Chp. 50: Mall Raid

Sam's Club

It had been twenty minutes since Amber had been kidnapped. Teams RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, GRMA, and CFDT, and Professor Ozpin, Oscar, Ilia, Cade, Keaton, Cassandra, Alex, and Steel all looked out from a Sam's Club parking lot, looking across the street at the abandoned Knoxville Center Mall. A crow flew from the mall and down towards the group. The crow turns into Qrow as he lands and walks up to them.

"What did you find?" Ozpin asked.

"Grimm, White Fang, Dr. Merlot's tin cans, those Nazi people. They are all inside that place with some equipment and trucks parked outside," Qrow answered.

"How the hell did they get all that in there without anyone noticing?" Robert asked.

"My most likely guesses are either through the use of the teleporting Dust, or getting it all here at the cover of night while everyone is asleep," Weiss said.

"Or both," Ren said.

"Amber is inside the west side of the mall. Specifically JCPenney, according to the tracker," Cade said.

"The whole place is guarded, especially the west side parking lot. No way we can get in that way. The east side looks to be a little less guarded," Qrow said.

"Then we're gonna have to go in through the east side and go through the mall 'til we get to the west side to find Amber," Steel said.

"You think anyone would notice this?" Pyrrha asked.

"The White Fang out in the parking lot appeared to be dressed up as some sort of workers and have their animal features and weapons concealed," Qrow answered.

"Plus, the mall has been officially closed down since the end of January of this year and has been set for demolition, so people will just think that they are just demolition workers or something," Jacob added.

"All in all, nobody is going to notice or even care," Britney said.

Keaton hangs up on his phone and turns to face everyone.

"Listen up. I just contacted for some back up and it's going to be a little while until it arrives. We've contacted the city council to have the east side of this district evacuated. So if things go south, we unleash hell without any civilian casualties. Until then, we're on our own. Now let's gear up first and then form up a plan of approach," he explained.

Alex opens the back of the van, which reveals three duffle bags, four rifles, and a locked box with the label 'Top Secret' on it. Cassandra grabs the box and walks over to Cade.

"You're gonna need this, Cade," Cassandra said with a smirk.


Knoxville Center Mall

Security Room

Meanwhile inside the abandoned mall, Cinder was pacing back and forth in frustration, while Emerald stood and watched Cinder in worry and Mercury sat on a chair reading a Marvel comic book.

"What's taking so long? Why isn't Salem letting me take what's rightfully mine?!" Cinder asked.

"I'm sure she has her reasons," Mercury said.

Cinder stopped and gave Mercury an annoyed look for a brief moment before she started pacing again. She coughed a couple times as she paced.

"All of Earth is out looking for us. Security is a lot more tighter here then Remnant," Emerald said.

"Once I get the Fall Maiden's power, anyone who comes across me will meet a pitiful end," Cinder said. "Especially if Ruby and Jacob are in the mix."

Cinder began coughing as Emerald walked to her side.

"Cinder, are you feeling okay?" Emerald asked, reaching her hand out.

"I'm fine!" Cinder answered, slapping Emerald's hand away.

"Are you sure? You've been coughing a lot lately," Emerald said.

"I said, I'm fine!" Cinder shouted, slapping Emerald in the face, knocking her to the floor.

Cinder briefly stares at Emerald who groans as she tries to get up from the floor before placing her hand on her forehead as she gives out an aching groan.

"Was that really necessary?" someone asked from behind.

Cinder turns around to find Hazel standing at the doorway with his arms crossed and gives a raised eyebrow at her.

"I take it that I'm needed?" Cinder asked.

"Yes. Salem will take you to the Maiden," Hazel said.

"Finally!" Cinder said.

She walked past Hazel and out the door as she then coughed. Hazel turns to Emerald and walks over to her. He offers his hand to her as she takes it. Hazel pulls Emerald up from the floor.

"I was just trying to help," Emerald said, rubbing her cheek.

"I think she's had enough help," Mercury said.

"But what if Cinder is sick? What if she might have this coronavirus that everyone on Earth is so worked up about before we showed up?!" Emerald asked.

