AN: Did you think I forgot about this?
"Ah. You return?" Ludo said taking a deep sip of his glass of water as the low heavy thuds of footsteps filled the air.
Thud! There was a thudding on his desk as a small burned, badly singed black duffle bag was slammed down onto his desk as Jaune let out a deep groan.
"We got the device. We are done." Jaune gasped his face covered in soot, his hair matted with grease and sweat, his armor dented and punctured, and his body looking like it was going to collapse at a moment's notice and it looked like his team was no different.
"You are finished with your mission Arc, do not think that you have been granted a pardon yet." The blonde dean growled her eyes piercing into Jaune as he winced for a moment before turning his gaze to Ludo.
"We are going back to our dorm, please don't call us for anything less than an emergency."
"Oh Mister Arc, don't you know by now?" Ludo said reaching out for the small burnt duffle bag opening it up and inspecting the contents with a small smile on his face before he zipped it back up and placed it on the back of his desk.
"Every mission at Bastion is an emergency." The man said as the team of two teens a possible alien and a cyborg girl groaned as they began to shuffle back out, limping towards their dorm and the promise of rest.
"I am so tired! I just want to go to bed!" Ruby groaned as she slumped down on her and Jaune's bed. Her legs kicked out for a second as Jaune sighed ignoring the flipped skirt of Ruby before it settled down.
"I... I also need a break." Kage grunted the normally stoic young man letting out a yawn his armor clanking down on the ground as he began to put away his pistols.
"Oh! I know! If you want something soft to sleep on I am always available for you to do it too!" Mika said smiling at him her bright green eyes glowing as she twirled next to him.
"Thanks. But hard pass."
"Ahh, you are no fun! Jaune tell Kage to stop being a downer!"
"Kage do what she says or else."
"I would actually rather die," Kage replied bluntly as Jaune shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, you heard him Mika if you want him to sleep on you you'll just have to kill him first."
"Ok!"
"Please don't. I just got out of having my body almost riddled with bullet holes, I didn't come back here just to die by you of all people."
"But just think! All you need to do to avoid such a fate is to put your dignity aside for a moment and let me have my wicked way with you!"
"Actually I think I prefer death, just make it quick ok? I'm too tired to scream."
"I just want to sleep, can you two please not try to kill each other for one night?" Ruby asked her head poking up her robotic eye narrowing dangerously at the both of them as Mika sighed and relented.
"Fine, I guess that I'll just let this go for now, besides I know that Kage is madly in love with me so I know he's just playing hard to get."
"I am not but delusions can be healthy from what I know."
"Jaune Kage is being mean!"
"It's late Mika, I'm tired, I have no aura left and I think that I have burns from my pistol on my hips. I just want to sleep." Jaune said as he fell right next to Ruby the smaller girl instantly pushed up to him starting to cuddle as Jaune sighed and yawned.
"Everyone go to bed, that's an order."
"Finally a good one."
"Yes, sir mister boss man!"
"Good night Jaune."
"Good night, let's hope tomorrow is better." Jaune yawned allowing Ruby to be her usual cuddle bug self as he began to drift off to dreamless dark slumber.
Sometimes you wished you had more aura, this was one of those times.
"What the fuck is going on!?" Jaune shouted as he was slammed into the wall with the force of a semi! His aura flashed out as the bullhead shook with a force that he had not predicted, there was the horrible sound of tortured metal as the voice in his headset squawked.
"We have a Nevermore on the hull! It's too big for me to shake off!" The shocked voice of the pilot shouted in his ears as Jaune groaned, he really did not have time for this shit!
"Oh hell, Kage open the door!" Jaune shouted as another lurch sent him flying up to the ceiling! Jaune felt something snap deep in his body and almost lost consciousness. He saw the bodies of his teammates also thrown from their seats, hands and legs flew everywhere as team Arkham tried to grab onto anything to fix their positions as a terrible caw filled thier ears.
