A.N.)- Please continue with previously scheduled screwing of Authors Notes.
A set of enormous claws fussed over me with a tenderness that didn't suit them, but it was something that I'd become accustomed to over the past few weeks, "Andy."
"I don't have anything tougher than the bear hides, but a few layers of them should be sufficient to deflect anything serious."
"Andoriol."
Said layered pelt of bear hide was being draped across my shoulders like a cloak, making me roll my eyes.
"And to be sure, you're definitely keeping my old knife, to make sure nothing happens or that you can do something if bad things happen."
I rolled my eyes, the little sack in my lap containing the knife as well as the waterskin and a few hunks of meat wrapped up and dried, as well as a few little wood carvings gathered from his travel carry-on. The knight had been fussing over me for the past thirty minutes.
"So, I was going to try and approach within visual range with you high and waving before approaching closer with you protected by my wings and thorax-legs to avoid stray bullets, if we can get close enough we can try having you shout to them–"
"Andoriol Marrow!"
*Crck*
He half jerked back at my tone as I frowned up at him, "Stop fussing like a mother hen! That's my job. It's okay. We'll take it slow and try to get to the village. If that doesn't work we'll try again or try something different. No plan survives contact with the enemy and all that."
His hands hung in the air for a moment before dropping with a sigh, his cracked mask tilting downwards as well, "I know… I'm just worried."
"We'll be fine." I said with a smile that had more confidence in it than I felt, tugging the bear-coat a bit tighter around myself, "We'll make sure of it."
I was worried too, don't get me wrong. But I was a trained Huntress, and we were going to blow these people's minds! It was going to be awesome! It was worth the risks.
The giant sighed, hanging his head for a long moment before breathing in deep and opening his glowing green eyes, "Alright. I'm not looking forward to this, but alright." His enormous hands reached out and I raised my arms to allow him to pick me up, letting myself be raised up and settled into the grasp of his abs-legs. "If I make the decision to run though, I don't want to hear any complaints."
"Didn't take you for a scaredy cat Andy," I said with a teasing grin.
"To be fair, it's not my life I'm worried about, it's yours." A claw came to gently brush against my face as his ab-legs shielded me, and I rolled my eyes at the big softy began to crawl his way out of the cavern.
"I'll be fine big guy, I've got you protecting me."
He let out a chuffing laugh, "Excuse me for not having your confidence Rose. You're... too precious to me to risk casually."
"But this isn't casually," I reminded him gently, we'd been planning to do this for almost three weeks now.
"I know," he said with a soft melancholy, "But that doesn't make it easier."
The sadness and worry in his voice made me pause to think. To try and put myself in his shoes... I thought about what it might be like if I had to send Yang or Ruby out to be Hunters, or really just strapping them to my back and going out to fight Grimm… and nearly shuddered at the thought. It was a terribly queasy and unpleasant feeling… the thought of bringing them along and deliberately putting them into danger… it scared the hell out of me and it was just a hypothetical!
Okay, now it made a bit more sense why Andy was hesitating.
"Don't worry big guy," I said softly, gently patting his stomach that I rested against, "I'll stay safe."
Even if he didn't have the lips for it anymore, I could hear the fond smile in his deep voice, "I'll hold you to that."
-oOo-
I was one of the best.
Others disagreed, of course, but you couldn't fault my record.
Question my attitude, maybe.
…
Okay, definitely question my attitude, because a lot of people did. Summer didn… hadn't. But a lot of people gave me crap about my attitude.
But nobody could question my results.
STRQ had been the best of our generation, not just our year, our generation.
But I still felt quite a bit of relief seeing that Bullhead swinging in, rotors turning as it shifted to hover above Blue Bell's drop-zone near the river.
The negativity around here was infectious, these people were afraid, paranoid, worried, and generally antsy about… everything. Even with me and the two kids heading out to wipe out the little Grimm that dared wander close to the town, they didn't feel safe, there were no shouts of joy or laughter in the streets. Just this somber worry.
What a pain.
"Oi, Qrow! There you are ya drunkard!"
