Watts just chuckled. "I thought my death would've had more of an impact around here," he said as he pressed a button before walking around, his ornate twenty round revolver in his hands. Not gonna lie, it did look incredibly cool.
"And what do you think you're doing?" Ironwood said, stepping forward with his weapon at the ready, leaving Harriet and me by the large open engineering door.
"Why, what does it look like, general? Turning this colosseum into quite the kinetic explosive. I imagine that it would really shake up the city quite a bit, wouldn't it?" Watts said in that smarmy, sneering, All Might and Vegeta like voice of his.
"I see. So, you work for her," General Ironwood said as he walked up. Watts raised an eyebrow, and I stepped forward, Harriet right behind me. "You fake your death years ago and you come back, disable Amity Colosseum, just as a wave of Grimm arrives? That just isn't a coincidence."
"Bravo," Watts said, stepping back as he aimed his revolver at us. General Ironwood sidestepped and put himself in his line of fire. "Though, don't think you aren't the only one who can piece things together, James. You know I wasn't dead. Because someone else told you."
Watts peeked over to see me behind General Ironwood, ready to deploy my neural Dust at a moment's notice. "The boy. You haven't attempted to hide knowledge of her existence from him. Could it be that he knows?" he said.
"He has nothing to do with this," General Ironwood said, aiming Due Process at the apparently 'deceased' doctor. "You won't stop us from saving the people, and you won't stop us from fighting her. You made a mistake coming here, Watts."
"Anyways, I shan't prevent you from doing what you must do. Just know that I may have chained the deactivation of the generators keeping this colosseum afloat. But can you reactivate them all before time runs out, or will you be too late as-" Watts said.
"Seriously? Monologuing?" I said, annoyed.
"The grown ups are talking, boy," Watts said in an equally grating voice before firing two shots at me from his revolver. As General Ironwood tackled me to the floor, Harriet leapt up and dashed for Watts, who ran for the door.
"She'll be fine," Ironwood said, getting up and hurrying to the console. "We have to focus on keeping Amity afloat. One generator won't save the colosseum, but it'll buy the people some more time." He quickly grabbed and attached his scroll to the console before quickly setting up a call. "This is General Ironwood calling the A.A.S. Orion's Blade, Titan's Spear, and Valkyrie's Spirit," he said. "Amity Colosseum's anti-gravity generators are falling, and we need to speed up evacuations."
"Orders, sir?" one captain in the shared secure call said as I got up, brushing off my jacket.
"We need to steer Amity away from the city before it plummets," Ironwood said before he turned to me. "See if you can reactivate the generators, at least lock a conduit in place so the shutdown of power isn't absolute. I'll try and get Amity moved."
"Won't that interfere with all the airships getting docked?" I said.
"I'll have the captains notify the others, now go!" Ironwood ordered.
"Uhh, I'll see what I can do," I said, running to the generators. These were pretty advanced pieces of machinery, looking like a mix of an oversized car engine and a supercomputer from the 1900s. It had screens, pipes, and all sorts of high tech stuff on it. One screen was still active, and I quickly ran over to it to see what I could do.
The screen was blinking blue, only saying "Shutdown in Progress". There was no option to cancel the shutdown.
"Dammit," I mumbled as I looked around for something, anything I could use. There was something. A valve. It was connected to one of the dim yellow pipes. Grabbing it, I quickly wrestled to move it in order for something to happen.
Nothing happened at first when I turned it several times over. Then something happened. The dim yellow pipe was glowing brightly, and I heard a loud hum. The active screen blinked, and I turned to see the message changed.
"Conduit open, shutdown stalled. Please seal the maintenance power valve in order to proceed with shutdown."
"I opened some maintenance valve!" I said. "It's stalling the shutdown!"
"Good, open all of them!" Ironwood said, still typing away at the console. "Then we can work on reactivating the rest." He turned his full attention back to the others. "Ebi, I need you focus on the generator. Dealing with enemies is a secondary objective."
I ran around the generator, before finding a service ladder with a safety hoop that led to a second valve. Scrambling up, I reached the valve before I tried to turn it. Leaning back on the safety hoop for support, I struggled to twist the large cylindrical valve before succeeding.
The pipe hummed to life, and suddenly the generator flickered and blasted out a large whirring noise. "It's on!" I said.
"Canceling shutdown command for maintenance checks!" Ironwood said, and I jumped down to join him at the console. "Alright, the shutdown's been canceled but we can't initiate a full restart. It's running on auxiliary power for now. Only a minute and a half left."