"If you say so!" Kage shouted before he released his grip on a seat that he was clinging perilously to as he fell down the craft, sliding along the metal before hooking himself on the last seat! He grunted in exertion pulling himself up before punching the emergency release button. There was a sudden howl of the wind as the cabin depressurized as the voice of the pilot screamed into his ear.
What the hell is that!? Why is the back door open!? Kiara shouted as Jaune sighed as he drew his plasm pistol.
"I'm going to deal with our Grimm problem."
Are you crazy!? Get that damn door closed you fool!
"It will only take a second," Jaune said as he took a deep breath and let go of his safety harness. The world spun around him as he slid down to the ramp! Jaune took a deep breath his world a blur before he reached out a hand gripping one of the massive pistons lowering the ramp and swinging himself half outside the ship! Jaune did not hesitate to raise his gun at the monstrous Grimm that was busy trying to tear its way into the ship. He raised the gun and fired a maximum power blast right into its center. The thing let out a shrike as he fired twice more incinerating its chest and destroying the creature at once.
Jaune sighed as he put away the pistol the Grimm rapidly disintegrated as he shook his head.
Did you get it? Kiara asked as Jaune nodded as he gripped the side of the ship once again and flung himself back into the ship.
"Yeah, I got it," Jaune said as Kage reached down helping him up as the rear of the ship began to slowly rise up as Jaune took a deep breath hoping that this would be the last mission of the day, he had enough of dealing with Grimm for once and just wanted to eat.
"So... not that this is a bad thing but you had friends right? Like you had friends in Beacon right?" Zach asked taking a swig of some kind of liquid in a metallic glass as Jaune sighed and nodded his head.
"Yes. Yes, I did, and yes I still do have friends in Beacon why do you ask?" Jaune asked his friend, who he was sure had probably stolen something from him or someone else and was trying to find a way to either pony the goods off to him or just to make an excuse so Hino would not beat him for it.
"Well was any of them named... Sun?" Jaune paused he took the time to look at his dark eyes and frowned.
"How did you know that?" Jaune asked as Ruby also paused taking a break from her cookies as her robotic eye zoomed in on the boy.
"Hey, how do you know that name? Sun was one of our friends from Beacon. How do you know him?" Ruby asked as the boy looked to his partner, Hino coughed into her hand her eyes darting down as she looked down and coughed again.
"We might have seen them on our last mission, the one that we went on last time. It was near Vale and we wondered if you knew someone by that name that is all." Hino said calmly as Jaune blinked owlishly.
"Wait what? You two were near Vale? Why didn't you tell us? Why were you there? Did you see any other teams? Where they ok?" Jaune asked a strange amount of concern in his voice as both Zach and Hino paused neither knew how to respond and-
"When we last spoke to them they were in perfect health. They were in perfect health and wanted to know more about you and your location. Not that we could tell them that is. But fear not when we last spoke to them they were in perfect health." Merrick said in his usual calm and comforting voice, his bright blood-red eyes shining as he gave Jaune a smile.
Jaune felt another chill from the albino boy that made him want to shiver but he knew better than to show even an ounce of weakness in Bastion, that would get him killed.
"Did they ask about our deaths!? How did they take them?! Was there a faunus named Blake with them!?"
"We are sorry Ruby, there was just no time for us to really get into a conversation with them. We were on a mission you know? We could not just stop and chat about the confidential objectives of Bastion proper now could we?" Merrick replied calmly as both Hino and Zach gave him a wild look before they both shut up and look down at their food and began eating it quickly and quietly as Jaune narrowed his eyes and nudged Kage.
"Do you think they are hiding something from us?" Jaune whispered as Kage paused and narrowed his eyes.
"You didn't kill them did you?" The boy asked as Merrick paused his smile ambivalent as Kage rose an eyebrow at him.
"Kage! There is no way that they would do that! You should not even joke about that!" Ruby said a pout on her face as Kage paused giving his teammate a blank look before turning to them.
