A/N: Okay, this is the first new chapter since I re-cut the first.
This is also the mark of the end of where I'm following the Canon story line. So after this, it will be more original ideas, rather than a retelling of already viewed events.
Also, I'd like to thank runelt99 and MarcusMebadd for their reviews. You two are the only one who bothered and I truly appreciate it.
And runelt99 asked a Question, if Ozpin knew about the book about he Nordic Mythology. That is a good question, but in my mind, no he didn't. It's suppose to be, in my mind, a book that is just old and forgoettne, that Blake got lucky to find. As well as show that Ozpin is working on more a Big picture idea, rather than the smaller detail.
Well, here in the next chapter, Please review and help me out!
Chapter 4
Thor watched the match with interest, as this was a representation of his teaching as much as their skill.
They certainly didn't disappoint, they all showed improvement in the areas he'd tried to train them in, Weiss was capable of more aggressive movements without tiring, Yang was much more tactical in her fighting style, and Blakes weapons upgrades were knocking her opponents on their rear.
The only one who he'd yet to actually see in action in the field he'd trained her in was Ruby. She hadn't lost her weapon, so it didn't come up.
But there were winning their team match, quickly. To the untrained eye, it may look even, but to him, it was clear Team RWBY was winning.
He didn't shout or scream like the other members of the audience, but he still swelled with pride at their performance. They were showing skills expected of third of fourth-year students.
It was over in an instant, the last three members of the opposing team were out, and team RWBY had won, as he expected of course.
He stood up gingerly as went to the locker room to congratulate them. His ankle was still a little sore, but the doctor had assured him that it would dissipate in a few more days.
With that, he limped off to see his friends.
The Festival was great, as far as Ruby was concerned this was the coolest thing she'd seen since she started at Beacon. The booths were so cool, and the Tournament was just the best. All those fights, the weapons, and warriors, it was beyond words for her.
Her anxiety over performing in front of such a large audience had been curbed, even if she was still nervous about it, it was no longer the terror it had been. Thor was at least a bit responsible for that, his word to her at the dance was really encouraging.
Speaking of Thor, she spotted him limping towards them. His ankle still hadn't totally healed, but he told them it would be better for a few days, and she believed him, given the progress he'd made so far.
"Excellent Job!" he called to them, making the rest of the team look to greet him.
The ever stoic Blake didn't do more than a smile, Weiss just turned from him frowning a little too hard to make Ruby believe it was real. Yang and herself, however, returned his greeting.
"You did an excellent job today, I see my training has paid off."
"We'd of rocked them anyway!" Yang boasted "But your tips did help." She finished in a quieter tone.
Thor just smiled at her, and Yang returned the grin.
Ruby couldn't help but think of her earlier, and feeble attempts to set them up. She felt a little embarrassed about it now, realizing that she hadn't been all the clever about it.
She still thought they were made for each other. But they weren't moving towards that, at all. After the dance, Ruby had even heard a few rumors that she and Thor were going out after he danced with her.
Those rumors didn't ever gain any traction and had less died off over the weeks that followed. But the idea of her and Thor being together was ridiculous. He would never date someone like her, she was too young for one and too dorky for two. Not that she wasn't sure he didn't like her, but he'd turned down Velvet for God's sake, why would he ever go out with her?
She watches Thor as he talked to the rest of her team, and felt an odd sense of comfort and loneliness. What was that about?
Shaking her head, she followed them all as they headed to enjoy the festival, pushing the feeling aside for now.
Thor hadn't been thrilled at his exclusion from the Tournament, but he had comes to terms with it, and besides Ozpin had something else for him to do. Or at least he did, he didn't know now, given how his solo mission had gone so poorly.
But with no word to the contrary, he assumed that was still the case. For now, he'd enjoy the festival and what it had to offer.
His dreams hadn't stopped, the one of him wandering the abandoned school, and he hadn't told anyone that this was the dream that likely had produced the negative emotion that attracted the Ursa to him in the first place.
At this point, he was sure it wasn't a vision, he was certain it was just telling him how lonely he was.
That wasn't comforting in the least, but he'd made an effort to hide it. He didn't need to trouble others with his own issues. They wouldn't understand, or couldn't, he wasn't sure which was more applicable to the situation.
But he put it out of his mind, for now, there were distractions to be found here, food, games, and shops, although the last one held little appeal to him, sometimes he'd seen something interesting.
The girls all stopped at a noodle stand to get something to eat, and he decided this was a good a place to get food.
Weiss volunteered to pay, but her card didn't work for some reason he couldn't comprehend, given her personal wealth. He was ready to fork over his own cash to pay but was interrupted by the arrival of Team JNPR.
Pyrrha offered to pay, and Thor wasn't going to complain. She had the money to spare, given her sponsorship deals.
He ate much slower than usual and listened to the teams talk about the tournament. Nora seemed confident but didn't hold much confidence in her team leader, despite her trying to find something to praise about him.
Nora, while a kind girl, didn't have the intuition some others had, like seeing Jaune's strength's lay in his ability to coordinate his team. Granted that wouldn't do his team much good after the first round of competition, there was no way he'd fight in the double's round, he'd gotten better, but his teammates were still leagues ahead of him in combat.
He didn't doubt they would proceed to the doubles round, their teamwork was some of the best he'd seen. But who would be fighting after that, was still a mystery to him.
Pyrrha was definitely going to be in the next round of fights, but who she'd be fighting alongside was still up in the air to him. If it were up to him, he'd picked Nora over Ren. Ren may have been overall a stronger student, and possibly a shade more skilled in combat, but Nora was the team's powerhouse, and frankly, while Ren was good, Pyrrha was better, and they filled similar roles in a fight.
But that wasn't any of his concern, not really, it was up to them, and he was sure they knew who was best.
As he has expected, team JNPR had beaten their opponents pretty handily. Jaune had improved tremendously. Had he been on the level he was at the beginning of the year, he'd of been defeated mere moments into the start of the match, but he'd held his own. But Pyrrha and Nora had been the most impressive overall. Pyrrha was naturally brilliant, but Nora virtually taking out the whole team by herself with one swing of her hammer was indeed entertaining.
