Chapter 3
Exhibition II
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or any of the Metro games or books.
A/N: Dialogue in bold is in Russian. Team name is pronounced "acumen."
Nope: Yeah, I took inspiration from The Assassin's Mentor's fic. In fact, one of the main reasons I started writing this was because I decided I'm not going to wait around and pray that the hiatus on Metro: A New Light will be lifted, so I decided to write my own fic, with blackjack and hookers.
As always, R&R, constructive criticism is always welcome.
The students in the amphitheatre were talking up a storm over the events that just transpired.
"D6? What could that mean?" asked Yang.
"And who's Korbut?" Ruby wondered as well.
"Whatever they are, it's probably bad," answered Weiss.
"I agree. I think they just shivered a little when they mentioned D6," Pyrrha replied.
Back in the Emerald Forest…
"That sounded like a lot of Grimm," Miller stated.
"Well, I think a horde of Grimm is better than a horde of Reds. Unlike them, they can't shoot back," Ulman responded.
"I think this might be a good time to use those Dust bombs we got," Artyom proclaimed. Khan nodded in agreement, and then said "I think we should get ready, they will be on us soon." The four then took positions behind the Deathstalker corpse. Artyom unslung his Volt Driver and started charging it. Khan followed suit, pumping the Helsing. Miller unslung the Clapper, and Ulman readied his Abzats.
"We don't have a backup plan for this, gentlemen. Let's not have D6 happen again," Miller remarked.
"Well, that should be easy, considering the Grimm don't know how to build and operate an armoured train," Ulman joked. Miller shot Ulman a dirty look, his shins twitching at the words "armoured train" for reasons unknown to him.
"Here they come!" shouted Khan. A massive wave of Grimm emerged from the forest, charging toward the Rangers.
"OPEN FIRE!" Artyom exclaimed, and the four started shooting. On the other side of the Deathstalker's corpse, bullets sank into their victim's bodies, bolts impaling vital organs, steel balls cracking masks, buckshot shredding flesh and fur. The monsters were taking heavy casualties, but they charged their way across this no man's land of grass inch by inch. Beowolf after beowolf, ursa after ursa, and boarbatusk after boarbatusk died in this storm of projectiles, the thunder of the Volt Driver and the Abzats being the most prominent sounds on the battlefield besides the roars, growls and whimpers of pain.
"Someone slow down their charge!" Khan shouted. Artyom fulfilled the request, lighting an incendiary grenade and throwing it at the horde. A foul smell emanated from the fire as growls of agony rang out from the Grimm that was being incinerated by the projectile.
"Use one of the Dust bombs!" Miller cried out. Ulman, in obedience to his colonel, took out a blue pipebomb, lit it, and threw it at the Grimm. Ice shards were sent flying by the explosion, the four crouching behind the Deathstalker carcass as the shards impaled any Grimm that was unlucky enough to be in its wake.
"Goddamn! That was pretty cool!" Ulman yelled.
The four popped out from behind the corpse and resumed firing. Khan sprayed his AKS at the monsters, having run out of bolts earlier. Grenades flew from Artyom's hands. Miller's concentration remained unbroken as he shot vital organ after vital organ, silent applause sounding out from his rifle. Ulman added throwing knives to the buckshot he launches across the Deathstalker blockade. The four noticed one particular Grimm in the air.
"That is one huge bird!" Ulman shouted.
"Miller, Artyom, aim for that bird!" Khan yelled.
The two Rangers complied; bullets and ball bearings flew towards the Nevermore. In return, the Nevermore launched feathers at the four. "Everyone move, now!" Artyom yelled, Khan and Ulman stumbling from their positions, and feathers sank into the dirt and the corpse where the Spartans and Khan used to stand.
Ulman was down to his VSV and Lolife, having unloaded every shell and throwing knife he had on the horde, promptly unslinging his VSV, and resumed firing. Khan followed suit, and Miller and Artyom continued firing at the Nevermore as it was about to dive on them. Miller took aim at the Nevermore's head, and with one last shot, he took it down. "Get down!" The bird started to destabilize, and crashed into the pillars behind them. Unfortunately for the four, while they were distracted, the Grimm have already reached the Deathstalker corpse, attempting to move it out of the way.
