Chapter 21: Breach
Today was supposed to be a big step forward for Jaune.
They were going to go on their first mission as Team JNPR and he couldn't wait to actually get experience as a Huntsman and see how much he had improved.
Then everything suddenly turned upside down.
It started when Jaune was training with Mori and Pyrrha to get some last-minute practice before he went out.
Then when Mori's scroll rang, his friend suddenly left with a serious face.
It was strange though; he had never seen his friend look so mad before.
Like he had seen Mori be mad before, such as when Team CRDL were at the peak of their bullying but it was normally hard to tell. Usually, he'd keep a neutral expression while calmly dealing with whatever was pissing him off.
However, this time… well Jaune counted himself lucky that he wasn't on the receiving end of Mori's wrath.
That wasn't the biggest event of Jaune's day though…that came from the massive explosion that occurred.
The next couple of moments were a blur as their Bullhead that was initially headed to a frontier town suddenly turned around and they found themselves in the middle of Downtown Vale.
"My Brave students!" Professor Port declared as they reached the disaster zone, "As of now the city is under attack and it is up to you to help defend it!"
"What exactly happened?" Jaune asked as he took a look at the Grimm swarming through the hole the explosion caused.
"The cause is currently unknown Mr. Arc! As of now, the only thing we know is that there has been a breach and all available personnel has been called upon to seal it!"
"What should we do then Professor?" Pyrrha asked in concern.
"I will be on the front lines bravely fighting back against the Grimm Scourge, What Team JNPR does, however, will be up for their Team Leader to decide!" Port replied back jovially.
Oh, that made sense whoever was in charge of the Team should be the one to decide what to do especially in a moment of crisis…
Wait…who was the leader of JNPR again?"
"M-m-me?" Jaune stammered as he pointed to himself, "You want me to decide what we should be doing?"
"Of course, Mr. Arc!" Professor Port responded back with his confident smile, "Even though our current plans may have been derailed this is an excellent opportunity for you to learn and grow!"
Well looks like he was making the decisions today.
Jaune took a quick survey of the disaster zone as he tried to discern what to do amongst the chaos.
What could he do right now? He wanted to figure out what caused that explosion but that was something that could be done later, plugging the hole would be nice but none of them really had the firepower to deal with the massive amount of Grimm coming through right now.
"What could we do?" Jaune thought to himself, "What is the most important that needs to be done right? …Oh?"
"We first need to evacuate the civilians to a safe spot!" Jaune declared as he finished soaking up the situation, "That's the most important thing that needs to be done right now!"
"Excellent choice Mr. Arc!" Professor Port exclaimed as he slammed his hand against Jaune's back
"Oof!" Jaune exclaimed as he stumbled forward.
"Are you ok Jaune?" Pyrrha asked in concern.
"I'm fine," Jaune replied as he caught his breath, "For now we should split up, our main objectives should be to locate, rescue, and evacuate!" Jaune then pointed to different spots within the city to do their rescues.
"Jaune…are you going to be ok by yourself?" Pyrrha asked in concern, "Should I not partner with you?"
"No," Jaune replied shaking his head, "I need you to go to the most chaotic areas because I know you can handle it."
"Then at least have Ren or Nora accompany you!" Pyrrha attempted to argue back.
"Any time wasted protecting me is time for someone else to lose their life," Jaune replied back with a steely look, "I know you're concerned for me Pyrrha…but trust in me please, or more trust in the training you've given me."
Pyrrha looked like she wanted to argue back, but Professor Port put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a look.
"Fine," Pyrrha sullenly replied.
"Thank you Pyr," Jaune replied as he looked towards the chaos and braced himself, "For now I don't see any Grimm that we can't handle one on one if you find one that needs a team do not engage and call for backup!" Jaune commanded.
"Yes sir!" Team JNPR cried back.
"Nora! Go to North Main Street and take out that horde of Beowolves chasing those people!"
"AYE AYE Captain!" Nora screamed in delight as she went to bombard the creatures with her grenades.
"Ren! I need you to go to that apartment complex over there and evacuate whoever is still left!" Jaune cried as he pointed to a building that was under attack.
"I'm on it," Ren responded as he fired off his guns and charged into his assigned building.
"Pyrrha! I need you to go to near the where the breach is and rescue anyone that got caught on in the initial blast."