"So did you kill them?"
"Kage!"
"Like I said Kage, the last we spoke to them they were alive and well," Merrick said again as Kage nodded his head and turned to Jaune.
"There you have it, they are alive and well," Kage said as he went back to eating the thick piece of steak that was before him. Mika finished off what was left of a lobster as she sucked down the insides with a harsh pop!
"I don't know what the big deal is, we are like way better friends than any of the ones you had in Beacon anyway right Ruby?" Mika asked Ruby paused her eye went wide as her robotic one sank back into her skull as she paused.
"I... I really do like you guys, but my sister is back in Beacon and I was the leader of my old team. I can't just abandon them."
"But we are like way cooler than them you know? Right?" Mika asked a bright smile on her face that did not reach her eyes flashed out. Jaune shivered openly this time as much as he trusted Mika there was just something undeniably alien about her that made him feel on edge.
Remember she's a virus. Jaune thought as he saw Ruby gulp.
"Well I have to say you are all pretty cool, and I guess I have done cooler stuff in Bastion than I ever did in Beacon so I guess that we are the cool kids?" Ruby said with a shrug as Mika nodded aggressively.
"Hah! You see that Kage, we are the cool kids! Not the ones in Beacon."
"Yay. We are cool, does it matter?"
"I think it does! We have a reputation to uphold after all."
"We have a reputation?" Kage asked raising an eyebrow as Mika nodded.
"Of course we do! One of us is a god to the faunus, the other is a badass cyborg I am me and you are just handsome!"
"That is one way to put it," Kage said before going back to his meat ignoring his partner as Jaune sighed and shook his head.
"Well thank you for making sure that our friends are well looked after, if you can tell us what was your mission that was so near Vale? We have more experience near that area so it seems that Ludo would have picked us for the mission and not you."
"Oh don't think of it like that Jaune, there is nothing wrong with you, maybe he did not want you to get homesick or tempted to make a foolish decision now that you are so close to your old home. And plus if someone saw you that you knew personally well you can just see how that could be problematic." Merrick said as Jaune was forced to agree.
"I just want them to know that we are ok."
"And you will! You will be able to reunite with them during Vytal and plus think of it like this! You get to go back and represent Bastion in a tournament in a controlled environment and your life will not be on the line, compared to life here it will be a walk in the park!"
"Yeah, yeah when you put it like that I guess you are right."
"Oh, Jaune I am always right, always."
"So tell me, do you think that Zach was telling the truth?" Jaune asked as Kage tossed him a cigarette.
"About what? The last time he spoke to your friends that they were alive?"
"Yes that, I want to make sure that nothing bad happened to them," Jaune said as Kage lit his cigarette as Jaune took a deep drag of it and sighed.
"Fuck I needed that."
"You and me both and to answer your question I don't think what they said was wrong. They are speaking the truth but they are definitely keeping something from us."
"A lie of omission is still a lie~," Mika said hanging off her bed as Ruby sat next to her looking at her scroll and frowning.
"I just want to do some shopping online but I don't know how to get past all these firewalls! Why can't I get things delivered here! It's not like other people don't know this place exists, we can surely get some things delivered!" Ruby complained as Kage rolled his eyes.
"Don't look into that too much Red, if you want something specific maybe we can steal it when we next go out on a mission ok? That would be the easiest way to get something that is not available in the school or the black market."
"No stealing! And don't sass me, Kage! Don't sass me when I am trying to find the next issue with X-ray and Vav ok! I just want to read my comic books!" She said her robotic eye shooting out of her skull as she pouted adorably the cyborg girl looking adorably human as Kage sighed.
"Well if we don't steal then we don't eat isn't that right leader?"
"None of us are going to become thieves Kage, we do what we have to to survive nothing more nothing less. We still have our humanity."
"Except for me~" Mika sang as Jaune sighed.
"Yes, even you have some form of humanity in you Mika no matter what anybody else tells you."