But he didn't intend to stick around now, as fun as that match had been. But he didn't think he could enjoy the other matches, it would only remind him that he wasn't allowed to compete.
Walking out of the stadium, he headed back to the school.
The school was largely abandoned, which gave Thor chills. It was reminding him of his dreams, but the sounds of bird and the occasional student or staff member assured him he wasn't dreaming. He kept telling himself everyone was at the festival and tournament, either competing, watching or helping with it.
He wanted to be part of it, but what Ozpin told him was ringing true, from the matches he'd seen, there wasn't much sport to be found for him there either.
He'd have to wait until he was on a mission again before he'd meet a decent match. He wasn't counting his hard time while he was injured, that was a mistake on his part, not because his opponent had been too strong.
But he didn't much want to go back to the tournament, at last until Weiss and Yang got to their doubles matches.
He just didn't feel like there was anything to do right now. He didn't have any homework, he wasn't competing, and he wasn't part of the student faction that was helping with the tournament.
He thought he might go for a drink, or three, and see where the night took him.
Turns out the night didn't take him very far. He was on his fifth beer when he'd decided to call it a night, he had no real motivation to get into trouble tonight, more hassle than it was worth right now, given he was still a bit sore from the Ursa bite.
As he walked out of the bar to go the transport back to the school, he felt a chill run down his spine. Stopping and turning around, he saw the street was empty, but he was sure he was being watched. It was something he'd developed over the years, a sort of sixth sense. He could tell when he was being followed.
He pondered calling out but decided to keep going, act as if he'd decided on one was there. If they were out to hurt him, then they'd make their move soon rather than later, because he doubted they would attack him in full view of the transport.
If they were just a creep who wanted to watch him, well, it was only going to last until he got the transport anyway.
He continued on for a few minutes, and just when he was about the turn a corner and bring the Bulkhead pad into sight, he heard a sound barely perceptible to the human ear.
He side stepped as a blade whizzed past the spot where his neck had been. Eye's still on the tip of the blade, he followed it down to see a familiar face. This was Torchwicks bodyguard or lacky, or whatever. But she was far more dangerous than Torchwich himself, as far as in a fight anyway.
She smiled and winked at him "Such a darling little girl." Thor muttered as he returned the smile, and dropped into a fighting stance. This would be interesting.
She seemed to prance in front of him like she was just strolling down the road, then, without warning exploded towards him with lightning speed.
Thor just barely managed to slip his head out of the way as the tip of the blade grazed his cheek. Taking the opportunity of her being this close to him, he jabbed at her head, but she danced out of the way and countered with a slash at his midsection, which he just barely managed to dodge by jumping back.
She was fast, no doubt, but her movement was much more fluid than other huntresses he'd had the chance to face.
He didn't have his gear, but he was far from helpless. He had his semblance and his skill.
He smirked at her, and she smiled back. He didn't know if she was as confident as he was, or if it was just a tactic to mess with his head. Either way, he didn't feel any immediate threat as she charged him again.
This time he lunged into her thrust, catching her off guard, but not enough to do any real damage, and she slipped his punch, and it only grazed her cheek.
He had a plan, but he needed her to make one mistake, and he wasn't sure how he was going to goad her into making it.
That graze had either irritated her or panicked her because she was becoming more aggressive with her attacks, and Thor was being put on the defensive. Her speed with her blade along with her superior reach was making it harder for him to get a hit in.
As the fight progressed, they found themselves in an alley, and Thor was suddenly hit with inspiration. Taking a quick inventory of his surroundings, he found what he was looking for, and large trash can.
Jumping back, he picked it up over his head a threw it at the girl. He managed to get a look at her surprise, and she opened her parasol to keep herself from being covered in garbage.
As she lowered it, he noted her expression, and it was as if she thought he was joking with such a desperate attempt to hurt her.
Well, he wasn't trying to hurt her. She'd done what he wanted, calling on her semblance, he generated a huge gust of the wind behind her.
Before she knew what had happened, the winds had pulled on her parasol and lifted her up with tremendous force into the fire escape just above her, where she slammed into it with enough force to shake the whole structure.
She bounced as she hit the ground, and looked up to see Thor charging her, Lighting radiating off his body. She rolled to her feet still dazed and thrust at his with the blade, only for it to work as a lightning rod, and explode in her hand, throwing her back a few feet.
She landed hard on her back and looked up as Thor towered over her "You know." He said, "You're never supposed to use an umbrella in a thunder storm."
And with that, he raised his foot to stomp down on her chest. Only for her to shatter like glass.
Thor wasn't surprised this time. He'd expected this the moment he'd thrown her into the fire escape. In fact, he was surprised she hung around long enough to let her weapon be destroyed.
Taking a deep breath, he deactivated his semblance, and he started to wonder why she was after him. Team RWBY were the ones who got Torchwick captured.
That thought in his head, he ran to the transport, he needed to tell them.
It was dark when he got back to Beacon, and he didn't waste any time in the running to his room. He'd left his scroll behind, and it was still in his room, so even if they weren't there, he could at least call them.
He burst in, and to his relief, all four of them were there, and by the looks of them, none the worse for wear.
"Thor! What the hell!" Yang shouted at him.
He'd apparently startled them all with his unexpected entrance, and he knew she should explain himself.
"I was attacked in the city." Was how he decided to got their attention. "Torchwick's bodyguard, whoever she is, attacked me on the way back."
They all looked shocked at this, but Yang had gone wide-eyed "How did you get away?" was all she managed to ask.
"I beat her, or at least scared her off." He said "I think she's after revenge for what happened to her boss, I was worried…" he started to say but trailed off.
Weiss approached him and sniffed him "Have you been drinking?"
"Yes? But that's not the point here, I thought she might have come after you guys."
Blake could smell the alcohol on him when he walked in, he wasn't drunk, but he'd been drinking.
"Why would she go after you? You didn't get her boss thrown in prison." Blakes asked him.
"I don't know, I expect it was because I was alone in the city." He responded.
That might be true, but what good would it do, even in a revenge plot, to hurt him? Unless she thought it would affect Team RWBY in some way.
