Setting: Underland Manor

Team VRSZ finally arrived at their destination. The place they've been desperately trying to reach for more a month and a half, the Underland Manor, Violet's home. The five of them made the journey to the large mansion which took most of the day, consisting of asking around for the Underland's location and travelling to the far corner of Atlas just to reach them. All their efforts brought them here and they stood before the extravagant and wildly colorful mansion.

"This is it? This is where Violet's living?" Silver said confused as he looked at the mansion.

The mansion they looked at was decorated in an array of colors and patterns that didn't match in any way. Stripes here, polka dots there, its design was so distracting and eye-catching even though it was hard to look at, making it a conundrum of a home. The setting of the sun in the background didn't help it look more appealing.

"I was expecting something… different," Silver finished.

"I don't think any us… or anyone was expecting this," Lily added, looked confused as she stared at the imaginative building.

"It takes a… unique person to-" Zelts started, but was interrupted by Azura saying, "There's nothing unique about this. This is just ugly and chaotic. Children could've done a better job than whatever the hell this is."

"…" Remus remained silent as he looked at the building where Violet could be waiting for them.

When he thought about the possibility of seeing her again, his insides felt like they were on fire. The anticipation was killing him. Without informing the others, Remus began walking toward the mansion, but he stopped after two steps when he heard the sound of something being fired.

Remus and the others heard this sound and looked in the direction it came from, the mansion. Rising from the roof of the mansion was something leaving a smoke trail that flew straight up into the sky. The object changed direction, from going straight up to heading straight toward the team. Silver was the first to recognized the object. He saw it was a small missile.

"Scatter!" he shouted to alert everyone.

Activating Gravity, Silver jumped backwards a good distance away from his original position. Remus ran to his left fast enough to get out of the possible blast radius while Azura ran away in the opposite direction. Lily stayed where she was while Zelts swung his wingblade to create a strong gust of green wind in the missile's path. The force of the wind was enough to knock the missile off its course and land just a couple feet behind Zelts and Lily where it exploded on impact.

"Looks like someone's home," Azura commented as she walked back to the group.

"More like they've been expecting us," Zelts corrected.

On top of the mansion were Linnaea and Linnaeus Underland, the twin Underlands and leaders of the castle guard. They stood atop the large building while looking at their enemies. Linnaeus had a heavy artillery weapon positioned next to him and attached to his right arm. The missile was fired from her weapon. Linnaea wielded a lighter artillery weapon, carrying it with her left arm that looked a crossbow gun-type weapon.

The two Underland twins looked down at the group of five that was on their snowy field and they weren't alone. Walking toward his fellow Underlands was Marigold.

"The sound of the first shot being fired in battle can sometimes be the beginning a wonderful symphony. Now, let's see who exactly Aster foretold would co-" Marigold stopped talking when he saw who was invading their home.

The twins looked at each other in confusion because Marigold stopped talking mid-sentence. They've known their cousin ever since they were born and they knew he loved to talk and be theatrical while doing it, so seeing him silent, even for a moment, was a little unnerving.

"Um-" Linnaeus started.
"-Mary?" Linnaea finished, calling Marigold by his nickname.

He recognized the group standing before them as the same group he encountered in the kingdom. It didn't take long for the schemer to connect the dots. He didn't remember everything from Team VRSZ's files, but he knew Violet was the only girl on the team with the other three being guys. They were desperately trying to sneak into this area for a specific reason and the fact they came here meant the thing or person they were looking for was Violet.

Marigold smiled at this turn of events. Her teammates, her friends, her other family, were here to get her back. He realized, "This battle will now be all the more enjoyable."

Marigold could see them, but thanks to the vantage point of the mansion's roof, it was difficult for Team VRSZ to clearly see them. Remus didn't have his bionic eye to scope and Silver could barely make them out from his position, but he knew people were there.

"We got a couple people here to greet us," Silver said, informing everyone about the enemies on the roof.

"I'm on it," Remus said as he activated Checkpoint.

He disappeared in a puff of blue smoke, teleporting to the roof using Checkpoint, reappearing in midair in front of the twins and Marigold. Remus was about to attack by destroying Linnaea's weapon first, but he stopped when he noticed and recognized Marigold.

"Huh?" was his reaction to seeing the one who helped him and his team get this far.

Marigold grinned and waved at Remus as Linnaeus aimed his weapon at him. The mechanical contraption transformed into a large gun with its barrel aimed right at an unguarded and momentarily distracted Remus.

