Chapter 25
Where was I? Oh yeah! Gwen was about to be attacked by a wraith.
The wraith picked up its sword and takes a swing at her. She jumps backwards but the wraith made a cut on Gwen's left palm.
"Ow!" she says as she lands a few feet back. Gwen looks at her hand and notices that it is bleeding. "The hell-?!" Gwen sees the blood. "It pierced right through my aura!"
"LOOK OUT!" Nebula shouted.
The wraith appeared right behind Gwen as it tries to take a swing at her head. Gwen looks behind her as the wraith attempts to strike her down. But then, a flock of tiny white Nevermores stopped the attack and started pecking the wraith.
"Fall back!" Winter ordered.
All of Team NDGO fall back towards Winter as the birds start to disappear.
"It looks like physical attacks have no effect." Winter stated. "Yet our semblances seem to work."
"You okay?" Octavia asked Gwen as Gwen's hand started to heal.
"That thing managed to cut through my aura and make me bleed. But I'm all better now."
Dew then created a dust devil with her spear and semblance in order to blind the undead specter. Following the attack, Nebula shoots out a lightning bolt from her hand which later destroyed the creature. Reducing it into a light blue powder on the floor.
"That was close." Nebula sigh in relief as they put their weapons away.
"Was that an actual ghost?" Octavia asks.
"Hard to tell." Gwen answers. "Yet that thing's sword felt real enough to get through my aura and cause me to bleed. Even went through my aura."
Winter takes a closer look at the powdered remains.
Nebula looks at Winter as Winter kneels down. "Find any loot?"
"I'm checking." Winter checks to see what to find. "I've got 2 specter dusts, 1 infused dust, 1 essence of wraith, and...a wraith mutagen?"
"Wait. Wraiths have mutagens?"
"It seems so." Winter grabs everything and gets back up. "But we should head back and warn the others."
Winter looks at Team NDGO and notices the look on dread on their faces. When Winter realizes why, she turned around and notices a few more wraiths coming through the window. But there are also nightwraiths, penitents, and beann'shies floating their way through.
"RUN!" Winter shouted as she turned around.
All five ladies started to run back towards the basement.
Ren felt something dreadful in the air as he looks at the windows. He felt something going on outside of the library.
"Something wrong, Ren?" Nora notices the way Ren looks at the windows.
"I'm not sure." he says with a seriousness in his tone of voice. "But I keep getting some strange feeling happening outside."
"Like what?" Toshimi shrug and asks.
Then there are lots of gloomy blue lights peering through as the windows get smashed by swords and ghostly hands.
Jaune screamed like a girl when he sees them while screaming, "G-G-g-GHHOOOOOSSSTTSSS!"
Pyrrha immediately sprang into action as she fires her weapon at the first few specters yet her rounds are unaffected. Kohta uses a modified laser rifle from Fallout 4 and fires a few rounds at the army of specters which seems to be very effective. Yuri gets the turrets from Prey out in order to defend the library. She deployed one of them and it started firing. Unfortunately, they don't seem to work all that well. Nora dashes with a few Minecraft cobblestone blocks in her hands to seal-up the windows as she nearly gets hit by the swords that sprinkled rain water onto her. Toshimi and Ren try to hold the doors together with the bookshelves and barrels as Nora tries to seal all the windows of the ground floor. Jaune then takes whatever bookshelves that is near him in order to barricade the cobblestone sealings.
When they sealed up the windows and make sure the doors are barricaded, the turrets started to shoot...something inside the library.
Team NDGO and Winter try to make their way to the basement and sealed the doors. They make their way down the stairs and locked-up the second door. Team NDGO lean their backs on the door as they catch their breath.
"Holy shit." Nebula says with the look of terror.
"Poltergeist Grimm is one thing..." Dew says. "But ghosts? Fuck that!"
"At least we're okay." Gwen sighs in relief.
"Yeah." Octavia agrees.
Winter uses magelight to light the center of the basement in order to see better. Once the room is lit, she notices something is wrong.
"Where are all the dead bodies?" Winter asked as she looked around.
Then they hear some strange creaking noises with the sound of raspy breathing. When the look around, they see pairs of glowing blue eyes staring at them from the darkness beyond the bookshelves. The eyes come closer to the light to reveal the skeletons that they removed from the door that started to walk towards them. The members of Team NDGO started to scream when they see the skeletons.
