A/N: Hey all! Thanks for tuning in on another exciting chapter of Embers! Please enjoy this next chapter! And remember to send me OC's!
Chapter Four: We are All and We are One
The sun inched closer and closer to the mountain range to show that the first day of hunting is coming to a close. Team ZERO was still very much searching for their target, a Red Masque Nevermore. The team had become weary and irritated as they have been searching for hours. As the once blue sky grew dim, Orion stopped walking, causing the group to stop with him.
"It's getting dark. We should worry more about finding shelter. We can continue worrying about the target in the morning", the Faunus said softly.
"But we haven't found it yet!", Zane whined.
"Ozpin did say that this hunt could take several days", Rizu interjected,"However he did make you the leader so I guess you have the final decision"
Zane just sighed,"Alright let's look for a shelter I guess. Hey Faunus you still got the backpack?"
Orion nodded and they kept blazing the trail. As they kept walking, Rizu tapped his blade against his knee guards, making that same tuning fork sound. He continued to do this periodically, much to the annoyance of his team, especially Zane. Before they knew it, the sky was almost completely dark and the tapping hadn't stopped. Finally, Zane had snapped.
"Would you stop that racket?! You are driving me insane with that constant tapping! Why do you do it anyway?", the swordsman asked frustratedly.
Rizu took a while to answer,"I don't have to answer that. What I do isn't your business, so shut up"
"Excuse me? I'm the leader of this team and I'm asking-...no. I'm DEMANDING that you tell me why you think it's necessary to keep making that damn noise! God if I didn't know any better I would say that you're blind!"
"..."
Rizu stayed silent, only looking towards Zane with a blank face, his eyes hidden behind his shades. It took a while to register, but Zane found the silence to be his answer.
"Woah wait. Are you really blind? Literally?", Zane asked cautiously.
Rizu just sighed and sheathed his tonfa blade and revolver,"Yes. I am physically blind. I cannot see. You happy now asshole? You gonna bully me now just like you bullied-..."
He paused abruptly, turning his head slightly like a radar dish.
"ORION!"
Orion looked behind him in reaction, gasping as an Ursa had snuck up behind him. He was so focused on Rizu's tapping and Zane's whining he couldn't sense it. Everything seemed to slow down as the only think Orion could hear was his rapidly increasing heart rate.
Bum-Bum
Bu-Bum
B-Bum
The Faunus tried to reach for his weapon, but moved his body too much, causing his weight to work against him and send him to the ground. The Ursa's titanic claw was nearing him. As Orion waited for the sweet embrace of death, he saw the Ursa get tackled by Rizu. The black-clad teen had leaped on top of the mighty beast, trying his best to hold him. As he reached for his blade, the beast toppled over on its back with Rizu getting caught under.
"Rizu no!", Ella cried as she ran towards it, gasping as she saw the tip of his blade pierce through the monster's chest.
Orion and Zane rushed to him, pulling the dead Grimm off of him. To their relief he had survived, but to their horror, he had a piece of the beast's bone spike impaling him. Rizu shook as the pain rocked his body. They wanted to pull it out, but they had to think of something to seal the wound so that he wouldn't bleed out. Ella noticed his jacket and got an idea, starting to unzip and remove it, starting with his left arm, much to his horror.
"Ella...w-wait! Don't-!"
As she finished removing the fleece jacket, she gasped shock at what she saw. His entire left arm was robotic. She finally understood why he kept this sleeve down. Rizu understood that his team finally knew his other secret, but right now had other issues that were more urgent at hand. Since nobody else seemed to know what to do, Zane spoke up, albeit reluctantly.
"Okay look, we gotta set up camp here. Orion, go set up a tent for Rizu. Ella and I will do what we can right here. Here let's put try and pull the spike out and then pressure the wound with his coat", he explained.
Rizu shook his head weakly,"It won't be enough. E-Ella you have to sear the wound closed"
"What?! That's insane!", she warned.
"There's no time to argue this! Zane?Pull it out. Ella? Cauterize the wound okay? I'll try and use my aura to do the rest", he explained, his breath shortening.
Realizing that they were out of options, the pair looked down at their wounded comrade and nodded, getting ready to aid him. Finally, Zane counted down.
"3...2...1!"
