Blue team had finished their check of the stadium after their fight, and were about to grab a transport down to the festival itself, when they were cornered by a red ball of excitement.
"That. Was. Amazing!" Ruby squealed, "and Lin— ur Naomi, your gun is awesome, can I see it?" Ruby continued to talk on as Blue team stood silently as the girl continued to babble excitedly, finally coming to a stop saying, "I understand if you wanna stay secret, that's cool, but you should still come down to the Vytal festival with me, and maybe eat something, besides you need to tell my sister and Weiss that you aren't evil, ever since the "mysterious lady from the rooftops" showed up, they won't stop talking as if you are allied with the white fang."
John nodded, a little nervous, "sure, I guess, our next fight isn't for a while, but we also have some responsibilities to take care of."
Blue team hopped onto one of the smaller transports headed down to the festival grounds, and Ruby followed. The group attracted more than a few stares, as each of the Spartans towered over everyone and stood perfectly still in the center of the crowded cabin, standing still as statues.
Ruby led the Spartans through twists and turns in the tent city that had gone up for the festival, and she finally stopped in front of some sort of small restaurant with seating around the edges of the booth. The other members of team RWBY and JNPR were sitting around the bar, laughing at some joke
Ruby ran up immediately, smiling as she re-joined her friends, while Blue team stood awkwardly at the edge of the milling crowd.
John watched as the smiles on the faces of everyone except Ruby slid off, being replaced by mixed expressions ranging from scowls to curiosity, though all seeming unsure to some extent.
Pyrrha started, she looked welcoming but from the rest of her team's faces, John could tell they had heard the story from Yang and Weiss, "Hey, why don't you come over and have a bite?"
Blue team awkwardly walked over, silently standing opposite of where team RWBY was sitting.
Fred started to sit down on one of the barstools, but it immediately started to crack under his weight, so he stood right back up, looking at the others around the bar, embarrassed behind his helmet. Ruby introduced Blue team with their fake names, as well as her own team. The Spartans stood quietly and nodded when appropriate, though they stayed silent.
Team JNPR suddenly seemed to panic, before running back towards the stadium, Ren spurring then on, saying they were going to be late for their 4v4 fight.
Kelly spoke up, the helmet modulating and disguising her voice so it almost sounded mechanical, "it was nice meeting you, but we really need to get going,"
Weiss shrugged and muttered, "probably have to go spy on more people,"
Fred shrugged right back, "actually no, I just really want a corndog."
Ruby nodded at him, "seems fair," while Yang and Weiss narrowed their eyes suspiciously at the Spartans.
As soon as the Spartans moved out of sight John asked Fred, "do you really want a corndog?"
"Yes, but the mission comes first, so let's get moving," Fred replied.
The team split back up, Fred and Kelly going back to the arena to wait for their doubles match, and John and Linda patrolling the festival for Ozpin.
John scanned the crowd again as the two Spartans moved carefully through it. Unlike the others in the crowd, if John and Linda stepped on someone's foot, it would end badly, even though many stayed out of the way of the giant armored warriors they still had to be careful.
Linda continued to cycle through the different vision modes on her helmet, until finally stopping on thermals, which let her see straight through the tent city.
She sent a click over TEAMCOM to get John's attention, "something suspicious, 2 o'clock, 30 feet ahead."
He sent her an acknowledgment light and started moving in the direction she had indicated, striding purposefully towards a tent that was currently appearing empty.
He slipped past the flap quietly as he drew his sidearm, Linda right behind him. The large tent appeared to be some sort of small restaurant, and the Spartans were forced to slow down to navigate between the tight tables while staying quiet, they moved behind a counter and opened another flap, supposedly leading to a kitchen.
John's mind immediately clicked into a threat analysis mode as he saw two people in the room.
One was standing over the other with his back to the door, fists flying as he pounded the face of the other one.
John decided to forgo stealth and ran over to the attacker and grabbed his shirt collar, throwing him down on his stomach. Linda moved quickly and pinned him down with hands behind his back, Linda placed an armored boot on the man's back and pushed his face into the dirt.
John rushed over to the woman on the ground, helping her up. She opened her eyes and saw her almost robotic helpers and almost screamed, "wait," she said, her brow furrowing, "you're those fighters from the tournament,"
John nodded, then moved on, "what happened here ma'am?"