"I will do that," Pyrrha responded.
Just as she was about to leave she suddenly looked at him wistfully.
"You promise you will come back alive …right?" She said as she looked at him with a worried look.
"I promise," Jaune replied back, "Besides Mori would kick my ass if I get myself killed."
"Jaune this is serious,"
"Don't worry Pyr, I will keep my promise, remember? An Arc never goes back on his word." Jaune said back with a confident smile.
His words seemed to cause a smile to appear on the girl's face as she nodded and went to her assignment.
"And where will you go Mr. Arc?" Professor Port asked.
"I will probably head down over there," Jaune said as he pointed to a spot, "Rescue whoever's there and evacuate them."
He had been better get going.
"Mr Arc!" Professor Port suddenly called out.
"Yes?" Jaune asked just as he was about to leave.
"I do not say this often but…I can hardly recognize the you from the beginning of the school year to the you now!"
"…Thank you?" Jaune replied in confusion.
"You are welcome!" Professor Port "May we meet again!" He shouted as he went straight into the horde.
"Was that supposed to be a compliment? Aggh that's not important now."
Jaune cleared his thoughts of the strange conversation and started to make his way to his designated spot.
"Hello!" Jaune shouted as he got there, "Is there anyone here?"
Jaune's shout was met with silence.
He then began to look around trying to find anyone that needed to be rescued.
"He-help," A voice feebly cried out, "I-I need help!"
Jaune quickly turned his head
"Where are you!?" Jaune shouted as he tried to locate the source.
"I-I'm over here," The voice cried out, "I'm trapped under this piece of rubble."
Jaune looked around as he finally found what he was looking for.
He then sprinted over to go rescue them.
"You!" The person trapped in the rubble said as soon as he got there.
Jaune had to rub his eyes as he couldn't believe who he was saving…it was the guy who threw him…twice.
"What are you doing here?" The big guy asked.
"I'm a Huntsman…well Huntsmen in training but that's not important" Jaune declared, "I'm here to save you!"
"You are kidding me, right?" The big guy asked in an incredulous tone, "Someone as scrawny as you?"
"Do you want me to save you or not?"
"Sorry, sorry."
"I thought so," Jaune replied with a smug look.
Just as he was about to grab the stone slab his danger senses started to ring.
"You may want to hurry up!" The guy screamed, "Because we got company!"
Looks like Jaune's senses were correct as two Ursa Majors converged on the spot they were at.
Oh boy, he had barely survived a fight with just one and he had a hunch that he had some help with that one now that he knew what his partner's semblance was.
"You got to get me out of here!" The trapped guy screamed.
"Don't worry," Jaune said in a reassuring tone, "I will save you."
He then turned towards his enemies, looks like his training will have to be put into use.
First things first was he had to get these Grimm away from the civilian.
Jaune started running flaring up his aura in an attempt to get the Grimm to follow him.
His plan worked as the two Bear like Grimm followed him.
Starring down his enemies Jaune prepared himself for a fight.
Drawing Crocea Mors Jaune readied himself for combat.
Before the Grimm could attack Jaune attacked one of them quickly.
His sudden attack caught the Grimm off guard as Jaune was able to get a good hit on it and slashed straight through it.
Pyrrha's lesson on a preemptive attack seemed to have worked as now Jaune had one less enemy to work with.
Unfortunately, the other Grimm suddenly attacked just as Jaune turned around to face it.
Raising his shield Jaune could only block as the monster delivered blow after blow.
Jaune could feel his guard slowly start to break as he defended with all of his might.
What could he do? If he let this continue eventually the Ursa would break through his guard.
What would Ruby do? What would Yang do? What would Pyrrha do? …What would Mori do?
Oh right, Pyrrha wasn't the only one who had been teaching him how to fight!
Jaune braced himself, feeling the rhythm of the beast's strikes as he waited for the right moment.
"Now!" Jaune thought to himself once he had gotten used to the monster's attack pattern.
Just as the Paw of the Grimm fell upon Jaune, he quickly dropped his shield dodged to the side, and with all his might sliced where the beast was unprotected.
Jaune's counter-attack worked as the Bear Grimm fell to the ground with a thump, it's disintegrating body showing that it had died.