Hours passed into the starlit night as the campfire cracked and hissed as sparks flew everywhere around the three teens. Nobody has been able to sleep. Ella and Zane had successfully stabilized Rizu, leaving him to heal inside the tent. Orion stood cross legged in front of the fire, his eyes fixed upon the dancing flames. Ella was still shaken from having to burn her teammate just to help him. What if she had messed up? He could be dead. She may not have known him that well, but she didn't want to hurt anybody. The silence among them was deafening. Even Zane was uncomfortable from what had just happened. Sure he didn't like Rizu, but it was his job as his leader to make sure he didn't get hurt.
"I can't believe he risked his life to save me...", Orion muttered sheepishly.
"Orion...", Zane started.
"No. Don't tell me you w-would have done it because you wouldn't. You even told me to my face that I'm about as worthless as trash, so how could I trust you to have my back?"
The group sat there in another round of silence as Zane formulated an answer.
"Listen. I just have a bad history with the Faunus okay? Your kind has caused my family a lot of trouble. When I was little, my father took my brother and I on a walk through a local park. He was busy a lot so I didn't get to see him often. Our mother died giving birth to my little brother. During the walk, we were ambushed by members of a Faunus extremist group"
"I-It wasn't the White Fang right? They're a peaceful organization!", Orion defended.
"No it wasn't them. They're not around anymore but at the time they were called the Grimm Blades. They attacked us in the park and slaughtered my father and my little brother. As they got ready to kill me, my father's personal guard came along and gunned them all down. Thus the Grimm Blades were destroyed. Ever since then, I have feared the Faunus. So I started to bully them to help me get stronger. So...Orion...I'm sorry. It wasn't towards you personally. Seeing you so docile makes me kinda think that not all Faunus are bad...you know?", he finished, looking sheepish and embarrassed.
Orion looked over at Zane with a surprised face before shaking his hand. Ella smiled softly to herself. Maybe being in a team won't be so bad, she thought. Suddenly, the peace was disturbed by the sound of a zipper from the tent behind them. Rizu rose slowly from the shelter, staggering to his feet.
"R-Rizu don't you think you should rest some more?", Ella asked tenderly, still feeling guilty for having to burn him.
"I'll be fine. I just gotta shake off the excess pain and stretch a little. I...I guess I have some explaining to do", he said, defeat lacing his voice.
Zane was the first to speak,"Rizu. We may have had a rough start, but if we are gonna be stuck with each other for the foreseeable future, we need to open up and trust each other, as strange as it may sound"
With a hesitant nod and a tap from his blade and knee guard, he sat down on the grass between Orion and Ella. It took a while, but he eventually mustered the will to speak.
"I was born in Atlas and given up for adoption at birth. I guess my parents couldn't do with a son with a weak aura. When I was five, I got adopted by a retired Huntsman. His name was Kazuto Ichinose, but he was better known as DJ Fall, so that's the name I took as my surname. He ran a local night club, Rhythm Blades, in the city. Because he homeschooled me I didn't know anyone. When I was ten I discovered that he had been running an underground fight club, using a peculiar style called 'rhythm sync'. I began to learn how to fight in such a way. When I was twelve I had been given my own blade, Treble, and my own gun, Bass. The blade works like an acoustic resonator when tapped against metal, allowing me to 'feel' my surroundings"
The group sat attentively, listening to every detail he gave about himself. They were shocked that he had been given up, but then again, it had been a common trend in the world to give up your child if you weren't ready to have one. He continued his story.
"When I was fourteen, the Atlas military found out about the fight club and decided that the best way to rid themselves of it...was to burn it to the ground. The fire killed a lot of people inside including my adoptive father. When the building came down, I was still inside. I suffered damage to my occipital lobe from a blow to my head and I passed out. When I came to, I was blinded and my arm was crushed by some rubble. I had to cut it off and cauterize the wound by heating a steel plate and putting it against my stub. After that I wandered in darkness, passing out on the street from dehydration", he paused, looking down at the floor, seeming uncomfortable.
Ella and the others looked at each other, they're faces paled at the horror that had plagued Rizu's past. It was a miracle that he had survived this long. They all looked back at him as he sighed, removing his sunglasses for the first time that they had seen, revealing his eyes. His eyes glimmered from the firelight, the color being a tempered starlight silver. They were empty, devoid of any life, yet they burned with hatred. Ella was absolutely enchanted by them. As Rizu was about to continue, he tilted his head slightly to the right, closing his eyes as if he was focusing something.
"You guys hear that?", he whispered.
They waited.
And waited.
And finally, they heard it.