This whole thing was three and a half minutes only? I shook myself out of my thoughts. "Can we move Amity to a clearing on backup power?"
"Not with one generator," Ironwood said. "We can only hope that the others can get the generators back online."
Thankfully, our prayers were answered when the scroll on the console blinked. "General, this is Specialist Ebi. Generator four is no longer on shutdown and is running on backup power," Clover's
"Specialist Xuesen here at Generator two, status is the same. But Specialist Signus is down," a second female voice said.
"How are they down? Did Watts get to them too?" I asked.
"No, White Fang. They caught them by surprise, but all have been reported taken down. As for how they got down here, we don't know. Likely the same way Watts got down here," Ironwood said. "Are there any other specialists remaining?"
"Zeki and Ederne are working on generator four. No comms from Specialist Team Echo," Clover said over the comms. "Going to check."
"Same here," the second voice, Xuesen, said.
"Alright. Good luck," Ironwood said before looking at me. "We need to get you off this colosseum."
"Why?" I said, before the colosseum jolted. Then it felt like we were falling, but very slowly.
"We can handle the rest. I'll try to steer Amity away from the city," Ironwood said. "Get to Beacon, tell Ozpin. No doubt he's shoring up defenses but we're going in blind. If we're to ward off this attack, we need expert coordination from the ground as well."
I sighed before looking at the door Watts and Harriet had vanished through. "I'm assuming Watts escaped through there. He'll probably have a way out there. Might be quicker than using the elevator. Or stairs," I said.
"Then go," Ironwood ordered as he made his way back to the console. I ran through, feeling the burn of adrenaline pumping through my veins. The hallway was dark, and it was taking some time for night vision to kick in. If Watts was here, was Tyrian or Hazel here? Maybe she got some more help, mercenaries, or worse.
I reached a light, a large hole in the wall that led to open skies. Outside, I could see Grimm flying around, with Atlesian battleships firing at the endless swarms. Point defenses fired tracers in the air, cutting down entire groups of Nevermore and Griffons at once. Still, for every one destroyed, ten more appeared. For every ten shot down, fifty more appeared.
The ships had power, but the Grimm had numbers. One airship was literally crawling with Grimm, but it showed no signs of falling anytime soon, as it fired over and over at the Grimm above.
"Mmmm..."
I looked down to see Harriet on the floor in a small pool of blood. Around her were several pieces of the wall and smoke. Rushing over, I quickly looked her over. Her thigh had two gunshot wounds.. Luckily, they weren't bleeding too much, but she was clearly unable to move. "Shit..." I gasped. "Shit, shit, shit..."
"K-kid?" I heard her say. "What're you..." She winced and fell silent for a second, taking a deep breath. "Watts got me. A Bullhead blasted through the wall, got my aura. Then he got me. Just leave me kid, you can't carry me."
"You aren't fat," I protested, and Harriet snorted before yelping in pain. "And I'm a lot stronger than I look."
"I'm slowing you down, kid," Harriet said. "Focus on the mission-"
"I am. The mission is to save people. And that includes you," I said. "I know you look down on me for letting those White Fang go. And I know it's...naive to try and help everyone. But I'd rather try that than let people die."
I grabbed my scroll and called on Ironwood. "Hey, I found Bree down the hallway. Watts escaped through a hole in the wall, he probably had a Bullhead waiting for him or something, but he shot Harriet in the thigh," he said.
"I see. I'll have some soldiers rerouted to her. Is there a way for you to get off Amity?" Ironwood asked.
"I can jump," I said as I peered down the tremendous height. "There's one of your battleships right below me. I can land on the hull and-"
"No, they're all crawling with Grimm," Ironwood interrupted. "You'd get ripped out of the air before you could. Shipboard defenses won't be able to avoid hitting you either. There has to be another way."
"Wait," I said before looking up. An airbus was flying nearby, higher than the airship but not at risk of friendly fire due to its close proximity to Amity Colosseum. "I have another option."
"Markus-" Ironwood said before I hung up.
"Kid, don't be stupid," Harriet said. She too could see the incoming airbus, and I sighed before jumping. As I fell from Amity Colosseum, I pulled out my neural Dust and quickly formed large boots around my feet and knees. Within seconds of falling, I landed on the dorsal hull of the large evacuation airship with a loud thud. When I landed, my boots rippled upwards from all the shock absorption.