"I'm not so sure about that," Kage said as Jaune sighed again taking a deep drag of his cigarette and blowing out the smoke.
"So tell me do you think that they are alive or not?"
"Jaune! You really should not be questioning our friends! Zach said they are alive!"
"And you trust him?" Kage asked an eyebrow raised as Ruby pouted.
"I! Well, I trust Hino and she said it! So I know that it is true!"
"Well if you say so that is what you say."
"Hino would not lie to me!"
"I don't think she would want to lie to you but... life happens," Kage said as Jaune picked up his pistol and frowned. He notice a small ding on it that marred the otherwise near worn but still in perfect repair exterior.
"Dammit, I got it scratched when I got out of the ship to kill that Nevermore. I am going to have to go to the quartermaster to make sure that it gets fixed."
"Oh! I can fix that for you! I know a bit about how that energy weapon works! Kage has been helping me learn about it!" Ruby said as Kage nodded.
"That is true. I have been helping Red learn a bit about energy manipulation."
"Well, it's just a scratch so I guess that it won't be that bad."
"Oh, I can't wait! I can add a scope to it! I can add a bayonet or maybe even an enhanced PowerShell for more firepower!" Ruby said silver eyes gleaming with curiosity and lust for tech as Jaune gulped.
"Don't overdo it, Ruby, I just need to scratch buffed out, I can let you experiment on it another day ok?"
"Ok, you don't have to be such a spoilsport though, you know I won't mess it up!" Ruby said hopping up and walking over to Jaune as Kage paused.
"Wait Ruby I think you dropped something on Mika's bed."
"Huh? I did?" The reaper asked as she turned around as Kage leaned into Jaune's ear.
"I don't know why but I feel like something happened between your friends and the others. I know that Ruby wants to trust them but I would keep my ears open." Kage whispered quickly and quietly as Mika chatted idly with Ruby as Jaune nodded.
"I'll talk to some of my friends about it, I don't really have contacts outside of Bastion but maybe Whitley could help us?"
"You think the kid will help?"
"Ah! I dropped my chapstick! Thanks for that Kage!" Ruby said as she hopped over as Jaune handed over the weapon to her. Smiling as Jaune gave her the weapon and sighed.
"Well I am going to go to bed, for now, I just want to get some sleep before the next Grimm tries to eat us."
"Well don't do it on my bed," Kage said arms crossed as Jaune rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah I know I'm moving." Jaune groaned as he yawned and slowly went to his bed hoping that his next day in Bastion would not be as hard as his last.
Jaune did get his wish, his next day was not as hard as his last it was much harder.
"Get down!" Jaune shouted as he hit the deck narrowly avoiding the string whip of the deathstalker, the monster Grimm roared in frustration as he rolled onto the soft dirt of Mistral. Jaune grunted as a loud thunk! Filled the air as his eyes saw gold, as the tip of the beast's stinger slammed down a mere inch from his face! Jaune cursed rolling the opposite direction as he tried to slice the stinger off the creature in one thrust!
"Just like back home!" Jaune hissed as his blase bit deep into the flesh of the monster, the saber cut deep into the thing's flesh burning it and making a good three-quarter of the stinger fall limp. The monster roared in pain as it backed off its many red eyes glaring pure hatred at him as Jaune shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Keep moving! The data is ahead of us! If we stop we are dead!"
"You don't have to tell me twice," Kage grunted the teen falling next to him on the body of a rappdily disintegrating Griffon. The boy put two bolt rounds into it killing it instantly with resonating bangs that made Jaune's ears ring. The two of them began to spring through the dense Mistral forest as the sounds of sniper rifle shots and the hard whoosh of flames filled the near forest.
"It looks like they are having a good time," Kage grunted as tree vines snapped underneath as they crashed through the forest, the mission this time was simply to retrieve a small cache of data that had been left by Bastion information in the Mistral woods before the Mistral government found out about its location. The only problem was that Grimm's activity was swarming this far away from the kingdom and it looked like the informant got eaten before he could make it to another safer drop point. So now it was up to Arkham to get the data and wait for extraction without having their faces ripped off in the process.