That, she realized now, may have been true. They had all grown close to him over the months. Ruby more so than the rest, but even Weiss was fond of him, even if she wouldn't admit it.
Maybe she wanted him dead to draw them out? But even then, there were easier targets, Thor was one of the toughest, strongest hunters she'd ever meet. The fact that the girl had failed was proof of that.
Then it may just be that she and the rest of the team hadn't left the relative saftey of the Festival or school.
This was something her and Ruby could look into, and let Yang and Weiss focus on their match the following day.
Yang was feeling a little flustered over Thor's little fight. He'd managed to drive off the person who she couldn't even pressure.
But she wasn't so petty as to be jealous over it, Thor was a cut above the ordinary, she thought that by the time they graduated, he could very well be the strongest Hunter in the World.
She was a bit jealous, she realized, but not anymore than when she was normally out competed. In a more general sense, she was happy to be his peer and friend, not just because of his skill, but he was just a good guy.
And he was worried about them, which was sort of cute in a way. She didn't want him to be distressed or anything, but it made her feel good in a way to realize he cared about them all enough to be a worried as he was about them.
Neo had failed them, although Cinder hadn't expected her to actually win, just test the waters. If she had managed to kill or injure him, all the better.
But it wasn't a complete waste, she'd rattled him, and by now the girls he was sharing his room with had to heard of it as well.
A bit more fear was always good.
Thor sat next to Ruby and Blake as they watch Yang and Weiss's match. He'd refused to let them go off on their own ever since he'd been attacked.
Ruby didn't mind, Blake, however, was feeling a bit smothered, it was like having her dad around all the time. He wasn't even watching the match, he was scanning the area and stands for a potential attack.
He didn't even cheer when Yang pulled out a come from behind win to take out two opponents to clinch the win.
He was rattled, that much was clear. He wasn't hurt, and if he was to be believed, had dominated the fight, but he was scared of them.
She appreciated the sentiment, but it wasn't needed, they could handle themselves, hadn't they proved it.
They had shown what they could do. They didn't need him to keep them safe.
Thor wasn't sure what he was even on the lookout for, but he'd had a sense of foreboding ever since his little encounter the night before, and it was reminding him of visions. Nothing specific, just a general feeling.
It was close, and he was sure of it now. In the next few days, something was going to happen, and it would test them all.
Yang and Weiss were naturally thrilled over their win, and Yang was moving onto the singles part of the tournament.
Thor left the team alone, so long as they were together, they were safe. Tonight he was going head back into the city, and try and get that girl to attack him again, only he planned to capture her this time.
He had a plan for it, he just had to draw her out.
As he headed to the city, he hoped she'd be foolish enough to try and take him down again.
He'd been at the bar for hours now and had a pretty good buzz going on. He wanted to replicate the situation as closely as he could, but he thought he might have overdone the drinking part.
He hadn't kept track of what he'd had to drink, the bartender just kept bringing him more to drink, and he'd lost track of time.
When Closing time was called, he realized he'd been here for hours now. Standing up, he staggered, he'd had way too much to drink, and for the first time in a long time, he was certain he was drunk.
He stumbled to the door and wandered out into the night. He found himself hoping he wasn't attacked this night.
Whatever he'd been drinking was stronger than he thought, and he'd been drinking more than he thought.
He found his way to an alley and slumped against the wall. He's screwed up, again, he hadn't paid attention to what he was doing and put himself in a compromising situation.
He only thought of how he hoped that no one came to kill him as he slept.
Neo smirked as Thor slumped against the wall. She'd given up taking him head on, but there was more than one way to skin a cat. She's had the bartender serve him a much stronger drink than he requested, and laced it with some other chemicals to put him out of commission for a day or two.
As he slept, she put her blade to his throat. It would be so easy to kill him how, while he was passed out from the drugs and alcohol. But she wanted him awake when she did it, she wanted them all awake, she wants to see the light fade from their eyes.
Turning and walking away, she knew that soon, she gets what she wanted.
Thor couldn't remember the last time he woke up with a hangover, but this was probably the worst one he'd ever had. Rolling onto his knees, he slowly got to his feet and steadied himself against the wall.
Rubbing his head, he stumbled into the street. This was a stupid plan, and now all he wanted was to get back to Beacon and his cot.
As he made his way to the transport station, he saw the people gathered around television all over the street. At first, he didn't give it a second thought, but soon he recognized Yang and one of the other students from another school. The news feed and video showed her brutally assaulting a beaten opponent.
His heart jumped, and instead of the slow stagger, he ran to the transport station.
He ran down the hall, to his room. He passed General Ironwood but didn't give him a second glance. As he neared his room, he saw Blake, Weiss and Ruby exiting.
"What happened?" he asked them.
Ruby answered, "You didn't hear?"
"I know what the news is reporting, but I want to know what actually happened." He responded.
Weiss spoke up "She's in there." She gestured to the door "We're giving her some space, but if you want to know, it's her place to tell you, not us."
That was all he needed, and he opened the door and went in.
Yang sat in a somber silence. She still wondered how this could have happened, she was certain of what she'd seen. He attacked her, no doubt about it.
But why had everyone else seen something else?
As she pondered this line of thought, the door burst open, making her jump.
"Damnit! Thor, you got to stop that!" she shouted once she saw who it was.
"What happened?" was all he said in response.
"You saw it, everyone else knows what happened, just watch the news." She muttered.
"I didn't ask what I saw or what the news says happened, I asked you what actually happened." His tone was serious.
She was touched, that he didn't believe what he saw at face value. "Thor, he attacked me, I don't know why everyone else saw something else, but he attacked me, there is no way what's on the camera's is real!" She was desperate to build any chorus of supporters and really wanted Thor to believe her, her team trusted her, but as far as anyone outside of them, they thought she had seen things.
Thor sat on the bed opposite of her. He was still feeling sick from last night, but he pushed the sensation away. Yang was telling the truth, as she knew it. He'd seen enough trickery in his life to believe that was the case here, to drive discontent into the crowds and among the competing schools.
"I believe you." He said, "Someone did something to manipulate this scenario to their advantage, but I believe you."
