Chp. 53: Breakin' Outta Hell Pt. 1

Remnant

Somewhere in Eastern Solitas

Teleporting Dust Warehouses

Back on Remnant in Solitas, Winter, Penny, the Ace Ops, the Happy Huntresses, and several soldiers of the Atlas military continue to fight off the White Fang to protect the warehouses full of teleporting Dust.

"They just keep coming!" Marrow said as he threw Fetch at two White Fang soldiers, knocking them to the ground.

Marrow turns to see six more White Fang soldiers approaching him and shooting at him.

"Stay!" Marrow shouted as he pointed at the White Fang grunts,freezing them with his semblance.

With her semblance, Harriet dashes at the frozen White Fang gunners and zips past each of them and punches them to the ground, knocking them unconcious. Elm swung her hammer at three White Fang swordsmen. Two more were about to rush at Elm, Vine grabs them with his Aura Vines and tosses them into a wall. Nine more White Fang soldiers rush at Vine, but a crossbolt strikes the ground in front of them making them halt to a stop. They turned to see where the crossbolt came from and saw Robyn, Fiona, Joanna, and May with their crossbows pointed at them. The Happy Huntresses began to fire crossbolts, forcing the nine White Fang soldiers to scatter away from their attack.

Clover and Winter were back to back, knocking down any White Fang grunt that came their way.

"They can't keep this up forever!" Clover shouted as he knocked down a White Fang swordsman with Kingfisher.

"They have to retreat some time!" Winter shouted as she slashed at another White Fang soldier.

Six more charged towards Winter and Clover, but before they could get any further, Penny flew down and shot a laser blast in front of them. The shockwave of the blast sent them all flying. Penny flies off to fend off more of the White Fang.


Earth

Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Downtown

Meanwhile back on Earth, the armored truck and the two Humvees just drove into the downtown district of Knoxville. Teams RWBY, JNPR, GRMA, CFDT, and CFVY, and Keaton, Alex, Cassandra, Cade, Ozpin, Qrow, Amber, Ilia, Oscar all sat inside the truck waiting for radio confirmation from the Blackhawk helicopters. Everyone inside then began to hear angry shouting and the truck slowed to a stop.

"What now?" Keaton asked.

Everyone steps out of the truck and walks toward the front of the truck to see what was going on. They all saw a large crowd of people several feet in front of the truck. Some were holding up picket signs and some wore t-shirts that read 'Black Lives Matter.' The crowd was being held back by several police officers in riot gear.

"Are you serious right now?!" Rebecca asked.

"What's going on?" Oscar asked.

"A BLM protest," Ricky answered in an annoyed tone.

"We do have time for this!" Weiss said.

"Let's just go around," Alex said.

"I believe that's going to be a problem," Ozpin said, pointing behind everyone.

They all turned around to see more BLM protestors coming around from behind. More police officers ran up to the second mob of protesters to keep them at bay.

"Oh, great," Jacob said.

"What are they protesting about exactly?" Blake asked.

"They're protesting over the death of George Floyd being supposedly killed by a white cop and the fact that he isn't facing justice over it," Cade explained.

"But shouldn't these people be more concerned over a worldwide attack that had just happened yesterday?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, I know. But knowing the BLM movement, they'd rather focus on their own agendas than a recent global attack," Cassandra replied.

"Britney?!" a voice called out.

Britney turned to face where the voice came from and saw her father, Will jogging towards her.

"Dad?" Britney asked.

"Britney, what are you doing here?" Will asked.

"We just got out of a battle out of a battle at the abandoned mall and through Interstate 640," Robert answered.

"Wait, that was you guys?" Will asked.

"Listen, is there anyway through or around these bystanders? We're kind of in a hurry!" Qrow said.

"Judging by the amount of protesters and the mood they are all in, probably not. At least until more backup arrives," Will said.

"We need to get Amber out of the city now," Ruby said.

"But how exactly? These people aren't going to let us leave," Yatsuhashi said.

"Guys, they're coming this way," Jaune said.

They all turned to the angry protesters to see that they were now trying to push through the police barricade and trying to close in on them.

"Come on! Just let us through! We're kind of in a hurry!" Weiss shouted at the BLM protesters.

"Shut up, cracker!" a protester yelled out.

Cade looks around to find a way around the protestors. He looked up at the sky and noticed a black cloud of smoke sweeping down towards them.