Project REAPER seems to be going well.
/2: Affirmative.
Can you transfer some of this to Terminal User 899? My shift is over.
/2: Affirmative.
Thanks.
/2: You're welcome.
Back in the basement, Octavia uses her semblance of aerial slash to kill most of the skeletons while Gwen uses her semblance. Nebula uses her own semblance with the crossbow bolt by using projectile manipulation to shoot down all the skeletons with one bolt in order to get rid of them.
"Wow." Octavia says with an unimpressed remark. "Skeletons are actually really easy to kill."
"In video game logic, skeletons are the weakest enemies." Dew says after throwing one of her knives at a skeleton behind her. "To think we were scared of them just a minute ago."
Winter casts another magelight before the first one goes out. "At least they're easier than the specters upstairs." Then a giant rolled up paper that is five feet long landed on Winter's head from one of the shelves right before unrolling onto the floor. She rubs her head before looking at the giant scroll.
Nebula takes a closer look. "Holy shit. This is a map."
Everyone gathered around to look at the dimly lit map. Winter takes the map and rolls it back up.
"Best to read this in proper lighting." Winter says as she tucked the map in her left arm. "Come on. We need to find the others."
The four nodded in agreement and follow Winter up the stairs while trying to block the door Nora destroyed. They try to seal it up with some of the empty bookshelves that Team JNPR emptied out earlier before dinner. They make their way upstairs through the next door and forcefully open it in order to make sure everyone else is okay. When they found everyone, Nora was bashing all the bones with Mjolnir. Yuri and Toshimi are hiding under the table with one of the turrets online. Jaune put up the last of the cobblestone blocks to seal both the door and the furniture barricading it. Pyrrha, Kohta, and Ren check the upstairs to make sure that there isn't any more skeletons in the building. Ren is armed with his emergency weapon, a laser pistol. Kohta gave Pyrrha his plasma rifle from Fallout 4 since energy weapons seem to be more effective against the specters.
Nora stops as she notices the five. "Oh, hey!" she expresses her happiness as well as relief. "You guys aren't dead!"
"Or in our case-" Gwen states, "-undead."
Nebula slaps the back of Gwen's head.
"Hey!"
Winter approaches Nora as she notices the skeletons on the floor that look like the ones from the front door. "It seems that things have taken a turn for the worse here as well."
Yuri poked her head out from under the table, "Please tell us that you girls found something good." Yuri shows a fearful expression after everything that has happened. "This almost reminds me of the first time the dead started to walk around. Except it took place on the rooftop of the school during sundown. And there weren't any magical skeletons or ghosts. Just corpses."
Toshimi poked her head out, "I'm starting to get flashbacks of the time I was eaten again."
Jaune turned around to see Team NDGO and Winter, "You five alright?!"
"Barely!" Octavia says as she is a little distressed. "We nearly got our asses handed to us from one of those things!" She points her sword at the sealed up windows, "And now there's an army of them!"
"HEY!" Kohta shouted from the second level. "GLAD YOU GIRLS MADE IT BACK!"
Everyone looked at Kohta with Winter shouting back, "WHAT'S THE SITUATION?!"
"BASICALLY, WE'RE FUCKED! BUT IT LOOKS LIKE ENERGY WEAPONS SEEM TO WORK ON THE WRAITHS AND WHATNOT!"
Dew shouts, "MAGIC SPELLS SEEM TO WORK TOO! OUR USUAL WEAPONS DON'T SEEM TO HARM THEM!"
Winter shouts while holding the scroll with both her hands, "WE FOUND A MAP!"
Everyone gathered 'round at the table to see the map. On the map, they see the city location and it's name, Linkarius. They see more lands on the map as well such as an island to the southwest that is marked with the skull and crossbones which is where the pirates live. Or at the very least, used to live. There is also some other lands down south with a few towns and three cities. Up north, they see New Lannisport close by and further up, the see a few more farming towns and villages. Further upwards, they see parts of the map that says 'Forbidden Lands'.
"So we're at Linkarius." Pyrrha says as she points at the city on the map. "The capital of this new area we're in."
Winter smells something in the air. "What's that smell?"
Jaune raises his left hand, "My bad. I didn't have the time to change my pants."
Everyone around him is a little disgusted.
"Can I be excused?" Jaune asked.