He wasn't sure if he actually did, but she needed to hear it. He never thought for a second she'd do it intentionally, but he wasn't going to rule out the idea that some form of illusion had been used to her to trick her into the attack, in which case she did exactly what everyone thought she did, but it wouldn't be her fault.
Looking into her eye's he saw the pain and confusion. She didn't understand what had happened and was scared by the general response that most people were having. She had a few individuals who supported her, but the world at large thought she had just decided to cripple another student.
But he could tell she also was experiencing some sort of self-doubt, for as much professed her innocence, a shadow of doubt lingered over her head, thinking that maybe she had reacted to a hallucination.
She looked tired, and he stood up to leave her to some alone time. "I'll leave you alone for a bit, I'm sure the rest of your team be by later to check in on you."
She didn't say anything, but she gave him a look he could quiet place as turned to leave the room.
It was later that day that Thor started to feel like the atmosphere shift and change. What he didn't know what it was, but the air was noticeably heavier than before he'd left the day before. He hadn't noticed when he first arrived, he was still feeling sick and was worried about his friends.
But now that the anxiety had passed, and the hangover was fading, he noticed a marked difference in the general tone and atmosphere of the area.
The presences of large war ships circling the area just seemed to add emphasis to the tension. Something was going to happen, and soon, he was sure of it.
He still worried about Team RWBY's safety, but they would be safe in the school, with all this security floating around.
But someone, or several someones, were trying to do something incredibly dangerous. He didn't have a clue as to what, but his attack the other night and Yang's accident, something was coming to a head and soon.
He didn't much care for watching the tournament now, but he still wanted to be near by in case anything happened. Ruby was going to be at the stadium, and the team had gone their separate ways for the day, but Ruby was the one he wanted to watch out for the most.
She wasn't helpless, but she was the one most likely to not recognize something off. Yang was still at the school, Blake had disappeared, but she was naturally cautious. Weiss, for all her attitude problems, was more level headed than Ruby.
His problem now was finding her. The was the weird thing about her, she could go unnoticed when she wasn't thinking about and wasn't trying to hide. But if she was trying to stay hidden, she usually gave herself away.
That was one of her issues, she was so self-worried about performing to the standard of other students, she would occasionally over think the situation, and screw herself up. The funny thing was already out-performing most students already, so why she worried about this kind of stuff was baffling to him.
He was currently wandering around the stadium, looking her her. He'd tried calling her, but she didn't answer her scroll, which only added to his anxiety.
As he did, he could hear the cheers of the crowd. Pyrrha was competing against the girl from Atlas, the one Ruby made friends with. He'd actually recognized her from the docks all those months ago, he found out later her name was Penny. She was good, he'd seen a little bit of that first hand, but Pyrrha wasn't a slouch either.
He kinda wanted to watch the fight himself, but Ruby was scaring him, she wasn't answering her scroll, and he just couldn't find her.
That was when he heard the collective gasp of the crowd. He at first just took as an upset or particularly spectacular stunt. But then he heard the screams and yelling. That was not a good sign.
Rushing to down the hall to the general seating, he was greeted by a brutal image.
Penny lay bisected on the arena floor. His mind had a hard time reconciling the image with what he had come expect from the matches, and from Pyrrha. How could she do that?
As he thought of this thing, a voice rang out over the PA system, which he only caught snatches of over his own rushing thoughts. Because he noticed something wrong with the image.
Not just wrong in that a teenage girl had been killed, but the fact there was no blood or gore of any kind on the arena floor.
Squinting his eye, he looked closer and saw that the girl was not made of flesh and blood. She was made of machine parts, either an android or cyborg.
Not that it really mattered, she still a sentient being, with thoughts and feeling, and she had been snuffed out.
As he thought on this, the civilians stampeded out of the stadium, while he just stood there. Looking up he saw a giant Nevermore trying to break through the force field that surrounded the arena.
Looking down into the arena he saw Pyrrha wasn't moving, either in shock or despair. That was when he noticed Ruby rushing into the arena.
He couldn't get into the area from here, which was of course by design, the field kept the audience safe, and in theory kept them from interfering with matches.
Turning around, he ran as fast as he could to get the entrance to the fighting arena.
He was sure this was it, what the dreams had been leading to. The chaos was everywhere in the area, and if the Nevermore was any indication, the Grimm was going to be coming in droves.
The hallway was long, and by the time he got outside, the Nevermore was dead, and everyone was gone. He's taken a wrong turn ended up taking an extra ten minutes to arrive.
The Grimm had been killed by the lockers, someone had been called en-masse and hit the thing like a barrage of bullets.
Looking around for signs of anyone, he didn't see anyone other than the body of Penny, which had been left on the stadium floor.
Pulling out his scroll, he punched in the code to call his own locker
Then he dialed Ruby, and again, she didn't answer. Growling, he squeezed it hard enough to crack the screen. Looking at it, the screen flickered for a second or two, then blinked out. He tried to turn it back on, but he's damaged it beyond the point of use, so he then threw the now useless scroll aside in frustration. As he waited for it to arrive, he walked over to Penny's body.
From a distance, he couldn't tell if she was an android or a human with cybernetic enhancements, but up close he could see she was entirely mechanical.
He sighed as he reached over and closed her eyes. He'd of liked to cover her up, but he didn't have anything to do so with. The Atlas military would come to retrieve her soon, he was sure of it, she was clearly a highly advanced piece of military hardware.
He hated referring to her as such, but that was what she would be viewed as. He didn't know her well, but he'd seen her an around a bit, she was chipper and friendly if a little strange. Which he supposed was explained now.
He's seen death before, but when it was a young person, it was always harder.
He looked up at the girl as he heard the whistling of his locker flying in. It landed with a crash in front of him. As it opened, he set to work suiting up.
Once he fastened the belt, he lifted his hammer, spun it and took off into the air.
The School and the City were in total chaos from what he could see. The Atlas military had turned on the civilians, the machines now running rampant. Grimm was swarming the city, and now White Fang foot soldiers were swarming in.
While he watched the events unfolding beneath him, deciding on if he should head to the school or city, he was hit by something big and black.
He rolled through the air, and it took a moment for him to regain his already poor stability in the air. Looking to see what had hit him, he saw a Griffon, circling around to hit him again.