"Guys we have another problem!" he said as he pointed at the smoke.

Everyone turns around and looks up to see the smoke coming down at them. Forming from the smoke was Salem's upper body.

"It's her," Ozpin said.

"We need to move now!" Coco shouted.

Salem conjures a fireball in her hand and throws it down at the group below.

"INCOMING!" Keaton yelled.

Everyone began to run away the moment they saw the attack coming. The fireball struck the armored truck making it explode sending Ozpin, Cade, Amber, Ricky, Yatsuhashi, Pyrrha, Rebecca, Allen, Robert, Kendra, and Keaton flying and knocking the Humvees to their sides. The BLM protestors screamed in terror and began to run away. Ozpin, Cade, Amber, Ricky, Yatsuhashi, Pyrrha, Rebecca, Allen, Robert, Kendra, and Keaton all slowly started getting up from the pavement as everyone else and several officers ran up to help them. Six soldiers climbed out of the Humvees and joined up with the others.

"Are you all okay?!" Will asked.

"Define okay," Ricky groaned.

Keaton looks down at his ruined bomb suit for a moment before beginning to take it off.

"Well, I won't be needing this now," he said to himself.

"Wait. Where's Robert?!" Kendra asked.

Everyone paused for a moment before looking around wondering where Robert was and hoped he was okay.

"Guys, I'm up here," Robert called.

Everyone turned and looked up to see Robert sitting on top of a light post.

"Robert, how did you get up there?" Kendra asked.

"I don't know. I was about to hit the ground and the next thing I knew, I was up here," Robert answered.

He slid down the light post and approached the others. Before anyone could speak, a gunshot was heard. Everyone turned to see the two remaining paladins, one of them still piloted by Watts, a couple dozen White Fang soldiers and Neo-Nazis, The Crown, The Hound, Hazel, Emerald, Mercury, Tyrian, Adam, Yuma, Trifa, and the Albain brothers. Civilians that were still around started to run for their lives.

"Contact!" Steel shouted.

The police, soldiers, Huntsman in training, Huntsman, and the Fall Maiden all dove behind the wreckage, and police cruisers as the White Fang, Nazis, and paladins opened fire upon them. The police and soldiers began to return fire at the enemy.

"Great! They've caught up to us!" Rebecca sarcastically yelled.

"What's the plan now?" Fox asked.

Keaton looks around his surroundings and then sees a tall glass building a few blocks away.

"Everybody, see that building?!" Keaton asked as everyone turned to face the building.

"First Horizon Plaza?" Britney asked.

"Yes! We'll have a team escort Amber up to the rooftop! I'll call in a Blackhawk escort to pick her up and get her out of here! Mark her location with this flare once she is up there!" Keaton instructed as he pulled out a flare.

Amber takes the flare from Keaton and looks at it for a moment and looks back up at him. Cassandra pulled out her radio.

"Army Blackhawks requested atop of First Horizon Plaza rooftop. Request immediate evacuation of civilian target marked by flare. Addional backup needed north of South Gay Street," she spoke into her radio.

"Cade, Yang, Velvet, Kendra, you four will go with Amber and give her protection once you're in the building," Keaton ordered.

"Let's do this!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Get going!" Ozpin said.

Amber turned around and began to make a run for the building as Cade, Yang, Velvet, and Kendra ran alongside her. Umber walked towards Ricky, Yatsuhashi, Fox, and a couple of police officers. They all looked towards her and were about to attack. She lowered her sunglasses and stared down at them, causing Yatsu, Ricky and the officers to freeze in place. Fox however charged at Umber unaffected by her semblance. He slashed at the ex-Shade student as she back flips away from his attacks. She lost focus on Ricky, Yatsuhashi and the officers, causing them to be free from her semblance.

"Sometimes I'm thankful to be blind," Fox said.

"Now that's an interesting challenge," Umber said with a smirk.

Ren and Nora readied themselves as Hazel runs up to them. Ren starts shooting at Hazel as he charges through the shots. Nora swings her hammer at their large opponent, but Hazel grabs it mid swing. He grabs Nora by her head and slams her to the ground. He then electrocutes her, making her scream in pain. The electrical current from Hazel's lightning Dust powers up Nora's semblance as she then grabs Hazel by his arm and throws him into a nearby building.

