WARNING: HEAVY MENTIONS OF BODY HORROR AND BLOOD
Also swearing as well.
Enjoy!
Kelly pulled herself up on the broken concrete with a grunt. Her latest shift of patrol made her go to the furthest marked perimeter which was about several kilometers into the forest. Her mask was around her neck as she laid on the ground panting.
She regretted climbing up ten floors literally from the outside without any aid but with Ripple Corruption and her bladed dust revolver. Aside from a few scratches here and there, she is quite fine.
"Hey, Kelly," She heard Jakob call at her from the ground that sat around, eating their field rations. "Aren't you going to eat? It's past seven."
She honestly didn't want to know what is for dinner tonight and as well as she don't want to stomach anything after what she seen in the fight against that Paladin.
"Uh," She paused her panting pushed herself to her feet. "Sure, is it still pork ribs?"
Jakob gave a hearty laugh and place his tankard down on the ground next to him.
"Well it's something different for once," He picked up a box that had the sign '100% meat' on it. "Ozpin actually took the time to sort out meat menus for you and Leona and set boxes of vegetables and fruits for Penelope."
He tossed her the moderately sized cardboard box. Kelly caught it with both her hands as she walked to join the rest of the teams around the bonfire. She looked down to see the label on the box.
*For carnivorous Faunus only* Lean Beef with Pasta with protein mixture and crackers.
It actually sounds appetizing for once.
"Actually, I'll go and make sure Diane and Cindy is alright first." Kelly paused in her walk, glancing through the empty door frame into the roofless room beside them where Diane and Jay are busy discussing things.
"Take your time," Tam waved her chopsticks at her. "Their boxes are by the wall over there."
"Thanks," Kelly nodded and walked to the said wall to pick up the other three cardboard boxes.
The roofless room gives way to the bright stars above, giving the room a natural light beside the heating lamp. This was once a meeting room before things went down the drain with the Grimm. Now it serves as a room for CTDK to reside in for the base of operations. Furnished with bedrolls and concrete blocks to cover the open window if a firefight were to break out they would have some sort of cover. A portable transmission scroll is set up in the far corner of the room to relay and receive messages from their operators.
"So," Kelly spoke first, placing the box of rations on the ground. "How's Cindy?"
"Her aura isn't replenishing," Jay tapped her scroll a few times, causing screens to pop up everywhere around her. "It stopped at 30%."
Diane shot her a quizzical look.
"See for yourself." Jay tossed her her scroll. "Nothing moving up or down for the past hour."
Kelly curiously looked over Diane's shoulder to see for herself. Jay is right, it did not move at all past 30%. The bar that measured their aura still blinked hazardously.
"Has she been conscious at all either?" Kelly asked them both while running over the 'symptoms' in her mind.
"Nope, not since she got knocked out by the machine and that was two hours ago." Diane gave a long sigh.
Kelly gives a thoughtful nod and picked up the two boxes next to her, handing one each to her teammates.
"Let's just eat for now and we can look into this a bit later," Kelly offered, leaning against the makeshift concrete cover with her box of food. "You need a break."
"How can we take a break when our leader is still unconscious and we don't know shit about what is going on?" Diane glared at her.
"I'm just saying," Kelly raised her hands up to try and cool this from being a argument. "You need to get your head chilled because worrying about this all day is not going to get us anywhere."
"And how are you so calm about what is going on right now?" She retorted quickly, almost to shut Kelly up- which is probably the goal. She suddenly stood, staring down at Kelly with a tint of orange in her eyes. "I don't see you over your head when Jay got injured on the mission in Mistral."
"I don't barge head first like you without looking at the big picture at what we're dealing with, Diane." Kelly stood up to her, taking her turn to glare down at her friend, keeping a level tone of voice. "Unlike you, I would need to know what I'm dealing with and certainly-"
She pointed a armored finger at Cindy's prone from on the bedroll.
"We are not dealing with normal dust mixtures."
"Guys-" Jay started but is shot down by Diane.
"And how would you kn-"
Whack!
Diane and Kelly were clutching their heads in pain as Jay gave an exasperated sigh, placing the flat of Falling Sky on her shoulder. Her other hand held the opened box of food.
"Fighting is not going to do any good you idiots," Jay tapped her foot on the ground. "And certainly Cindy would not like to see you two bicker like old women fighting over the last cup of tea."
Well… Point taken there.
"And I am trying to eat as well," She can feel Jay's stare boring into her. Kelly looked towards Jay and lowered her head slightly.
She had to admit, Jay is scary when she's hungry.
"Let's…" Kelly looked between each of them, taking deep breaths to keep herself calm. "Just calm down. I'm too tired to deal with this right now."
Kelly looked at her watch that is implemented into her gauntlet. The display lit up along with the rest of her dust levels in the gauntlets reminding her that she need to refill soon.
A solid minute past one in the morning.