"What a nice time to run out of shotgun shells," Ulman sarcastically stated.
"I still have my Saiga. Shut up and keep firing!" barked Miller as he promptly switched to his shotgun and blasted an unfortunate Beowolf's face off. Artyom tried for force the monsters back by jabbing the prongs of his Volt Driver into any of them that came close enough, delivering a shock through their bodies. "Fall back!" Khan ordered, and the Rangers started retreating, hopping over the rubble the Nevermore had produced, but not before Miller dropped a lit yellow pipebomb where they were. The Grimm that were caught in its radius were fried with electricity from the blast. The four then noticed one Grimm that literally stood out from the horde.
'Whoa, I haven't seen a bear that big since the one in the Alexander Garden!' Artyom thought.
"I am really wishing we still had that Gatling from D6, this is getting ridiculous," Ulman replied.
"At least the smaller ones seem to be thinning out," Khan remarked as he tossed a pipebomb at the now thinned horde, made thinner a few seconds later.
The four took aim at the Ursa Major, focusing all their fire on it. This only made the large beast angrier and started to charge, and pinned Khan's arm to the ground with its claws, the monster snarling as it tried to bite his head off as Khan tried to keep its mouth away from him. Artyom immediately unholstered his revolver and emptied it on the Ursa's head, all six shots only cracking the mask as the other Rangers unloaded their magazines on its body. Without a second thought, Artyom unsheathed his knife, and punched the Ursa where he shot its mask, shattering it, the monster recoiling from the pain as it bucked away from Khan. Taking the opportunity, Khan unholstered his Lolife, and sprayed the magazine's contents on the Ursa's chest. With a low moan, the Ursa Major wobbled, taking steps back, and fell on its back.
"That was way too close for comfort," Khan said as he panted. "Thank you, everyone."
"Well, we can't have our favourite philosopher die on us, now can we? Not that we believe your crap anyway," Ulman responded as he helped him up.
"Really? Not after our detour through Polyanka?"
"Let's just move on, already," Miller piped in.
"Agreed. We have to head back to the cliff now. Chess pieces are a weird choice of relic, don't you think?" responded Artyom, taking out his orange case, passing it to Khan. The wounded Khan opened the case, took out a syringe, administered the medicine, and passed the case back to Artyom.
The group beheld the field before them. The once green sea of grass was now stained red with Grimm blood, littered with the smoldering bodies of the pitch-black beasts. There were burn marks on the grass, extinguished by the bloodbath that had just ensued. Shallow craters were dug thanks to the explosives. Khan was scouring the field, looking to retrieve the bolts he had used, Ulman doing the same with this throwing knives. 'How did Artyom do that?' he thought to himself as he pulled out two bolts from a Boarbatusk's carcass. 'The knife didn't even touch that beast…' After Khan and Ulman's salvage operation, the four set off for the cliffs.
Meanwhile, in the amphitheatre…
The student body stared at the screen in disbelief. Yang asked Weiss playfully, her ears still ringing a little after Ruby squealed when the Rangers readied their strange weapons, "So what were you saying about being unable to handle a situation they can't sneak their way from?" Weiss didn't respond, her eyes widened, still staring at the screen, at a loss for words. Ruby and Nora were cheering for the four. Pyrrha was deep in thought. 'What was the significance of D6?' Ren had an impressed expression on his face, in contrast to Jaune, who was just as shocked as Weiss.
Half an hour later…
"Artyom Glukhovsky, Khan Aitmatov, Ulman Strugatsky, and Miller Strugatsky," Ozpin announced while screens overhead showed the Rangers' pictures with the first letters of their names under it, "You will now be known as Team AKUM, led by Artyom Glukhovsky. Though AKUM is your official designation, you may also be recognized by the name of your Order." A round of applause with looks of confusion followed after Ozpin had finished speaking.
"It's nice to know that we can still be Rangers in this world," said Artyom to his team. "Although, leadership is something new to me."
"Ah well, I knew I was going to be replaced at some point. I think it was time for me to retire, anyway. Maybe just handle Polis guards," Miller responded.
