Alright no new update so let's get into it.
[The Church Residence/ Above the Mother of Intervention]
The Director walked down the near empty halls of his home down to his study. Portraits of the family he once had watched over him as his steps echoed in the halls. With a straight face he kept his head and eyes fixed ahead of him to avoid being bummed because of the portraits.
Meeting his destination, the study was the surface of his operations, quite literally in this case. Pressing a button under his desk revealed an elevator behind a bookcase that went down to a basement the size of five air hangers. As he entered and pressed a button he was soon paused as his daughter halted the elevator to enter as well.
A few seconds of silence passed before she finally spoke up, "Director..."
"Carolina..." The Director addressed his daughter.
"How's Church doing?"
"He's fine... just finished recovery from what I hear. Nice to hear you're concerned about him."
"..."
"I think he'd like it if you'd check up oh his friends."
"Understood, thank you."
"..."
"Would you like to check on him with me?"
"Yes, but I don't think he'd like to see me, not yet at least."
"At the least he'd appreciate it if you'd check on his friends and help them through their processes."
"... I see, thank you Director." Carolina turned to leave the elevator as she had arrived on her floor.
The Director reached out for her, "Carolina..." as she turned around his words paused, "...Keep up the great work and... keep helping them."
As she gave a nod to The Director she left while the doors to the elevator began to close. Looking straight ahead as he approached his destination, the Father braced himself to see how his so. would be dealing with all of this, mentally. Only mentally, because as he opened the door Church was looking fine, as he already knew.
Church was wearing the dark blue medical underwear that he was given as another duo of doctors were leaving the room after giving him another injection. The fur on his body was slowly growing back but was still short, short enough that you could see his tanned skin underneath. The hair at the top of his head was given a cut too as the fuzz on top matched the fur on his body. Though sustaining incredible burns, he recovered to the point where his skin and body were fine as he cracked his shoulder by rolling it out.
"How are you feeling son?" Dr Leonard L Church asked as he looked at his records.
Church sat on the medical bed with his feet hanging off the sides, "Hell of a lot better than before, no sore muscles, no fever, chills. I'm all good."
"Makes sense, after all we had in that recovery tank for so long. Not to mention the fact that we also gave you the regeneration serum." The Director said as he looked at the clipboard in his hands.
Church gave his Dad a questioning look, "I thought that the bio regeneration serum was banned."
"You're thinking the one based off of reptilian faunus DNA, this one is based off the idea of nanites injected into your blood stream to work in symbiosis with your body. Basically allowing you to heal at an accelerated rate, however we had to inject so much into you that you weigh about ten pounds heavier than you did before." The Director explained as he signed off on the last of the records.
Church stayed still as his Dad took some blood and inspected his ears, "How's everything in the world today?"
"Good news or bad news?"
"Pat me on the head before you shoot me in it." Church replied.
The Director smiled gave a single laugh at the sense of humor his son has, "Everyone of the survivors is recovering, your friends are looking for those responsible and several people, including those of Atlas are attempting to rebuild Vale and Beacon."
"Now the bad news?"
With a heavy sigh and a turned back he looked out the window of the medical room they were in, "Your friends who were hurt real bad, got hit harder than you could imagine, Simmons is missing some parts on his side that we can replace. Mercury and Pyrrha can't walk, Yang lost her arm, Penny and Lopez..."
"I know... was that the best of it?" Church asked hoping that was the worst news he could hear.
The Director turned back to his son with a tongue depressant to examine his mouth and teeth, "We are damn near close to war... they struck the match but Atlas manufactured it. So our borders will be closing soon, but there is still some hope."
"Oh yeah?" Church quizzed as he opened his eye for a final eye exam, "What's that?"
"You remember Jacques Schnee right?" The Director asked, already knowing the question.
Church gave a smug smile, "How can I forget, I still have his business card." He answered, pointing to the five marks on his back where the letters SDC were burned into his fur.
With a final checkmark on his clipboard the Director turned to his son, "The Company is holding a benefit concert and auction. I thought you'd would like to join me."
"Not really my scene, I trust you know why." Church replied as he started to grab some more normal clothes.