The woman spoke up, clearly still shaken up, but feeling a little better after seeing a huntsman and huntress, "well, I was watching the tournament with my co-workers, and when the first round finished I headed home, though I was getting the feeling like someone was following me, but I stopped by here to get some food when that guy jumped me and dragged me into this empty tent. Then you guys showed up."
John simply nodded, before turning back to Linda, "Linda, report."
She had a sidearm pointing at the man's head, and her scroll, which had been partially converted to a tacpad on her wrist, up and running.
Linda replied in a cold voice that John knew she always used on missions, "nothing on him, no ID or scroll that is, but some sort of strange dust gun and a tattoo I feel like I've seen before, cross referencing it with cct tower files now…"
A few seconds later John heard a sharp intake of breath over TEAMCOM, "I've got something," Linda said, "it's some sort of initiative tattoo for the new chosen, those tech fanatics that had our armor,"
Linda's mind snapped back to the warehouse and Roman as she started to interrogate the man, her voice cold enough to freeze hydrogen and enough malice to feed a Grimm for a week, "did you do this on your own, or were you ordered to?"
He flinched away from her but stayed silent, "Now," she said pushing her boot into his back harder.
She heard a crack and a pop, then a soft cry escaped his lips, "ok, ok, just don't hurt me any more, I'll tell you, I'll tell you."
John found out from the woman that she works as a programmer at the cct tower before sending her home, though he gave her the dust gun from the tech fanatic if something like this ever happened again.
Linda had propped the prisoner up against the wall and tied both his hands and arms before initiating the interrogation, "spill" she said, holding one of her axes up to his neck.
The man flinched away, he mumbled, "the LT is gonna kill me," he began, "it all started when some guy with a bowler hat talked to us to try to recruit our group, then some huntsman showed up. They just disappeared into thin air with some of our stuff, I don't know a ton, I'm just an initiate and they don't tell me anything. Later the same guy with a bowler hat showed up with a friend and started handing out tasks, and my squad and a few others were supposed to kill all the cct tower workers, that was why I was following her, but I couldn't quite bring myself to kill her, all she did was be at the wrong place at the wrong time, so I just wanted to knock her out, then she couldn't cause trouble and I wouldn't get disciplined. Please don't hurt me." He finished.
Linda clipped her axe to her thigh and shrugged at John.
John looked at their prisoner, "thank you, that was very helpful," he led Linda out and went to go call Ozpin.
The man started to panic, "what's going to happen to me!?"
Linda's head poked back into the tent, "depends if huntsmen, Ozpin, or Atlas finds you first." He shivered as Linda turned around and walked out.
When Linda re-joined John, he was already on the comm with Ozpin, "yes professor, something is going on at the CCT tower, and the people who work there are being targeted, we just saved one from a beating, if you could send someone to come get her and bring her to you Linda and I are going to go investigate the tower," John listened for another minute, then shut off the comm.
They waited for another five minutes, John keeping a sharp eye out while Linda was familiarizing herself with the tech in case she needed to hack or fix something.
Three minutes later an explosion of rose petals landed next to Linda and materialized into Ruby.
She was out of breath, and leaned on Linda's armored arm, "Hey guys, how's it goin?" Linda almost jumped away when Ruby leaned on her, she still wasn't used to people besides her spartan sibs being friendly and laid back around them.
Ruby continued, not noticing Linda's discomfort, "I'm to escort somebody to Ozpin right?"
John nodded and gestured to the woman sanding nervously at his elbow, "Ruby, this is Mrs. Arinda Price, you will be escorting her to Ozpin's office, staying there until he is done talking to her, then helping her to her home near the docks."
Ruby summoned a serious look to her face and saluted, though John thought it looked a little ridiculous on the girl, he saluted back and walked away with Linda, and as he turned, he saw that Ruby's friendly smile had already made Mrs. Price exponentially more comfortable than the Spartans' impassive faceplates.
The Spartan pair arrived at the CCT tower, and it was surprisingly empty, even with the festival.
John stepped into the stairwell as Linda readied her axes to scale the building and provide overwatch.
John moved quickly through the first five floors, as they were all filled with servers that seemed incredibly primitive to John, as it didn't even come close to the memory crystal housing of even a dumb AI.
The tense silence seemed to shatter each time John had to open the distressingly loud door that led to the stairwell.