"Huh looks like his lessons on dodging were useful."
Jaune then quickly ran back to the survivor.
"How…how did you do that scrawny?" The guy asked in amazement as Jaune got back.
"Eh, I have good teachers."
Jaune then got his around the slab and with all his might lifted it up.
"Can you move?" Jaune said as he struggled to hold up the giant slab.
"…yeah," The guy responded as he crawled out.
He then got up and looked at Jaune with a weird look.
"…what?" Jaune asked as he let slab go.
"Why did you save me?" The guy asked, "you had all the reason to leave me on my own…so why?"
"Because I want to be a huntsman who saves people," Jaune declared with confidence., "And I won't go back on my word."
"…Wow," The guy responded back with a sheepish look, "I-I'm sorry for throwing you…twice."
"It's fine," Jaune dismissed, "I'm sorry for hitting on your girl…and also hitting you with a water balloon."
Just before the guy could respond a loud noise suddenly rang out as the ground beneath him moved, causing them both to fall to the ground
"What just happened?" The rescued civilian asked
Jaune got up and turned around; his jaw-dropping as he quickly found the source of what caused the shaking.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!"
"Ughh what happened?" Blake thought to herself as she finally came to.
It felt like she got hit by a bus…but instead of a bus it was a train…and it crashed…and also exploded.
"Blake, Weiss!"
"Yang!" Blake called back, "What happened?"
"The train hit Vale and now the city is under attack," Dr. Oobleck rambled as he got out of the rubble.
Blake began to organize her thoughts as she attempted to remember what happened in the last few minutes.
They were on that train with Torchwick and the White Fang and they were attempting to stop it from reaching Vale. They were struggling to stop it and just as they crashed Weiss used her ice as a shield wait…
Where's Weiss?
"Weiss!" Blake shouted looking for her teammate.
"Uggh,"
Blake and Yang immediately ran over to their teammate.
"You ok Ice Queen?" Yang asked in concern as Blake picked her up.
"…What did I say about calling me that?" Weiss snarked back, "Wait…Where's Zwei?"
"Arf!"
"Glad to see you care about us too Ice Queen,
Looks like Weiss was just fine right now.
"That was ingenious of you Miss Schnee," Dr. Oobleck said as Weiss got up.
"Thank you, Professor," Weiss commented as she regained her bearings.
"It's Doctor!" Dr. Oobleck yelled, "Unfortunately we have failed our initial objective of stopping the train from penetrating the cities defenses," he finished as he calmed himself.
"What should we do then?" Blake asked as she looked at the chaos around her.
"Quite simple, Miss Belladonna search and destroy."
"Ah yeah," Yang excitedly said as she slammed her fists together, "that's what mama likes to hear."
Leaping into action Team WBY began to fight the Grimm pouring into the hole.
Firing Gambol shroud Blake nailed a couple of Beowolves with her weapon before turning it into its sword mode to cut down a few more Grimm.
"Blake!" Yang called over as she motioned to a couple of Ursa Majors to their side.
Working together with her partner Blake wrapped up a huge Ursa with her weapon while Yang pelted it with bullets.
Weiss then froze off the other one but right as she was about to finish it off a Beowolf appeared behind her back.
"Weiss! Look out!" Blake called out to the heiress to warn her.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
All of a sudden, three shots went into the Beowolf, protecting Weiss from getting hit by it.
"Weiss!" A voice called out, "Are you ok?"
"Ruby?" The heiress responded back as she recognized who saved her, "Is that you?"
"Ready and Back in Action!" The girl confidently responded, "Now let's get rid of these Grimm!"
With their team leader rejoined Team RWBY resumed their defense of the city with greater effectiveness.
With Ruby back, Blake, Yang, and Weiss were able to fight at close range with ease as their leader provided long distant support.
The area that was completely overrun with Grimm soon became thinned out as their Team performed their search and destroy with great effectiveness.
"Blake!" The Redhead yelled out when all that was left was an Alpha Beowolf "Ladybug!"
Combining with her leader Blake attacked one side of the Beowolf while Ruby struck the other side, with the end result being cutting the beast in perfect harmony.
"That's the last one," Blake commented as she caught her breath, "It's a good thing you were able to get here in time."