With one final sentence, the father hooked his son in, "I hear Weiss will be performing."
"I'm wearing a bolo tie, nothing you can say will make me change that." Church stated as he gave his answer.
[Elsewhere in Anima]
...You're destined for something great...
...Hey Caboose, what the hell you thinking rookie, I need you...
...Caboose... Caboose... CABOOSE!
With a gasp, Caboose opened his eyes, lying in a blue sleeping bag on a clearing in the woods. Nora Valkyrie, Ruby Rose, Lie Ren, and the Malachite twins are also in sleeping bags around a long burned-out campfire. Magnhild rests beside Nora. Ruby sits up and looks around, birds can be heard tweeting and all seems peaceful. Caboose, however, hugs his knees close to his chest as tight as possible and sighs as though he's afraid of something.
All the members of the two teams walk down a sunny road. Ruby leads in front, looking at a map, trying to decipher it's complicated scribble.
Struggling a little, "So the next town is... uh-huh... uh-huh... We're lost."
"We're not lost. The next town is Shion. My family used to visit it all the time." Jaune assisted Ruby.
"Oh yeah. Don't you have, like, four sisters?"
"Uh, seven." Jaune admitted, obviously embarrassed.
While most of the group giggled, Ren stayed silent as forgot how his sisters must be. Nora put it together, "You know, that actually explains a lot."
"Wait, what do you mean?" Jaune asked.
Ruby tried to change the question to spare any feelings, "So, what did you guys do there?"
"Oh, all sorts of stuff! Over here is a great hiking trail, and over here is where we went camping all the time. I got my own tent because I was special. Also, so my sisters would stop braiding my hair." Jaune answered remembering the hairstyles.
Emerald joked with Jaune, "Didn't know you wore braids?"
"Yeah, but they just kept doing pigtails, personally, I think I'm more of a 'warrior's wolftail.' kind of guy." Jaune proudly said.
"That's just a ponytail." Ruby pointed out.
"I stand by what I said." Jaune defended his hairstyle choice.
Melanie went to Caboose's left side, "Speaking of hair we should address the elephant in the room."
"Yeah, what are we gonna do about the bush on Caboose's head?" Militia joined on his right.
Caboose's hair was a mess before, but he let it go out of control, He had let his long hair flow as big as Yang's and as wild as her fiery passion. He went from looking like a bear to almost resembling a lion, he needed a haircut bad.
Nora stopped short, raising her hands to her lips as her eyes widen. Soon after, Ren stopped as well, visibly tense. The twins covered their mouths in disbelief while Emerald froze as she pulled Caboose from going forward.
"Uh, guys?" Nora called out.
Ruby and Jaune stopped short, "Huh? What?"
Jaune and Ruby looked up from the map, their eyes widen and jaws drop. In front of them is a desolated village. The sky is gray and two columns of smoke rose in the sky, a gazebo has a broken tower and lampposts are askew from the ground. At least one dead body can be seen on the side of the road approaching the town.
The map is dropped and all four rush forward. They briskly move into the town, looking around. Ren tossed his backpack on the ground and moved ahead while the other three gather in the middle of a road.
Ruby looked to the others, "There could be survivors!"
"Over here!" Ren already found one.
The others rush to where Ren is leading them. On the ground, sitting propped against a broken building wall is a young man in armor. He breathed heavily and held his hand against a bleeding wound in his abdomen. Ren dropped by his side and put his hand on his shoulder.
"A Huntsman!" Emerald shocked by the sight of a huntsman falling easily.
Jaune leaned closer to question the Huntsman, "What happened? Who killed all these people?"
The dying Huntsman coughed some blood up so he could answer, "Bandits. The whole tribe... Then, with all the panic..." The Huntsman couldn't finish and coughed repeatedly.
Ren finished the man's word, "Grimm." He stood and walked a few paces away, placing his hands atop his head. Ruby, Jaune, Emerald and Nora stepped away to confer.
Ruby gave the first step to a plan, "Alright, we can get him to the next village and try to find a doctor there!"