Remus was still stunned by Marigold's appearance, the same man who helped him and his team reach this place, but that was overwhelmed by the pain writhing through his body after being blasted by an explosive shell. Linnaeus fired at him from point blank range. He was enveloped in an explosion, blown back, and fell into the snow. The blast did some damage to his aura, but it wasn't enough to take him out.

He got up while shaking the snow off his head and the others ran in to help him and start the battle.

"Now's a good time to rally the troops," Marigold informed the twins as he walked to leave. "I have some papers to brush up on and distribute to the others. Stick to the plan. Keep them distracted until they're in position for operation: Rabbit Hole."

"You can count-" Linnaea started.
"-on us!" Linnaeus finished as Marigold left.

The team was running toward Remus then noticed the front doors of the mansion being broken down by an army of the castle guard troops. They ran toward the team with lances, swords, axes, and guns to take out Team VRSZ. Some of them moved to the side of the mansion where Remus was to eliminate him.

The battle for Violet began.

Azura leaped in the air with ice dust coursing through her wrists then slammed her palms against the ground when she landed. The ice dust in her wrists spread around her and formed into an icy barrier that protected her and the others from the gunshots being fired their way. Silver used it as his shooting spot. He had Fenrir as dual handguns and fired shots any guards in his line of sight. The force of each bullet was strong enough to knock each guard onto their backsides. The improved Fenrir was definitely better now than it was before the blacksmith tinkered with it. The red armor of the castle guard members was durable enough to stop Silver's shots from incapacitating them, but it them slowed down enough for the others to strike.

Most of the castle guard horde was swept away by Zelts thanks to his wingblade. He continuously swung his weapon to create and release gales of wind to send large groups of enemies flying. With such great numbers against the five of them, Zelts was the cornerstone of their assault. Heart of Gold was the perfect weapon for crowd control even if he only had half his weapon. Though with only one wingblade, Zelts had to swing his weapon a lot more to cover his exposed left side and he had to make sure no one got to close to him. Zelts's windstorms were having the most effect in this fight, knocking guards far away from his position, but the others were holding their own too.

Tigress was battling around twenty of them on her own and she did so flawlessly. She danced around her enemies, switching between Flying Eagle's different forms, separating sections to transform her weapon and attack all her foes with a variety of weapons. Her spear for piercing armor, staff, twin staff, three-sectioned staff, and escrima sticks like Silver for beating down the guards and firing cannon blasts with separated sections for taking out guards in the distance.

One of the guards tried to cut her down with a slash of his sword, but Tigress jumped backwards, nimbly dodging the sword strike, then leaped toward the guard. She palmed the man's face then slammed his head into the ground with enough force to render him unconscious. Tigress was the most monstrous one on the battlefield and she didn't even use her semblance, showing her years fighting in Never-End have made her a battle-hardened warrior.

The Cobalts were fighting side by side against any guards who came their way. Even though Remus and Azura were battling together, they weren't technically fighting together. Their conjoined front was formed by Azura choosing to fight in Remus's blind spot. She stayed on his right side so he wouldn't have to worry about unseen enemies. Remus pulled his scarf up to cover his mouth before he dashed toward a group of enemies with Romulus in its double-bladed staff form. He had the dust energy flow through his blades so he could slice through the armor of the castle guard. Azura groaned to herself because playing keep up with her cousin was a pain but she went after him anyway, burning, shocking, and freezing any enemies in her way with her dust tatoos.

Indiscriminately and mercilessly, Remus cut down every guard in his path. The blades of Romulus were cutting through the castle guard armor and slicing their bodies. They were falling to the ground with laceration wounds that were bleeding. Trails of blood were coloring the snowy battlefield and Remus didn't care. He was so close to Violet, the closest he has ever been and he felt like it could be taken away at any time which terrified him.

"None of these people are getting in my way," was Remus's thought process during this assault.

His path was straight toward the manor and he was the closest one to the building with Azura right behind him. Silver was shooting at other guards until he noticed how close Remus and Azura were to the mansion. He figured the goal of this battle was to enter the building so he decided to follow them. He used Gravity to leap off the icy fortress Azura made and landed on top of a guard's head then jumped off their head. He was high in the air then landed close to the two Cobalts and began fighting the surrounding guards.

Linnaea and Linnaeus watched their subordinates battle the team. The twins were waiting to do as Marigold said and get ready for Operation: Rabbit Hole. From what they could see on top of the roof, Silver, Azura, and Remus were in position but Lily and Zelts weren't close enough.