Robert and Coco rushed over at Argento and Rosa who both got into a stance. Coco fires Gianduja at Rosa, but she activates her semblance and the shots phase through her body. She charges at the fashionista and when she was in front of her, she deactivated her semblance and throws a punch at Coco's face. Coco transforms her minigun back to her handbag and swung it at Rosa who ducked to the side. She swung her bag at her opponent once more as she jumped away.

Robert lunges Sweet Kisser at Argento as he effortlessly steps away from the attack. He swung the other end of his spear at the pig Faunus, but Argento grabs it mid-swing. He swung a kick to Robert's face, then followed with a kick to his stomach, knocking him to the pavement. Robert stood back up and readied himself.

"I won't be able to land a hit on him as long as his semblance is active," Robert thought.

Tyrian charges over at Qrow and madly tries to slash at him as he blocks and parries his attacks Qrow swung his sword at Tyrian, but the scorpion Faunus jumps onto his sword at the last second. Tyrian lunges his stinger at Qrow's head as he leans away from the attack. He grabs Tyrian's tail and swings him to the ground. He swung his sword down at Tyrian as he rolled away from the attack and stood right back up.

Rebecca and Ilia approach Corsac and Fennec Albain who glared and pointed Cyclone and Inferno at the former White Fang spy.

"You were among one of our most loyal followers. How could you side with these humans?" Corsac asked.

"I just wanted equality between the Faunus and the humans! I didn't ask for all this!" Ilia answered.

"It was a necessary action to take to make sure that the humans do not trample over us again," Fennec said.

"By attacking and killing innocent lives?! You're not helping anything! You're just making it worse!" Ilia retorted.

"Besides, Earth had nothing to do with the Faunus' discrimination. And by attacking Earth yesterday, Earth now has a good reason to suppress the Faunus because of that senseless attack," Rebecca added.

"Then we'll just make sure that our attacks here are a lot more severe," Corsac said.

"And destroy any hope and moral reasoning for these humans of Earth to fight back against us," Fennec added.

The two brothers launch blasts of wind and fire as they whirled towards Rebecca and Ilia. The two girls jumped aside from the combo attack and rushed at the two fox Faunus. Ilia swung Lightning Lash at Corsac and Fennec making them step aside from the attack. Rebecca jumps in front of Ilia and swung her scythe at the brothers as they jumped away from the attack. Corsac and Fennec rush at Rebecca and Ilia. The chameleon Faunus charges at the two brothers, but before Rebecca could join, Trifa jumps up in front of her as Yuma flies down and lands next to her.

"Where do you think you're going?" Yuma asked.

Rebecca got into a stance as Trifa pulled out her knife and she and Yuma charged at her. Trifa tried slashing at Rebecca as she parried away her attacks. Yuma flies toward Rebecca, but she quickly takes notice and flips away from him. Rebecca swung Hailstorm at the bat Faunus, but quickly flew away from the attack. Trifa lunges her dagger at Rebecca, but she quickly leans away from the attack and sweeps her scythe at the spider Faunus' feet making her fall to the ground.

Gillian and Carmine approached Jaune and Pyrrha with their weapons ready.

"You take the champ. The blonde is mine," Gill said to Carmine.

Gillian charges over at Jaune as Carmine uses her semblance to pick up a car and hurls it at Pyrrha as she quickly uses her semblance to move the car away from herself. Pyrrha rushes at Carmine and bashes her shield at her opponent. She swung her xiphos at Carmine as she quickly blocked the attack with her sais. Carmine lunges one sai at Pyrrha's head as she blocks it with her shield. She then swung her other sai at Pyrrha's stomach as she parried away the attack.

Gillian fires an arrow at Jaune as he deflects it away with his shield. Jaune rushes at Gill and blocks another arrow that she fired. She swung her bow at Jaune as he parried away with his sword. Jaune swung his sword at Gill which she quickly blocked. She pulls out an arrow and lunges it at Jaune's side as he bashes it out of her hand with his shield.

From behind the battlefield, Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury watch the battle in front of them. A black cloud of smoke sweeps down in front of the three swirls together, materializing into Salem. She glances behind Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury and notices the gasoline truck driving up to a stop behind them. The three turned around to face the truck.

"Open it," Salem ordered.

