Merry Christmas everyone! I was planning to delay a bit, but then I remember Christmas happened. I didn't actually celebrate it, but it cleared my schedule a bit, so yay! And thanks for your support!
To Guest: When they have the Devil Buster, I'm sure they would like to re-use it. For now...
To DevilsNeverCry: Yeah, I know the Muzan = MJ meme XD. Caught me off guard first time seeing him/her though (I think I have only finished a few first chapters).
I checked that the Buster Arm will appear in mission 5 or 6 or so, so yeah, I would try to insert some unique Busters after that.
To GhostHaloRWBY: Unfortunately Jacques got thrown into prison in this timeline though. Probably got shipped into somewhere that's not Atlas *Shrugs* Thanks for the suggestion though.
To SuperDeadMan2: Thanks for liking both stories. I will add the Gallery section in the end, so don't worry.
June 15, 06:26 AM
M03 FLYING HUNTER
With the city in the grip of a full-scale demon invasion, Nero found himself battling – and beating – a gargantuan demon at a church in the infested city. After meeting up with V, Nero learned that the infestation can be traced back to a demonic tree known as the Qliphoth. Looks like the only way to free the city is to attack the Qliphoth at its roots.
"So the previous mission took about an hour, if it happened in real life." Weiss counts the time. "I think most of that would be beating up demons and Goliath."
"Or it has already counted the time Nero and V traveling in the van with Nico at the end." Blake adds.
"Oh right, it could be."
"Flying Hunter… sounds like Nero." Yang grins. "Hey, you think General Ironwood could make something like the Gerbera?"
"I believe he would build it for a whole body suit, not just one arm." Winter sees no reasons, yet, to just build one arm when you can make more. "But I can see why that girl built only the arms." She then looks at the waiting Scroll and says: "Not those two. They don't count."
"Yep." And everyone except Willow instantly agrees.
The van stops at the Y-section, with Nico going to the back of the vehicle to mess with what's left of Goliath. Meanwhile Nero and V start discussing on what to do next.
"I think we should split into two groups." After a while, V suggests.
"And cover more ground. Good idea."
"So Nico also joins the fight?"
"She's probably their upgrade checkpoint, Nora."
Nico returns with a new arm in her hand. "Behold, my genius!" Nero plans to grab it, but the girl pulls back. "Uh uh uh. Cash first."
"Really? In a crisis?" Weiss deadpans.
"To be fair… this is the fifth game. Things like this won't break the world apart." Pyrrha counters.
"All the materials I collected for your little pet projects don't count for anything?"
"My brilliant, badass work is worth every dime, you know it."
"Well your quality control suck ass, and you know that."
"Or maybe don't let the demons smack you around that much?" Typical conversation between the two 'friends'.
"Whatever." Nero gives up and walks away.
Seeing the banter being over, Nico then holds the new arm up and compliments herself: "I am truly gifted. It's a work of art!"
"So, Ruby?"
"OH come on Sis!"
The bird then laughs and mocks: "So you're an artist now, huh?"
"Yes I am!" The shout causes the bird to flinch back. "Got any questions, little chicken?"
"That one is not little though."
"Comparing to human though, Jaune." Pyrrha giggles.
"My grandmother was called the '.45 Caliber Virtuoso'… Legendary gunsmith."
As Nico's bragging about her ancestor, a revolver being cased in a frame is presented with a golden tag in the lower-left corner: ".45 Caliber Six-Shooter by Nell Goldstein & .45 Art Works"
"By the way… Agnes is Nico's father."
"Oh damn it!" Weiss groans. "Do you REALLY have to spoil that?"
"Hey, blame Nico for starting to talk about her family. And blame the one in 'that' section for mentioning it."
"…What section?" Willow, once again, is confused as Weiss and her friends start arguing with the person about the gunsmith being a daughter of someone in the previous game.
"…Maybe after tonight I will tell you." Winter replies, preparing herself to talk to her mother about the 'matter'.
"And this series is basically 'Daddy issues in a nutshell' so expect more of those things."
"Even Lady and Trish?" Yang asks without thinking much.
"Yep."
"I hope to be like her someday. An artist, and a lethal artisan." Nico really wants to be like her grandmother. "Everything I create is art, whether it's a gun…" She then turns to the bird again. "Or a steel pot… to cook BIRDS in." She then sits down on the chair while pulling out another cigarette. "Any more questions, huh? Little chickee."
