A/N: Hope y'all enjoy :)
"We need to evacuate the Colosseum." General Ironwood already had one hand on his comms, pressing the button to speak through it. It took most of Jaune's quick reflexes to snatch it out of the man's hands, causing the soldiers inside of the room to draw their weapons, pointing it at the blond alchemist.
After explaining to them what the circle can do, the Headmaster of the Atlas Academy had been quick to call his forces, something that Jaune wasn't sure was going to be the best course of action.
"We can't do that yet." Jaune said cautiously, keeping both of his hands above his head, the comms unit in his metal hand.
"And why not?" The man demanded, hand inching towards his gun. Jaune gestured slowly for peace, lowering the radio and tossing it towards James, hoping that he wouldn't get shot the moment the box left his hand. The general caught it, and clipped it back onto his belt, folding his arms in wait of an explanation.
"If we set off an alarm, it'll warn the people who planned this whole thing that their circle is compromised." Jaune explained. "We don't know if there's someone set up waiting at the ring, ready to set it off on command or not." The boy looked at Professor Goodwitch and Blake. "I suggest that we get to the circle first, find a way to disrupt it, then you can call for an evacuation."
The man didn't seem to agree with Jaune's plan, a frown marring his face. "And how will we know that they won't just set if off by the time we get there?" Jaune shrugged.
"They might." Jaune said, making the man in front of him raise an eyebrow. "But if they do, a circle of that size would take a few minutes to... how do I say this?" Jaune scrunched up his eyebrows, trying to think of a good term. "To warm up, essentially."
"And how long would that take?"
Jaune scratched his head, looking at the circle again, calculations running in his head. "I'm not sure. I would say somewhere around ten to fifteen minutes at the least." The boy shook his head, tilting his head a little. "Burning through all the redundancies might give us another five." The room fell silent, James looking at the screens thoughtfully.
"What I don't get," Professor Goodwitch said, interrupting moment, "Is why they didn't just activate the circle in already?"
"Mass." Jaune answered quickly, having already thought about the question. "To gather as many people as possible into the Colosseum to harvest. My guess is that whoever planned this would have planned to set off the circle during the grand finals, or somewhere close to that time, because that's when we've got the most attendance inside the Colosseum."
James nodded, speaking up. "Then it's decided. Let's go... break up that circle then." Jaune looked at the gruff man, blinking curiously at him.
"Wait... you're coming with us?" Jaune asked, surprised.
"Of course." General Ironwood answered back, already striding out of the surveillance room. "It is my responsibility to keep the civilians of Remnant safe, and it is also my responsibility as the Headmaster of Atlas Academy to make sure that the integrity of the Amity Colosseum is uncompromised." Jaune stood there, gaping at the man as he looked back. "I'm not going to take no as an answer, by the way." The statement snapped Jaune out of his daze, and the boy started to move, shaking his head the whole way.
"Of course you aren't." Jaune muttered.
The four of them arrived at another Bullhead that was already getting ready for takeoff, General Ironwood having called it in moments before. The ride towards the Colosseum was strangely tense, even though there was no sign of interference the whole way towards their destination.
Stepping out, everyone gave Jaune a quick minute to collect his breath before they set off into the depths of the Colosseum, intent on finding and breaking the circle.
Finding it again wasn't hard of course. The circle couldn't have been moved in such a short time, being so big and complex as it is. Destroying it was a different matter altogether, Jaune found, as the group ran into a tall gray-haired boy with guns attached to his legs.
"You're not allowed to be here." General Ironwood said, hand resting on his pistol. Mercury crossed his arms, smirking at the man.
"I know."
The boy whirled around, firing off a shot out of his boot, James ducking underneath and pulling out his gun. Before he could even fire it though, the ceiling in front of them collapsed, locking them out of the passage.
Professor Goodwitch growled, bringing out her crop and waving it in the air, grabbing a telekinetic hold of the rubble, slowly lifting it up. She had to be careful not to move too quickly, given that she could very well end up collapsing the whole hallway under them.
It was slow, and did nothing for their patience as the three of them stood there, waiting for enough of the rubble to be cleared for them to slid through. Blake was the first one through, her lithe body having no difficulty getting underneath the small hole that Glynda had given them. Jaune was next, simply crawling through instead of sliding through like Blake, brushing the seat of his pants afterwards.
As General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch struggled to make the way through a little more navigable, Jaune and Blake looked around to try and find where Mercury had went. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace of himself as he escaped.
"Where do you think he went?" Blake asked quietly, Gambol Shroud already out in her hand. Jaune had Crocea Mors out as well, eyes scanning the area around him, ready to defend or attack anything that moved.
"Probably back to whoever's planning this," Jaune murmured, grip tightening and loosening on his sword. "If he's able to report to them that we're here-"
Jaune was suddenly cut off by a low hum of power, the air almost vibrating as it started. The boy looked at Blake with a pained expression, setting off to find the nearest section of the circle.