Finally, John arrived at the top floor, he inched the door open and peered in. The computer screens across the room laid dormant. John moved in, after getting the signal from Linda that she was hanging by one of the windows and ready to breach.
The desk at the front of the room had sensors attached, and John quietly avoided those, moving behind it and inspecting it. Holotank he thought, probably some sort of projection of a remote assistant or automated, he looked closer and saw a large knife made of glass embedded in the ground behind it.
After a second of mental calculations of flight path and various assumptions, he concluded that someone came through the elevator doors, knowing they weren't supposed to be there, then when the attendant suddenly popped out of nowhere, the knife was thrown out of instinct, and went through the holo.
John conned Linda, "Some sort of intruder was here, entered by the elevator, or shaft. No conclusion on time though, could still be here."
An acknowledgment light winked.
John stuck to the abundant shadows, ghosting among the terminals and clearing the room, John rounded a corner and almost ran into a dark figure.
Time seemed to slow for John, and he took in the situation, the figure looked shocked, and she had stopped working on the bomb she was planting and appeared to be starting to leave. Now she was drawing a pair of curved blades from her back.
John acted on instinct, using his towering height to his advantage and brought a crushing blow upon the woman's head, but she was fast and managed to move just enough to have it glance off her shoulder.
She attempted to slash his guts open with a cross slash across his stomach, but it did little more than scar the paint of his armored carapace. John's other hand had moved to draw his sword, and he brought it to bear, launching a savage uppercut that the woman easily blocked, and John smiled behind his helmet.
He twisted his sword, and caught both of her blades between his own, then kneeing her in the stomach and pulling her swords in the opposite direction, they snapped with a loud crack and the shards exploded outwards.
John felt some shards embed in his armor, and the rest find their way into the walls of the room.
A loud crack appeared from nowhere, and the woman's aura flared, seeming shaky, her eyes went from annoyed to terrified in less than a second, and she turned tail and jumped out a window, disappearing into the city faster than even a spartan could follow.
Linda rushed over to the bomb on the floor, and took one glance at it before running over to John, "Grab on," she said to him, "we don't have time to defuse it with our limited knowledge of dust science,"
John threw an arm around her waist and they jumped out the window, Linda's axe, swinging them into an alley for a rough landing just as the night lit up with fire behind them.
John tried calling Ozpin, but only TEAMCOM and other private channels between the Spartans seemed to be functioning, he cursed, getting a connection to Fred, "I need you to get this message to Ozpin, you're closer," he quickly explained the events of the CCT adventure, "Get there now, we appear to have some sort of large plot or heist coming together under our noses right now, and he seems to be the best prepared to coordinate a counterattack or at least minimize damage, also stay with him, we have no other means of communication besides our coms, you are our relay."
"Affirmative sir," Fred replied,
John continued, "Kelly, do whatever you have to do to get the stadium evacuated, it seems vulnerable, and there would be high casualties if it were taken down,"
Another affirmative.
"Linda, you're with me, we are going to figure out what's going on."
Linda nodded, then leaned over to him, pulling a shard of glass embedded in the chin of his helmet, "Be more careful, you're lucky that didn't hit your neck,"
She added in her head, I can't lose you, not with most of us already gone. Her mind started to drift back to green team, and the aftermath of augmentation.
She had been the only surviving member, but John and Blue team had welcomed her, though she still felt a little left out, and that had brought her back to being a lone wolf, but maybe things were different.
She tried to stifle her roving mind, and finally managed to calm and focus on the mission with one of her Zen exercises she usually used for sniping, and followed John into the darkened streets.
Earlier
"What a matchup!" Port yelled, "we've seen amazing displays of skill by each side, but neither has gained any ground!"
Oobleck cut in, "for those of you just joining us, Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie of Team JNPR, are facing off against Kurt and Adriana of team SNAK,"
"Kurt and Adriana have been putting out almost constant damage, but Pyrrha and Nora have been able to tank or deflect most of the damage, while most hits landed by JNPR have been dodged, the few that have landed have been devastating."
Fred stepped back from his opponent Nora, he did not, want to take another blow from her explosion hammer, so he decided to switch things up, he tucked his hands behind his back and switched is large combat knife from his right hand to his left, and drew a pair of throwing knives with his right from a leg holster.
