(Quick question, how cold is it where you're at? Because where I'm at is cold as shit. Now! On with the story!)
Calm Before the Storm
Third Person POV
While minty and steely were out and about going to murder one guy, the Changeling is leading his new baby brother through to test out said baby brother's power more. By his own volition asking Donn Yell. With one fellow watching the two.
As he and it walk through, they come across a large village. Possibly a few hundred or so.
"Hey Swarmy! Found something delicious for you to eat!" He calls out
And what approaches is...not a pretty sight. The Swarm, The Hive: what it looks like requires some explanation.
The Swarm looks like a bloated corpse. Leathery black skin with sickly white boils and red sores, writhing, shambling, convulsing, and jerking with the various Grimm creatures making it up. Grimm maggots, worms, rats, flies, locusts, cockroaches, all of the most disgusting creatures all coming in and out constantly...a wave of hunger given form. It has a single beady red eye, a limply hanging jaw, and instead of legs. The bottom half has a worm body.
The creature can't help but feel pain. It only stops feeling pain when it's full, too bad it doesn't last long. Donn Yell it's 'father' made this intentional.
It approaches it's 'sibling' and looks hopefully at it.
"F-F-Fooooood?" The Swarm asks hopefully, sounding like a mix between a hiss, a gurgle and a growl.
The Changeling nods, giving a happily sadistic smile.
"Chow time...allllll yours."
The Swarm is utterly in joy by this, and from it's mouth comes what it's name implies. The Grimm in it's body flooding from it's mouth and making their way to the village.
Feeding time.
"So? How's it coming along?" A new voice asks, Ash Fall. The Changeling shrugs
"I think little bro is going to overindulge himself...again just like all the other times before." It groans, not that it doesn't like it...just not part of the plan.
"No matter." Ash replies, "Should some survive we do the same as well always do: indoctrinate those who'll listen into the fold of cultists, and those who don't you may play with."
The Changeling smiles at those words.
"Of course sir." It turns to it's brother and pats his shoulder, "How is it?"
"S-Still so empty...still hurting...but soooo DELICIOUS."
Axel's POV
Well with school about to start back up, there had better be something good to happen. But knowing the people I know well...it'll happen. ASUR and RWBY sitting together, meanwhile in a change of pace JNPR is sitting somewhere else with VOLT keeping company.
Always good there.
Silas and Blake, instead of eating are looking through notes. Boring. But hey I'm not going to judge...except when I do.
I look over at Yang and give a grin and a wink, she replies with the same gesture. Operation: Disruption is a go, me and Yang slide up next to the two which causes them to jump a bit.
"Whatcha lovebirds doing?" Yang asks
"Silas are you having Blake write degenerate fanfiction about your lewd story?" I ask grinning, Silas gives me a glare and groans in annoyance.
"Shut up man."
I pat his back, "I kid! I kid!"
"It's nothing." Blake speaks up, she closes the book and looks between the two of us. "Just going over notes from last semester." She states
Yang catches a grape that flies over into her mouth, eating it.
"Lame."
"Yang that's not nice." I scold a bit in a friendly tone, "What they're doing isn't lame."
"What would you call it then?"
"Nerdy."
She laughs a bit with our Faunus friends shaking their heads with tiny smiles. Looking over to JNPR and VOLT, Nora has grapes laid out and a spoon. As she's launching grapes to Yang, Ahri turns around and waves. I wave back and toss a nugget of chicken to her
She catches it and takes a bite, giving a nod. Turning back around just in time, I see Ruby slam a binder onto the table taking everyone by surprise.
"GAH! FUCK!" Uriah yells out looking around, he groans and rubs his temples. "Sorry..." he mumbles
The binder is pretty big with...'Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Weiss Schnee' crossed out with red pen. Replaced with 'Best Day Ever Activities' written underneath. Ruby clears her throat, this ought to be good.
She then gestures to the whole table, "Sisters! Brothers! Friends!...Weiss."
"Hey!"
I snicker, keep on going Ruby.
"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."
"This ought to be good." Yang says catching another grape into her mouth
"A dream that one day, the four of us and the four of you," she says gesturing to my team on the last part, "will come together, as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!"
