Chp. 51: Mall Out War

"Affirmative! You all need to get out of there immediately!" Keaton said into his radio.

"That may be a problem, since we're all in a tight spot with Salem," Cassandra said through the radio.

"Then hang in there! I'm on my way to get you out!" Keaton said.

He put down his radio and turned around, walking towards an armored truck.

"Where are you going?" Oscar asked.

"To get some gear," Keaton answered.

Two Spider Droids crash through the mall's front entrance, followed by several other Grimm as they charge out towards the American soldiers. Steel, Coco, and five other soldiers shoot at a few on coming Grimm. Two Beowolves charge toward Steel, but Fox rushes in between them. He slashes at the two Beowolf and shoots and kills the second. Yatsuhashi walks up to a large group of Grimm as they surround him. He unsheathes Fulcrum and jumps into the air and slams it into the ground and unleashing a shockwave, sending them all flying.

As several Neo-Nazies rush at Velvet, she creates a hard-light copy of Flynt's trumpet out from Anesidora and blows into it, unleashing a sound wave that blows the white supremacists. She notices an Ursa rushing at her, and replicates an AR-15. She then shoots at the Grimm's head, killing it. Two Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopters followed by three Blackhawk helicopters were flying by the battle zone, shooting and taking out several Grimm, Merlot Androids, Neo-Nazis, and White Fang soldiers.

The Spider Droids began to shoot at the helicopters, managing to hit one of the two Cobra helicopters and one of the three Blackhawk helicopters. Five Lancers flew out of a hole of the rooftop of the mall and flew towards the helicopters. One of the Lancers shot out their extendable stingers at a Blackhawk helicopter's tail, knocking it out of the air. Steel and Coco watch as the helicopters get picked off.

"Evacuating Amber by air isn't gonna happen from the looks of it!" Steel said.


JCPenney

Back inside the JCPenney, the battle still continues as Amber struggles to break herself free from her ropes. Adam viciously slashes at Blake as she desperately struggles to parry and block his attacks. The two clashed their blades and tried to push each other back.

"Why did you have to come into my life and ruin everything?!" Adam yelled.

"I don't want anything to do with your life!" Blake yelled back.

Blake kicks Adam away and jumps back. Adam was about to charge at Blake until suddenly, Ilia jumped up in front of Adam and swung Lightning Lash at him. Adam jumps back away from the attack and rushes at the chameleon Faunus. He swung his sword several times at Ilia as she backflips away from his attacks.

"I can't believe you would take her side!" Adam said.

"Because you're insane!" Ilia retorted.

Before Adam could rush at Ilia again, Yang rushes at him and punches his stomach, sending him flying towards Rebecca, who swung her Hailstorm at Adam, knocking him into a wall. She switches her scythe into her machine gun and begins shooting at the bull Faunus who quickly recovers and blocks her shots with Wilt. Yang rushes at Adam again, but he quickly notices her and rolls to the side. Adam slashes at Yang in which she was quick to react to blocking his attacks. Rebecca, Ilia, and Blake all rush in at Adam. He quickly sees the three girls coming and jumps away.

"Is this what you're reduced to Blake? Letting your friends fight for you?" Adam asked.

"At least she has some," Rebecca snapped back.

Adam charges at the four girls as they readied themselves. Allen pointed Daburushokkā at Watts who had his revolver out and back against a large crate.

"You might as well give up, Doctor. You can't win," Allen said.

"Please. I'm always one step ahead," Watts said.

Watts shoots at the lock on the crate and the lid falls open. He steps over to the side as two Red Merlot Androids walk out of the open crate and begin to approach Allen.

"A little gift from my good friend, Doctor Merlot," Watts said.

Allen fires two shots at the first android as the second swung its halberd at him. He rolls to the side to avoid the attack and transforms his double-barrel shotgun into his stun batons. Allen rolled in between the second Merlot Android's legs and behind it. He jumps on its back and opens a compartment and rips out a couple wires, then twists them together. Allen jumps off the Merlot Android's back and jams one of his batons into the electrical panel and gives it a shock. The android turns to the first android and both swing their halberds at each other, slicing each other in half. Allen turns his head to face Watts.

"Any more surprises, Vegeta?" Allen asked.