Emerald ran over to the gas tanker's control valves as Mercury ran to the compartment next to it and opened it. Mercury takes out a hose and twists it on one of the valves. Emerald and Mercury took the other end of the hoes and ran out into the battleground with it. Cinder walks up to the control valves just as her two subordinates set the hose down in front of Watts's paladin and then run back. Cinder turns one of the valves and a second later, Grimm liquid sprays out of the hose creating a large puddle in the middle of the street. A moment later, Beowolves, Ursai, Creeps, and Beringels spawned from the puddle. Salem watched as The Hound approached next to her.

"Fetch me the Fall Maiden," Salem ordered.

The Hound charges out into the open and roared and it did. The Grimm turned their attention to The Hound and followed it. Jacob, Ruby, Kelly, and Blake were shooting at the Grimm and just as they were about to prepare for an up close fight, The Hound and the Grimm behind it ran past them.

"They're going after Amber!" Blake shouted.

"Then we can't let them get to her!" Jacob said.

The four then turned around and began to chase after the Grimm. Adam notices Blake chasing after the Grimm along with Ruby, Jacob, and Kelly. He charges out into the open while blocking and deflecting shots that came at him. He slashed at a cop's chest and ran past his enemies and to go after Blake. Ricky took notice of Adam running after Blake, Jacob, Ruby, and Kelly as Weiss turned her head to him and turned to see what Ricky was seeing.

"We've got to help them!" Weiss said.

"And we will," Ricky said as he and Weiss ran after Adam.

Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury all walk up to Salem as she turns to face them.

"Ma'am, Why are you letting your Hound find the Maiden? I can do this myself," Cinder said.

"You're clearly sick. Need I say more?" Salem asked.

"But I'm fine!" Cinder replied, then coughed.

"You threw up twice on the way over here," Mercury said.

"Quiet!" Cinder said to Mercury then turned back to Salem. "Your grace, I-"

"I would like to think I have shown a great deal of patience over my many years walking Remnant. But I do hate repeating myself. You will stay here until my Hound returns with the Fall Maiden. Is. That. Clear?" Salem asked.

Cinder stares for a moment, then adopts a more docile tone and kneels, lowering her head.

"Yes, yes, of course. Without you, I am nothing," she replied.

Salem walks away as Cinder stands back up with an angry expression. Cinder turns around and walks the opposite direction.

"Cinder, where are you-" Emerald gets cut off by Cinder.

"Just checking on something," she said.

"But Salem said-" Cinder cuts off Mercury.

"I know what she said. I'll be back before she realizes I'm gone. Salem doesn't know those children like I do. They wouldn't just abandon their misguided attempt to save the world. Or in this case both worlds," she explained before coughing.

"But you're sick! You need to-" as Emerald puts her hand on Cinder's shoulder, Cinder back fists Emerald in the face, knocking her to the pavement.

Before Emerald could get up, Cinder points Midnight at her face.

"I told you before. I. Am. Fine!" Cinder growled.

"Cinder... I don't... I don't want to see you hurt. You're the only family I've got," Emerald said as her eyes welled up.

A moment of silence had passed until Cinder laughed then coughs at the end.

"Family? You honestly think I'm family to you? I never saw you like that. I only used you so that I can take what's rightfully mine," Cinder said, with a cough. "Who would want a street rat like you as family?"

Hearing those words Emerald broke down and sobs uncontrollably as Cinder looks down at her shaking her head.

"You pathetic. You're not even worth my time," Cinder said as she turned around and walked away with a cough.

As Mercury helps up a crying Emerald, Keaton has been looking through his binoculars and listening in to the conversation through a parabolic microphone.

"Some family you've got," Keaton said.

Ozpin and Oscar watched as the battle continued. Ozpin then noticed Salem just as she turned her head at him. Salem speeds unnaturally fast at Ozpin as he gets into a stance. Salem crashes into him and they both crash into a building Oscar watched the event occur and looked down to see The Long Memory on the ground. Britney runs over towards Oscar.

"Ozpin! He needs help!" Oscar said.

"Come on!" Britnery said.

As Britney and Oscar ran over to help Ozpin, Will turned to see her daughter running and ran over to follow her. Ozpin and Salem crashed through the other side of the building and onto the next street. The people around them scream and run away as Ozpin tries to pry Salem off of him.

"My long-lost, Ozma, found at last," Salem said.