"Though technically, I only really assist the Rangers at times," Khan reported.
"We are at your command, o Marshall," Ulman declared.
Cafeteria, 8:30 P.M….
The Rangers are sitting at a table, digging into their mind-blowingly delicious looking meals, when eight people approached them. They recognized the first four girls; they were Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. The other four they have never seen before; one blond boy with blue eyes, one boy with long dark hair with a pink streak in it, one short haired girl with orange hair and turquoise eyes, and one redhead with green eyes. "Helloooo~!" Yang called out with the same tone she had greeted Blake the first time they met, waving all the while. The eight took seats beside the four.
"Good evening girls, I see you've brought some friends," Khan responded.
"Nice job with the initiation today," Blake said.
"Thanks. So, are you introducing us or what?" Artyom asked, gesturing to the four new arrivals.
"Oh, I'm Jaune," the blond boy answered.
"Pyrrha. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Nora, and this is Ren."
"A pleasure to meet you all," Miller responded.
"So, where are you guys from?" asked Yang.
"And what did Professor Ozpin mean about an Order?" Weiss questioned.
"Oh, we're from a food delivery company, and Professor Ozpin placed an order," Ulman sarcastically retorted. The eight teens, minus Blake and Ren, groaned.
"Well, it's time for us to get going. Good night, everyone," Artyom stated as the four got up from the table and headed for their dorm room.
"Don't try to dodge the question!" Yang exclaimed. The eight stood up and started following the Rangers.
"I get the feeling the medkits we have are one of a kind, and we're definitely going to need more. I'll see if I can find someone who can make something like this tomorrow," Artyom said.
"A wise decision," Khan responded.
"Oh, come on! Why you gotta use your secret code?" Nora asked.
"I get the feeling it's more of a language than a secret code," Weiss stated.
"Who has the time to make up a whole new language?" Jaune wondered.
"Well, that's it for us then, see you kids later," Miller said to the eight.
"Ohoho, you'll definitely be seeing more of us," Yang cheerily responded with a wide grin on her face.
"And why is that? Are you going to set up camp in front of our dorm?" Ulman asked.
"Well, we don't HAVE to set up camp. We're neighbours," Ruby mentioned.
"Our room is right next door, and Team JNPR's is right in front of ours," Weiss added.
"Well, this will be fun to deal with," Ulman sarcastically stated. "Well everyone, good night." The other teams made their way to their dorms.
"Kids? What did he mean by kids?" Ren asked.
"It takes a lot of ego to just address us as 'kids' even though they're our age," Weiss scoffed.
"You're one to talk about ego, Weiss," Yang murmured.
"Well, I think it's time we turned in as well," Blake added, yawning.
"Good night, everyone," said Ruby, waving as she and the rest of her team entered their team's dorm. Team JNPR followed suit, entering their own team's dorm room, shutting the door. What no one noticed was that there was a silver bullet lying in the doorway of Team AKUM's door, leaving it slightly ajar.