Getting up, I saw that the airbus was headed for Vale, with Beacon nearby, which was being swarmed by Grimm and smaller airships, gunfire in the air. Sighing, I formed my Dust into a hoverboard, stepping on it and flying off the airbus to fly towards the academy.
I reached it within a few minutes of flight, not having been detected by the Grimm nor any others on the ground. But I did see something else at Beacon. Bullheads, lots of them. Hundreds of white figures poured out of the several landed ships all over campus.
"The White Fang," I mumbled as I landed on the courtyard, near the entrance where several abandoned airbuses and Bullheads were docked. "Of course..."
"Of course, what?"
I screamed and tripped over the edge of the courtyard sidewalk. Penny and Liya were standing behind where I was standing. "Where-how, I just got here, how did you get here?" I said, trying to calm down my racing heart.
"Oh, we were told to get here the moment evacuation on Amity started," Liya said. "Ozpin had any and all students get to an airship and hightail it here. Good thing too, this is a mess."
"Ironwood contacted me about one minute and thirty two seconds earlier, telling me that you were on the way down from Amity, and he suggested that I meet and support you," Penny said. And with that, she walked up and hugged me as I stood up, patting my back as she smiled against my ear. "It's going to be alright. I am here," Penny said comfortingly.
"...ahem," I mumbled. "I don't think he meant that kind of support." Still, the hug did feel rather nice.
"Yeah, pretty sure he meant fighting support," Liya said.
"Oh. In that case, I am combat ready!" Penny said, letting go of me and drawing her blades. "Let us fight!"
"Right," I said, drawing my neural Dust and forming blades of my own, four of each type of Dust I had, having twenty four in total. "Let's go."
Liya looked at our blades, then at her singular large sword. "Always gotta show me up," she grumbled as the three of us ran down the courtyard towards the sounds of fighting.
Grimm and White Fang were everywhere, fighting each other and the students that had landed from Amity. Buildings and structures in Beacon had collapsed, with torn up holes in the walls and roofs, as well as crumbled pillars and toppled trees. Smoke and fire billowed from the large auditorium.
Team NDGO was holding off a group of Ursai while May Zedong from team BRNZ sniped them out from the roof of one of the classrooms. Brawnz, Roy, and Nolan were fighting off several Beowolves nearby as well, and I was glad to see they weren't dead yet. I wondered if NDGO would flee the moment they could, like they originally did in the show. Alongside NDGO was FNKI and several Atlesian soldiers taking on multiple White Fang soldiers entrenched in a wrecked classroom.
"Liya, Penny, help them out and grab them to come along with us," I said. The two nodded before they changed direction, moving to assist the soldiers and the students. I continued on my original heading to see ABRN up ahead, fighting off several enemies. Without hesitation, I moved up to assist.
ABRN was busy with several White Fang troops and Grimm in melee combat, Reese and Arslan beating down several untrained Faunus terrorists while Bolin held off a Beowolf, long enough for Nadir to gun it down. As another Beowolf went for Nadir, I managed to dash in and slash it to bits before turning to see Reese smash her hoverboard over the head of one of the remaining White Fang grunts. "Guys, with me!" I yelled as I pinned another Beowolf in the air before hurling it down into a Creep.
"Where to?!" Reese yelled as she backflipped over a White Fang goon's sword slash, making room for Arslan to bury her fist into his gut. I sent two more grunts into a smashed building with my Dust blades before seeing that the area was clear for now.
"We're too spread out!" I said. "We need to grab as many students and soldiers as we can. Let's get to the center of Beacon, we can regroup and set up a temporary base of operations!"
"Sounds good," Bolin said, whacking aside a Beowolf that was going for my exposed flank, only for Arslan to punch the Beowolf in the chin, knocking it down. Nodding my thanks, I ran, the four Mistral students following. As the five of us ran, we saw Penny and Liya joining us, being followed by the twelve other students and about twenty Atlesian soldiers, a few wounded but able to keep up otherwise. It was a straight path to the center of the courtyard after that.
Coco and Velvet were busy fighting off a group of Death Stalkers near the center of Beacon, Coco with Gianduja and Velvet with a copy of Nora's hammer. Running over to them, I assisted in taking down one of the massive Grimm scorpions by shearing off its legs with a pair of spinning blades, before impaling each of its eyes with a third pair of blades.