Emerald shoots at Britney with Thief's Respite as Britney deflects away her shots with Geminos. From several feet away from the thief, Weiss creates a glyph behind herself. She launches herself from it straight at Emerald. The young thief notices the ex-heiress coming towards her and steps away from the oncoming attack. Emerald was about to hurl her chain sickle at Weiss, but Britney rushed at her to attack. Emerald jumps away from Britney's attack as she and Weiss close in.

"I only have one question to ask you. Why in the hell, do you serve someone as careless, stupid, and abusive as Cinder?" Britney asked.

"I owe her everything! She promised me everything in return!" Emerald answered.

"And what if she doesn't? Do you even question the position that you are in?!" Weiss asked.

"Wake up and face reality, Emerald. Cinder is just using you! Hell! If Cinder could gain power just by killing you, she'd do it in a heartbeat and would have zero remorse upon doing it!" Britney said.

Emerald screamed in rage as she charged at the two girls, shooting at them. Victor swung his sword at Jacob as he stepped aside from the attack. He swung once more at his son as he parried the attack. Ruby dashed at Victor from behind and swung Crescent Rose at him. Victor ducks down from the attack, then kicks Ruby in the face. Jacob slashes at his father's back, making him cry out in pain. Victor turned to Jacob with a furious expression. He slashes at Jacob as he blocked and parried his attacks. They both swung and clashed, and locked their blades.

"Despite the last time we fought and despite the fact that you have no military training like myself, you're okay," Victor said.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?" Jacob asked.

"You tell me," Victor answered.

Jacob kicks Victor away and swung God's Trust at him, but was quickly parried away. Ruby rushes at him as he sees her coming. He swung his sword at her which she was quick to block. Jacob and Ruby both tried to slash at Victor who dodged, parried, and blocked his attacks.

Mercury swung several kicks at Kelly as she dodged and blocked his attacks with Hacker. Robert charges at the assassin with Sweet Kisser, but Mercury sees his second attacker coming and swerved away from his attack. Kelly swung down her ax at Mercury, but he dodged at the last second and fired his boot at Kelly's stomach, launching her into a column. Robert tries slashing at Mercury as he blocks his attacks with Talaria. Mercury jumps back onto the floor and thrusted his legs at Robert's chin, launching him into the ceiling and falling back to the floor. Kelly gets up and rushes at Mercury, trying to slash at him.

Gillian shoots an arrow at Jaune and blocks it with his shield. He rushes at his opponent and swings his sword at her, only for it to be blocked by her bow. Gill began violently swinging her bow at Jaune who blocked her attacks.

"You took my brother away from me!" Gill yelled.

"What happened to him was his own undoing!" Jaune said.

With a battle cry, Gill swung her bow, hitting Jaune's chin. She grabs him by the throat and began to siphon his aura. Jaune quickly bashes his shield at Gill knocking her away from him. She pulls out an Arrow and fires it from her bow at Jaune. He blocks the oncoming arrow with his shield and gets into a stance as Gill charges at him while preparing to fire another arrow.

Qrow and Tyrian both traded blows with each other. Tyrian crouched down and lunged his stinger at Qrow. The veteran Huntsman deflected the attack and threw a punch to the scorpion Faunus' face. Tyrian began shooting at Qrow, making him run away from the shots. Qrow begins to shoot back at Tyrian as he starts to run from his shots.

Cinder fires three arrows at Pyrrha, in which she rolled away from. Pyrrha tosses her shield at her opponent as she swerved away from the attack. Pyrrha raised her hand out at her shield as it flew back. The shield hits Cinder in the back of the head and lands back into Pyrrha's arm. Pyrrha charged at Cinder and swung Miló at the Fall Maiden's attacker. Cinder recovers and splits her bow into swords. She clashes Pyrrha's attack with Midnight.

"Do you think you can beat me? Knowing that you couldn't do the same in the show?" Cinder mocked.

"You're not a Maiden yet. So there is a chance," Pyrrha said.

Pyrrha pushes Cinder away and both get into a stance. Without warning Cinder began coughing, catching Pyrrha's attention.

"Are you okay? You look paler than usual," Pyrrha said.

"Enough!" Cinder shouted as she charged at Pyrrha.

The Hound tries to claw at Cade as he rolls away from his attacks. Cade fired laser beams at the intelligent Grimm as it ran away from his shots. The Hound lunges at the American android. Cade and The Hound both locked hands, forcing them both into a standstill. Then a third arm emerges from its back and tries to grab at Cades head. The android tilts his head away from the third arm and kicks the Grimm away from him. The Hound's third arm retracts back into its body, and with a roar rushes at Cade.