"Did you steal my binder?" Weiss asks in suspicion
"Glad you finally saw the most visible thing since a mushroom cloud." I dryly tell her
"Thanks." She replies with being just as dry, Ruby holds up two peace signs. "I am not a crook."
"That you are not." Uriah adds in
"What are you talking about?" Blake asks
"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" Ruby tells pointing a finger at her.
"Will I need Dust grenades?" Roy asks curiously, "No you will not!" Ruby replies. "Got it!"
"I always kick my semesters off with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I right?" Yang asks with a wide grin on her face, not a moment later she gets hit in the face with an apple. And seeing where it came from...it was from Nora since Yang is glaring at her right now.
"Boooooooooooooooo!"
"Mediocre!" Ahri yells out
I pat Yang on the back, "Tough crowd eh? Leads me to Ax a few questions. Who's with me?"
I get hit with a fish in response.
"Both of you are awful!" Ahri again yells out, suffer fox. For we will never stop
"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But, classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today." Ruby states joyfully
"I'm with you there!" I add in, "Before we head back to mind-numbing boredom we should spend a day of fun."
"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store." Weiss states
"Why not both?" Uriah dully asks
"It has to be one or the other, and I'm stuck on that."
"I don't know." Blake says, "I think I might sit this one out."
"Pull up a seat for me, because I'll probably do the same." Silas adds
"Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team!" Weiss says...oddly enthusiastic
"Ahem." Uriah coughs with a frown, Snow Pea looks at him for a moment.
"As teams." She says with an emphasis on the S, Uriah smiles and gives a nod.
"I got it!" Nora practically shouts out
"I for one think that-" Weiss gets cut off by a pie to the face, everyone looks over to where it came from. Nora pointing at a Ren who's resting his head in his palm, Pyrrha with a hand over her mouth, Jaune wide-eyed, Lily and Oreno pointing at Nora and snickering, Tulip looking a mix between nervous and amused...and Ahri is gone.
I have some great friends.
Ahri's POV
I needed to get out, some fresh air was perfect. Taking a walk around the school I greet people who pass by, people here are pretty accepting...except for four assholes. Figured out they're team CRDL, but I won't do anything bad to them...because I might go a little overboard.
"Man, that's harsh." I hear a guy say, looking where it came from there are two. One with blue hair, nicely dressed, tan. The other guy...oh shit, he's umm...not bad either
Blonde, jeans, opened up white jacket, monkey tail.
"I know," Blondie starts up, "we were fighting side by side. She was super fast, he and I fought back to back, and I threw a banana at the guy, which sounds gross, but it was awesome."
"Nice!" Blue replies
"Right? And the best part is...hey you alright?" Oh shit, he's seen me. I nod
"Y-Y-Yeah! I'm fine! How about you?"
"I'm uh...I'm alright." He says awkwardly
"Y-You keep talking with your friend." I stutter, my face feels hot right now.
"Right um, let me start back from the beginning." He says taking a breath, "And the best part is, she's a Faunus. But that's a secret, okay?"
Blue looks at me for a moment before looking back at his friend, "Got it."
Blondie leans in close to his friend
"And not a, 'I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back secret', I'm talking secret secret."
"Whoa, chill out, man, okay? I got it." He then whispers, "I got it!"
"You better." Blondie replies, the two start walking away. But I grab Blue by the back of his jacket and pull him back
"Hey hey hey! I know I'm good-looking but-"
"Stop talking. You get three sentences, say one after that and I hit you in the balls." I bluntly tell him, he looks a bit surprised, and a bit nervous
"Why uh...why'd you pull me back?" He asks curiously
"I was wondering...what's your blonde friend's name?"
"Oh? His name is Sun, Sun Wukong. Why do you ask?"
There's a lump in my throat for a moment. "Nooooo reason?..."
He grins, "The name's Neptune by the-"
I drive a fist right into his balls, he quickly covers them up making a high-pitched noise. "Not interested."