V is clearly amused of the girl's story, though he stands up and says: "I'll take my leave now." The bird disappears, possibly in his tattoo now. "And if I don't see you along the way, I'll see you at the bottom of the Qliphoth."
"Sure." Nero, just returned, replies as V exits the van. "What are you gonna do?" The question's directed to Nico.
"I gotta shake the cobwebs out. I'll let you know. Hey, you got any more questions, better ask it now. I can't read minds… Well, yet."
"You are definitely thinking about the new arms, Ruby." Blake's statement causes all to laugh while the girl blushes.
Nico then shows up two new arms:
Fist of destruction: Punch Line
Steel-piercing power: Helter Skelter
Weiss checks on the two new weapons (not buying them) and reads their description. "Hm… mount it to move around? Lack of range for armor penetration… Now these two would be fun to use."
"All are fun to use!" Both the hyper-energetic people in the group shout at the same time.
After buying what she can, Weiss starts the mission and takes a drink while the loading screen runs…
ATTENTION: CONNECTING TO NETWORK. PLEASE WAIT.
A half of second of announcement appears, confusing everyone.
"…Wait, this game needs internet?" Jaune asks first, not remembering something similar happened to the previous game. "Why?"
This earns him a silence.
"We… will see soon. Maybe." Pyrrha guesses.
"All right, move out!" Nero shouts back as he continues on foot. Though when he turns back to the van, he sees Nico yawns then waves at him lazily. "So much for teamwork."
"Typical Yang if not on serious missions." Weiss descripts the gunsmith's behavior.
"I believe you mean ALL missions."
"Come on now Blake, I'm not that bad!"
"That's true though Sis. And maybe Nora as well if there's no Grimm to beat up."
The 'Starring' then reappears again… this time with a strange name that nobody ever knows.
Nero then pulls himself over the gap and lands on the top of a collapsed building. He then notices a ton of bats heading his way. And they're ready to spit fire on him.
Winged deception: Pyrobat
"Now that's a straight-forward name."
Weiss says to herself and immediately activates the Punch Line. The arm launches out and starts flying/attacking the nearest bat. Meanwhile she's free to attack other demons. One charges up its fire and is ready to shoot at her, but a gazing punch stops it and Weiss shoots it down with her gun while slashing another. The last one meets its end by a red-black object flying directly to the face.
"That's like having a drone helping us."
"I think you would be the one using it the best, Pyrrha. Given your Semblance."
"I can see your point Ruby."
"Then Overture would be most useful with Nora. Both basically support each other."
"Yep yep, Renny!"
Jumping over tops of buildings, Nero thinks of his current strategy being 'dealing with the closer roots first'. He then lands on the roof where some demons start appearing to stop his advance. Though it doesn't take him too much time to deal with them. He heads to the next…
"Wait." Weiss retracts her left thumb from the joystick. "Turn to the other side of the map and wait."
"For?" The girl questions, but decides to follow the suggestion.
A moment later, everyone hears sounds of Big Red Crystal being smashed. Weiss turns the camera to see columns of lightning being fired from the bird on the other side, with V nearing it. The cripple man somehow looks very nimble as he runs around the map without a problem.
"…So he's just Professor Ozpin in a nutshell. And him." Blake comments, remembering two people that use cane not as a support unit.
"In V's defense, he IS weak. Compared to the other Hunters."
They then see something shooting down from the sky like a meteor that blasts the demons away. They notice that V's hair turning white for some reasons. "…Wait, I remember that V has black hair… right?" Ruby's question is quickly answered when the meteor, which turns out to be the big blob that helped V landing in the Prologue, disappears, V's hair is black again. "…Wait a second. He is PLAYABLE?"
"...He seems to have move sets." Weiss shrugs. "Though it's to be expected. We can play as Lady and Trish in the previous one. This shouldn't be a surprise." She sees Nero suddenly crouching down while waiting for V's performance to finish. "…Huh. Never seen this animation."
"All playable characters have idle animations. You were just always on the move to notice that."
"Right."
Once V is out of sight, Nero continues his trip. During the way, the bridge on V's map collapses, though he doesn't really care. He does take a few run-around to collect Red Orbs. More likely the player's ideas.
During the trips, Weiss has picked up a couple of Gold Orbs, but its design causes everyone to raise their eyebrows. "That doesn't look like an orb."
"That's what us fans all question, miss Willow."
That doesn't really bother too much so they decide to let it slide. Except one thing: "I think we have way too many Gold Orbs from the beginning."