"Well let's just hope that they can buy us the distraction that we need, if this goes well we will be out of here in the hour." Jaune hissed through his gasmasks the world narrowed before him to the fogged up eyeholes of his respirator. The upgraded uniform was a gift from the quartermaster and now Jaune's mask doubled as a helmet to protect him from harm, a good upgrade even if it did reduce his field of vision ever so slightly.
"Looks like Ursa, want to rush through them?" Kage asked as five of the bear-like Grimm roared before them, the Ursa charged the two like a living wall of flesh. Barreling down at them with speed as Jaune sighed and nodded his head.
"Yeah, that looks like the only way. Don't give them an inch!"
"You don't have to tell me!" Kage hissed as he diverted his path to the left taking the attention of two of the creatures the other three narrowed on Jaune as he narrowed his eyes at them.
"There was a time when the sight of you three would have had me screaming for help but now? Now you are just in the way!" Jaune hissed as he pulled the trigger on his pistol, the bright blue flash of energy briefly blinded him as it shot out. He heard the sharp bags of bolt pistols as the first Grimm's face melted. The Ursa slid to a stop crashing to the forest floor as its paws tried to remove the white-hot sticky blue liquid from its face. It failed to do so and soon sent still turning to ash as the other two barreled forward undaunted by the grisly death of the Grimm. The next shot tore the leg off at the knee of the beast.
The Grimm howled in abject agony as it hit the ground hard, sliding to a skid before Jaune put a blast through the back of its neck severing the head in one shot!
The last Grimm got too close for a clean shot so Jaune quickly holstered his pistol, reaching for his blade and striking up at the beast! Jaune winced as he put the full weight of his body behind his next attack. Effectively threw himself at the Grimm as he swung horizontally at it.
"Just die!" Jaune hissed as the blade sliced neatly into the open Jaune of the Ursa. The blade cut deep sinking far past the now severed throat and down to the shoulders of the beast! Jaune carried his momentum almost cutting the Grimm in two as he pushed past the beast! Carving through it easily as he broke past their lines. Right next to him was Kage who seemed just as indifferent to the life or death situation as usual as he offered Jaune a nod.
"So to the cache?"
"To the cache and try to hurry up, I don't want to leave Mika alone in the woods alone too long."
"To worried, she'll start a forest fire?"
"That and I don't want her to have all the fun." Jaune hissed as the two boys tore through the tree line. Smashing through bushes, small trees, and anything else in their way, eventually coming to the small clearing where the data was supposed to be, revealing a small wooden cottage in what looked to be a semi-abandoned ghost town.
"Any guesses on where to look?" Kage asked as both of them began narrowing in on the cottage with the door ajar.
"We'll sweep the cottage then secure the town and call for evac, tell Ruby and Mika to get back here now, we are leaving!" Jaune shouted as he kicked down the door, there was a shower of wooden splinters as he crashed through, there on the table was an open briefcase with a laptop in it. Jaune narrowed his eyes sprinting to it closing the briefcase and shouting at the top of his lungs.
"I have the data! Let's get the hell out of here!" Jaune shouted as he stormed out of the tiny hut, wood splintering under his feet as he walked right back out to the now teaming with Grimm forest! It looked like Mika and Ruby had returned as the sounds of sniper fire and the whoosh of flames grew nearer and nearer it also looked like they had brought the Grimm with them.
"Boss! We got a problem!" Kage shouted as the forest edge exploded as Mika and Ruby ran out of it both had their weapons drawn as the sprinted to Jaune and Kage. Ruby used her semblance to carry both her and Mika in a shower of red and green rose petals as they appeared next to them as Ruby gave Jaune a smile.
"So! What did we miss? Do we have the data?"