Velvet roared as she slammed the hard-light copy of Magnhild on its carapace, shattering its skull and effectively ending its life. Coco gunned down the last two Death Stalkers. "Well, this area's clear," Coco said, the fashionista turning around to see us arrive, my Dust blades being pulled back to levitate around me. "Well, look who finally arrived," she said.
"Sorry, I had to fight off someone on Amity before jumping down here," I said. "Situation update."
"Grimm are everywhere. Bullheads dropped all sorts of ground Grimm with more coming from the forests. Troops guarding it are dead, and the airships are preoccupied with most of the aerial Grimm to get the Bullheads. White Fang bastards," Velvet said, turning to see a Bullhead full of White Fang soldiers descending.
They never got the chance to drop, as a torrent of blades severed the nacelles from the transport, leaving the wingless ship plummeting into the ground with a mighty explosion tearing up the ground. Penny pulled her blades back, satisfied at the prevention of enemy reinforcements.
"Ooh, swearing? My little bunny's finally growing up," Coco said mirthfully, Velvet lightly punching her team leader's shoulder at that remark. "But yeah. Atlas has its hands full with the city and the air."
"What about the White Fang?" I asked.
"They landed everywhere," Coco said. "Grimm and White Fang are killing each other too, but there's so many on both sides that I'm pretty sure we'll get overwhelmed before any one army will win or lose."
"So it's just all chaos," Liya said as she fired a single shot through the head of a low flying Nevermore. "What's the plan?" she asked as the corpse of the massive avian Grimm turned to mist in midair.
"Hold on," I mumbled before pulling out my scroll and calling the general. "This is Onissa," I said the moment he picked up. "We're regrouping as many students from all academies here as we can. Beacon's crawling with Grimm and White Fang. Is the city under attack?"
"No, evacuations haven't stopped and the Grimm are only swarming Beacon," Ironwood said. "I'm currently setting up defensive measures to prevent the Grimm from getting to the city."
"Good. And keep an eye on Mountain Glenn, you never know when Kevin will show up," I said.
"Kevin?" Ironwood said, his eyebrow raising.
"The dragon. Sorry, that's what the fanbase calls him. How's Amity looking?" I said.
"Backup power is working fine," Ironwood said. "We're steering it away from the city and Beacon. Some Grimm and White Fang managed to get onto Amity, but they're getting cut down before they can get to the people. Once we're a safe distance away, I'll join the rest of my forces en route to Beacon. Until then, try to clear out the center of Beacon for a landing zone. Get everyone together and prepare for a counterattack."
"Understood, we'll need as much backup as possible. Good luck," I said before hanging up. I turned to see Coco, Velvet, Arslan, and Brawnz staring at me, clearly confused. "What?"
"You're...I thought you were from Beacon," Arslan asked.
"I am from here. I'm his eyes on the ground since I was with the general when this whole thing got started," I said. "Which means reporting to him what I see and making suggestions for anything and everything. I'll answer more questions later, we need to keep regrouping everyone and set up a defensible position!"
"Alright," Liya said. "Let's clear the training blocks first, they give good cover. Coco, Velvet, let's see if we can find anyone else."
"I saw team SSSN near the cafeteria," Coco said. "RWBY's split up as far as I can tell."
"Wait, where's Fox and Yatsu?" I asked.
"Fox got injured, Yatsu took him to the infirmary," Coco said.
"Is the infirmary a good area to defend?" Liya asked.
"It's holed up now, too many Grimm and downed Bullheads," Velvet said. "They're safe, but we can't get to them. They can defend themselves though."
"Alright then. BRNZ and ABRN, get to higher ground. NDGO, secure the pillars!" I ordered.
"Wait, why are we supposed to listen to you-" Octavia began before the loud sound of a blasting trumpet cut her off, with Flynt running by. "Not the time, girls!" he said as he and the rest of his team rushed towards a few approaching Grimm. The Atlesian soldiers had started setting up cover, opening fire on more incoming enemies.
Time flew by as we cleared out more and more enemies approaching. Somehow, the White Fang kept coming, and the Grimm never stopped. We had to have been fighting for about an hour since the attack started, and many of us were tired. I immediately got flashbacks to those first person shooter video game levels that involved those 'defend the objective as long as possible' or the 'lone wolf' mission at the end of Halo Reach.
Eventually, we didn't have to keep fighting for long after that. Several salvos of cannon fire from the air cut down several Bullheads circling the area, as well as any other attacking Grimm. Three Atlesian dropships hovered over the area we cleared, firing their chin mounted rotary cannons and allowing us a breather.
