists creeping up at the young heiress.
"We're doing what we can! We got the bioweapon disabled, but the bomb can still go off." Weiss said as she keyed away on the console command board. "We have five minutes."
"You can't stop us, Metal Maiden! The revolution for new dawn of Atlas in now…"
The head terrorist got a headshot ending his spiel early from Kelly as Neon ran up to Weiss and Flynt.
"Progress?" Neon asked.
"It's too late! This thing is going to blow!" Weiss yelled tossing Kelly the canister. "Take the bioweapon and get it out of range of the explosion!"
Kelly swapped to the form of a cheetah faunus before racing off with the canister as Neon and Camilla threw smoke bombs to mask her and the team's escape before the site blew up. A while later, the five were on their way to their airship. All five were a bit peeved, but what Weiss had to say got Camilla to fume.
"Remote activation? And what did you say the symbol was?" Camilla asked.
"A classy W." Weiss stated as Camilla snarled.
"Watts. I don't know what he has planned, but this was either a distraction or a ploy to weaken Atlas. We need answers…and not I sorely regret killing the head asshole." Camilla said bitterly.
"I wish Yuki was here. He's a tech wiz…and he'd have something on Watts." Kelly said concerned.
"Or Watts could entrap him with a virus." Camilla said with concerned.
Now Camilla still did not know the full details of Yuki's semblance, but what little she could gleam off from her sources and what Kelly would say, it had to be more than power copying. He was a bit too good with technology considering he was 'self-taught'. As they came up to their airship, there was another with a familiar thorn in their sides.
"What the hell do you want?" Kelly snapped.
"Answers for the people to why you're out in the middle of nowhere." Robyn said as Fiona held the camera.
"Why are you broadcasting this? This was a top-secret mission, our enemies could be watching and planning accordingly!" Weiss snapped.
"Because the people deserve…" May said only to get cut off by Flynt to shut up.
"Look, we're tired. We're not in the mood, and I have a canister I need to examine." Kelly said stressed out. "I have no time for some twat who keeps harassing and protesting me. I had to celebrate my birthday injured because of what I had to endure. I'm here busting out my neck to protect the world. If you know anything of what I know, you'd blow your brains out. Now move aside!"
Before anyone could, the ground shook as a portal tore open not to far, a blush portal that gave off an energy that Kelly knew all too well.
"Everyone get back!" Kelly ordered taking charge. "NOW!"
"Why should we listen to-" Joanna said only to get smacked with the canister.
"Move your ass!" Kelly said before tossing Flynt the bioweapon.
"Shit, what the hell is temporal energy doing here?" Kelly thought as she moved forward.
As she carefully inched towards it, the portal tore wider as someone fell out of it. Kelly ran up coming up to closer only to gasp. It…it was Clover, injured and unconscious…but still breathing.
"Clover…but…"
[Cues: Metroid Prime 2 Echoes OST – Dark Samus Approaching]
A bloody scream came in the air as Kelly and Weiss sensed an incoming power coming at them…and fast. Kelly rushed away with Clover's body as a blackened blast came down blowing up what was the portal before crashing on the ground causing Kelly and a few others to fall to the ground. Weiss looked up at the figure only to recoil at her appearance.
"It can't be…you're supposed to be dead." Weiss said in breathy whisper.
Kelly looked up only to pale.
"Cinder?" Kelly asked. "Can't you learn to stay dead!"
"I know not of the Grimm King nor of me ever dying. You must have mistaken me for some foolish mortal who claims a name that is not her. I am the Soulless Duchess, Cinder Fall. The one true Grimm Empress. You can either fall at my feet or under them." Cinder said icily staring those mortals down.
Kelly gulped nervously, but Robyn took aim with her crossbow.
"Well, it's certainly not my Remnant because some fool thinks they can dare harm me and live another day." Cinder said as Robyn fired an arrow.
[Music Ends]
With a wave of her hand, Cinder had a small shockwave of aura swat the arrow into the ground before it even got close. Cinder's retort was a chuckle before appearing suddenly before Robyn before grabbing her neck burning it as Robyn let out a scream. Kelly wisely stopped her team from interfering as the Happy Huntresses moved to fight for their leader. Cinder simply used Robyn as a human shield and club to bat the attackers and attacks anyway.
"Seems I'm not as powerful as before. Most unusual." Cinder said as Kelly went paler. "The loss of the Fable Stones…but I wonder."
Then Cinder turned to Kelly as she asked her if there was a legend considering The Fabled Stones.
"Never heard of it until you brought it up." Kelly said hoping for Cinder to not attack her.
"Curses! That accursed chameleon and her partner must have trapped me on a Remnant without Fable Stones. Probably no relics, but there's always maidens. Oh, those delicious maidens and their 'innocence' to take and absorb." Cinder said with a rather lewd expression on her face before stroking Robyn's bruised face. "I doubt you know where the maidens are…and if you do…don't. I like the hunt."
That look, that tone. It made Kelly's skin crawl. Did not help she turned Robyn around to face her.
"Such a pretty thing…a shame you're not a Maiden." Cinder cooed as Robyn struggled. "You're certainly feisty like one. A shame you seem to be the leader, I'll just have to make an example out of you."
Thus, Cinder blasted a hole in Robyn's stomach with a blast of dark aura before tossing her body into the snow to bleed out and flew away in her search for the maidens.