She gave a wide mouth yawn as she looked at the snoring forms of her friends, she checked on Cindy earlier, taking mental notes on the injury, size, shape and anything abnormal about it.
And something was abnormal about it. Grimm wounds don't block aura, not even a Death Stalkers. Regular bullets don't hinder it either.
Though, she really felt the need to dive down into the chasm of death and decay to find out what is with those weapons on the Paladin.
Landing with a soft thud of rubber soles on dusty asphalt, Kelly shivered slightly without her haori covering her. Being a cold-blooded does not feel good on cold nights and her trenchcoat was meant to preserve and keep her warm. A hiss escaped her masked mouth as she walked towards the mouth of the chasm.
"You here too huh?" She heard the lively voice of Leona who stood a few feet behind her with Penelope. "Trying to find out what is that weapon laced with?"
"Yeah," Kelly ran her hand through her hair, slicking it back and out of her face.
"Well, me, and Leona want to help out." Penelope pointed behind her to reveal the archer who smiled a little.
"I appreciate the help," Kelly peered down at the dark chasm briefly. "But I hope you know what we're about to see."
Leona walked up to her and gave her a hard slap on her back, knocking the wind out of her.
"Nonsense sister, we got this all covered." The lioness' tongue rolled over 'all' as she tipped backwards, one hand on the few ropes and fell. "See ya down there!"
Kelly gave a growl of annoyance while Penelope snickered behind her.
How does one describe a place that is darker than black?
A pure pain in the ass to walk around in. And a part to Leona who wanted to 'explore' the best of faunus ability in the dark.
Instead, the three of them counted how many times that ran into a pillar, a rock, a wall and remains. Their natural night vision didn't allow that much difference in terms of running into objects as the tunnels were too dark to even see in.
Clang!
"Oof- okay anyone got a light?" Leona ran into the metal pillars of the junction. She rubbed her sore nose. "I kinda give up on using night vision."
Penelope giggled and snapped her fingers, a small soft white flame formed around her hand before levitating around her freely like butterflies circling around someone in those cheesy movies.
Kelly led the group, her face encased in the extension of her mask like a closed helmet. A soft blue glow can be seen from the glass slip in front of her eyes since it helps her with seeing in the night.
They continued walking down the dark tunnels that its darkness seemed to writhe and never really brighten with the light they have.
A long strenuous pause fell between all of them until Leona cleared her throat.
"So you guys fought here in the junction?" She asked, checking her rifle's ammo clip. "I heard it was an intense battle against a machine if Cindy were to get hurt like that."
"I second that, it takes a lot more than a saw to take that tough girl down," Penelope added in. "We've seen her semblance released and kicking everyone's asses quickly."
"I agree, but whatever somehow cut through her manifested semblance and aura in one hit with a modified weapon is odd," Kelly agreed. "And it's a modified weapon as well, you'll see when we get there."
The walk took about several more minutes, and several more minutes of perpetual silence. It always felt like something is off about these old tunnels, be it the fact that hundreds died here in vain- or they are smelling the decaying flesh and fresh blood. Go figure.
Their footsteps begins to echo around them and Kelly finally paused.
"We're here." She looked at the blood stained and body riddend grounds of the junction.
Her visor folded back to the metal hatches that line her sideburns. Leona and Penelope walked beside her, looking interstlingly at the bodies of man and machine everywhere.
"Quite a fight you had here." Penelope commented, walking up to the wreckage of the Paladin. "Is this the one?"
"Yeah," Kelly walked over to one of the severed left arms, inspecting the bladed hand.
She can see Penelope firing a ball of white light into the air, suspended on its will as it bathed the entire junction in white light.
Her hidden blade flipped out to rest on her forearm before she sliced the hand off in one clean motion. Holding the saw hand in her gauntlet, she tossed it to Leona who caught it in a cylinder of some kind that attaches to a compartment on her back.
"Uh, guys." She and Penelope heard Leona call out to them, voice shaking. "What the hell is this?"
Kelly walked over, curious of what the lion faunus has to say.
She can feel her dinner rising up to her throat- though Penelope can be heard making gagging noises behind her.
Although curiosity killed the cat and that is all three of them.
"I did not- what?" Kelly stared at body she dragged off earlier.
She didn't get a good look at what happened earlier due to the lack of lights. But this is pretty damn horrifying even to someone as fearless as Leona, stout hearted Penelope and dauntless as Kelly.
Within the jagged opening of the cockpit she ripped open earlier there were wires and chunks of human flesh (no doubt about it, it smelled like it too) that machinery running through them. There was a entire arm that looked as if it is fused with the machine itself. The arm was twisted and the running of wires and pipes can be seen. The fingers were replaced with pipes as the hand looked like the skin was pulled and then super glued to the metal except it turning into metal.
The man's lower body is still stuck in the cockpit, looking as if he was soldered inside of it.
And what horrified them the most was that the spinal cord was fused into the looked like the spinal column of the Paladin.