Nora ran at him, oblivious to Fred's plotting. Fred threw his knives, impacting her aura and dropping it accordingly, but Nora kept running at him, throwing a heavy overhand swing at his head.
Fred planted his foot, changed his stance, and reached up and grabbed the handle of the hammer.
Nora looked a little shook at first, but her expression quickly deepened into a scowl of frustration as she pushed downwards with more effort, then reached for the grenade launcher trigger, only to see a blade digging deeper and deeper into her aura, getting alarmingly close to her chest.
Nora quickly shoved backwards and kicked off Fred, with over half her aura gone, she seemed content to play defensively.
Fred looked to his left, towards a heavily damaged field of wheat, courtesy of his partner and Pyrrha, another glance at the scoreboard put His and Kelly's fake "auras" at about half, with Pyrrha's at ¾ and Nora's hanging just an inch over the defeat line.
Kelly and Pyrrha were engaged in a deadly dance of metallic clangs and gunshots as the only music accompanying the duel. Kelly landed a slash from her spear, then followed it up with a blast of buckshot to the gut.
One second, Pyrrha was doubling over, the next she had slashed across Kelly's chest plate and swept the Spartan's legs from underneath her, all in the same motion. Fred thought, that. should not. Have worked. Maybe some sort of semblance? I honestly don't know Pyrrha's
Now the redhead was standing over Kelly and about to bring her sword down, when she was bowled over by Fred tackling her.
Kelly sprung to her feet determined to take the opportunity that Fred had given her, when she too was thrown unexpectedly, Nora had bull rushed her and knocked her shotgun out of her hands, sending it flying into the wheat.
Kelly realized she was still moving, that hit must have jarred me more than I thought as Nora had Kelly pinned to her shoulder and running maniacally towards the edge of the arena.
Kelly acted fast, maybe she would be taken down, but her team would win,.
She took a shard of dust from a homemade grenade and shoved it down the barrel of the grenade launcher.
Nora took no notice and shoved Kelly out of the arena.
Fred barely heard Port announce that Kelly was out, so engaged he was in the duel with Pyrrha,
Parry. Parry. Lunge. Deflect. Take the hit. Slash
Thoughts flew through his head faster than Kelly after 5 cups of coffee.
Fred saw Pyrrha start a move similar to the one she used against Kelly, he stepped back to dodge the sweep of his legs, then jumped forward and head butted Pyrrha in the chest, but he still felt his legs get swung out from underneath him.
Definitely semblance. He thought, but what? Magnetics? Telekinesis?
Fred found himself staring at the sky, looking up at Pyrrha as she readied to finish him off. He tried to scramble backwards, but she had placed a boot on his chest and her semblance was holding him in place.
His hand flew wildly, when he felt something familiar.
His hand swung up with lightning speed, bringing Kelly's lost shotgun to bear on Pyrrha's chest.
He fired.
Every piece of buckshot embedded itself in Pyrrha's aura, then the dust shards detonated, sending her backwards into a rock on the other side of the arena and dropping her past the line of defeat.
The crowd gasped, then roared at the upset, and Oobleck took over, "it appears that both Pyrrha and Adriana are out! Nora and Kurt both have enough aura left that a single hit could send them to defeat,"
Fred struggled to his feet, seeing Nora on the other side of the arena.
She flashed a smile and struck a pose, pointing her grenade launcher at him.
Fred flicked a knife out of a sheath and sent it flying towards her, but just as it got there she pulled the trigger.
And promptly exploded in pink fire and smoke.
Fred raised his arms in victory as he heard a pop of an aura detonated and went to help Kelly clamber back up the side of the arena, before the two Spartans walked over to help their competitors.
Current time
"Affirmative sir" Fred said, and turned a corner, getting closer to the flight deck and the air shuttles down from the stadium. He was stopped as a very gray kid approached him, gray hair, all gray clothes, sounds cool, didn't really work on this kid.
"Hey, you!" He shouted, "big guy, I'm your new biggest fan,"
The boy kept walking closer, and Fred kept to his course, ignoring him.
"I thought your last fight was a real GUT BUSTER," the boy shouted as he jumped forward as if his legs were spring loaded, and kicked Fred with surprising force, Fred then felt a sharp pain where the kick had hit him, and saw a bloody hole through his armor, splattering the wall behind him with blood.