Several Atlesian specialists, including the Ace-Ops - minus Harriet, jumped out of the open ramp - twenty four of them. Alongside the specialists was General Ironwood himself, with both weapons of Due Process in his hands. "Status," he said.
"Sector is clear. Establishing a landing zone for additional forces," Clover said, directing Elm to an incoming Goliath. "We have the 1st and 2nd Platoons of the 6th Batallion en route, as well as two heavy weapons squads and a team from the medical corps."
"Good," Ironwood said before coming over to me. My outfit was covered in soot, and I was panting hard. My aura was on low, and I had some trouble keeping my Dust blades in one piece. "Sir," I said, trying and failing to salute.
"You did good," Ironwood said, patting my shoulder. "I spoke to Ozpin, he wants to know where our infiltrators are."
"Dunno," I said. "I was too preoccupied fighting. They might be going to Ozpin's office..."
"He would have said something," Ironwood said. "My ships lost track of them when evacuations started and the Grimm began their attack."
"That isn't good," I said. "What about Harriet-"
"We have more coming down!" Nadir yelled, pointing in the distance. An airship, one of those massive Vale transports, was on the way to the Beacon landing pads, a few Grimm following.
"More survivors," Ironwood said, reaching in his pocket and pulling out a small canister, tossing it to me. "We'll continue this later. Chew two."
Catching and opening the canister, I tilted it and saw a few pills fall out. Taking two, I popped them in my mouth and chewed. I was hit with an extremely papery taste from what was basically sludge in the pills, and I struggled to swallow, but the moment I did, I felt my aches slowly go away.
"Emergency aura boosters," Ironwood said. "They'll charge your aura, but get ready for one nasty heartburn in a few hours."
I got up, feeling my aura glow warmly, my energy coming back to me. "Thank you, sir," I said, handing the canister back before the general pushed my hand back to me, shaking his head. Pocketing the canister, I yelled for two to come with me to the landing pads. Velvet and Liya decided to come with me, the three of us leaping out of our base of operations and running down the courtyard path.
Velvet, Liya, and I ran for the landing pads, kicking down and pounding our way through the Grimm and White Fang grunts as we went. Explosions rang out in the air as a barrage of missiles from an Atlesian battleship tore into a swarm of Nevermore on an attack run above us. We arrived as the airship landed.
Several students, many in uniform and some in combat attire, rushed out the moment the ramps lowered. "This way!" Velvet said as she summoned a hard-light copy of Gianduja, firing up at dozens of Griffons circling the area. "Get to the courtyard!"
"Has Ozpin done anything?" Liya said as she sniped out a low flying Griffon before shifting Kābā into its sword form, jumping up and bisecting a Nevermore going for the people. Luckily, the Atlesian specialists were spread out, the ones near us helping us take down any attacking Grimm since there was only so many we could handle.
I held my blades above the students, spinning to form shields that cut any Grimm trying to strafe the column of people. "Hard to say, we'll worry about that when-" I was about to say when my scroll went off. Keeping my blades up, I grabbed my scroll and looked to see who was calling.
My eyes widened. "Ozpin," I muttered before answering. "Headmaster, what's the-"
"Stay away from the tower!" Ozpin's voice said through the speakers in a torrent of coughs. He sounded both panicked and extremely injured. "Get everybody out of Beacon and to the city!"
"Wait, abandon Beacon?" I said. "But what about-"
"It's too late...Cinder's here," Ozpin said, gasping for breath. "She broke into the vault...took the power before she and her cohorts attacked me. I managed to ward them off, but I'm critically wounded. They're loose in Beacon, and they'll only wreak more havoc. You have to get everybody out before-"
He was cut off by the sound of crumbling stones before a massive crash ended the call.
"Ozpin!" I yelled. Nothing. The call was interrupted, and I couldn't call him back.
"What did he say?!" Liya called.
"...he said to abandon Beacon," I said. "The enemy has the power."
Liya's face darkened. "We need to get back to Ironwood," she said. "Tell him what's going on. If we can-"
"Found you..."
Liya and I turned to see Velvet facing off against Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, and Neo. "So here's the senile wizard's informant," the Fall maiden said, her eyes flaming as she approached the bunny girl.