"Ruby!" Yang yelled before the girl could respond to Blake, "Don't ever worry me like that again." She cried as she put her sister in an iron grip hug.
"I'm sorry for worrying you Yang," Ruby replied in a muffled voice, "…Now can you let go of me? She pleaded as she struggled to get out.
"Do you promise not to get caught by the leader of a terrorist group again?" Yang asked still holding on to her sister.
"I promise," Ruby replied, "Now please, let me go, I need air."
Yang finally let go of her sister as Ruby fell to the ground.
"You dolt!" Weiss shouted as she went over to her partner, "How dare you worry us like that."
"I'm sorry," The redhead whined back, "I wasn't planning on being captured."
"No one plans on getting captured!"
"How did you escape anyway?" Blake interrupted before Ruby could defend herself, "And how did you get here so fast?"
"oh…, Mori came to save me," Ruby replied after a bit of a pause, "We then ran all the way over here."
"You ran?" Weiss asked in a disbelieving look, "Ruby do you know how far it is from Mt. Glenn to Vale?"
"Well, I tried to catch up with him my semblance, but I was apparently going too slow and needed to take too many breaks, so he just carried me," Ruby responded back.
"I really want to argue about the feasibility of that, but I just can't," Weiss said with an exasperated sigh.
"Well when you blow up a harbor with a kick being able to run that fast for that long shouldn't be a surprise," Blake chipped in.
"How long are you going to hold that over me?!" Weiss whined.
"I'll let it go one day."
Today wasn't that day though.
Blake felt vindication of being proved right after all her arguments with Weiss, she wasn't letting that one go any time soon.
"Wait," Blake asked as she realized the subject of their conversation wasn't there "Where is Mori?"
"Oh, he's right…here? … Mori?"
Ruby looked around trying to find their friend.
"I swear he was right next to me," Ruby said in confusion as she gave up on finding him.
"He probably went off to fight Grimm," Yang replied, "Probably scaring the crap out of whoever is nearby."
"Are we actually going to talk about that?" Weiss asked, "Because even Professor Oobleck got nervous around him."
"You weren't handling it pretty well either Ice queen."
"I will I have you know I was perfectly fine."
"Sure, you were," Blake snarked as she chipped in.
Were they going to address that though?
Blake had been in a lot of high-pressure situations but that ranked up there in experiences which she did not want to repeat.
"Talk about what?" Ruby asked as she tilted her head in response to Weiss's question.
"Well…when we were going to save you, we ran into Mori, and well…let's just say this horde that we are facing right now isn't the scariest thing we've seen all day," Yang explained slowly.
Blake and Weiss nodded.
"Oh," Ruby responded with a look, "I get what you mean…"
Blake couldn't help but notice that Ruby was looking uncomfortable.
"…Wait?" Blake said as she realized something, "What happened with Adam?"
"What you're still worried about your ex?" Weiss snarked.
"Aww she still has feelings," Yang teased.
"No!" Blake denied, "What I mean is… Adam's incredibly dangerous, and if he's hot on your tail we may have more problems."
"…I wouldn't worry about Adam," Ruby somberly replied.
"What do you mean?"
"He's uhh…how do I say this,"
"He's what?"
"Let's just say he and Mori met and well… it did not end well for him."
"Mori Beat Adam in a fight!" Blake asked in a shocked voice.
"I wouldn't really call it a fight," Ruby replied rubbing her head, "It was more of a…I'm trying to think of the word, it was…it was like when Weiss tried to go against Yang in Remnant the board game."
"It was a massacre?" Yang chipped in.
"HEY!"
"That's the word, massacre," Ruby said, "It was a massacre."
Blake couldn't believe what she was hearing, she knew Mori was strong, but Adam was considered one of the White Fangs greatest fighters.
Just who was he?
"It was pretty one-sided," Ruby continued to explain, "Though Adam was actually able to get a really good hit on Mori…it didn't really mean much in the end."
"So where is he now?" Blake asked, "Did Mori capture him?"
At that Ruby started to rub her head, "…no he actually kicked Adam through several walls…I think Mori may have killed him."
At those words, Blake could feel her blood run cold.
Mori killed Adam?
Blake wasn't quite sure how to feel about those words.
On one hand, Adam was finally stopped, and he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone again.