"Yeah we do but I think that we have one helluva wait before we can get out of here.' Jaune said as his scroll squawked to life.
"Jaune! Do you have the data?"
"I do, Kirara tell me that you are close!"
"I am about three minutes out so hold on! I have to fly low to stay off of Mistral's radar so hold on!" She shouted as Jaune nodded he saw the first signs of Grimm entering the town from the forest, as trees fell and splintered as the mass of creatures came at them like a stampede of flesh and bone and rage.
"Got it. Everyone, you know what to do, stay together work as a team, and kill everything that comes through that forest."
"That I can do," Kage grunted as the first Grimm burst through the forest and charged them!
The first wave was Beowulf's, the Grimm straked forward in wild serpentine-like patterns. They howled in defiance as there were several sharp cracks in the air as Kage and Ruby began to unload onto the monsters. The Grimm began to fall before they reached them as the forest was split open as Ursa and even Deathstalkers appeared roaring in frustration as Jaune sighed.
"Well it looks like we have our work cut out for us, don't let them kill you!" Jaune shouted as the Grimm crashed into them! It was a messy melee as the monsters and humans fought for survival, Jaune ducked the claw of an Ursa only to have to jump back to avoid being impaled on the stinger of a Deathstalker. The monster roared in defiance as Jaune's sword slashed out removing the stinger of the beast in a brutal splatter of blood as he backed off the wounded beast.
Jaune saw or he more heard the flames of Mika's weapon as a good swathe of the Grimm simply ceased to exist, they fell under a small ocean of liquid fire that covered them effectively blocking them off from the rest of the horde as they screamed and howled in pain!
CRACK!
"Jaune! Behind you!" Ruby shouted as Jaune ducked he hit the ground just as soon as he heard narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of a Beowulf that had seen fit to jump from the top of the shack that had the date. Jaune grunted almost dropping the case to reach for his pistol to shoot the beast but decided against it, instead of rolling on his gut before stabbing out and removing a leg from the beast.
The monster howled and fell to its side, as Jaune leaped up he saw the blur of Ruby as she moved in and out of the swathe of Grimm, slicing them up and keeping them from reaching a critical mass of force that would soon overwhelm them.
Jaune felt a shadow fall over him as a Deathealter stumbled over him! The monster was on fire, screaming in pain crashing over the lesser brethren of its kind. Its massive pincers stomping and smashing down on them as it crashed into a larger wooden building maybe a town hall in the distant past before settling down and finally dying.
As the monster fell more and more Grimm seemed to find them, drawn to the conflict and action. The new wave of Grimm would have soon overwhelmed them but the screeching of engines filled the air, as the bullhead flew down low its rear door opened and several long cables fell out.
"Get in!" Kirara shouted over the scrolls as all of team Arkham sprinted for the cables gripping onto them before they were yanked up! It was like being pulled up a conveyor system, as Jaune gritted his teeth as they were plucked off the ground like twigs in a storm. The growing mass of Grimm seemed to howl in defiance as the humans escaped, the four of them leaving the combat zone and being tossed into the back of the bullhead as the rear door closed and the ship rocketed forward!
Jaune grunted in pain as his aura activated keeping his back from being bruised as he reached up and yanked off his gasmasks and groaned in frustration.
"I hope that this was worth it," Jaune said looking down at the briefcase and wondering just what the hell was in it for them to have to go all the way out to the middle of nowhere to risk their lives for...
"Ah, you have made it back in one piece? I am glad to hear it." Ludo said as Jaune narrowed his eyes placing the briefcase on the table as he sighed.
"Was it really worth it?"
"For this? Oh Mister Arc you have no idea just how much this date will help us in the future, and by us, I do mean all of us, not just me..."
AN: So yeah this fic is no longer a regular for me sorry for that! But! Someone has picked it up as a commissioned story! They still want me to tell my story and have given me full creative liberty for it but it'll be coming out semi-regular now so yay! Thanks for the wait and supporting Bastion my first Oc fic!