Sun Wukong? Name's appropriate...he's hot as the thing. The sun that is
Axel's POV
You know, while most food fights usually involve food being tossed between two or more people. Here at Beacon, we take things to a higher level.
BY HAVING IT BE A FOOD WAR!
"Food fight!" One student yells as all but my team, RWBY, JNPR, and the OLT of VOLT run out. All but RWBY and JNPR are sitting this fight out, because it involves JNPR defending a castle made of tables.
With us sitting near the exit. We're not afraid!...ok a bit.
Nora lets out a maniacal laugh, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" She says in sing-song. However, Ruby defies the queen by stomping her foot on the table and pointing at her while slowly crushing a milk carton.
"Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It! Will be! Delicious!"
"YEAH!" The members of her team cry out
"TO WAR!" Our group of sitting out heroes shout out
"Off with their heads!" Nora shouts out
And so the two rush on to one another, I don't want to miss this fight! It'll be-
"BOSS! LOOK OUT!" Uriah shouts
"Huh?" I look and see a tray for a moment, and then blackness.
Then Cthugha, in his world of fiery flames that flicker. He honestly looks confused right now, "So...what happened?" He asks
"I have no idea." I tell him shaking my head
"Well, what was the last thing you saw?"
"Well there was a lunch tray and-" I cut myself off mid-sentence, I then groan to myself. Cthugha is cackling like the fire he is
"Ohohoho shit! You got knocked the fuck out, by a lunch tray!" He keeps laughing, I swear I see a tear come out from his not eye.
"Yeah yeah Fart Gas, send me back to consciousness before I make an imaginary fire hose."
"Sure, sure." He sighs
I slowly blink my eyes open, vision hazy and blurry. I groan and hold my head
"Welcome back to consciousness Axel." Silas states
"What'd I miss?"
Looking to the fight I see that Yang, Weiss and Blake are down with only Ruby remaining. While all of JNPR still stands, with a storm of soda cans coming straight after Ruby.
"A lot." He says shrugging
Ruby dashes through the food court with some Semblance usage, having all the food that was coming at her turn around and follow her through the tailwind. The blur of red starts to spin like a torpedo causing the food to become a hurricane, said hurricane then crashes into JNPR sending them crashing against the wall and being pelted with a barrage of food.
The wall and them painted with soda and food, not a moment later they slide off the wall leaving only outlines. Us who were sitting down rush over to Ruby and carry her like a champion.
But the doors fling open and I suddenly feel primal dread by seeing who walks through:
Professor Goodwitch, growling. She uses her telekinesis to start re-arranging the room.
Third Person POV
"Children, please." The exasperated Goodwitch speaks as she adjusts her glasses, "Do not play with your food!" She scolds
The Huntsmen and Huntresses in training reorganize themselves, Nora Valkyrie letting out a loud burp. And Yang Xiao Long letting out just as loud a scream as she falls from the ceiling onto one of the lunch tables
Goodwitch grumbles to herself, but stops however as Ozpin approaches from behind and places a hand on her shoulder.
"Let it go." He says in ever the calm tone
She however lets out a weary sigh, "They're supposed to be defenders of the world."
"And they will be, but right now they're still children." Ozpin tells his compatriot sagely, looking to them as they laugh together, "So why not let them play the part?" He then turns his back and begins to leave. "After all, it isn't a role they'll have forever."
As Ozpin leaves down the hallway, his Scroll buzzes. Pulling it out he sees that it has only one thing about the caller listed.
Unknown.
The man sighs and places the Scroll to his ear. "Hello? Who is-"
"It's been a long time, hasn't it Ozpin?" Said a dull, emotionless voice on the other end. Ozpin knows this man, he feels a cold sweat form on his forehead. It can't be...Klaus? He thinks to himself
"No words to say?" The other voice then scoffs, "Typical. You always did leave people in the dark, like you did with me, and like you did with her. However...due to our past friendship I will give some advice: see Xipe Totec, remember him? The psychotic child you had locked within prison...he knows this well." Schwarz chuckles, "Ta-Ta Ozpin. For the earth will come aflame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom."
The line goes dead, and Ozpin feels...shaken...an old ghost has come back. And from he understands from what his old friend was saying, he's serving among Them now.