"They'll... start... the process." Jaune finished, gritting his teeth. "Come on, we don't have much time left." He started running, trying to find the person responsible for this.
"Wait, where're we going?" Blake asked, keeping pace with him. "Shouldn't we be heading towards the center of the circle?" Jaune raised an incredulous eyebrow, looking at the girl.
"What, so that we can be absorbed too?" Jaune shook his head. "No way. Anything breathing inside that circle is going to be made into a philosopher's stone, and I doubt that the mastermind would be willing to stay inside of the circle while that's happening. Now, where's the nearest exit?"
"Over here." Jaune turned to find Emerald standing behind them, pistols held up.
What was meant to be a smooth dive roll from Jaune's perspective ended up as sort of a dive-on-your-face, Jaune narrowly avoiding the barrage that Emerald initially sent out. The boy deployed his shield for the next few shots, before he felt a sharp pain on his side, making him gasp out as he spun around and found another Emerald, firing off another shot.
"Don't look away from an opponent, Jaune." The alchemist gasped again as he was thrown over Emerald's shoulder, the girl having seemingly teleported to his side, vicious grin on her face.
Jaune struggled to get up, waving his arms back and forth to try and clip her, but hitting short every time.
"Get off of him!" Blake yowled as she tackled Emerald, pinning her down. The green-haired girl roared and fought back, but was quickly countered by the faster Blake, who simply deflected most attacks and struck back harder than her, snarling as she did so.
It was only when the cat faunus suddenly reared up, clutching her eyes as she screamed that Emerald was able to find purchase, wiggling out of the tight hold and standing up, short of breath.
That was when Jaune slammed her with the shield, propelling her backwards into a wall.
The girl groaned in pain, blinking hazily as she took another pot shot at Jaune, who simply deflected it off of his arm, driving Crocea Mors into Emerald.
It didn't go as Jaune planned though, the sword piercing through the girl, who screamed and faded into thin air, another phantasm created by Emerald.
Jaune cursed quietly, whirling around cautiously to try and find the girl, shield at ready just in case she tried for a lucky shot. It was only when he felt Blake's hand on his shoulder that he relaxed, looking carefully at the faunus to make sure she was safe.
"Are you alright?" Jaune asked, just to make sure. The girl grimaced, clutching at her side a little and shrugging.
"She blinded me with her semblance." Blake shook her head, sighing. "But I'm alright."
Jaune breathed out a sigh of relief, nodding as he stood up, shaking off the bruises that he had gotten from the brief scuffle. The fight was done probably in hopes to delay them, Jaune thought to himself, biting his lower lip. It gave time for whoever was in charge to get away, safely leaving the effective radius of the circle, which means...
Jaune's mind whirred to a stop, his eyes widening in realization.
"What am I doing right now?" Jaune said harshly, chiding himself. If the boss had left the building, that meant the circle was unguarded. It meant that Jaune could change the integrity of it without interference.
Or at least, the only interference would be the lackeys that the boss had sent around, but Jaune was confident that they could handle that well enough.
Overhead, Jaune heard a siren ringing out, probably an alarm to evacuate all the citizens. He glanced up, shoulders dropping a little in relief, General Ironwood probably coming to enough conclusions without Jaune to know that the circle had been set off already, and there was no point in keeping the civilians on the Colosseum any longer.
"Come on Blake," Jaune said, looking at her, determination sparking in his eyes. "Let's go fuck with some plans."
The girl nodded, and they took off towards the center, the cat faunus clearly trusting that Jaune had thought up of a plan during the time he had stopped moving.
They arrived at the center of the circle in less time than Jaune had imagined, finding it glowing a bright white, the light so bright that Jaune had a hard time seeing much. He didn't need to see much though, having committed the circle to memory, and knowing exactly where he needed to screw with the circle to have the maximum, non-lethal effect.
Closing his eyes, Jaune took a few tentative steps to the right, then another few forwards, hoping that he had mapped it out in his mind correctly. He took a deep breath, and pulled out the philosopher's stone that he had been safekeeping from his belt, opening his eyes just a fraction to see the blood red stone sitting in his palm.
He never wanted to use its power, knowing full well how dangerous it was, and what it was derived from. But if he had to use it to prevent another one from being made... Then so be it.
Jaune knelt down, gripping the stone tightly and drawing its poer, allowing him to use his alchemy where it shouldn't have been possible.
And used it to pull up a stone wall behind him as Blake cried out a warning, spinning to find Cinder standing behind him, flames in both hands. That was all the warning he had though, as she thrust her hands and struck Jaune, causing him to fly backwards, the stone slipping out of his fingers as he did so.
Cinder exhaled slowly, looking at Blake, who had been trapped by some rock outcrops that the woman must have put up, and smiled at her, before turning to Jaune, the same disdainful look on her face.
"Come now, Jaune." She purred, taking a step forwards. "You wouldn't think I would let my greatest achievement go unguarded, would you?"