Nora swung her hammer at Hazel as he caught it mid swing. He tosses Nora to the ground as Ricky jumps on his back. He wraps his arm around Hazel's neck attempting to choke him as Hazel tries to grab at him. Ren rushes at Hazel as he finally grabs Ricky by his leg and tosses him at Ren, knocking them both to the floor. Kendra approaches the large assailant and swings Mercy Bringer at him, but Hazel blocks the attack with his forearm. He grabs on to her pole axe, but Kendra kicks Hazel's chin, releasing his grip on her weapon. Nora ran up to Hazel and swung Magnhild at his face, knocking him to the ground. Nora, Ren, Ricky, and Kendra all dogpiled on top of Hazel.

"You're fighting for the wrong side, Hazel!" Kendra said.

"Do you honestly believe that Salem is going to make everything better?" Nora asked.

"We share a vision. She's gonna create a new world order, no Kingdoms and no Huntsmen Academies," Hazel said as he struggled to get up.

"Salem doesn't want that! She craves her own demise!" Ren said.

"Besides, that won't help Remnant, or Earth! It will create anarchy and plunge everything into chaos, you all muscle, no brain idiot!" Kendra said.

As Hazel struggled to get Ren, Nora, and Kendra off of him, he noticed Professor Ozpin as he was still countering Salem's magic attack with his own.

"Ozpin," Hazel muttered.

Kendra, Ren, and Nora were looking down at Hazel as they noticed that the usual calm demeanor of his slowly turns infuriated.

"Oh, crap," Nora said.

"He's hulking out!" Kendra said.

"OZPIN!" Hazel roared as he violently stood from the floor, throwing Kendra, Ren, and Nora off of him.

Ozpin slightly glances over to Hazel's direction as he continues to hold off Salem. Hazel rips his coat off, and then grabs a pair of lightning Dust crystals from a couple of pouches on his legs.

"You'll pay for what you did! You'll die over and over again!" Hazel proclaimed.

He stabs the lightning Dust into his arms, with his blood vessels turning yellow and popping out from his skin as well as having some lightning coat them. His eyes glow yellow, and he lets out an intimidating roar. Hazel rushes at Ozpin, but before he could someone suddenly tackles him to the ground. He looks up to see Keaton along with Oscar behind him.

Keaton was now wearing a thick dark green kevlar suit. He has a black chest plate, along with matching pads for his elbows and knees. He has a pair of thick black over shoes and a pair of black fingerless gloves. He wears a ballistic helmet with a visor and a large, high thick collar around his head. Keaton is carrying a riot shield on his left arm and a pistol in his right hand.

"Oscar, untie Amber. I've got the big guy," Keaton ordered.

"Right," Oscar replied as he started to run towards the Fall Maiden.

Hazel gets up from the floor and furiously glares at Keaton.

"How many more people must die for Ozpin?!" Hazel asked.

"I'm not willing to die for Ozpin. I'm willing to die for the lives that are threatened," Keaton replied.

With a battle cry, Keaton and Hazel charged at each other. Hazel slams down his fists as Keaton bashes them away with his riot shield. Keaton fired his pistol at Hazel's chest. Hazel slapped Keaton's gun away and punched him to the ground as well as shocking him. Hazel threw a punch at the downed Keaton, but he rolled away from the attack at the last moment. Keaton kicks Hazel in the back of his leg, knocking him down to his knee. He then sits up and slammed his shield against the giant's head.

Oscar ran up to Amber, still on the floor and tied to her chair, trying to break herself free. He knelt down behind Amber and began to untie her ropes.

"Hang on. We're getting you out of here," Oscar said.

A moment later, Oscar finally unties Amber and both got up from the ground. Oscar turned to see Keaton being pinned to the floor by Hazel.

"Captain, we're ready to go!" Oscar called out.

"Right! Guys, we need to get out of here! I called in an airstrike! It'll be here any minute now!" Keaton called out.

Hearing this, Ricky, Nora, and Ren all got up from the floor. Ricky ran to a wall as Ren and Nora followed. He pulls out a small stack of sticky notes from his pocket. He takes one of the notes and concentrates his semblance on it, making it flash red. Ricky slaps the flashing sticky note on the wall and ran away from the wall. The sticky note explodes blowing a large hole open to the outside and creating a slope down to the ground from the second floor.