Winter says, "You're excused." Then Jaune just left to get a new pair of pants. "Anyone else?"
"We're good./Nope./I'm fine./Nah." everyone says.
Winter looks back on the map and points her finger on the pirate hideout. "This is where that gaudy pirate ship came from that drifted to Team CRDL's previous location." Then pointed at the lands further southwest, "Over here, we have new lands to explore. Yet the possibility of anyone still alive there is unknown."
"We can figure that much." Nora says as she leans over for a closer look.
Nebula pointed at the Forbidden Land area, "Why are these places called, 'Forbidden'?"
Kohta looks at the map where Nebula is pointing, "Maybe because of the giant dinosaurs lurking about. Like the Alpha T-Dom at the green obelisk."
"Or probably something worse." Ren suggests. Such a thought is disturbing in an already twisted world. "Although, we may need to consider the immediate threat that is literally outside."
"Well." Kohta cross his arms. "We know that physical projectiles don't work on them such as bullets."
"Swords and bolts won't work either." Nebula added. "We try to take down one of those ghosts yet no dice. I try casting a magic spell on it and it seemed to work."
"It's called a wraith." Pyrrha says as she has the book out. "Physical attacks won't work unless we're armed with silver and using some form of magic sign called, Yrden."
"What's Yrden?" Nora asked. "Sounds like some secret project from Atlas."
Winter angrily glares at Nora for such an insult.
"Some sort of magical spell of some kind only witchers can use. It is meant to trap or slow down enemies while making ghosts visible and solid. There aren't any spell tomes on how to use it either."
"Shit." Toshimi swears.
"Is there anything else we should know about how to deal with those things?" Yuri asked.
Pyrrha checks the pages. "Let me see... Here we go. It says Moon Dust bombs, which are filled with silver splinters. Another is Specter Oil. Bathing a blade in this oil makes the blade able to attack the specters whether they become invisible or not." Pyrrha pulled out two blue, bomb-shape objects from her inventory and onto the table. "And I think these will help."
"You got those from the dead witcher?" Yuri asked.
"I did. I thought that they may come in handy." Pyrrha smiles, "But I missed my chance."
"What about the skeletons?" Octavia asks. "Does that book say anything about them?"
Pyrrha checks the book to see if there are anything about skeletons coming to life. She flips through the pages, "Let's see here... Found it. It says that it should be simple to kill with one blow."
Gwen scoffs, "Yeah, no shit."
Kohta asks, "Can we get back to the ghosts and the part where I tell you that energy weapons such as lasers and plasmas can hurt them?"
"Sorry." Pyrrha apologizes.
"So the only things that can kill those ghosts is silver, magic, energy weapons, a special oil, and possibly magic weapons of a sort."
"Right." Nebula nods in agreement. "We even found an exhibit in the museum that has loads of weapons."
Winter suggest, "We need to wait until morning in order to scout out the rest of the museum once the ghosts disappear."
Kohta does his signature, menacing smile while wielding his laser rifle, "Dibs on first watch!"
Jaune then come join the others, "Then we should sleep on the second floor. Just in case those ghosts do manage to get through."
"Wait a minute." Nora looks at everyone. "Their ghosts, right?"
"Yes." Pyrrha says as she is a little confuse on what Nora is getting at.
"And they can't be hurt by anything physical since physical objects phase through them, right?"
"What about it?" Toshimi replies with a question.
Ren, Yuri, Nebula, Octavia, Winter, and Pyrrha realized what Nora is getting at.
"So would they be able to phase through physical barriers?"
Then everyone realizes what Nora is getting at as they look at the cobblestone barricades. Nora maybe right about ghosts and specters. They may phase through the barricades that they set up.
Ren looks at Jaune, "You said something about the second floor?"
Back at the vault, everyone is getting ready for bed. Weiss is on her way to her room with her teammates until she comes across Whitley in the hall.
"Whitley?" Weiss says. "Is there something wrong? Other than the obvious."
Whitley takes a deep breath. "Listen, sister. I've been doing a lot of thinking as of late. I realize if I want to live, I have to fight. So..." He takes a deep inhale and exhale through his nose before saying, "I am willing to do some training. So, would you please, teach me?" Whitley has to swallow his pride as not only as a man, but as the future male heir to the Schnee Dust Company in order to survive in this world.