"…For the later difficulty?"
"Probably, Ruby."
Nero then Snatch himself into the underground system of Red Grave City. More roots are around, and he has to find specific Blood Clots and destroy them in order to move forward. Nothing special during the way. Barrels exploding excites Nora though.
Going up a broken stairway, Nero heads into some sorts of an office through a wall on the wall. He plans to head in further, but he stops when the picture before himself starts morphing. A mask emerges from it with its surrounding turning black and following the mask off the picture. The demon then launches itself out and plans to cut Nero with its scissors, but Nero manages to dodge it. The demon re-phases off the ground and raises its scissors towards the Hunter dangerously. Though for some reasons it makes a feint attack before flying away.
And its name:
Shears of annihilation: Death Scissors
"Fitting name." Blake slightly nods her head. "A big pair of scissors is quite deadly if used as a weapon."
"Same as syringe?"
"Oh don't remind us of THAT!" Nora and Ruby shout in fear as others shudder.
"You want me to follow you? No way, asshole. You bring that shit to me." Nero is NOT going to amuse the demon, as he enters the next room, which is a library, and taunts the demon out. The moment he has it on his sight, he pulls DS towards him and starts hitting it, but it raises its scissors up and deflects the attack away. It tries to swing its weapon to him, but he already activates Helter Skelter and drills its face, killing it instantly. A second one appears, and he uses the same tactic, but this time the drill misses its mark so the demon isn't dead in one shot. Though a few times and its weapon breaks, and a single hit to the face is enough to bring it down.
"…So they are Mephisto or Faust with a weapon that acts as another layer of shield?" Ruby questions.
"They have their nails as weapons. This one just has scissors." Weiss argues back.
"And you can't really get rid of its cloak it seems." Blake observes another detail.
Once it's over, Nero continues his run and enters a hall. Something suddenly explodes that breaks all the glasses. He isn't really bothered by it… but instead: "Without strength, you can't protect anything… I know that."
"Where… is that quote from? I don't remember it being said." Nora tilts her head in confusion.
"From his father."
"Oh…"
"It's true though, I have to agree." Yang nods. "But uh, did he meet him, or…"
"Probably from Dante."
Entering a large but empty room, Nero sees a blue phone booth whose light is still blinking.
"We are… calling Nico, from here?" Willow questions. "So she's going to park the car somewhere and head into the building…"
Putting a coin into the booth, Nero dials 33729. After one ring, Nico picks up and the Hunter says: "You're up, Nico."
One second later, he hears a blatant noise of engine revving from the van, but he's currently in a building…
Said van suddenly falls THROUGH the glass rooftop and lands into the room. With its back-wheels still spinning, it drives towards a few meters and nearly hits Nero before turning right and somehow avoids crashing more.
"You know I got you covered, asshole."
The 'serious' facepalm, the 'jokers' laugh out loud, Jaune and Pyrrha let out a small laugh, and Willow puts her hand over her mouth to hide her smile seeing her daughters react to the absurdity of the scene.
"That's another to the book."
"How *laugh* many *laugh* more?" Yang tries to ask between her laugh. "I need a collection!"
"You will see."
"Don't you dare repeat it."
"You can't stop me Ice Queen!"
…
Entering the 'Boss room' with a huge root right in front of him, he suddenly feels a demon's presence behind him as he turns back with his hand reaching to Red Queen. His instinct is right as he sees the boss itself. It has a lower body of a mermaid, with six wings currently covering its front body. There's sorts of 'hands' covering its head so it's hard to see how it looks like.
Illuminating corruption: Artemis
From four of its wings, purple orbs are shot out and zoomed in on Nero. He dodges the attack and shoots it back, but the demon just quickly dashes away without a problem. It also returns fire, so Nero has to jump up and even run on the wall to avoid getting hit. When he lands, he also kicks one of the orbs away and makes it blow up an unfortunate table behind him.
"What, no chit-chat or monologue? Just getting right to the point, huh?"
"Yeah… now you mention that…"
"Those previous bosses sure like talking, A LOT." Ruby knows what Yang's about to say.
"You mean the Opera between Dante and Agnus?"
"Yep!" Yang and Nora fist-bump, both liking that performance.
Though, to respond to that… the 'hands' on the head opens and reveals half of a human face with its upper half missing from the eyes. Its teeth are pure shark teeth as it shrieks at the Devil Hunter.