"Velvet, get out of here. Stay with the other students and alert Ironwood," I said. Liya cocked the bolt in Kābā as I pulled up my Dust blades before morphing them all into a pair of large Dust chains.
"Yes. Run along, little rabbit," Cinder said dismissively. "I have no use for you."
"Guys-" Velvet began to say.
"She's out of your class. Just run. It's not you she wants," I said. Velvet gulped before reluctantly doing so. "You too," I said, looking at Liya.
"Fuck that," Liya said, aiming her rifle.
Cinder narrowed her eyes before waving a hand. Emerald and Mercury dashed forward. I abruptly swung the Dust chains around, shattering the cobblestone path, swinging hard as bits of fragmented stone flew in the air. Mercury jumped and spun over the chains with ease, kicking one back before landing and continuing his dash at me.
I swung, and Mercury faded into nothingness, my chain carving through empty air. Upon realizing that it was Emerald's semblance, I instinctively ducked under the real Mercury's flying kick coming from my left. Nearby, I could see Liya jumping over Emerald's strikes, slashing through the air as she swung and aimed her own weapon.
Emerald backflipped just as the massive rifle fired, blasting a crater with the high velocity shot before Kābā turned into its buster sword form, the end pointing up as Liya prepared for a lower strike, swinging upwards towards the green haired villain. Emerald dodged and swung her chained scythes, Liya blocking each hit with the large blade as a shield.
Emerald spun out on her left before swinging her leg, ready to kick Liya's exposed side...until her leg suddenly went the opposite direction, sending Emerald toppling back. By the time she rolled to her feet, Liya had smashed the flat of her blade into the thief's face, her aura flickering brightly at the sudden blow.
Mercury slammed his foot into my arm from the side in a spinning hook kick before he fired from his boot, the shot damaging my aura and sending me stumbling back. Jumping while off-balance, I brought up the Dust chains and twirled them towards Mercury, who dodged the first. He took the second against the gut a mere second later, and he slammed into the side of the closest airship.
Recovering immediately, he grinned. "Gotta say, you're one good dancer. You were a lot of fun to hang around while it lasted," he sneered.
"We barely hung out at all," I remarked. "But thanks." Mercury jumped up into the air with a blast from his boots and flipped forward, ready to slam his foot down on me.
I quickly jumped back and wrapped my chains against his leg and swung him back, towards Cinder's direction. "You're kind of predictable, though," I said. To no one's surprise, Cinder simply sidestepped and let him tumble violently past, Neo watching as the silver haired kicker struck a rock. "Not bad," Cinder said.
"So, why do you want us dead?" I asked, looking from Cinder to Neo. For some reason, Neo looked rather angry, clutching her overpowered umbrella as she glared at me.
"Watts informed me that you were aware of him being alive. And Ozpin told me you knew that we were enemies," Cinder said silkily. Her eyes burned even brighter - I realized the fire had never gone out - and she began to levitate, her red dress fluttering as she began to emit small tornadoes of fire around her hands. "So it makes me wonder how much of a threat you really are..."
"I'm flattered. Most people think I'm a joke," I said, clenching my shaking fists. I heard a grunt and turned to see Emerald lying on the ground, Liya having drained the last of Emerald's aura fighting her. She had been whittling down Emerald the whole time they were fighting, getting up close and personal to keep Emerald from countering either with her weapons or her semblance. And given how powerful Kābā was, there were only so many hits from that buster blade she could take before having had enough.
Liya turned to see the firestorm threatening to be unleashed from Cinder, the flames forcing Neo to step back and shield herself from the heat with the umbrella. "So...this is what I could've had?" Liya muttered.
"Yeah. We were too late," I said.
"Indeed you were," Cinder said before a massive wave of flame was sent towards us. Liya ducked and I jumped, turning the neural Dust I had from chains into an artificial Beowolf, sending it flying at Cinder. Cinder dispersed it in a single fireball, before dodging a shot from Liya and her Kābā. Before Cinder could turn to my partner, I the Dust I had into a flying spiked mace, sending it barreling into Cinder's gut.
The mace hit like, well, a mace, but it did nothing other than move the power hungry maiden. It turned back into Dust as Cinder flew back from the force of the hit. Snarling, Cinder summoned blades, dozens of them all at once, materializing out of the air.
"Shit," Liya said before the burning glass swords shot towards us at unreal velocities. Liya and I ran, dodging and blocking blades with our weapons. I had an easier time deflecting the blades with the large Dust shields I formed, and Liya was shattering several swords at once, all while acrobatically dodging even more.