"Will you stop trying to protect her and wake up already? And have you forgotten what I had stated during Volume 6? She doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about either of us. She only cares about herself," Mercury said. "And even if she is sick, she'll just refuse to receive treatment. Especially if the only doctor we have around is Watts. Not that I blame her for that last part. And she better stay away from me. I don't want to catch what she's got."

Emerald sadly looks down away from Mercury. Hazel sighed.

"Come on. We'd better meet up with the others," Hazel said.

He walked out of the room as Mercury stood up from his chair and followed Hazel. Emerald sighed before following the two behind them.


Sam's Club

Back out in the parking lot of Sam's Club, Keaton, Cassandra, Alex, and Steel have their body armor and face paint on. On Cade's right arm was a silver cannon with light blue lighting sleeved into it. Ruby looks at Cade's weapon in excitement.

"Oh my gosh! What weapon is that?! Tell me! Tell me!" Ruby exclaimed.

"It is an LC-20. A laser cannon. First of its kind. It has also been enhanced with a plethora of other weaponry. A sniper, rocket launcher, machine gun, shotgun, and a hidden blade," Cade explained.

"Do you have a nickname for it?" Kelly asked.

"Codename: Random Access," Cade answered.

"We'll split into three teams. Team RWBY, Team GRMA, Cade, Ozpin, Barker will enter through the Sears building. Team JNPR, Team CFDT, Ilia, Qrow, and Rogers will enter from the Sears roof top. The rest of us will stay outside and spread out through the mall parking lot and surround the mall on all sides until backup to arrive" Keaton said. Now let's go. Move out!"

"Oorah!" Cassandra, Steel, and Alex exclaimed.

The three teams started to run out of the Sam's Club parking lot and across the street. Once they were across the street, the three teams split off throughout the mall parking lot. Teams RWBY and GRMA, and Ozpin, Cade, Alex all ran behind a gasoline truck, hiding from a group of disguised White Fang soldiers as they were passing by. They quickly snuck and hid behind a pickup truck. Alex pokes his head out from behind the truck and saw the garage door to the auto center open, and in between them and the doorway was a large open space with several White Fang and Neo-Nazi soldiers patrolling the area.

"We'll go in through the auto center entrance," Alex said.

"How are we gonna get past all of them?" Yang asked.

The truck they all were hiding behind began to start. Alex and Cassandra notice a Nazi looking up at the driver.

"Back that truck into the auto shop so those animals can unload all this shit inside," he said.

"Well, ain't that convenient," Allen said.

"Hurry get in the truck," Alex ordered.

Cade runs to the back of the truck and opens the doors. The others ran to the back of the truck and climbed inside one at a time. Meanwhile at the other end of the Sears building, Cassandra was looking through her binoculars as JNPR and CFDT, and Qrow, and Ilia were behind her as they were all hiding behind some bushes and trees. Cassandra looks up at the rooftops to see a couple of White Fang guards keeping a lookout and a ladder right below them.

"Aside from guards, they have some supplies, and heavy weapons up there that can give us some places to sneak past them," Qrow said.

"Right. Now go take out those guards atop the ladder, so they won't catch us," Cassandra said.

Qrow walks behind some bushes and a second later a crow flies out from behind the bushes and into the air. It flew over the guards' heads and behind them and out of view. A moment later, Qrow walks up behind one of them and punches him in the back of the head knocking him out. The second guard only had enough time to turn as Qrow grabbed his head and gave a hard twist to his neck, killing him. Qrow looked down at the others and gave a thumbs up as Cassandra lowered her binoculars.

"Come on," Cassandra motioned to the others behind her.

They all ran out from their hiding place and straight towards the latter. One by one, they all climbed up the ladder and made it onto the roof. There were some crates and sandbags in front of them. They all looked over the crates and over the roof of the mall were some crates, sandbags, turret guns, and White Fang and Neo-Nazi soldiers and Merlot Androids.

"Now this feels like something out of Call of Duty or Metal Gear Solid," Rebecca whispered.