Warehouse
As Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black enter, there are White Fang foot soldiers, Shoggoths, Deep Ones and Cultists emptying the place of crates containing Dust. The only main faces that there are consist of Roman Torchwick, Ash Fall, and Roja Pecus.
"Welcome back, we missed you." Ash snarks as the two arrive
"Oh, look! She sent the kids again!" Roman says with false enthusiasm as he approaches from behind and grabs them in a group hug, "This is turning out just like the divorce!" Ash laughs at this, with Roja groaning which sounds like a deep rumble
Emerald however shivers with disgust, "Spare us the thought of you procreating."
The two slip out from the crime boss' hold
"That was a joke. And this..." Roman pulls out a piece of paper "just might tell me where you two have been all day."
"Way to get had Streetrat!" Ash adds in, "Thought stealing was your whole shtick."
"What!? Agh..." Emerald growls, both at the brother of her master's insult and Roman stealing from her
"I'm a professional, sweetheart. Pay attention, maybe you'll learn something." Roman holds up the paper to read it, "Why do you have this address?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She replies slyly
"Yeah, I would. Now where have you been all day?" He asks with a more frustrated tone of voice
"Cleaning up your problems. One of them, at least." Mercury finally decides to add in
"You know, I could've done it in half the time you two low-lives could've done it." Ash dully states, Black smirks and walks over to the blonde brother of Cinder.
"Really? With your guys running around doing next to nothing, I'd say that's pretty unlikely."
Ash gives the young man a cold, discontent smile, the kind you find on sharks.
"Ohh you stupid zoggin' git." Roja mutters as the servant of the Crawling Chaos stands up from one of the crates.
"Oh, you don't believe me? Why don't I show you a...demonstration." His voice goes from normal to deep and malicious. Ash turns into a being that's very much like a shadow of him, secreting black smoke.
And with it, the form enters through Mercury's mouth.
Imagine the feeling the different kinds of pain that there is: the stinging singe of your hand touching fire, the numb and dull pain of frostbite, the sharp feeling of accidentally cutting yourself, anything and everything you can think of.
This is currently what he's feeling. Ash's Semblance, able to become an incorporeal...'wraith' that may posses people. Controlling their body and looking through their minds.
"Oh come on Patri." Ash says within Mercury's subconsciousness as he's feeling utter agony, "I'm doing you a favor! Pain is weakness leaving the body...oh? Look what I found!"
Mercury then starts to see...visions of his father his abuses, his neglect, and his death by Mercury's own hands. The last one lingering in his mind
"You hardly looked at your old man as he died? Well let me help you with that, because I've had years of experience killing parents. Starting with my own, in fact!" Ash says proudly, "I looked at their bodies when I was done with them." His voice turns back to deep and malicious
The black smoke coils out of the grey-haired man's mouth, said smoke turning back to Ash. With Mercury panting out of exhaustion
Ash smiles at Roman, "Now! As you were." He says cheerfully
"Right...I'd just like to say, I had it under control." Roman says a bit nervous
"Roight Torchywick." Roja says dryly, "Two packed bagz an' a ticket outta Vale 'ould prolly say udda wize...am I roight?"
"Yeah..." Mercury wheezes, "You got it big guy."
"Listen, you little punk." Roman says venomously "if it were up to me, then I would take you and your little street rat friend here and..."
"Do what, Roman?" A woman's voice intervenes, looking to the platform above where the voice came from stands Cinder. She steps onto a lift to lower herself down to the level as her compatriots
"Hello dear sister." Ash says with a wry smirk on his face, Cinder however glares at him. "Brother."
"I'd, uh... not kill them?" Roman says with a nervous laugh
"Cinder!" Emerald excitedly says, earning a slap from the back of the head by Ash who's glaring daggers at her. "Quit geeking out." He drawls
Emerald growls at him but keeps to herself, not in front of lady Cinder.
"I thought I made it clear that you would eliminate the would-be runaway." Cinder turns her attention to the crime boss
"I was going to-"
"He was going to escape to Vacuo!" Sustrai interjects, "Mercury and I decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat."