Calling on his semblance, he struck it with a bolt of lightning squarely in the back.
That didn't kill it, but it made the thing drop out of the sky to certain death.
As he watched it fall, he soon realized he too was losing altitude. That was a problem with the system of flight, if he didn't keep moving, he'd start to fall.
This made fighting in the air tricky, he had to make sure he didn't spend too much time on the attack or else he risked falling like a stone.
But, as he started to move again, he realized that his problems were just starting.
Swarms of flying Grimm were heading towards the city and school. Even he couldn't take out that many, even with a full release of his semblance and hammer. He'd take a lot of them out, but they looked like they were coming from over the Horizon.
What was more, he didn't know if his gear could tolerate a protracted fight in the air.
He needed to get on the ground if he was going to keep up with the numbers of enemies.
He landed hard in the school courtyard, and while he didn't crash this time, he did have to break into a brisk jog, his leg still not capable of taking the sudden stop of how he'd usually land.
The Atlas hardware was destroying the school, and and the White Fang soldiers were moving about unhindered by them. That was a pretty clear indication they had hacked into them somehow, rather than just a software or hardware malfunctions, if they had been the case, they'd attack anything indiscriminately.
Calling a bolt of lightning, he fried several of knight units, which slumped over into smoking piles near instantly. He smiled at this, these androids may be tougher than normal humans or Faunus, but they were still machines, and an electrical charge could still destroy the more sensitive components of their hardware.
His sudden attack caused one of the White Fang soldiers turn and level a rifle at him. But Thor wiped his hammer at the soldier and hit him with enough force to slam him into the wall behind him.
As his hammer flew back into his hand, he scanned the area. He didn't have any form of communication, given that he'd crushed his scroll and thrown it away in irritation. He wished he'd control his temper better, but there was no point in lamenting it now, it was done.
He was wondering where everyone was, the sounds of battle could be heard from all directions, and he wanted to find Team RWBY, but he also knew that it was unlikely they were all together at this point.
His only hope was to fight his way through the school, thinning the enemy numbers, and hope he found them.
As he started off, he was charged by a Beowulf. Raising his hammer, he prepared to strike.
This was not at all how he'd hoped for these events to play out. Ozpin had suspected some behind the scenes dealing being done by an unknown enemy, but this was far beyond the scope of what he had suspected.
What was more, he couldn't reach Thor or Pyrrha. Pyrrha, whom he'd hoped to take on the Fall Maiden's power, and maybe turn this situation around.
And Thor's Scroll was either off or dead, and he couldn't get him to do the "Mission," he'd promised him. If Pyrrha didn't show up soon, he'd have to try and evacuate Amber without any guard. He'd planned on Thor and Pyrrha working together to reclaim the other half of the power, but right now neither part of his plan was coming together, both students were MIA.
Just as he was about to scrap the whole thing and just take Amber and evacuate her, he heard foot steps behind him and saw that at least half of the situation was salvageable.
Another Grimm fell to the blade of his hammer, this one looked almost like a dinosaur. What ever was happening, it was drawing in Grimm types he'd never seen in person before.
The sounds of gunfire rang out, and he could tell this time, these weren't standard assault rifle. These sounds were being made by a custom weapon.
Turning, he got ready to fly off towards the sounds, when the earth began to shake.
Keeping his balance, he wondered if maybe a Goliath had entered the area, but then he heard a roar that sent vibrations into his bones.
Looking up towards the noise, he saw the largest Grimm he'd ever seen, in life or in books.
It was a Dragon, with wings that covered the moon as it passed over the head. As it did, a black tar like substance rained down around him.
The black mounds soon formed into Grimm of all types and advanced on him.
He didn't have time to deal with more of these mindless creatures one by one.
Spinning his hammer, he launched himself straight up into the air and called a massive bolt of lightning into his hammer, and came crashing down to the earth. Slamming the hammer head into the ground, sending lightning in every direction, along with large chunks of earth and stone like missiles, shredding the Grimm to pieces and blowing the Grimm to pieces.
He felt a burning in his chest and reached into touch the disks on his chest. They were hot again, he was over taxing the equipment. He couldn't afford for it to fail now, he needed to let it cool off before he started to do anything else too big with it.
That meant pounding the ground to her where he was going, and that's what he did and began to run towards the gun fire.
Thor had been running for maybe ten minutes when he saw a mane of thick golden hair. That could only be Yang. He called out to her, but over the din of war, she apparently couldn't hear him, and she was moving in the opposite direction.
Changing direction, he went after her. His stride was long he didn't doubt he'd catch her before long.
Until a rogue Paladin unit cut him off. He jumped out of its reach as it swung at him, and cursed to himself.
These units were tougher than the Knight units, and he could afford to electrocute this one yet if he tried that again too soon, he might burn out his equipment.
Before he could come up with a plan of attack, it opened fire on him, forcing him to roll behind a stone bench for cover.
He had one chance to take this thing out quickly, once it paused to reload, he'd make his move.
As the Paladin unit lay into his make shift cover, it felt like hours before he heard it stop, although it couldn't have been more than two minutes.
Jumping out from cover he raised his hammer, with the ax blade facing forward and threw it end over end.
As it soared through the air, Thor watched as the Paladin finished reloading, and just as it got ready to open fire again, the blade buried itself deep into its center of mass.
He's hit something vital, because it keeled over, but not before it let loose a few rounds, which hit Thor in the chest, throwing him onto his back.
Thor gasped as the wind was taken out of him, his Aura stopped most of the force, but it still hit with enough force to take his breath away. He'd hate to see what it would have done to an unprotected target.
Rolling onto his knees, he took several deep breaths to regain his composure. He hoped he'd destroyed something vital in the Paladin's system, other wise it would be on him soon.
Getting stumbling to his feet, he saw that the thing still had some life in it, but it wasn't going to be going anywhere soon. It was sparking and twitching, what ever he'd hit had screwed up its ability to move on its own. Still, he didn't want to get near it. Like a dying animal, it could still be dangerous. He called his hammer back to his hand and continued on the path he'd seen Yang on.
It couldn't have been more than Five minutes total from the time he lost sight of her, but in a war zone, that was more than enough time for things to go south.