"Now all we need are some cardboard boxes to hide in and we'll blend in perfectly," Nora whispered.

"That's not how stealth works," Ilia whispered.

"Keep low and follow me," Qrow whispered.

Qrow peered his head out for a moment before he ran up behind some crates as the others behind him followed behind looks around the corner an sees a Neo-Nazi standing guard right around the corner. He covers his mouth and grabs hold of his torso and pulls him back behind the crates. Cassandra pulls out her knife and quickly slits the guard's throat. Qrow lowered the guard to the ground as the Nazi then dies. They all ran out from behind the crates to another hiding place.


Sears

Auto Center

Meanwhile inside the auto center, the pickup truck had backed up inside the auto center as six White Fang soldiers approached the back of the truck.

"Let's get this stuff unloaded! High leader Taurus, wants this done as soon as possible!" one of the White Fang grunts said.

Two of the White Fang soldiers open the doors. Upon opening the doors, the White Fang gained surprised looks upon seeing Ozpin, Alex, Cade, and Teams RWBY and GRMA with their weapons out inside the truck.

"Sup," Ricky greeted.

Ozpin dashes at the first grunt and whacks him in the head with The Long Memory. Cade leaps over at two more soldiers as a blade pops out of Random Access. He impales the first one in the chest and slams him into the second to the floor. Another White Fang soldier charges at Cade, but Weiss creates a glyph under his feet and slams him to the ceiling as he then falls back to the ground. The last two grunts charge at Blake, but quickly use her semblance to create an ice clone, caching their swords in it. Yang rushes at them and punches the two White Fang soldiers to the ground, knocking them unconscious.

"We better get a move on," Jacob said.

"But stay sharp," Ozpin reminded.

"Let's head up to the second floor. We can get an overview of the first floor up there," Alex said.

They ran up to an open door leading to a staircase. They climbed up the stairs to the second floor and to another door. Ozpin cracks the door open and looks through to see Grimm rattling around inside locked up in cages.

"Come on. As long as we keep calm, The Grimm won't break out of those cages," Ozpin said.

Ozpin opens the door and walks out with Alex, Cade, Team RWBY, and Team GRMA following close behind him. The Grimm watched them all growling at them as they were walking past them. A few minutes later, they exit out of the Sear and into the mall hallways. All over the place were crates, more caged Grimm, and more White Fang soldiers, Neo-Nazis, and Merlot Androids who were all moving crates and patrolling throughout the mall. Down the escalators to the bottom floor were two Atlesian paladins and two more robots.

The robots were dark gray and red. It had four legs on its abdomen, two arms and an upright oriented body. It possessed four cannons, one at the end of each arm, and two larger ones mounted on its shoulders. These mechs are known as Spider Droids.

"Great. More paladins," Weiss sarcastically said.

"And they got those Spider Droids down there, too," Kelly added.

"But how are they here? And how did they get them?" Ruby asked.

"With Watts' help most likely. He did help create the paladin before joining Salem," Allen answered.

"Let's keep moving. Amber is on the other end of the mall," Alex said.

Everyone starts running down the hall to the nearest set of crates.


Parking Lot

Meanwhile, out on the edge of the parking lot, Keaton and Oscar were hiding in the bushes looking out at the guarded abandoned mall.

"No change of activity yet," Keaton muttered.

"How long until help arrives?" Oscar asked.

"The National Guard should arrive in a couple more minutes," Keaton answered.

"Gordon, this is Rogers. me and my team are right above the target," Cassandra said over the radio.

"Roger that. Do not engage until Barker gets a visual on Amber inside," Keaton said into his radio.

"Copy that," Cassandra replied.

"Let's hope backup arrives by then," Keaton said.


JCPenney

Meanwhile inside the JCPenney, Alex, Ozpin, Cade, Ilia, and Teams RWBY and GRMA had just entered inside the abandoned store which was filled with crates and barrels.

"According to my censors, Amber is just up ahead," Cade said.

"Weapons ready. Stay on guard," Alex whispered.