But on the other hand…there was something within her that made her feel sad that Adam was gone, maybe it was because outside of her parents Adam was one of the people, she had known the longest. She had hoped that maybe she could help him change, but it looks like that wasn't an option anymore.
Was there anything she could've done to help Adam avoid his path?
"Ahh, guys!" Ruby shouted as she interrupted Blake's thoughts, "We have some company!"
"We already have company, Ruby!" Weiss snapped back.
"No, we have some really big company!"
The Team took a look at where Ruby was pointing.
It was a horrifying sight to see.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Weiss complained, "Goliaths, really?"
The city needed to do something; larger and larger Grimm were now converging on the Vale, the city was going to be overrun soon.
There were so many of them and they had been fighting for a long time.
She could feel her body start to ache as she looked at the endless number of large enemies.
What could they do?
*BOOM*
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a huge dust cloud filled the air.
When the smoke finally cleared, and Blake could see again the first thing she noticed wasn't that the Giant Grimm had all been decimated.
The thing that caught her attention was what destroyed the Goliaths.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!"
Mori looked back at Ruby as they were running, she was struggling to keep up with him even with her semblance.
"Ruby, are you ok?" he asked as he stopped.
"Huh?" She said as she caught up, "Oh don't worry I'm ok." She then put up a peace sign to show that she was fine.
Mori didn't believe her; this was the sixth time they needed to stop.
She was breathing heavily and looked completely ragged.
"Ruby, you know I can carry you?'
"You don't need to do that!"
It was a bit surprising with how much force the girl responded to his suggestion.
It's not like he hadn't carried her before, and she wasn't that conscious about her weight …right?
"If you say so," He said, "We'll rest for about a minute before we keep going,"
"I'm fine," she responded, "I can keep going."
"Are you sure?"
"Yup!"
"…if you say so."
With that Mori and Ruby continued on their way to Vale…or they would have if not for Ruby tripping and sprawling onto the ground.
"When did it turn dark?" She asked in a muffled voice.
"It didn't you just fell."
"Oh"
"You sure you don't want me to carry you?"
"Nope."
Mori sighed in exasperation at the girl's stubbornness.
"You know you should probably save your energy." He said as he looked at her on the ground, "We don't know what we are going to encounter when we get back."
He got no response from her.
"You know your semblance isn't really useful for super long distances like this…right?"
Still nothing.
"It would be easier for the both of us you know that… right. ...You aren't that heavy."
This seemed to have earned him a glare as she looked up at him with an unpleased face.
"What you are saying makes a lot of sense," She responded, "But I'm going to do what I want and say no."
Did she just use his motto against him?
"Stop being so stubborn!" He shouted back, "Just let me carry you!"
"I'll be fine!" She responded back, "I just need to catch my breath!"
This was going nowhere, when she was like this it was impossible to get her to do anything.
"Screw it," He said in exasperation as he went over, "I'm carrying you whether you like it or not."
"Hey!" She responded as he picked up her, "Let me down!"
"Nope."
"But I can keep up I swear!"
"Nope."
"But I—"
"Nope."
"…So this is what it feels like to be on the other side of this," Ruby muttered.
"It's not a fun feeling," Mori responded back as he dashed off.
"I just don't want to cause you any more trouble," she murmured as he dashed towards Vale.
Mori internally raised his eyes at this, she didn't usually comment about bugging him whenever he bailed her out.
And it's not like he cared that much about saving her even though he internally complained, he always would be there for his friends.
"Are you ok?" She asked interrupting his thoughts.
"Hmm,"
"From your fight?" She clarified, "Will you be fine?"
Was that why she was awkward around him right now?
Was it because he got hurt? If it was, she shouldn't feel too bad, that was his fault for letting his guard down. He should have double-checked to make sure Adam was down for the count.
"I'll be fine," He responded, "I've taken a lot worse."
"I'd hate to know what a lot worse for you is."
"Getting hit by a planet is up there," He thought to himself.
Another moment of silence filled the air between the two as Mori could start to see the outline of Vale.
"Aggh!" Ruby shouted all of a sudden, "This is so awkward!"
"Yes, it is," Mori replied, "Do you want to talk about it now?"
"I'm sorry Mori," Ruby replied with a sheepish tone, "It's just…I've never seen that side of you before."
That side?