He needed to find her, then they could locate the rest of her team, then they might be able to keep this whole situation from turning into a total disaster.
He'd found her, and Blake.
But he wished he hadn't found them in this situation. They were on the ground, with a man Thor recognized from somewhere, he just couldn't place where, standing over them, sword raised.
Yang looked hurt, badly. He could tell from this angle, but then he noticed something behind the man.
His blood ran cold at the sight. It was a human arm, and the weapon on the wrist was Clearly Yangs.
In an instant, he went from freezing to burning hot and charged.
Yang was going into shock, her aura was keeping her from bleeding out, but the sudden loss of an arm was simply too traumatic to ignore. She needed to get her out of here.
Adam was advancing on them, and neither was in a situation to fight him, even at their best, he might have been able to take them both, and they were certainly not at their best.
Before she could think her next course of action, Adam swung his sword.
Blake closed her eyes, ready for the end, but a familiar crack of Thunder and flash of light broke her out of her trance.
She opened her eyes to see Thor standing between Adam and them, his Hammer holding the sword at bay.
"Thor?" she heard Yang whisper, but no more.
"Blake, get out of here!" Thor grunted at her.
For a second she thought of staying to help him, but Yang was seriously hurt, and she was in no condition to help herself.
"Right." She said as she helped Yang to her feet, and started to make her escape.
Thor was strong, but Adam was a monster, she didn't know if he'd be able to handle him on his own. But she had to have faith in him, because if Thor couldn't stop him, then they were in for a world of trouble.
Adam broke off the lock and observed the newcomer. He'd heard of this man and student of unusual skill and power. But still just a student.
"You must be Thor, or should I say "The Mighty Thor." He stated in a condescending tone, using the boy's self-imposed title.
"And I'd say something similar back, but I'm afraid I don't know your name." He shot back at him.
"Adam Taurus, not that it's going to matter much to a dead man."
"You're right, you name isn't going to matter much once your dead."
Oh, the boy was confident. But he'd seen confidence before, what really mattered at the end of the day was who could kill who first. And he intended to be the killer in this situation.
Thor lunged forward, bringing his hammer down, but Adam blocked it with his sword. He didn't dodge of deflecting it, he outright blocked it.
Thor went wide eyed, that wasn't normal, most couldn't stand to the pure force of his attacks.
Adam shoved his hammer away and slashed at him, and Thor had to step back to avoid getting his head taken off.
Adam swiped at him again, this time he caught the blade with his hammer and shove him back. As Adam stumbled back, he called lightning into his hammer head and struck again, and again he was blocked, the electric current not even traveling down the blade.
Something was wrong, his attacked weren't have any effect. He jumped back and slammed his hammer into the ground, sending a miniature earthquake at Adam, hoping to break his footing.
But the White Fang leader jumped out of the way and to safety.
This time Thor fired a bolt of lightning at his target, and again he blocked, and the lighting dissipated.
That told him something, but the specifics, he couldn't be sure.
He'd cut through Yang Aura to sever her arm, despite her being relatively fresh. Did he have some sort of nullifying semblance that renders targets power less?
He couldn't be sure, but he needed end this somehow.
Adam was impressed with the boy's raw power. If it weren't for his semblance, he might have been in trouble, but this guy just kept attacking and bringing himself closer to his own defeat.
Thor was starting to feel the heat in his chest again, but he was barely aware of it. He wanted to kill this man, his rage was building and wanted to take his arm off, then the other, and both his legs, then leave him here to what ever fate would have him.
But his attacks weren't having any effect. He needed to think of something else. Otherwise, he'd just be hammering away at this man till Ragnarok.
Grinding his teeth, he shouted, "Adam Taurus, you will die by my hand." He shouted and lifted himself into the air with his hammer and semblance.
Adam watched as the boy shouted at him and then suddenly was in the air hovering, spinning his hammer over his head like a helicopter.
It took him a moment to realized what was going on, but the wind was picking up, and soon had reached hurricane force winds.
He'd read on this boy's semblance, he could control weather within a certain range of himself, but this scope was more than he'd ever been reported doing.
The wind was whipping debris around, and Adam had to duck to avoid getting hit.
Looking back at the boy, the disks on his vest and belt were glowing like hot embers.
Adam wondered for a moment what this meant, but was spared the need to wonder for long. A ball of fire flew towards him, which he blocked. It shattered like glass and fell to his feet.
Looking up he saw several more flying towards him. He blocked them all and soon began to realize they were giant balls of hail the boy had somehow lite on fire.
As he continued to block, he was starting to feel pressured by the sheer volume of the attack.
The hail, combined with the debris and sheer wind force was making this much harder to cope with, if he were going to end this, he'd have to do it soon.
Thor watched as Adam began to struggle, he was over whelmed but he sheer volume of the attack. Now was his chance, and likely his only opportunity. His chest and waist felt like it was on fire, he'd never pushed the gear this far before.
Throwing his hammer, and going along for the ride, he rocketed towards Adam. Charging the head of the hammer with lightning, he was a foot away from him,
and he side stepped him…
The action was sloppy compared to his normal movement, but it had done the trick.
Thor soared past him, missing him by as close as he'd ever been comfortable with. He could see it in the boy's eye, he was caught totally off guard.
But Adam took advantage of the opening, raised his sword brought it down.
He'd of taken his head if he'd been more prepared, but cutting him in half would kill him just as well.
But the boy was quicker than he thought, and rolled away, but not far enough to avoid a hit entirely.
Thor felt it in his left leg, above his knee, but several inches below his weaist. A hot sensation that burned all the way through his leg.
He hit the ground and rolled. He was hit, but he wasn't done, first thing first was to see how bad it was.
Looking down to see how badly he was cut, his blood ran cold. Looking down to where his left leg should have been, there was nothing at all.
Looking up, back towards Adam, he saw his severed leg lying between them, Adam advancing towards him.
"You are strong, but this the end." He heard him say as he walked towards him.
Thor tried to get to his knees, forgetting he now only had one and fell on his face.
Looking up, he saw Adam towering over him, sword raised.
As the blade came down, Thor used his hammer to pull himself out of the way of the blade, up and out of his reach.