They quietly proceeded inside the abandoned store. After a minute of sneaking inside the store, Blake looks over a couple of stacked crates and sees an unconscious Amber tied to a chair as The Hound circles around her.

"Guys, I see her," Blake said.

Everyone went over to Blake and looked over to see Amber.

"And Salem's puppy is guarding her too," Kelly said.

"Get down!" Alex whispered as he saw someone coming.

Everyone ducked down behind the crates as Salem, Cinder, Hazel, Emerald, Mercury, Victor, Adam, Watts, Tyrian, and Gillian walked up the escalators and headed towards Amber.

"They're probably going to kill her," Ilia said.

"And Cinder will become the next Fall Maiden," Yang added.

"What are we gonna do?" Ricky asked.

"If we charge in now, they'll kill her right away," Weiss said.

Jacob began thinking for a moment before he looked up at everybody.

"I have a really crazy idea. It's gonna involve Ruby and I," Jacob said.

Salem and her followers approached the tied up Amber. Amber moaned as she opened her eyes and quickly tenses up when she sees the people surrounding her.

"Good. You're awake. We don't want you to miss what's about to happen," Salem said.

Cinder steps up in front of Amber and coughed before giving an evil smile down at her. She grabs the oversized sleeve on her left shoulder, revealing a black skeletal forearm and sharp fingernails, known as a Shadow Hand.

"It's nothing personal, dear. You're just not worthy of such power. So I will take... what is mine..." Cinder said as she reached her Grimm prosthetic arm.

"Wait! Please don't...!" Amber cried in terror.

"Now wait! Hold on a minute!" Jacob called out.

Everyone turned to face Jacob and Ruby. Cinder and Victor were about to approach the two, only for Salem to put her arm out stopping them.

"Ruby Rose. Jacob Gordon. I knew that by taking the Maiden, it would lead to an attempted rescue," Salem said.

"Knowing you, you probably would," Jacob said.

"And we know that you want me because you want to make me into... one of those things," Ruby said, pointing at the Hound.

"It's an experiment. but so far I am pleased with the results," Salem said, and then turned her head at Jacob, while scratching the Hound's head. "At first I wanted to capture you to find out how you knew everything about our plans. But now that I already know, I only need you to complete my deal with your father."

"You all have got balls for attacking Earth yesterday. And it probably won't be the last if I'm correct." Jacob said.

"This world stands in the way of achieving our goals, human," Adam said.

"Adam, you do realize that after what happened yesterday, everyone will be coming after you all. And they absolutely will not stop until they get you all," Ruby said.

"Yep. We're just that stubborn," Jacob said.

"A world filled with defiant people may show the will to go on even if all odds are against them. But tell me, what would occur if the people of Remnant and the people of Earth were to believe that each side are those odds?" Salem asked, walking towards Ruby and Jacob as The Hound walked beside her.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"I've had Adam send some of his troops to Atlas. And once they arrive, they will use the newly discovered Dust all at one setting," Salem explained.

"If I may, Doctor Merlot and I had discovered how much teleporting Dust that the SDC had harvested. And after some calculations, we discovered that if they were to go off in one go all at once, then... well, let's just say that so much will be here on this planet," Watts explained.

"And that will lead to glorious chaos and destruction!" Tyrian said with a laugh.

Ruby and Jacob had stunned expressions on their faces upon receiving this information for a moment before gaining stern looks on their faces.

"We won't let that happen," Ruby said.

"And how pray tell are you going to do that?" Cinder asked, before coughing.

Jacob and Ruby both stepped back towards some stacked crates.

"This for starters," Jacob answered as he pointed upwards.

On cue, a paper airplane flashing red flew out from behind the crates, over Jacob and Ruby and right above Amber. Just as the paper airplane touched the ceiling, it exploded, opening up the ceiling above Amber. Alex, Cade, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Ricky, Allen, and Kelly ran out from behind the crates with their weapons out and charged towards their enemies. Ruby and Jacob draw out Crescent Rose and God's Trust, and the two charge alongside with the others. Cinder turns towards Amber and stretches her Shadow Hand at her. Pyrrha suddenly jumps out from the hole in the ceiling and blocks the attack with Akoúo̱.