"I think he was some sort of cat, actually." Mercury ponders out loud
"Did 'e 'ave an 'at? Woz 'e fat? Did you make sure his last actshon woz to shat? Dat dere is how you know someone iz dead." Roja says with a smile on his face for rhyming
"None of those...except the last one." Mercury replies holding his nose in a gesture of stink
"What? Like a puma?" Emerald asks
"Yeah, there ya go."
The two laugh together, cats or rats that shat. But had no hats nor were they fat.
"Quiet." Cinder snaps at the two less than amused, "Did I not specifically instruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?" She asks
Roman uses his fingers to mime having a slit throat, with Ash just grinning and Roja glaring at Cinder.
"I just thought that-"
"Don't think..." Cinder cuts off Emerald mid speech, "Obey."
"Yes ma'am. It won't happen again." Emerald apologizes
"Boring!" Ash chimes in
"And you. Why wasn't this job done sooner?" Cinder asks Torchwick,
"Uh..? Eh..? Eh..? EHHHHH!" Roman sounds gesturing to all the crates within the warehouse
"Sorry if I've been busy stealing every speck of Dust in the Kingdom!"
"You're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask." Mercury snarks causing his compatriot to laugh along with Roja.
"Look around, kid. I've got this town running scared! Police camping out at every corner, Dust prices through the roof, and we're sitting pretty on an old warehouse with more Dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with! Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn't mind filling me in on your grand master plan, it might make my next string of robberies go a little smoother!" Roman proudly states, emphasizing the last word with a clench of his fist
"Roman buddy! Have a little faith!" Ash speaks up pulling him close like one would do to a friend, "You'll know what you need, when you need to know it."
"You're one to talk."
Ash snaps his attention to his sister and walks over to her, "And what do you mean by that, my dear sister?" He asks with venom lining his voice.
"What have your people done, hm?" Cinder asks dully, "Gathering up cultists, killing a few people, I have to say...you're hardly contributing."
Ash snapped, his face turning from a friendly look to one of pure hatred. Striking his sister as hard as he can, sending her sprawling to the floor
"CINDER!" Emerald shouts out, as she tries to rush over she ends up being stopped by Roja.
"Stop you bloody git!" He growls, and Ash pummels away on his sister. Punching over, and over, and over again...but he stops to pant. Standing up from his bruised and bloody-faced sibling he takes a deep breath and slicks his hair back with one hand.
"I'd like to say dear sister." He says in a mocking tone as she slowly gets up, "While you've been getting up Dust by having a pawn do it...my group has managed to bring more followers and sacrifices into the fold. And find where the Codex is." He states with a small smile, "It's right here in Vale...more specifically, Beacon Academy. Unfortunately we can't just go rushing in." He then sighs and shakes his head, "Unfortunate."
"Oh! Speaking of Dust!" Ash says snapping his fingers, "We're done with it now Roman." He then starts to walk away
"O-okay, then what now?" Roman stutters slightly
"Have those filthy mutts clear this place out. Cinder will send you details and coordinates tonight."
"Coordinates?"
Ash smiles, "Phase two is coming...oh and Streetrat? Patri? Have my dear sister be sent to the Old Man to fix her up, Roja will lead the way." He then leaves out of sight
Emerald growls again and breaks her grip from Roja
"Why did you stop me?!" She snaps, "He was harming lady Cinder! We're lucky he-"
"SHUT YER DAMN YAP!" The giant snaps into the dark-skinned girl, "You saw wot da Boss did to Grey dere, roight?" He asks with the smaller of the two nodding, "He 'ould've killed ya witout a second thought if you troied stoppin' 'im. I protected ya from gettin' killed."
"You...protected me?" She asks suspiciously, "Why?" Roja shrugs
"'Ell it'd be a damn shame if youz got killed. You'z roight cunnin'"
"Hmm...well, thanks." She says sounding more...grateful, Roja smiles and pats her on the shoulder. "Don't mention it."
(Roll credits, and that's another chapter done. I think I'm gonna take a break, a week at the least. But I'll be back don't worries.)