Weiss walks pass him by a few inches. "Training begins at dawn. 6 o'-clock. Can you get up at that time?"
Whitley turned around to look at Weiss. "I'll do my best."
Weiss not turning around, started to smirk. "Good. See you in the training hall." Then walks to her room.
"Right... Wait a minute! Where is the training hall?"
Somewhere else in the vault, Penny is listening to a video on a UNSC laptop to something called, 'The Philosophy of System Shock' by someone who calls himself Love Life & Anarchy with headphones on. She develops an interest in these videos that were recorded hundreds of years ago before the UNSC along with worrying about what she would become if she does go too far if she is returned to her robotic body. She was done with The Philosophy of Bioshock by the same person, but she is also worried about Atlas' super corporation, Schnee Dust Company, just like what nearly happened with Tri Optimum. She does her best to memorized these videos so the people around her won't make the same mistakes as the people did in these videos. While watching these videos, Ciel enters the room in a blue bathrobe while drying her hair with a blue towel.
Ciel notices Penny on the laptop. "Watching another video?"
Penny doesn't answer.
Ciel puts the towel on her bed as she approaches to tap Penny on the shoulders. Penny notices as she paused the video and remove her headphones.
"Sorry, Ciel. Do you need something?"
"I was wondering what video are you watching."
"Some video from some site called, 'YouTube' from 541 years ago. It's a philosophy video about some video game franchise."
"Really?" Ciel's interest is piqued.
"Yeah." Penny nodded. "I also found documentary videos in this laptop's memory card as well. Some include, The Bloody History of Communism, The American Revolutionary War, David Macaulay - Castle, and a few video game lore videos from YouTube."
"Any good?"
"Mostly bloody because there are no monsters on their home planet. They only exist in myth."
"I see. But on another topic, how are you and Oscar coming along?"
Penny's face turns bright red as she quickly turns around, put her headphones back on, and resumes watching her video. Ciel smirks as she chuckles.
Somewhere in one of the bedrooms of the vault, Takashi is lying on his bed, wide awake still, as he starts pondering. He stares at the ceiling as thoughts start swirling in his head.
Rie notices and sits up from her bed. "Something wrong, Takashi?"
"I've been thinking."
"For real?"
"What do you say we move out to that magic city where Kohta and the others are?"
"Hmm?"
Takashi sits up as he looks at Rie, "I mean think about it. We're only here as guests in this place. We're out of that damn canyon full of those Things, no more cultists flying over us, and we don't have to worry about Them once a week when They start to act up."
"I get it now. But what about the people that DO live in the city?"
Saya gets up from her bed. "That is a good point. Yet there is a possibility that there isn't anyone living there anymore. If there is, we could ask if we can get permission to have our own land. That is a pretty big IF assuming that we can pay or just get some dump-heap like a swamp."
"That's true." Rie agrees with Saya. Then looks back at Takashi, "But how can we make defenses? We can't just borrow their settlement workbench. What if we need to repair one of those turrets yet unable to do so when we return the workbench?"
"I've been thinking about that." Takashi pulls out a book from under his bed. He shows it and the cover of this book has a Vault Boy doing the double finger pose with the words 'Vault 76 Manual'. "This book says something about a C.A.M.P. A Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform. With it, we can make the same stuff we can get from the settlement workbench anywhere."
"Like a mobile settlement." Rie says in astonishment.
"Exactly. Although it does require 40 bottlecaps to activate it. Bottlecaps are use as money I guess. Which is why I've been drinking some of those Nuka-Colas. The mixed ones. Not the regular kinds that have radiation."
"Do we have any of those?" Saya asks.
"Nope." he replies. "But I'm gonna look for it where Team SSSN found that amusement park. Just need to find this Vault 76 somewhere and we get those new C.A.M.P.'s. Anyone wish to join in?"
AN: Hey guys! To Vic, I do apologize for the misunderstanding because I've got a lot on my plate. Things have been hell at work lately this month because of a state holiday on the 24th. I would like to add the Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V characters to the new story, but Minecraft: Story Mode got the lead by one vote. So taking in the account that you and Duce voted for Yu-Gi-Oh! Dimensionals, it is a tie between that and Lego-calypse. Next time.
As for next week, there won't be a new chapter because Minecraft: Story Mode Season 3 will be out on the first of August! The week after that, resuming the story. You get what I'm getting at right? Good.