Fred sank to one knee and the boy kneeled in front of him, "what's the matter, aura still down after that fight? Don't worry, you aren't going anywhere, And I don't play fair."
Fred murmured, "I don't either." And just as the boy kicked his head back to laugh, Fred sprung into action, planting his shoulder in the boy's chest and pinning him to the wall. Fred took one of his knives, and stabbed towards the boy's bicep, digging through the aura with sheer force, and shoving the blade straight through.
The boy screamed and jumped backwards, terror on his face, staring unbelieving at the blade in his arm, when the hilt exploded and left nothing but a stump of an arm in the arm's place.
He ran away screaming, "I'll come back stronger, you will fear Mercury, you hear me!?" he backed out the door, eyes panicked.
Fred looked around the hallway, the few people still in it looked terrified.
Fred started using some of the biofoam they had recovered with the armor, and a few armor patches to seal himself, saying to the assembled people, "it's not safe here, get off the arena, and try to go home or even to another big city, something big is going on, and whoever that was is part of it."
There was a solemn nod from one concerned mother, hiding the eyes of her children, and she headed towards the shuttle pad, with others following close behind.
Kelly took a deep breath, readying herself for what she had to do, and vaulted over the edge of the stands and into the arena, then climbed up onto the center of the ring.
had just finished and Port started to say something, but Kelly put her external speakers on max volume, "ATTENTION" she said, getting anyone who wasn't already looking to stare at her, "I'M SORRY, BUT YOU ARE ALL IN MORTAL DANGER"
The crowd seemed apprehensive, but concerned, and Kelly pushed on, "I'M GOING TO NEED YOU ALL TO EVACUATE THIS STADIUM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, SOME SORT OF PLOT OR PLAN IS OCCURRING RIGHT NOW, UNDER OUR VERY NOSES, AND IT COULD END IN THE DEATH OF MANY.
A TERRORIST ATTACK ON THE CCT TOWER HAS CRIPPLED COMMUNICATION, AND THERE HAVE BEEN LEADS AND ASSOCIATES TURNING UP REGULARLY, I NEED YOU TO THINK OF YOUR SAFETY, AND TRUST ME."
As if to accentuate her point a flock of giant nevermores suddenly landed on the glass roof of the stadium and started to try to get in, then everyone screamed and all hell broke loose.
AN: Thanks once again for reading, I have to apologize for the late update, various personal and mental issues happened, I just got a gaming PC, and school, with finals and everything, updates probably more consistent in the future.
This is the part where stuff starts to take off and the plot gets a little more interesting, so yeah.
Questions, comments, concerns? Leave a review, I will start directly responding after this chapter is published once I read it, as well as leave an answer in the AN of the next chapter.
Review Responses:
CT7567Rules: I tried to do a longer chapter this time, also its just how stuff works out I guess, also now that school is out, I'll have more time.
Spartan-626: Glad you are enjoying them, sorry if there wasn't too much talk with RWBY, but there wasn't really a place to put it, especially with the timeframe
Red October 700: I've got some ideas with what to do with the ship, but nothing major, it isn't the main part of the story.
I get the pun, don't worry.
Bumblebee, yep, I pretty much share your opinion, but maybe if RT actually builds something up and had set up reasons, then maybe, but now RT? Really?
Halo ships, the others are there, and the Kelly ones can be pretty good, but I've always felt that Linda and John have been slightly more supported by canon (what little romance there is with halo) and I just like it better, but personal preference right?
In my opinion, sibling like relationships don't show up often enough, because now everything has to be romantic and everything, oh well.
I'm not going to lie, LuckyRose sounds both adorable and hilarious, but I just don't see it, (probably because I have a hard time shipping John with anyone other than Linda).
Glad you liked the fight, good news, there is more.
That idea for gun that's also a bigger gun sprung from me getting a friend to watch RWBY, in short, it worked, and he also now frequents r/fnki (that is a subreddit Of RWBY memes, I don't go there often, it is weird, but there is some good stuff, which is normal for reddit)
Sounds like a cool weapon for an OC, my favorite RWBY OC is a crusader with an AR 15, (BURN IN HOLY BULLETS!) ((don't take me seriously I wrote this at 1 AM))
Don't worry, you didn't bore me, I always enjoy reading reviews.
Now that I have a nice PC, I'll have to check out ace combat.