When the storm of swords stopped, Liya collapsed to a leg, panting terribly as her aura flickered. She was low, and Cinder knew it. Forming more swords, at least ten of them, she sent them hurtling at Liya before one of my Dust shields moved between the weapons and my partner.
"Get away from her!" I yelled as I sent my second shield flying at Cinder as fast as I could. It bashed into her violently, right through a pillar. Cinder roared in unbridled rage as she flew towards me, a flaming javelin in her hands as she got ready to hurl it at me. She never got to throw it as several blades intercepted her before she could even pull back her arm to throw the burning polearm.
Leaping over Cinder, Penny landed between me and Liya, the blades spinning in front of her. "Cinder Fall, please surrender before things get too much for you," she said.
"Do you honestly think I'll do that?" Cinder cackled, the javelin cocked back and ready to be let loose. "You lack the power to stop me."
"I suggest you listen." Cinder turned to see Ironwood, aiming both pistols of Due Process at her from behind. He looked incredibly angry, even in his professional pose and steady hands. "Now," he said.
A click was heard, and Ironwood turned to see Emerald still on the ground close to Cinder, her green weapons shakily aimed at the Atlesian general. Ironwood responded in kind by aiming one of his pistols, the gravity Dust pistol, down at the illusionist thief.
Mercury and Neo were nowhere to be seen, and I wondered where they could be, until one of the Vale airbuses began to power up, the large tail rotors slowly spinning as it began to take off. In the cockpit, I could barely see a brown and pink head of hair.
The six of us were still, even as the airship lifted up. Cinder looked between Liya, Penny, and me, before grinning. I narrowed my eyes as she began to laugh. Ironwood pulled back the hammer of Due Process, ready to fire the moment she decided to try something/
"I don't think I'll be the thing you're most worried about," Cinder said mockingly. The ground began to rumble before any of us could ask. Looking up, I saw the Atlesian battleships turning towards Mountain Glenn, firing missiles and cannons at the rumbling mountain.
"You have got to be kidding me," I mumbled before the following quake sent all of us tumbling back. Penny crashed back first into me, and the already tired Liya collapsed. Ironwood stumbled for a second, and Cinder took off at once, flying for the airship Neo and Mercury hijacked.
"M-ma'am!" Emerald cried, her eyes practically begging for Cinder to come back and retrieve her. However, Cinder gave no indication that she heard her. When she stopped in midair, she looked down and clenched her fist. There was a hissing sound, and I looked down to see all the fragments of the swords she'd thrown slowly glowing.
"Right..." I thought to myself. "I forgot she could do that."
Liya jumped forward, tackling Penny as I jumped forward as well. The resulting explosion tore up the ground, destroying the landing pads and sending half a dozen landed airships crashing over the edge, into the water several hundred meters below.
As the dust cleared, I looked around to see the cobblestone torn up, and no sign of Cinder or the hijacked airship. Coughing, I got up and looked around. "Is everyone alright?" I called.
"I am functional!" Penny called.
"Yeah..." Liya hissed. "I'm...OK..."
Ironwood, who was the furthest away from the explosion, ran over to Liya and helped her up. Her aura was broken, and she had several scratches on her legs. Her kimono was torn, exposing much more of her body than any normal girl would be comfortable with, but that seemed to be a rather miniscule at the moment. Getting up, I recalled all my Dust and looked around.
Emerald lay on the ground, dazed and battered. Her arm was bent unnaturally, and she was bleeding from the head. "She...she left me," Emerald whispered, eyes half closed, as if she were tired.
"What do we do about her now?" Liya asked, panting tiredly as she leaned on the general for support. I didn't answer her, instead hoisting Emerald up bridal style. She leaned limply against me as her broken arm hung awkwardly below her.
"We take her with us," I said. "She's much more useful with us than behind bars. Plus...I think I could get her to see what's really going on."
Liya didn't answer as we began to make our way back to the courtyard before another tremor stopped us mere feet after we started walking. "What in the-" I said before the sound of an explosion tore through the air.
Mountain Glenn crumbled as Kevin finally emerged from his hidey hole, just like how it first appeared in the original show. It screeched loudly as it took off from the massive hole it was in, the sounds of its wings flapping tearing through the air. What was different now was its direction of flight. It wasn't heading for Beacon, nor the airships, nor Amity Colosseum - which was a good distance away now.
It was heading for the city.