"Guys, let's get out of here!" Ricky shouted.

Nora ran up to Hazel still pinning down Keaton and slammed her hammer at the giant knocking him off of Keaton. Teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFDT, Ilia, Qrow, Cade, Jacob, Allen, and Kelly all turned and broke off from their fights and ran out the hole. Cassandra and Alex jump out from cover and follow behind. They both stopped as they saw Ozpin still trying to counter Salem's magic. The two marines aimed their rifles at the immortal witch and opened fire at her. The shots make Salem stagger. Seeing this opened opportunity, Ozpin blasts his ex-wife with a blast of his magic, sending her flying into a wall.

Ozpin turned and ran out through the hole as Cassandra and Alex followed him behind. They joined up with the others down into the parking lot.

"This place will be leveled soon! There is a truck along with a Humvee escort west of this parking lot! We're going to have to make a run for it! So stay right on my ass!" Keaton shouted.

"This is War Pig 1. We're bringing the thunder in one minute," a man on Keaton's radio said.

"EVERYONE, RUN!" Keaton yelled.

They all began to run through the hostile filled parking lot. As they were running, Salem approached through the hole in the building, watching them escape. Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Tyrian, Hazel, Watts, Adam, Victor, Gillian, and The Hound approached behind her.

"After them," Salem ordered.

Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Gillian, Tyrian, Hazel, Adam, Victor, and The Hound all ran out of the hole and down the slope, chasing after the escapees. Watts ran back into the mall. Teams RWBY, JNPR, GRMA, and CFDT, and Keaton, Alex, Cassandra, Cade, Ozpin, Qrow, Amber, Ilia, and Oscar ran through the battle zone avoiding gunfire all around them. A Neo-Nazi charges towards Ilia, but Rebecca see him coming and slice the attacker in two with her scythe. Two Ursai rush at the running group, but a 50 caliber gunner on top of a tank shot and killed the two Grimm.

They soon made it to the edge of the parking lot where a truck and three Humvees were waiting. Waiting with the four armored vehicles was Team CFVY and Steel.

"Come on! Get in! Get in!" Steel shouted.

Amber climbed into the back of the truck first and the rest began to climb inside. Once everyone was inside, the truck began to move and began to drive away from the mall with the Humvees following behind it. Cinder, Victor, Gillian and Adam stopped and watched as they were getting on the road. Cinder turned to Victor, Adam, and Gillian

"Get your best men and follow them!" Cinder shouted before coughing.

They ran to their troops and as they did a couple of thumps were felt throughout the parking lot. Suddenly crashing through the front entrance of the mall were three paladins, the first being piloted by Watts. The paladins ran after the truck and Humvees as a gasoline truck, four White Fang trucks, and six motorcycles followed behind them. In the trucks were Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Gillian, Tyrian, Hazel, Adam, Victor, the Albain brothers, Trifa, Yuma, several White Fang and Neo-Nazis, a few Merlot Androids, and the rest of The Crown. And flying above them was The Hound and some flying based Grimm.

As they all left, Two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs flew towards the mall. They fired a barrage of bullets into the parking lot, wiping out most of the Grimm, White Fang, Neo-Nazis, and Merlot Androids on it. The A-10s then each fired a couple of missiles into the mall creating massive explosions destroying the mall completely.


Interstate 640

Meanwhile on the interstate, Teams RWBY, JNPR, GRMA, CFDT, and CFVY, and Keaton, Alex, Cassandra, Steel, Cade, Ozpin, Qrow, Amber, Ilia, and Oscar were all sitting in the truck.

"Have to contact somebody to tell General Ironwood of what Salem has planned there?" Ruby asked.

"I already did before I came in for you guys. He's already sent Winter, Penny, and the Ace-Ops to protect the teleporting Dust. The Happy Huntresses are joining with them as well," Keaton answered.

"So right now it's nothing but smooth sailing," Coco said.

"Um, don't celebrate too soon," Oscar said.

"Why?" Steel asked.

Oscar points out behind the truck and Humvees. Everyone turned their heads and with shocked expressions, they all saw the paladins, trucks, motorcycles, and Grimm following behind them.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Jaune said.