Salem grabs Ozpin by the throat and quickly stands back up and throws his former lover into another building. Ozpin stood himself back up and reached down to his pants to grab his cane, only to find that it was missing. He looks back up to see Salem blast magic at him.

Back on South Gay Street, the battle continued as both side continued to attack each other. The paladin that Watts is piloting charges out into the open and jumps over the blockade and runs down the street. after Amber. The second paladin charged out into the open and was about to make a jump. Yatsuhashi and Nora ran up and swung their weapons at the paladin's feet, tripping it. The paladin fell onto the pavement and Allen approached it. He stares at the giant mech for a moment to let his semblance gather all the information on it. Just as the paladin started to get up, Allen jumped onto the haul of the cockpit and forced it open, seeing a White Fang soldier inside.

"I'm gonna need to borrow this for a minute," Allen said as he drew his stun batons and jabs the pilot with them, shocking him.

Down the street from the battle, Weiss and Ricky were trying to chase after Adam. They both heard the sound of loud thumping and felt short tremors coming from behind them. They both stopped and turned around to see Watts's paladin approaching them. It stops right in front of Ricky and Weiss.

"And where do you children think you're going?" Watts asked.

Just as Weiss and Ricky readied their weapons, they heard and felt more short tremors. Weiss and Ricky glanced behind Watts as he steered his paladin to face what was behind him. He sees the second paladin approaching and in the open cockpit was Allen.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Allen asked.

The cockpit hatch closes and Allen pounds the paladin's fists on the pavement in front of its feet. Watts began to rush at Allen's paladin while beginning to shoot at him. Allen charges his paladin at the rogue scientist's paladin and opens fire upon it. Both mechs rushed in and finally clashed with each 's paladin hurls a punch at Allen's mech, making it stagger for a brief moment. Allen rushes his paladin at Watts's and picks it up by its waste, lifting it off the ground. Watts pounds his mech's fists on to Allen's forcing it to drop Watts. Allen throws a couple punches at Watts's paladin. Ricky and Weiss both watch the giant mech brawl between Allen and Watts before turning at each other.

"Let's go while he's distracted," Weiss said.

"Right," Ricky replied.

The two then turned around and began to continue their chase after Adam. Further down the street, Cade, Yang, Velvet, Kendra, and Amber had just reached the parking garage of the First Horizon Plaza.

"We better start climbing," Yang said.

Before they could start moving, they heard the sound of trampling. They turned to see The Hound and the Grimm behind it, running towards them. They slowed to a stop then began to slowly close in around the group. Just before they could lunge in to attack, a bright white light flashes from beside them, The Grimm all got engulfed in the light and when it died away The Grimm were all gone and The Hound bowed its head in pain. Yang, Velvet, Kendra, Cade, and Amber turned to see where the light came from and saw Ruby, Jacob, Kelly, and Blake. The light in Ruby's silver eyes died away as she smiled.

The Hound lifted and turned its head at Ruby revealing its inner core; a pale Silver-Eyed Faunus with canine ears as his trait. He was horribly scarred, his face warped and contorted, resembling a severe burn. His right eye was covered by a vein-like mass of white flesh, which faded and extended beyond his eye. White boils bubbled in patches of his skin, and he appeared to have been rotting, as pieces of torn skin exposed his muscle. Black liquids leaked from his remaining eye and ears.

"Take.. the girl..." The Hound growled in a rasp voice as it turned to face Amber.

As it lumbers down the stairs and its joints crack back into place, the head repeats its orders in a raspy voice. Everyone, especially Ruby, is stunned at the horrific sight.

"That's... disturbing," Jacob said.

"Take the girl," The Hound repeated.

"I'm gonna have nightmares after seeing this," Kelly said

"Take the girl," The Hound said once more.

"Get her inside," Cade said to the others next to him.

Amber, Yang, Velvet, and Kendra ran inside the parking garage as Cade stood in front of the entryway. Its head regenerates, covering the host's face again. It's voice deepens to the feral roar from before.

"TAKE THE GIRL!" The Hound roared.

The half Grimm, half Faunus hybrid lunges at Cade, tackling him to the ground. Ruby, Jacob, and Kelly charge in at The Hound. Just before Blake could charge in with them, she hears something coming up from behind her. She quickly turns around and sees Adam charge at her, about to swing Wilt at her. Blake blocks his attack with Gambol Shroud and tries to push him back.

"Did you really think you could avoid me?" Adam asked.