I snorted and crossed my arms across my chest loosely; I shouted up at the young woman half hanging out of the Bullhead, "I don't drink that much!"
We grinned at one another as the redhead was lowered to the ground, the two teams in the Bullhead with her having their various reactions to our idiocy.
I didn't know all of them, sure, I knew some of them; Steel was familiar to me, what with an outfit basically made of heavy chain links, but I didn't know all of them. But I didn't need to know all of them, Caldy did though. And knowing her, she knew their favorite colors and whether the left ball hung lower or the right. But all I needed to know was that they all were focused on one of two tasks.
The Bullhead finally lowered enough that its eight passengers were able to comfortably jump out to the ground, the red-headed leader grinning as she did, "Yeah yeah, only a keg a day, not that much."
Restraint and containment, like Steel. Or armor penetration, like Caldera.
"Well, I still get out of bed earlier than you do," I smirked, jerking a thumb over my shoulder at where the Atlas boys were setting up a particularly big set of guns in place of two of Blue Bell's own, "Cause the Atlas chuckleheads got here before you did."
"I had to do my makeup," the woman said airily, primly gesturing at her face and the burn scar that covered the right side of it, "Gotta look good when you're slaughtering Grimm and all."
My grin widened, "Uhhhh huh. Right."
Translation? The crazy chick was determined to wear Dust based make-up and had to be careful applying it.
Dust based make-up. Fuck me. I never could get over that.
Steel quietly asked, "What's the situation?"
But before I could do more than open my mouth, Ironwood's toady spoke, "An unusual Aberrant has set up shop within twenty miles of Blue Bell. It's strong, fast, tough, and has been gathering an unknown number of powerful Grimm to the city for unknown reasons. The people are scared and anxious, a decisive victory is required to ensure that our efforts do not simply leave them wallowing in negativity and thus, die due to the overwhelming numbers of Grimm around us."
I turned to raise an unimpressed eyebrow at the uniformed young man with sea green hair, "You do know they probably know most of that crap already, right?"
Ironwood's toady had a crew cut to go with his uniform and his meathead look, and of course he had a weapon that doubled as a freaking backpack. And he wasn't particularly impressed by my snark apparently, giving me a deadpan look as he stood at attention, "Much of the information is being kept quiet. We wish to avoid a possible panic or overrun scenario if we can avoid it."
"Hav's right Qrow," Caldy said, the burnt woman stepping up beside me, "They were pretty tight lipped about details before we were sent out."
I glanced first at Caldera, the red-head's short, asymmetrical cut bouncing slightly as she flipped her hair. Her black blouse still had those silly little ruffles and all the belts and bandoliers, from which dangled dozens of silver vials, each one with a different colored ring on top.
Then I looked at the variety of Hunters behind her, each of them sharing the same sort of expectant, slightly confused, but wary and calm expression that experienced Huntsmen would get.
I sighed, running a hand through my hair, "Okay…" a quick glance at the people peeking out of their windows at us made up my mind, "Let's get somewhere a bit more private for this."
-o-
"So we're looking at something that's bigger than a Deathstalker, not quite as big as a truly Giant Nevermore, but still pretty big. And it's armored. Completely armored. Not to mention smart enough to come up with this plan in the first place. That's not the problem though, not for us. See, the problem is that it's fast. Faster than me, faster than everyone I recognize here. It's the fastest Grimm I've ever seen."
We were in the house we'd stolen. Hav would say 'appropriated', but basically stolen. The people who normally lived here had gone to stay somewhere else, they'd offered it up but still. Stolen.
"Basic idea is simple. The Huntsmen, that's us by the way," I said with a little raise of my eyebrows, getting some smiles and eye rolls in return, "Are supposed to get this things attention and lock it down so that the Atlas boys can hit it with the big guns. Because this thing is definitely fast enough to dodge Dust rounds or swat them out of the air, and it's tough enough to just ignore anything resembling normal or man portable."
Steel spoke up, sitting across from Caldera at the table, his chain-clad elbows resting against the wood, "Qrow, this thing scared you or something?"