"Krrrreeeeeeaaaaaaawwwww"
The ear splitting cry of their target, the Red Masque Nevermore. Ella and Zane were the first to stand, scanning the night sky for it. Orion stood slowly and drew his bow, aiming at the sky while Rizu staggered to his feet, grunting in a bit of pain. Moments later, the group heard that spine-tingling screech again, but this time...louder. Ella looked directly above them, squealing a little in terror.
"Guys it's diving! We gotta move!", she called out.
"It's coming too fast we will never get away in time!", Rizu called back.
Zane thought of an idea and drew his katanas, the blades glowing orange and purple,"Let's try and scare it off! Hit it with everything you got!"
In unison the group began attacking. Zane slashed out shockwaves of lightning and fire energy while Rizu shot at it with his revolver. Orion used Ella's flames to engulf his arrows in fire, trying his best to scorch it. As if by sheer luck, the shots had hit the mighty avian square in the head, causing it to screech in pain and pull up, circling around to shake off the hits. In a hurry, the four ran off as quickly as they could, not looking back to the enraged predator. Ella tossed an orb of flame to a tree, setting it alight in hopes of distracting the avian. Much to the team's dismay, they had run out of ground as they had run to the edge of the forest where there was naught but a perilous cliff.
"Great now what do we do?", Zane groaned, out of breath from the running.
Rizu loaded his revolver and tapped his blade twice,"We fight it, as is our mission"
"If we work together, we can do it", Orion added, readying his bow.
Zane sighed and drew his blades again,"Then let's get to work"
The Nevermore rose into the sky, screeching loudly before scanning the ground for its prey, diving towards the group of students. Orion made the first move by firing an arrow into its left eye, hitting it straight on...yet forgotten he used a roped arrow. Before he knew it he was flying up towards the beast's head. With barely any time left, he switched the bow into it's battle axe form, taking three heavy swings at the Nevermore's head. Latching onto its head feathers, Orion held on for dear life as he tried to swing his axe at the monster's neck, only for the skin to prove too tough for just steel. Zane saw he was having trouble and decided to take action.
"Ella! Do you have any lightning dust on you?", Zane asked in a hurry.
"Yeah I have one canister why?"
"We gotta toss it up to Orion. Rizu is there a way we can slow it down?", Zane replied.
"Not that I can think of. Ella? You have any wind dust as well?", he asked.
"Yeah a little. Why?"
"Zane! Put on the parachute from the backpack. You can use that and Ella's wind to launch towards the bird"
After equipping the parachute onto Zane and giving him the vial of lightning Dust, Ella focused her aura into the wind Dust, finally creating a current to send him soaring into the sky. With sheer luck, he landed onto the beasts back, piercing his blades into it to hold on, causing the Grimm to start flying straight up.
"Orion! How are you holding up?", Zane shouted.
"J-Just peachy! What's the plan?", he called back.
"I'm gonna impale it with a vial of lightning type dust and then let go! When I do, just let go too! We'll use your arrows to land", he explained.
After explaining, the blade user starting climbing up the avian's back, using his twin blades to climb, eventually reaching its damaged eye socket. After driving the vial into the weakened flesh, he let go, grabbing onto Orion's hand, with the Faunus letting go of the rope for the pair to free fall. As they fell, Orion fumbled through his quiver, trying to rotate it to have a rope arrow. As soon as he did, he and Zane used it to swing from a large tree near the ground. As the Red Masque Nevermore began its descent, Zane made the final call.
"Ella! Open fire!"
With whatever remained of her last canister of Fire dust, the young woman formed a large flaming sphere before blasting it skyward. As the fireball flew, the Nevermore fell eventually the two meeting with explosive force. The blast was enormous, but not enough to stop the Grimm fully.
"Guys it didn't work! The vial didn't blow!", Zane cried.
"Don't worry! I can do this!", Ella assured.
With a deep, focused breath, she looked straight up at the diving Nevermore, her gaze meeting its eyes. All was silent around her as she used her aura to trigger the Dust, the vial exploding with thunderous magnitude. The Lightning energy electrocuted the monster from the inside out, almost instantaneously killing it. Boom, Ella thought to herself. The beast landed in a clearing not far from them. When they finally made their way to it, Zane spoke up.
"You think a fried Nevermore eyeball is good enough?"
A/N: There we go! Man that was hard. Sorry if my action scene was shitty but I don't have a lot of practice in writing action so I'm sorry but I will get better. Anyway thanks for sticking with me and to those who have given me OC's thank you so much I will put them into the story as soon as I can! See you all next time!