Half an hour later, Ruby sneaked out from her dorm room and slowly opened Team AKUM's door, carefully retrieving the bullet she dropped earlier. She took out her Scroll, raising the brightness enough so she could see, but is dim enough so that it doesn't wake the sleeping Spartans and Khan. She took a look around the room, looking around for the team's arsenal. The hooded girl found the first specimen for her observations, Ulman's Abzats. The reaper tried to lift it, but it was too heavy for her. How did Ulman lift this, let alone fire it in full auto for such a long time during the initiation? She took a closer look at it, and her eyes widened, noticing that this used to be a mounted machinegun. 'The person who converted it must have been a very skilled gunsmith to convert a mounted machinegun to use shotgun shells,' she thought. She tried to look for some sort of transformation mechanism, but failed to do so. 'Why doesn't this thing have mecha-shifting parts?' she wondered, moving on to Khan's Helsing. She gripped the forend of the speargun, pulling it forward, giving it a pump, realising that this was a pneumatic weapon. She was surprised to see such an unconventional way of firing would be so effective. Now, her eyes wandered on to the two main courses of her inquisition, the first being the Clapper. To her it was heavy, but it wasn't as heavy as Crescent Rose, although the integrated suppressor was nice. Ruby then noticed that the slide for the rifle looked like it was just installed, coming to the conclusion that this rifle used to be a bolt-action. Finally, the one weapon she was dying in anticipation to observe: Artyom's Volt Driver. She could barely contain her excitement as she laid her hands on the railgun. This was a very unique design to her. It was the one weapon she could not recognize in any similarity to the weapon magazines she had read throughout her life. Her attention was caught by the voltmeter, the gauge being empty. Of course, "voltmeter" was in Russian, but she had no way of knowing that. She squeezed the handle of the charger once, the voltmeter's needle spiking. Ruby started looking for any signs of a magazine or a clip, realizing that this gun fired ball bearings, which came to her as a surprise. She fiddled around, trying to get the cylinder with the ball bearings off the gun. After further examination, her eyes widened when she realized that magnetism was the driving force of the ball bearings. She was surprised to see that the battery had no visible signs of Dust usage. One didn't have to be Weiss to know that. To her, this was completely alien and unheard of. 'I'm pretty sure that they also carried pistols, some of them were sooooo tricked out. Now where are the-'
Click.
Click.
Click-click.
Click-click.
Four lasers beamed out from the darkness, all aimed squarely right between the girl's eyes.
"Ruby! What are you doing in our room?!" Miller whispered.
"I'msosorryIjustwantedtotakealookatyourweaponspleaseI'veneverseenanythinglikethisbeforeespeciallyArtyom'smagnetgun…" Ruby responded, whispering as well.
The four put away their pistols, or in Khan's case, his pseudo-SMG. "Besides, why do you have your guns ready when you sleep anyway?" Ruby inquired, fully acknowledging her hypocrisy in that question.
"Uh, maybe for situations like this?" Ulman replied.
"Trust us. If you were from where we're from, this would be one average precaution," Khan commented.
"Listen, since you seem to like our guns so much, how about I make you something from home? Think of it as a gesture of goodwill from our team," Artyom said as he got up. "Don't worry, I'll just make her a Bastard. Besides, she seems to know what she's doing with guns anyway," he whispered to his team.
Ruby's silver eyes widened to the size of large bottle caps. "REALLY? THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!" she whispered loudly.
"Now, now, calm down. You of all people need your rest. Go back to your dorm, okay?" Artyom told Ruby, ruffling her hair a little. Ruby stopped in her tracks.
"Ruby?" Artyom said, waving his hand in front of her face.
"Ruby?" He started snapping his fingers.
"Ruby!" He called out with one loud clap.
"Oh, sorry, I must have spaced out for a second there," the girl responded. "See you tomorrow."
"Alright, then, good night." Artyom shut the door.
Ruby crept back into her dorm room, and went to sleep.
The cold, harsh wind blew on top of the tower. It was nightfall, but the ruined city was still shining a bright orange, with structures that looked like hives covering the old debris. The view up here was beautiful, despite the grey desolate landscape. A strange device was set up on the edge, a laser shining from it, aiming at the alien hive. Someone was standing on the edge, in front of the strange device. The person was armed to the teeth.
"Twenty seconds to homing procedure completion," a voice played from the strange device.
A strange creature lying on the floor in front of the person was struggling to get up. "Pain…death….prevent…" it whispered, reaching for the device. It started speaking faster. "Save…life…"
"Ten seconds to homing procedure completion…"
"...he does not understand…"
"Five."
"…he can stop death…"
"Four."
"…we want peace…" and with a futile reach for the device, the creature breathed its last.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
"Homing procedure complete."
Three orange lights emerged from the sky on the other side of the tower, heading towards the hive. The three projectiles struck the hive, and balls of fire emerged from where they crashed. The flames from the explosion lingered as the man sat on the edge of the tower, watching the structures of the alien nest burn.
Ruby almost sprang out from her bed, gasping.
"Had a bad dream?" Blake asked, clutching her head. It was too early in the morning for a migraine.
"It wasn't as much bad as it was…weird…I'll tell you about it at breakfast," Ruby answered.