He only partially succeeded, as the blade cut deep across his chest and to his hip bone. Sparks flew out of his chest and belt.
He had one last chance to win this.
Charging his equipment to its max, he flew towards the ground at top speed.
Adam was surprised at the boy vitality, most would be down for the count, but he kept fighting. It was almost a shame to kill him, almost.
But his sudden attack took him but surprise. He hit the ground hard, the force of an explosion, lifting Adam up off the ground.
At the same time, a massive bolt of lightning sprung from the hammer, which he just barely managed to block. But the sheer force of it lifted him into the air, at a speed he wouldn't have thought possible.
When the light dissipated and he looked around, he saw he was in the air, very high in the air.
Looking down he saw Thor rocketing at him, hammer pulling him towards him at tremendous speed. Lightning arcing off him and sparks flying off his chest.
As he neared him, Adam was sure he was going to be slam into him like a truck, but then something happened he would always count as one of his luckiest moments.
The vest shot out a shower of sparks, then exploded like a bundle of grenades. A secondary smaller explosion radiated from his waist, which could only be his belt.
Finally, the hammer head went off like a bomb, a flash of light completely blinding him for a moment, and when he could see again, he saw Thor falling to the earth, smoking, and burning like an aircraft that had been shot down.
Thor didn't realize what was happening at first. First was the sensation of pressure and heat on his torso, then a blinding flash in his right eye, then he blacked out for a moment.
After that, his whole body felt like it was on fire. He was falling. Was this a dream? The vision returning?
He hit the ground hard and felt something pierce him in several places. Looking into the sky, he knew this wasn't a vision or dream. Or rather it was his vision, and it had come to pass, he tried to cry out, but instead, he just coughed up a mouth full of blood.
This was the last thing he remembered before the darkness took him.
Yang came too on the landing pad, and it took her a moment to realize what had happened. She started to hyper ventilate, realizing what had happened.
A medic was with her and gave her an injection of something that made her heart rate drop.
"It's all right, we're taking care of you, just need you to keep calm, we'll have you to the hospital soon."
Looking around, she was looking for Blake and Thor, but neither was anywhere to be seen. She'd of panicked at that point if what ever the medic had given her hadn't been kicking in so well, and she started to fall asleep.
Blake made her way through the ruins of the school, Grimm was running rampant, but that wasn't what scared her the most.
She had spotted Adam making his way out of the area, apparently uninjured.
She went back to where she'd last seen Thor, and she didn't see any sign of him.
But she did find the handle of his hammer, burned and cracked in places.
Her heart sank at this. He couldn't be…could he? She examined the area, but found no sign of him, until she found something that made her stomach turn.
A human leg, it had Thor's pants and boot on in. This, combined with the hammer handle, and that she couldn't hear his yelling anywhere cemented it in her mind.
She felt tears burn her eyes, and she wiped them away. Why was it that the good hearted ones always went first? He wasn't weak or vulnerable, he was one of the strongest she'd ever seen.
But Adam had killed him.
She guessed he really wasn't the god of thunder, or Adam was truly the monster to slay him.
Weiss sat on the transport back home, her father not even looking at her. The entire incident was beyond a catastrophe, her school had fallen, her team was broken up. Blake was missing, Yang critically injured and Ruby in a coma.
Then there was the report of Thor, MIA, presumably KIA. Some had seen him fighting the White Fang leader of the attack. An explosion was reported in the area, and Adam Taurus was seen leaving the scene, while Thor hadn't been heard from since.
She loathed to admit it, but she found herself grieving from the stupid idiot. What was he thinking? The leader of the White Fang, why would he take such a fight by himself? Stupid fool, getting himself killed.
Tears stung her eye's, and she quickly wiped them away so her father couldn't see.
Ruby knocked on Yang door. "Yang, it's me."
She entered without any verbal permission.
Her sister was just staring out the window, not acknowledging her.
"It's over Ruby, Weiss and Blake are gone, they left us." Her sister said to her before she could say a word.
"Yang…"
"It's over Ruby, we lost."
Ruby wasn't to see her sister like this, she wanted to bolster her spirits somehow.
"But once Thor comes back" she started before her sister cut her off, shouting.
"He's dead Ruby! He's not coming back!"
Ruby felt like someone had punched her in the chest. Thor was dead? That couldn't be right, what could kill him?
"Yang, I'm not sure what you're saying."
She was cut off as Yang threw something at the wall next to her, making her jump. Something metal hit the wall and rolled to her feet. Picking it up to examining it, she recognized the handle of Thor's hammer, melted and cracked. She thought her heart had stopped.
"Someone sent that in the mail, with a letter with the facts, he's gone, Ruby. Him, Pyrrha, Penny, the strongest of us are all gone, what chance do we have." She said as her voice weakened.
Ruby started to back out of the room but saying one last thing to her sister. "Yang…I love you…"
Her sister didn't respond, and she left, feeling a level of despair she hadn't ever experienced.
Yang simply couldn't shake the depression that hung over her. Her team was gone, and even her little sister had set off on her own. Here she was, sitting a home, unable to move past the events of the Fall of Beacon.
But who could blame her? She'd been crippled, two of her close friend had been killed, and all of her team had left her behind.
Today, she was heading to the Patch hospital with her dad. He didn't tell her why, but she suspected it was for another check up on her physical and mental health.
She appreciated the concern, but frankly thought it was unwarranted. She wasn't going to get worse physically, she was healing as well as could be expected.
Mentally, however, she knew she had ways to go before she would be back to normal, and even than normal probably wouldn't ever be the same to her again.
Adam had taken her apart with literally no effort. He'd even taken down Thor, one of the strongest students she'd ever seen.
That thought brought a pang to her stomach. She was never going to hear him laugh again or watch him tease Weiss, or watch Ruby fawn over his weapons.
She wanted to cry in that moment, but forced the tears back. She hated showing weakness, it was why she didn't even look at Ruby when she came to see her after she had woken up. She didn't want to let her sister see the tears.
As they arrived, she followed her father in, and to her surprise, he went to the intensive care unit. That put her on edge.
"Yang, wait here for a minute, okay?"