"Linnaeus," Linnaea addressed her twin.

"I'm on it," he said as he aimed his massive weapon in the form of a rocket launcher at Tigress.

Linnaea's weapon shifted and transformed into some kind of bomb launcher. She aimed her mechanical weapon in Zelts's direction.

Tigress fell to her knees to avoid two spears coming from both sides. The guard on her left and the one on her right halted their advance when they both missed their attacks. Tigress quickly rolled forward in the snow while detaching Flying Eagle into two halves in the process. She turned around, stabbed both ends of her sectioned staffs into the snow while the fronts were aimed at the two guards. The spearhead of her partisan was in her mouth and she bit down on the middle of it to press the button. The two halves blasted cannon fire at the two guards point-blank and they were sent flying a good distance away. Tigress swiftly got up from the snow and reattached Flying Eagle so she was ready for anyone else who came her way, but the next thing that came wasn't a person.

Four missiles launched by Linnaeus were flying straight toward Tigress and the group of guards charging her from all sides. Knowing she was surrounded, Tigress activated Gemini to split herself into the Tigress Twins so she could cover her backside. This move was a blessing in disguise because the orange twin facing the mansion took note of the four missiles. She grabbed the black twin by her arm and ran to the area with the fewest guards and charged through them. They struck and pummeled the enemies in their way to get away from the flying projectiles heading to their former position.

The missiles hit the area and exploded on impact, enveloping and damaging all the guards in the vicinity. The Tigress Twins were fortunate enough to avoid being hit, but the force of the four missiles exploding nearby knocked them off their feet. The explosion knocked them closer to Remus, Azura, and Silver which was the twins' plan all along.

The twins fused together to re-form Tigress who continued to fend off the castle guard.

Zelts jerked his head to the explosion that just went off and saw the Tigress Twins being blown away. He glanced at Tigress, his other teammates, then at the roof where the twins were. He noticed that Linnaea had her weapon aimed right at him.

Linnaea fired one of her bombs his way and Zelts rolled out of the way. It hit the snow and exploded a few seconds later, hitting some of the nearby castle guard.

"They don't care about friendly fire. That's not good," Zelts thought to himself.

Linnaea fired more of her bombs at Zelts and he ran toward the mansion to avoid the projectiles fired at him and join up with the others so they could come up with a plan. As Zelts was running, one of the bombs was heading straight toward him. The Knight gripped half his shield and swatted the bomb away. This move was actually ineffective however, because as he ran to his teammates, Zelts noticed the bomb he smacked away with his shield was attached to it.

Linnaea's bombs were sticky bombs that attached to whatever they landed on before exploding, including Zelts's Heart of Gold.

There was nothing he could do but stick his right arm out to position his weapon and the bomb away from the others. The bomb went off and the explosion covered the right side of Zelts's body before blasting him away. His aura was damaged, but he was fine as he landed closer to where his teammates were. There was still a couple of castle guard between him and the others, but Zelts got up to fight his way to his friends.

The members of VRSZ were close enough to each other for Linnaea and Linnaeus to initiate Operation: Rabbit Hole. Even though they were the head of the castle guard, the soldiers around them were just going to be casualties to the twins.

"Linnaea, call Galanthus and tell him to press the button," Linnaeus told his sister.

She complied by pulling out her scroll and calling the snow rabbit butler. She told him to begin the operation. She was told by the elderly faunus that she and her brother were two minutes late with starting the plan, but Linnaea rolled her eyes at his neurotic need for things to be done exactly on time.

"Just press the button so we can start this."

Galanthus didn't reply to Linnaea's curt demand since it wasn't his place to talk back. The rabbit faunus was in the underground levels where he was in some kind of control room. In front of him was a desk with many buttons and levers. He pressed one of the buttons Linnaea and Linnaeus desired.

Operation: Rabbit Hole has begun.

As the battle continued outside the mansion, the members of Team VRSZ started to notice something strange. The ground beneath them and the castle guard began to shake. The rumbling caused everyone to stop fighting to figure out what was going on, but no one did until the ground began to crumble away. A pit began to form and it continued to get larger. It swallowed the snow, the very ground itself, and all those too close to it. It grew in size rapidly and all the guards fell into the sinking hole and it was reaching the members of VRSZ, specifically Zelts

The Knight was aware of the sink hole encroaching on his area and he spun around with his wingblade to create a small wind vortex around himself to propel himself into the air. He did avoid the pitfall by rising in the air, but his success was short lived. Zelts was hit by one of Linnaeus's missiles. The wind surrounding him provided very little defense as the missile blew up in his face and Zelts fell back to the sinking ground.