Cassandra, Ilia, Qrow, Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Team CFDT all jumped out of the hole with their weapons out. The Hound charges at Jacob and Ruby, But Cade jumps in between them and fires a blue laser at The Hound from Random Access. The Hound steps to the side and pounces on to the American Android. It tries to bite at Cade's head as he tilts his head away from the attacks. A blade pops out of Random Access as Cade plunges it into The Hound's side making it roar in pain. He kicks it off of him and quickly gets into a stance facing off against The Hound.

Ruby rushes at Salem and swings her scythe at her, but the immortal witch grabs her scythe mid-swing. As Ruby struggles to break her scythe free from Salem's grasp, Jacob charges at Salem and impales her in the stomach. Salem grabs Jacob by his throat with her other free hand choking him. In response, he pulls his sword out of her and transforms it into his gun and began shooting at her head. Half her head gets reduced to mulch and splattering dark, glistening blood.

"Let them go!" a familiar voice cried out.

Salem turns her half mutilated head to her third attacker which was Ozpin, pointing The Long Memory at her. He shot out a green beam of magic out of his cane and struck Salem in the chest making her stagger. She tosses Ruby and Jacob at her former lover, knocking them to the floor. Salem's head regenerates as she slowly approaches the three who were starting to get up.

"Children, get behind me!" Ozpin ordered Jacob and Ruby.

Salem stops in her tracks and stares menacingly at Ozpin.

"Ozma," she muttered.

Salem conjures a red beam from her hand as Ozpin counters her attack, launching another beam. Jacob and Ruby watched in awe and terror as Ozpin and Salem's attacks clashed against one another. Suddenly, Victor charges at Jacob and tackles him to the floor. Just before the father could swing down his sword at his son, Ruby rushes at him and swings her scythe at him, knocking him away. Victor quickly gets up and smirks.

"Such a shame your stupid shit mother can't be here to see this!" he said.

Ruby clinches her chest in pain as Victor charges at her. Jacob quickly gets up and draws his shield out and bashes his father away before he could attack Ruby. Ruby quickly recovers and rushes at Victor as she and Jacob try slashing at him as he blocked and dodged their attacks.

Jaune and Pyrrha were both slashing at Cinder, who was blocking their attacks with Midnight. The couple and Cinder's swords clashed and just before anything could happen, an arrow flew right past Jaune's face. He turned to see where the arrow came from and saw a furious Gillian readying another arrow to her bow.

"Arc! You pay for what you did to Jax!" she yelled.

Gill charges at Jaune as she fires another arrow at him which he blocks with his shield. Gill swings her bow at Jaune, forcing him to parry the attack and focus his attention from Cinder to Gillian.

Qrow runs over to Amber and begins to untie her.

"Hang on. We're getting you out," he said.

"Behind you!" Amber cried.

Qrow quickly turns around and blocks an attack with Harbinger from Tyrian. Qrow tries slashing at the mad scorpion Faunus as he dodges his attacks.

"You and I have a score to settle!" Qrow said, swinging down his sword.

"I could agree more," Tyrian retorted. as he blocked his attack.

Alex and Cassandra were both crouched down behind some crates as the battle went on. Cassandra grabbed on to her radio.

"Captain Gordon, this is Sergeant Rogers. Has back up arrived yet?" she asked into her radio.


Parking Lot

Meanwhile outside the mall, The United States National Guard had just arrived, bringing many soldiers, several armored trucks and Humvees, and a few M1 Abrams tanks and M1126 Stryker ICV. A gun fight ensued between the National Guard, and the White Fang, Neo-Nazis, and Merlot Androids. Keaton was talking into his radio with Oscar next to him.

"Affirmative! Do you have Amber?" Keaton asked.

"Working on it!" Cassandra answered through the radio.

"Well get her and the rest of your asses out of there! An airstrike will be here in a few minutes to wipe out the mall!" Keaton explained.

"Captain, could you repeat that?!" Cassandra asked in shock.