"Yeah. Ren and I can take turns carrying him there." Jaune proposed so Caboose, one of the strongest can fight.
Nora looked down, "I don't know if he'll make it."
"He will. He has to." Jaune pleaded.
Caboose turned back and walked over to the Huntsman.
Emerald was about to take charge, "If we get going now, our chances will be better. I can run ahead and look for help!"
"Ummm... Guys." Caboose called out as he knelt down close to the man. The others turn and discover that the Huntsman has already died.
Nora looked at Ren who was next to Caboose, "Should we bury him?"
Ren walked right past them without a backward glance, "We should go. It's not safe here."
"Ren..." Nora tried to speak with him.
Nora turned and followed him as Ruby puts her hand on Jaune's arm. He was looking more stressed and sad compared to the rest of the group.
Ruby tried to comfort him the best she could, "It'll be okay."
"I'm just tired of losing everything." Jaune admitted.
Ren stopped and looked at something on the ground, his eyes widening. A cloven hoofprint is impressed into the ground. Nora came up to his side, seeing the same mark and her eyes also widen in recognition. The two of them silently make eye contact knowing what's out there.
[Back In Atlas]
Multiple shots went off in the firing range of the Mother of Intervention Base under the Church estate. Church had his lever rifle aimed at each target that went up, occasionally missing a few shots as he checked the iron sights to see if they were off. Once he finished with his targets he laid his weaponry out on the table in front of him as some friends joined him.
"Hey Church, what's up?" Simmons asked as he pushed Pyrrha's wheelchair to the table.
Church smiled seeing them out of their rooms for the first times, "I'm thinking it's time to upgrade my arsenal. I'm gonna have to include folding technology with my next weapon."
"You sure, you never used it before." Pyrrha pointed out.
Church nodded as he went to the nearby rack to grab the weapons that he needed, "I know but they're gonna need me at my best. For that... we gotta get creative."
Church laid out a Barrett 50. cal, a Thompson Submachine Gun, and his signature revolver. Immediately began to think what he could make out of all the items combined on the table. Pyrrha scooted closer to inspect the rifle while Simmons leaned closer to the Tommy gun.
[In Anima]
... Caboose...
... Caboose...
... CABOOSE!
The biggest member of the team shot up as he swore he heard the repeated sound of his best friend call him over and over again. Looking around he noticed Ruby's sleeping bag empty, along with Jaune's and Emerald's making him worry. He got up and began sniffing the ground to see if he can pick up a scent, anything that could help him. Caboose caught Emerald's in an instance and began to crawl on the ground to follow it.
After several paces in her footsteps Caboose had caught onto her trail. Closer and closer he could actually hear her voice as she was on her phone. Hiding behind a large tree he listened in on Emerald's conversation as a voice sounded familiar.
"How's he doing?" The voice of who Caboose could only assume was Church asked through the scroll.
Emerald sighed as she looked at the device, "He's fine... he hasn't really gotten into anything we couldn't handle."
"Is that because you don't want him to fight?" Church quipped. Emerald's silence spoke for her, "He's gonna wanna join in with you."
"Church, when they told him about the power he has, what he did with it, he was so scared of himself. You should have seen it." Emerald defended her actions.
Church shook his head and put his hands on his face, "Emerald, the power he's got... it's... it's almost like mine... except greater, much greater. If he's afraid to use it, that could consume him and trust me, it ain't pretty. He has to find that perfect balance in his power."
"What do I do?" Emerald asked as she fell back and stared at the sky.
Church remained quiet for a moment and gave a smile, "Trust him... he's surprised us before. I wanna see him do it again."
"He will, won't he?" Emerald asked, knowing the answer already.
Caboose smiled as he turned to leave and go back to his sleeping bag to rest for tomorrow's journey. Whatever awaited him, he'd have to adapt and be ready for what was to come.
[End of Chapter]
So yeah, still here for now just know if I disappear for a while then that means that I'm gone for a bit. Also, notifications are a B#@$h because they won't notify me for Sh#t. So I got lucky I was able to see a comment from Wolf.
Thank you again, I should be back soon for another chapter. As of now... Churchisalive signing off for now.