"Dammit!" Zelts thought as he sank and fell to who knows where.

"Zelts!" Silver shouted as he watched his friend fall.

None of the guards were trying to fight him or the others anymore. They were doing their best to run away from the ground tearing itself apart. Silver ran to where his friend fell then activated Gravity to jump high in the air above the growing hole.

"What the hell?" Silver said, completely astonished.

Below him was the growing pitfall trap and beneath it was some kind of chasm or a maze if Silver wanted to be specific. The guards and Zelts were in some underground area, but with so many people having already fallen down at the same time, Silver couldn't make out where his teammate landed. He continued to slow his descent in order to find Zelts.

Linnaea launched another missile Silver's way while his back was turned. Azura noticed and ran to Silver to protect him. The Sky-Blue Warrior activated the fire dust in her ankles to release small blasts of fire at the bottom of her feet. It served as a booster rocket to launch Azura in the air and help her fly toward Silver.

The missile was reaching the Gunslinger faster than Azura anticipated and didn't think she had the time to get him out of the way. Even if she destroyed it, Silver would be caught in the explosion due to the close proximity.

There was one tactic Azura had in mind and she intended to enact it.

She jetted toward Silver, getting to his backside before the missile, and she deactivated her fire dust so she could use the ice dust. Silver turned around when he felt her close by then noticed the missile coming their way and Azura covering her body in ice like armor.

Azura encased herself in ice to act as a shield for herself and Silver just as the gunman aimed one of his guns at the missile. He fired a bullet of fire dust directly at the missile then ducked behind Azura as they fell to the ground. His bullet made contact and its fiery blast was strong enough to cause the missile to explode before it reached them though the two fighters weren't unscathed in this endeavor.

Like Azura thought, the proximity of the missile meant they were both going to get caught in the explosion, but thanks to Silver's quick-draw shot the explosion was further away and the damage was very little. The force of the explosion itself did knock them into the hole which was now a cavern and they fell in with Silver grabbing onto a frozen Azura. She helped him so he planned to use Gravity to lighten their fall.

The massive pitfall that was taking everything and everyone finally ceased growing, revealing the underground level of the Underland Manor. After the hole stopped growing, metal slabs began to appear at two edges of the deep pit. They were doors, closing the hole so no one could get out and to serve as the ground that was torn apart.

The twins looked over the roof to see the results of Operation: Rabbit Hole. Many of their own castle guard was swallowed up by their plan, but they were foot soldiers that served their purpose of distracting their adversaries.

Linnaeus and Linnaea didn't see any member of Team VRSZ on the battlefield. Both of them were satisfied with the results of their efforts.

"Everything went off without a hitch," Linnaeus said with a satisfied grin.

"They're in the Looking Glass now. They'll be there for a long time," Linnaea told her brother.

"Guess we can let others finish them off," Linnaeus said. She transformed her light artillery to its base form of a machine gun.

"I'm sure they'll want our…" Linnaea started to object but looked at her brother with a slightly astonished look.

"What?" he asked his sister only to receive an answer in the form of Linnaea aiming her machine gun in his direction.

"GAH!"

Linnaeus ducked and behind him was Tigress with Flying Eagle in her hand. Linnaea fired her weapon, unleashing a spray of bullets but Tigress activated Gemini to split into the Tigress Twins and using the separation to serve as her means to dodge. The twins landed on the roof of the mansion. The orange twin eyed Linnaea and the black twin had its sights on Linnaeus.

It was twins versus twins, or it appeared to be.

Linnaea was ready to fire again, but a puff of blue smoke appeared next to her and emerging from the smoke was Remus. Before she had a chance to properly react, Remus firmly gripped Linnaea by the arm then tossed her off the roof and into the snow where the battle once took place.

"Linnaea!" her brother shouted.

The Tigress Twins surrounded him and delivered simultaneous blows. They punched him in his gut then a series of kicks in the ribs before rejoining as Tigress to kick him in the jaw and off the roof.

The Twin Underlands were on the battlefield with the few remaining castle guard they had left.

Linnaeus rose from the snow, grunting from the pain he received, and Linnaea got up with ease and looked at the duo occupying the roof. Linnaea still had her weapon in her hand while Linnaeus's weapon remained mounted on the roof. The two of them were irritated with the situation.