"What just happened?" May asked.
"We're fucked." Kelly said dryly. "And this day got a lot worse…"
Robyn lay there bleeding on the snow as Kelly looked down at her with no pity.
"Stupid does as stupid does." Kelly said coldly. "We need to go now."
Kelly and her cohorts moved for their airships as Fiona asked if they were going to help Robyn. Camilla said no, but Kelly handed off Clover's body to Flynt as she walked up to Robyn as she was clinging to consciousness.
"I could leave you to die, but I won't." Kelly said holding Robyn's hand to transfer a bit of aura into her body. "There, she'll be stable enough. Get her into your ship and go straight to the hospital. For the love of aura, don't tell a soul what happened."
The Happy Huntresses were quick to listen and Kelly was up in the air on her airship with her crew.
"You know something about the portal. The way you reacted and took charge makes it obvious. So spill." Camilla said firmly to Kelly.
"That a request or a demand?" Kelly asked glaring at the Metal Maiden before sighing. "Forget it, I may as well tell you. You are aware of the brother Gods…well there's a Goddess. One of Time. In a way, my team…and mostly my leader works for her. That portal has her energy all over it…which means something is wrong. I can't communicate with her though to get answers though…that was always Yuki's forte. If she hasn't called him or any of us…something's going on."
"You think there's more portals?" Weiss asked.
"We need to find out if that's the case, but…that Cinder was not our Cinder. She never had that kind of power ever and she had no idea of who the Grimm King was…meaning she's most likely from another timeline. As is that Clover there…." Kelly said worriedly as he began to awake. "And speaking of which…"
The ship was put on autopilot as the five crowded him, who was in the sickbed.
"Are you all right?" Kelly asked as he fluttered his eyes.
"In pain, but I can speak. Where am I?" Clover asked.
"Over the Atlas tundra, you fell out of a portal in front of us. What's the last thing you remember?" Camilla asked.
"Councilwoman Camilla? What are you doing in armor?" Clover asked confusedly. "I thought you didn't…"
"Focus please. What's the last thing you remember?" Neon asked.
"Ironwood delivering martial law, I was on an airship with orders to arrest Qrow and his niece's friends. Robyn started a fight on the airship and Tyrian crashed it. Then it's a major blank…but I remember fighting Qrow and Tyrian before my aura shattered." Clover said weakly.
"Well shit." Kelly said before thinking, "You're from the timeline me and my teammates were sent to prevent."
"What's going on?" Clover asked.
"Well, Ironwood hasn't declared martial law…" Weiss said as Clover asked for the date.
When she gave it to him, he was shocked and surmised he was the past.
"Not your past though. If that was the case, you'd be dead in the tundra because no one would be there." Kelly said.
"Kelly, do you know something you're not telling us?" Neon asked.
"Long story short, multiverse theory's a bitch." Kelly said as Flynt shook his head.
"I figured that was the case." Flynt mused. "I wonder if there's a timeline where we don't have to put up with Grimm."
"If not Grimm, it'd be something else or fighting each other." Camilla said soberly.
"So, what of my team and the other me?" Clover asked.
"About that…your other is dead." Kelly said as the ship alerted them that they were landing. "And we got company."
As the airship landed on the loading docks, Ironwood and the Ace-Ops were there. The ship opened as Kelly came down first.
"Mind explaining why you're out on the tundra?" Harriet said rudely.
"Well, we stopped terrorists from unleashing nerve gas on Mantle…and we found something. You aware of multiverse theory?" Kelly said as they all nodded.
Clover walked out with the aid of Neon and Flynt as Weiss and Camilla followed. Harriet and the Ace-Ops rushed for their leader with a ton of questions. Kelly came up to Ironwood taking him aside.
"Temporal issue. It's an alternative Clover from a future that my team was supposed to prevent. Fell out of the portal. We also got another and a bigger issue." Kelly said in a whisper. "Bad enough, we need to make sure all the Maidens are secure. An alternative Cinder's around and on the prowl for the Maidens and she's…a bigger threat."
"How bad are we talking?" Ironwood remarked.
"James, while I wouldn't put her on Grimm King level. I'd say half the threat of Salem. She is weakened, but she seeks to regain her strength through stealing 'innocence' from the Maidens. I don't know how but we just to ensure the Maiden's safety. I don't know what this Cinder is capable of…we're running blind until Yuki can connect to the Goddess of Time." Kelly explained.
"Well then, all we can do is double our security measures and train for the upcoming threat." Ironwood said putting a hand on Kelly's shoulder.
"There is one reprieve. That Cinder's energy…when I sensed it…it was tainted like the Grimm's. If we can fine-tune Grimm detection technology, I could make a tracer." Kelly said relived.
"Then, I'll have my scientists get on it." Ironwood said. "We just need to hope Yuki recovers."
"He will and he'll be ready. And so, will we." Kelly said looking forward to the future. "But I fear what that Cinder's doing…"
(A/N: And we bring an end to Kelly's part of the story and the first third of the story. As for the alternates, they'll return. So far, we have three alternates (plus the extra) and we got five more to go. Now we skip a month ahead to get to Sun Wukong, Blake Belladonna, Jaune Arc, and Lapis Kristal in the forming of a new team on their way to Menagerie.)
Ending Theme – Pokémon X and Y OST – Snowbelle City