None of them have ever seen anything horrific like this in their lifetime. Such experiments were never documented on both sides or at all. Except now the image at what monstrosity they just witnessed is burned into their brain forever.
"I'm actually glad the others aren't here…" Leona's voice cracked as she took out her scroll with shaking hands. "We gotta report this to Qrow and everyone else."
Kelly can only nod, focused on the man's face in front of her. He didn't have eyes, just white and his mouth was hung open as if he was screaming for help. She actually fent a bit glad she could end his suffering.
"Wait, isn't that the missing leader of CHRM?" Penelope blinked out of her mortified stupor. "Carver Sanguine I think? Reported missing a year ago."
"I don't want to find out to be honest." Kelly shook her head slowly. She can hear the snapping of pictures from Leona's scroll.
A chill ran down their backs, making them jump and unsheathe their weapons. The air and shadows were moving around them, reaching out to them as it spoke in a strange wispy language they don't recognize.
Their screams echoed the junction and soon after their voices.
"Ha ha, screw this shit this I'm out!" Leona bolted down the way they came.
"Oi, wait up!" Penelope sprinted faster than Leona. "I did not sign up for this!"
"Nope!" Kelly ran after then after firing an explosive round. "Nope! Nope!"
They have never run so fast in their lives before. And honestly won't sleep for another month if they can to not risk seeing what they just witnessed.
Kelly and the others hastily climbed up to their residential base camp and pretty much woke everyone up with their frantic breathing. VRDN and HLTP were out first, weapons drawn to face anything.
"Where were you guys? What happened?" Jakob asked the petrified trio. Kelly ripped her mask off and threw it to the ground, her hands on her head as she paced around muttering.
"If anything scared Leona and Kelly this badly, it's pretty bad I guess." Hanna kneeled down to the lion faunus who huddled into a ball near the still going fire.
"Poor Penelope," Emily held the shaking gazelle faunus in her arms. "They're scared senseless."
"No shit," Jay walked out with Diane and MLCT, who are all confused.
Athala quickly went up to Kelly, placing a comforting hand on both her shoulders.
"Calm my child," She whispered sweetly into her ear as a gentle hand drew circles on the side of her neck. "Tell us what you saw."
"C-contact Qrow, Ozpin- anyone, they need to see this." She looked at Leona, who took her scroll out and beckoned to Saruman to deploy a holographic feeder.
He placed a small drone like object on the ground and pressed a button. The object began materialising and gaining shape into one of those transmitters in each of their room. Penelope took no time to punch in contact information of every one that was at the meeting and pretty much slammed the call button.
"You better have a good reason to call us this late BFP" Came a very disgruntled voice from the other line.
"Now Qrow, no need to get haisty." Came Goodwitch's stern voice. "Ozpin is here with me."
"Not now you two, we need to listen to them and what they have for this emergency call." General Ironwood can be heard soon after.
Luckily they all gathered around and behind Kelly, Leona and Penelope as the three saluted quickly, still shaking slightly.
"They're like a leaf," Qrow's voice came on again. "Something must've scared em' bad."
"With due respect, we," Kelly reported while glancing at the other two. "We found something quite terrifying and require you viewing."
"Send them in Kiros." General Ironwood ordered.
Leona placed the her scroll onto the scanner and Kelly pulled out the bloody scroll and placed it next to hers.
Both sides were drowned in silence as they watched the video and photo feed of their early morning adventure into the junction.
"Wow." Came the only response from Qrow after several minutes of silence. "That's…"
"Quite horrifying." Ozpin finished it for him. "And I presume you're running at the end of the video?"
They looked sheepishly at their feet.
"Should we also notify Winter?" Penelope asked. "She may be able to decipher what is being said in that and the scroll Kelly sent."
"Sir, there is something we don't know about down there and if it's enough to scare these three as is, it's serious." A voice piped from behind them apparently having listen to the conversation.
"Cindy you're awake!" Diane took no time to hug her partner.
"Oh yeah, there is this weapon that managed to cut through Cindy's aura and Semblance and injure her while blocking her regeneration process as well." Kelly reported.
"Sir, there is something we don't know about down there and if it's enough to scare these three as is, it's serious." A voice piped from behind them apparently having listen to the conversation.
"Cindy you're awake!" Diane took no time to hug her partner.
"Oh yeah, there is this weapon that managed to cut through Cindy's aura and Semblance and injure her while blocking her regeneration process as well." Kelly reported.
"Do tell," Ironwood's voice beckoned her.
After what seemed like a solid half hour of questioning and answering, CTDK and EBNY recounted their encounter with the weapon and injury.
"Hmm, what do you think? Should we worry about this?" Goodwitch can be heard talking to Ozpin in the back.
"We'll discuss in private," He responded to them and his assistant. "You kids get some rest for now."
"Thank you," They saluted before the feed cut off.
Kelly wasted no time to walk into her room with her team and promptly flopped onto her bedroll and closed her eyes, welcoming the dreamless sleep.