Remus and Tigress looked down at their foes, trying to assess their next course of action.

"They're not done with us," Tigress stated.

"I don't care about them," Remus said bluntly, "we're here for Violet and nothing else."

"It's not like we can ignore them and look for her. If we leave, they'll follow us, try to fight, and keep us from finding her anytime soon. We also have to figure out where the others went."

"…" Remus knew she was right.

Defeating the twins and finding the others were also necessary objectives they needed to accomplish if they want to progress further into the mansion.

The two of them heard a sharp, loud whistle that stopped their conversation. It originated from Linnaeus. The second after he finished whistling, his heavy artillery weapon that somehow began to move on its own. It had some kind of jet thrusters at the bottom, causing it to rise up then fly toward its owner: a feature to make up for its large size.

Linnaeus transformed his weapon from a rocket launcher into a mixture between a large sniper rifle and a crossbow. He stood by his weapon and aimed it at Tigress and Remus. He was charging a powerful lighting dust shot at the barrel of the big gun.

Linnaea had her light artillery weapon in her hands as a rifle and was ready to fight once her twin brother fired.

Remus changed Romulus from dual swords to a double-bladed staff. He transformed it again to its railgun form and aimed his weapon at Linnaeus's gun. Tigress waited for the right moment to strike and that was once Remus fired the first shot.

At the same time, Remus and Linnaeus fired from their weapons. The Underland's super charged lighting shot and the Cobalt's charged bolt of energy collided and created a massive explosion.

Tigress saw this as her moment. She leaped from the roof and into the smoke created from the explosion to serve as a smokescreen. She appeared out of the smoke and closer to the twins, but Linnaea aimed her rifle at fired shot after shot at her enemy. Tigress twirled her sectioned spear in her hands to deflect the bullets and she landed on top of Linnaea, pinning to the ground.

Linnaeus was about to retaliate, but Remus leaped from the roof as well and quickly ran to him. He jumped in the air as he closed the distance then kicked his foe hard in the right shoulder. The momentum of Remus's speed knocked Linnaeus away from his weapon which he planned to destroy.

Before Remus could use his blades to slice the heavy artillery weapon in half, some of the castle guard rush him and try to run him through with their spears and swords. He quickly jumps out of the way, but they charge right at him again. Remus has the energy flow through his double-bladed staff and he parries their weapons with his own. Each time Romulus clashed with a sword or a spear, it sliced through it with ease, leaving the castle guard unarmed but they were still willing to fight barehanded for the sake of the Underland family.

Their intervention gave Linnaeus the time to run to his weapon and turned it toward Remus and his subordinates. He charged his large gun at Remus while he was distracted and fired.

The sound of the bullet being shot was heard by Remus and the guards he was fighting which caused him to look at Linnaeus. He saw the lightning bullet come his way and responded quickly by using Checkpoint as an emergency exit. He teleported out the way and reappeared to his far right, leaving the guards to be hit by the shot and they were killed by the large electrical pulse.

Remus didn't think anything of the guards but disliked the fact Linnaeus killed his own men so casually. It was an act Remus could never do.

Linnaeus had his artillery weapon switch ammunition to a scattershot type to deal with Remus's speed. He was getting prepared the minute Remus started running.

Tigress looked at their battle while Linnaea reached for her artillery weapon that was a few inches away from her hand. She was able to grab it and before Tigress noticed, a rumbling could be heard from down below.

The ground, or more specifically the doors of the pitfall trap began to tremble from some kind of great force. Remus and Linnaeus almost lost their footing from the shaking. Tigress felt this as well then looked at the ground next to herself and Linnaea with a confused look. The shaking stopped and Tigress wondered what caused it.

"What was that?" she thought.

What was happening beneath them where the others fell.

The brief rumbling served as a distraction for Linnaea to grab her gun and aim it at Tigress's head. Her movements brought Tigress to her attention and she swiftly shoved the barrel of the rifle to the ground before it fired and the shot fired beside both of them.

The blast knocked them away from each other and they rolled in the snow. Tigress recovered faster and kicked herself off the ground and landed on her feet while Linnaea got up from her hands and knees. They were further away from another because of the blast.

The two female fighters stared each other down. Their eyes were locked on the other with weapons in their hands. Both of them ignoring the fight between Remus and Linnaeus to focus on the enemy before them.

The first battle was far from over.


Linnaea and Linnaeus's artillery weapons were based on the Monster Hunter World's light bowgun and heavy bowgun respectively.