I was standing at the head of the dinner table, palms on the oak as I leaned over it and gave my 'briefing', such that you could call it. The two teams of Hunters were sat on either side of the long rectangle, with my two 'interns' and Hav at the end.
"What? Me? Scared? What are you, crazy?" I drawled with a small smirk, getting some more eye rolls and smiles before I took it out from under them. My smile melted away as I admitted, "I'm pretty terrified of this thing actually."
Silence greeted my soft words before I continued, "I'd want all of STRQ with me before I took that thing on at minimum, and even then we'd want to ambush it. This thing is fast, I really need to get that across. Its claws might be able to snatch you out of the air as you go past it, and all I saw of its tail were gold streaks in the air." I met each of their gazes in turn, trying to use my own red eyes to impress on them just how bad that was. Steel's blue eyes narrowed, while Caldera's face turned into a frown, her mismatched orange and milky white eyes scrunching up. "Do not engage it in melee range unless you absolutely have to. It's big enough that one hit might take you out of the fight, and it's fast enough that it will hit you if you get into its range."
"Which is why they picked us," the red headed leader muttered, crossing her arms underneath her breasts with a thoughtful frown.
"Yup."
Two teams full of crowd control, movement limiting, or armor penetration through a variety of means, either by Semblance or Dust or Weapons, these teams had been built with a purpose in mind.
Killing the fuck out of this Aberrant asshole.
-oOo-
The knight crawled quietly through the forest, coming to a stop at the top of a hill near the town. I could distantly see the palisade wall of the town through the gaps in the trees, and sure, I was nervous, but we'd make this work!
I grinned up the length of Andoriol's body at him, getting a small chuffing sound from him as he straightened out slightly. My friend was half hunched over, his upper body at a rough forty-five-degree angle with his long tail out behind him for balance, keeping his head beneath the canopy. It'd have looked crazy or uncomfortable if it weren't for his reversed legs and tail, but for him it seemed almost natural.
"Ready?" I asked cheerfully, nearly bouncing in place despite being held by his ab-legs.
Another chuffing laugh as he looked back up at the town, his emerald eyes glowing as they swept over the town, "As ready as I'll ever be. Now, we're… going… to…" He trailed off, and I could have sworn that I saw his eyes in the visor of his mask widen, "… oh no."
My stomach dropped out from under me, "What?"
"Lions!" He nearly snarled before he jerked a step forward, hesitating as he glanced down at me before up once more.
I followed his gaze, my brain working furiously as I tried to connect the word to my knowledge of Grimm– there! Black shapes further down! Headed towards the tree-line to the cleared area around the town–
… fuck.
"Nemean Lions?!" I nearly squeaked, stiffening. There, barely visible through the trees was what looked to be a pride of impossibly black lionesses, each one probably the size of a train car– except that one that was solid white and even bigger than Andy–?! "And a Nemean King?! Andy! You've got to–!"
The world jerked, my blood sloshing around inside my head at the sudden G-forces, my vision blurring, "Already going! Hold on!"
As my vision returned as I blinked, seeing his ab-legs encircle me entirely, cutting me off from the outside world with black and white and darkness as he charged, the world jerking back and forth as he likely moved between the trees and hurtling towards the stupidly large lions.
Nemean Lions. One of the most infuriating Grimm, but also one of the most terrifying. For a Hunter that uses Dust or with certain Semblances? They weren't that bad, no worse than an Ursa Major. They were basically just big, black, saber-toothed cats with red eyes, and bone masks. But if you just had guns or raw strength? They were terrifyingly tough, their skin nearly impenetrable. And to our knowledge, a King Nemean's bone-white skin truly was impenetrable.
Oh, and let's not forget the fact that they can breathe laser beams!
And the town didn't have a single reservoir of dust capable of shocking, burning, or otherwise elementally attacking the lions! I didn't know for sure if Andy could penetrate their tough hides, but he could do something!
I ground my teeth together as I clung to the soft down against his stomach, cursing my inability to help! If I just had Blooming Moon I could have thrown it down their throats and fired off its Dust! Or restrained them with its lengths of chains! Or something!
But here and now...? there was nothing I could do except cling to Andy and pray.
Nothing this time.