Just as Mori was about to ask her to clarify a more important situation popped up as they got to the city.
"Looks like they weren't able to stop that train." He muttered as he saw smoke near the center of the city, with Grimm entering the hole that had been made.
"This is not good" Ruby responded with a grim face, "…Wait is my team ok?"
Mori took a look around trying to see if they were around.
He eventually found them near the center of the chaos fighting off the Grimm.
"They're fine," He said as he confirmed that they were relatively safe, "They should be over there."
"We got to go help them," Ruby replied as she jumped out of his arms.
"Ruby wait!"
Mori tried in vain to stop her, but it was too late as she already went to jump into the fray.
Ehh she'd be fine, Mori could sense there wasn't anything too dangerous, Team RWBY was strong enough to handle all the threats.
He was proven right as Ruby joining her team only increased their effectiveness in their fighting.
Mori jumped on top of a building trying to scout out and see if there was any place that really needed him, he could make out Team CFVY fighting off some Grimm, it looks like they were fine, he could also see Team JNPR conducting rescue efforts, it seemed like everything was going fine on their end as well. Though it looked like Jaune was going to get into trouble, but he was able to fight out of it.
Mori couldn't help but be impressed by the display of tenacity and courage the blonde just showed.
Looks like everything was under control so far.
Still, what did Ruby mean by she'd never seen that side of him before?
Actually, now that Mori had time to think about it, he really hadn't been acting like himself today.
After he got that call from Roman, he made an immediate beeline to Mt. Glenn to rescue Ruby.
He didn't think about conserving his stamina at all, the only thing that mattered was getting there as fast as possible.
Then when he found the other three girls along with Professor Oobleck he noticed all of them were trembling a bit, at the time he thought it was because they were tired from all their fighting, but now…
"…Shit," He thought to himself, "Was I really letting off that much killing intent?"
He normally kept his emotions under control, no matter how much someone pissed him off, he'd keep calm and pay them back accordingly.
It was different today, not only did he fail to keep his emotions in check, but he also failed in thinking rationally.
During his fight with Adam, he should have knocked the Bull Faunus out quickly, that mistake cost Mori, as the Faunus was able to land a solid hit on him because of his carelessness.
Mori still could feel the sting of Adam's blow across his chest.
He could have ended the fight easily within seconds, but instead, he wanted to inflict as much pain as possible, after all, how dare that Ox-King reject threaten to take away someone important to him.
"Ruby getting kidnapped most have brought back some really bad déjà vu." He muttered to himself as images of his grandpa being impaled by Mubong's arm flashed through his mind.
"Now that I think about it Xuanzang also did have a habit of getting into trouble as well."
Images of his grandfather and teacher appeared in his mind, they were the two figures he loved most in his life. In an instant, they disappeared and were replaced by the two figures he hated most; the ones who took them away from him.
"Tathagata and Mubong Park." He darkly thought to himself, "I won't let you two or anyone else take away my loved ones again."
He was this close to adding Adam to that list. He would not let that list grow.
A loud noise suddenly interrupted Mori's thoughts, as he searched for the source it was like looking a large herd of Goliaths were attempting to make their way into the city.
"That's not good," Mori thought to himself, "If things stay the same the huntsmen will soon be overwhelmed, and the city will fall."
What could he do to remedy the situation, he could probably jump into the fray and take them out one by one, though that may take too long, and he could see in the distance more Grimm coming to the city looking at it like Zwei eyeing a steak.
He needed to act quickly to neutralize all the threats.
Luckily, he was an expert at destroying multiple huge enemies at once.
"I'll just do this then," He said to himself as he picked at his ear.
Finding what he needed he took one look around him to make sure that no one was around to see him.
Once he was sure he was alone, he aimed at the Grimm.
After checking to make sure that there was no one that would be caught in the crossfire, he spoke only one simple word, a single command, one that he hadn't said in months.
"Expand"
Hey Guys I'm back sorry about the unexpected hiatus I just needed a break because I was experiencing some serious burnout. So in light of that, there are several things I'm going to do to hopefully avoid that. One of those is the weekly schedule is going to be gone now, chapters are going to be updated as they go, which should make it easier for me to write without being under a time crunch. Other than that I Hope you liked the most recent chapters and hope you keep following Journey.