That causes the previous joke to instantly die down as everyone feels a cold shiver on the back. Blake quickly shrugs it off as she says: "Okay… whoever designed this demon must have borrowed 'that' appearance."
Quickly drawing Blue Rose, Weiss releases all enhanced shots towards the boss, which just flies idly and takes it. It then throws a volley of shots to the air which fails down on her location, though there is a clear signal when the attack lands so it's not hard to dodge.
"This demon… Something different about it…"
"Yeah, it's a boss Nero. Not a mob." Yang jokingly replies to that, but then answers seriously: "That one also has the same attack from Urizen… do you think they are somewhat related."
"You mean there's a boss that has the previous bosses' powers… Not too farfetched." Ruby nods, as Weiss uses the drill's charged attack to shred into the boss' body. She then uses Blue Rose to shoot down some sorts of slow but auto-aim purple projectiles flying towards her.
"Name one that's the same." Ren simply questions, as he sees the boss sends out some fast movement objects that only stop to fire out a circle-type blast, which can be dodged by passing through the middle section without touching the line.
"Dante…"
"That's not a playable character." Ren counters back at the Scroll.
"…" There's no response… for now. "…Maybe some of them know?"
"…If they answer." Ren shakes his head as he returns his attention back to Weiss playing.
About half of health left, Artemis flies towards the middle of the room and starts floating in the air, with two of its claws? Flying around. The area around it dims down and the light now only focuses on it. It starts letting out some sorts of song lyrics. Though Nero is not having any of its BS and shoots the claws, turning them into the grips that he can Snatch onto and reach the boss and hits it back to the ground.
"Yeah no, whatever it is going to do, not going to happen." Weiss is not going to wait for it to do anything.
"Come on, some challenges…"
"If I don't have DT, then I'm not risking it Jaune."
Unfortunately, the stunned doesn't last long, and Artemis starts flying away to dodge the melee attacks, then it starts doing charge attacks for a few times, effectively causing Weiss to catch off guard and get hit twice out of three. Then it charges up and fires a laser directly at her, forcing her to use Gerbera and Air Taunt to get out of the harm way.
"That's two." Blake comments. "Urizen has that one as well."
"How many attacks have we seen repeated so far?" Pyrrha remembers the first boss' attacks, but the number of repeating attacks…
"I think it's three now." The Faunus replies. "The Fireball, the air-dropping barrages, and this laser."
"It's a good thing these bosses have the attacks, really." Weiss says as she goes for the final attacks. "We can re-practice against those attacks."
…
Nero jumps up and slashes a soft area on Artemis's body, and it reveals that someone is inside the demon's body. After landing, Nero quickly runs away to avoid the boss' attacks. Running up the walls, he boosts up enough speed and jumps up to Artemis again and delivers a last vertical attack, deep enough to cut the demon but low enough to not hit the body in it. Artemis screams one last time with its body floating harmlessly on the air. Then, the body inside falls off, and Nero jumps up to catch the body and lands softly. The boss' body falls behind them and disappears, just like Goliath.
The 'someone' he just catches is Lady, the Walking Arsenal. Though she's completely naked. And Nero recognizes her instantly: "Dante's friend…"
"It's Lady." Nico also knows her as she enters the room once the boss is dead.
"You know her?"
"From my gunsmith days." Though she now sees the state Lady is currently in. And she immediately cracks a joke: "Uh…I can't believe you'd do this to Kyrie. I'm gonna have to tell her, man…"
"Really? Really Nico? There's time and place." Even Yang is not approved of the joke. "Nero could have accidentally cut her down."
"We would have to thank Artemis' boss status for that, then." Weiss sighs. "I'm more surprised at how Lady is practically unharmed in its body."
"Maybe it's similar to Nero and the Savior." Nora comments. "Like, he needs to be alive to support that statue…"
"…You think General Ironwood…"
"I think Penny counts, Ruby." Blake instantly knows what her leader refers to. "And thanks to Professor Ozpin fixing it before Ironwood also changed his mind."
Picking an orb left from Artemis, she turns back to see Nero's reaction and replies: "I'm jokin'… Hey, loosen up your jock strap. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She then returns to her van to continue developing a new arm.
"Haha." Nero dryly replies back… and says to himself: "Kyrie would kill me right now…"
Okay, before any of you say anything about the Cameo System, I intentionally said nothing to the characters, and wanted them to realize it in the next mission, when Weiss controls V to play.