She looked at her dad for a moment, now uncertain what was going on. But she responded with an "Alright."
Her dad walked down the hall and disappeared for a few minutes before he came back with a doctor.
"Miss Xiao Long, thank you for coming." The doctor said.
Yang was confused at this and looked to her father.
"Doctor, I didn't tell her, I didn't want her to get her hopes up."
The doctor nodded, but continued "We just need your help identifying a Jon Doe, we think you may know him."
"What, like a…body?" Yang felt her stomach turn at the idea.
"No, but he is comatose, and we are having a hard time tracking down his family."
"Okay…" she looked to her father for advice, he nodded.
She followed the doctor down the hall, her heart rate jumping through the roof.
"This young man here, do you know him?"
Yang looked into the room, and where her heart rate had been rocketing, it felt like it suddenly stopped.
"Thor?"
"So you know him?"
"Yes, we went to school together, what…what happened to him?"
Yang looked at Thor, but he was barely recognizable. His face and eyes were covered by bandages, and a ventilator was over his mouth.
But his right arm was gone and so was most of his left leg. Had Adam done that to him?
"He was found in the ruin of Beacon." The Doctor began "We don't know what caused his injuries, but his left leg appears of been severed by a sharp blade, and his right arms seems to of been torn off by an explosion. He's severely burned, as well, they cover around 60 percent of his body. His right eye has also been damaged past the point of recovery." The doctor said as flipped through his chart. "He'll be blind in his right eye from now on, and his left will experience at least some temporary blindness, possibly permanent."
"How…how long has he been here?"
"A few weeks, we've been taking in wounded for the fall for some time now, there aren't enough working facilities in the city to handle them them all."
Yang could describe the feeling in her chest. She thought he was dead, but here he was, gravely injured, but alive.
"Where will he go when he wakes up?"
"Well, we don't know at this point." Was all the doctor said at first "No family has come forward, and if that's the case, well, he may be on his own."
At first, all he knew was a pain, it covered his body. He tried to open his eyes, but something kept them from opening.
He tried to move, but his right arm and left leg were numb.
Then it started to come back to him. His leg. He reached down and felt nothing at all. Panic began to rush through him, and he reached over to grab his arm.
Again…nothing, nothing but pain.
His heart rate skyrocketed, and he started to try and get up, only for several persons to jump on him to keep him down.
He felt a prick in his neck and suddenly begun to calm down for no reason he could readily understand.
Then a voice spoke to him "Mr. Odinson, you need to relax, you're in a hospital, you need to calm down, you're alright."
He tried to take it easy, but he was still beyond upset "What happened to me?"
"You were hurt in the fall of Beacon Academy, but we are taking care of you, you're going to be alright" The voice assured him.
He was crippled and blind, how was he alright? He remembered the fight, Adam, and the fights conclusion.
He'd been crushed, thoroughly, by both his opponent and his own stupidity.
"Is he going to be alright!" Yang shouted as the nursing staff pilled on her friend, as he woke up in a rage.
"This is normal, he's confused to where he is and what is happening. He'll calm down in a moment."
And he did, but it was scary to see him in such a state.
After a few minutes, the nurse left him alone, and he sat up in his bed.
She watched him for a moment, then went into the room.
He heard a voice say his name "Thor?"
It was Yang.
"Yang?"
"Yeah, it's me, buddy, I'm here." He heard her pulled a chair up to the side of his bed.
"Tell me…how bad is it?" he asked.
She didn't answer right away, which told him it was bad.
"You…look good…I mean…yeah." she apparently didn't know how to responded.
"I need to get out of here." He said, sliding to the edge of his bed.
"Are you nuts?! Where are you going to go?"
He felt and hand on his shoulder, but she shrugged it off, trying to stand.
"Thor stop, you're going to hurt yourself!"
He tried to stand, but the pain forced him back down to the bed.
"How could it come to this?" he mumbled to himself.
"Thor…"
Yang didn't know what to do, Thor had no place to go, and couldn't fend for himself.
"Thor…" she thought, an idea coming to her "why don't you come to stay with me and my dad for a while? It would be better than staying here right?"
Thor sat silently for a while before responding "Where is Ruby?"
That caught her a bit off guard, but she didn't want to worry him "She's with friends right now, she'd safe, don't worry."
He didn't respond right away. "You'll get me out of here?"
"Yes!" she said, a tone of relief in her voice, he'd calmed down. "I just have to make sure it's alright with my Dad."
Her father agreed to let Thor stay with them pretty readily. She explained he was from and orphanage, had nowhere to go, and how he'd looked after Ruby at school, he'd agreed to bring him home.
Yang couldn't help but think of the way her dad had talked, like she was talking about a dog rather than a person, saying she could "keep him."
But later that day, Thor had been discharged, against medical advice, but he really didn't need to be there anymore.
Once they got home, Yang had to help Thor into Ruby's vacant room. With one leg and one arm, he couldn't actually walk on his own. He had a crutch, but it was still a hobbling movement when he tried to move on his own.
As she helped him to bed, he groaned in pain.
"You okay?"
"It just hurts…" he groaned in response.
"Well, the Doctor gave you these." She said pulling out a bottle of pills "I can give you one now, it'll help with the pain."
He just nodded, and holding the bottle in her left hand, she used her teeth to open it, and pull a pill out, and placing in in Thor's hand.
"You want something to drink with that?"
"Beer."
That she wasn't sure about, she didn't think he should be drinking with he medicine, but it didn't say no to it.
She could give him one, watered down beer, right?
"Sure, let me get that for you."
She poured a beer but watered it down, so it was mostly water and brought it to him. He downed it with the pill and quickly fell asleep.
She watched him sleep, and was struck by his drastic change in appearance. His long golden hair was burned off, now shortly cropped. His handsome features covered in burns and bandages. His torso was covered in bandages from the burns, shrapnel, and puncture injuries from the fall.
But his arm and leg, both were gone. It was sort of like looking in a mirror. Seeing someone who was so strong, rendered so helpless.
Did she look like that to others? Part of her said no, she wasn't nearly as badly hurt, but still, she wondered if that wasn't denial.
Could she really be in the same boat as Thor?
A/N: Okay, there it is, please Review!