Last piece.
Sorry for the delay folks, my sleep schedule got wonky for a moment. Let's not delay, enjoy the finale!
It was an old apartment complex, built back when the neighborhood was rough. Well, rougher at any rate. New construction had seen a notable increase in the living standards of the district, but you could tell the area was still a bit of a ghetto. The sheer number of faunus around said more than enough.
Ironic that this particular band of dissidents were hiding out amongst the very people they hated. It made enough sense to Ilia though, gave the bastards a "target rich" environment.
The building in front of them was an olive drab relic, the slate grey tiles on the tiered roofs worn off in large patches. The northeast corner of the four floor structure had collapsed all the way down through the second level. It was clear the building had long been condemned, the fence surrounding it brittled with rust.
The whole thing was very unsecure, the band of not-quite hunters easily finding a gap that had been carved out of the old chainlink. Ren, silent and observant, slunk through the hole first. Ilia followed swiftly behind, prior "acquaintances" seeing her rather well versed in covert infiltration.
"Sneak, sneak, sneak," Nora practically sang as she ducked into the perimeter, her "stealth maneuvers" cartoonishly over-exaggerated. At least her voice had been at actual whisper volume, that was progress.
Jaune shook his head, loosing a huff of laughter as he trailed behind the red head.
Nora whistled at the collapsed wing of the old complex, immediately undoing their prior caution and drawing a pointed look from her partner. Jaune suppressed the desire to smack her in the back of the head and grabbed the girl's arm instead, the foursome quickly dashing for the side of the building.
While the others crouched low, Ilia half stood arms length away from the wall. Her tanned skin took on a midnight hue as she scanned the outside of the alleged hideout with her night vision. After a moment of no activity, the faunus girl tapped the blonde teen on the back.
"All quiet. Looks like they didn't notice."
Jaune nodded back before gesturing to Ren, the green garbed boy stalking around the edge of the building in a low stance. The knight moved to pursue, holding Nora by the scruff of her coat as he guided her forwards.
The small squad made their way along the north wall of the structure, pausing beside the wide stoop leading up to the main entrance of the apartments. Most of the sequential doorways were boarded up, one panel towards the far end of the row with a notable chunk hacked out of it.
Through that divot, they could spy a faded glow. Holding still, the group could make out the muted sounds of jovial speech.
"Correction," Ilia mumbled, "less that they didn't notice us and more like they were too drunk to care."
That brought a smile to Nora's face as the red head marched across the grass and away from the building. She was fiddling with her grenade launcher all the while, popping out one of the canisters into her hand. Ilia quirked a brow at this as Ren waved for her to step back from the wall. Jaune deployed his shield as he moved out of the way, prompting Ilia to follow and draw out her own weapon.
The wall they'd just vacated housed a large window, the glass replaced with rigid squares of cardboard. A good distance away from the covered portal, Nora stomped down on a patch of weeds as she pivoted to face the building again. The rotating cylinder of her grenade launcher clicked into a short cycle.
"Uh," Ilia breathed, "guys, what is about to happen?" Ren just stared intently at the window, his bladed pistols at the ready, his body primed for action. Jaune was similarly focused, his shield held high, but he had enough thought to acknowledge the girl's question.
"We're about to make an entrance."
To sum it up simply, the plan thought up by the police was pretty much a pincer maneuver. One team – Jaune and company – would drive the enemy into a defensive "net," ensuring that no one would escape. The actual method of attack was largely left to the assault team itself.
Any squad with Nora on it was not going to maintain a stealthy advance.
The red head quickly slammed the base of her hand held canister onto the top of her launcher. With a swing of her arm, Nora lobbed the "primed" explosive towards the cut gap in the covering over the main entrance. Then she brought Magnhild's stock to her shoulder.
The free round bounced through the hole in the entryway. A muffled shout sounded from inside before all conversation ceased. Maybe two seconds of silence persisted before the boarded entryway erupted with a flash of thunder and flame.
Nora gave it a second to settle before blasting a round into the window. Jaune was moving as the shell was still in flight, dashing forward with shield up. Ilia, quick to adapt, was right behind him.
It wouldn't be the first time she'd worked with impulsive/hotheaded teammates.
The blast was concentrated inwards, blowing the wood board covering apart. The sound from outside was bone shaking, Ilia couldn't even imagine what it was like for those caught inside.
Jaune didn't so much as flinch as he charged towards the dissipating dust cloud. With a bounding leap the hoodie clad knight dove into the window. Lightning Lash sparking with electricity, Ilia flew through in his wake.
The place within might have been a congregation room of sorts, maybe a dining hall or a game room. The current layout of couches and low tables leaned more towards the latter, the smooth fabric furniture definitely newer than the structure around it. A single lamp in the far corner of the space was the last remaining light source, the widescreen tv off near the right wall toppled sideways, the glass shattered.
Not wasting a second, Jaune peeled around the back of an armchair and sailed a knee into the skull of a downed thug. One down, over a dozen to go. Ilia dashed to the right, opposite Jaune, and lashed out with her whipsword. Two young men, managing to remain standing through the explosion, took the lightning blade across the middle. Both collapsed in shocking convulsions.
Ren was definitely the speedster of the group. In a flash of jade he raced in beneath Ilia's attack. Halfway into the room he straightened up, slowing just a little as his dual handguns barked rapidly. Three of the stunned lowlifes received the sweeping barrage, one being knocked over the back of a couch as she took a shot to the brow. The rubberized round actually hung in the air a moment as it bounced off.
The fourth potential recipient managed to flee the room, spinning around the edge of the space's entry and into an adjacent hall.
"Fucking junior pigs, waste these shits!" From the source of the shouting, a burst of gunshots snapped out. Ilia dropped low into a swift sprint around the perimeter of the room. Ren fell into a combat roll as most of the rounds were sent his way, one pinging off his aura.
"Hunter punks," she shouter cried, "tryin' to pay us back for the beastkin! Pour the heat on thes-"
He didn't get to finish, turning to the side and firing off a final shot. The bullet ricocheted uselessly off of Jaune's heater shield, the blonde battering ram plowing into the shooter's gut. The pair toppled over, Jaune's frame driving the gunman through a wooden coffee table.
Ilia bounced out of her run, hiking off the wall as a storm of buckshot tore into the plaster just behind her. The kid – too short to be older than mid teens – racked another shell as she traced the chameleon girl with the muzzle. They might have been a rough bunch, but they were decently trained crooks.
A shot from Ren drilled the shotgunner's shoulder. As her firearm clattered to the worn hardwood floor, Ilia descended, sword carving down. The crackling metal drew into rapier form as the faunus girl slammed its length into her target's uninjured shoulder. Between the blow and the shock, she was effectively neutralized.
Throughout this, about half of the room's original occupants had made a run for the connecting hallway. The last one out turned and stood in the archway just as Ilia brought down the girl with the shotgun. His arm shot out, a bulky smg with a drum magazine clutched in his grasp.
Jaune hopped forward, shouting "Shooter! Shooter!" as he imposed himself between the gunman and the crook he'd just flattened. The blonde knight slammed his shield into the floor as a half dozen rounds swept across his position.
Ren sailed a set of shots in the gunman's direction before a burst of bullets forced him into motion. One of Stormflower's rounds pinged off the thug's left side, his stomach flashing with a bronze sheen.
"Careful, some of them have aura," Ren hollered as he ducked behind a sofa. Ilia's weapon flashed with charge as she readied to make a play, ducking a short volley of enemy rounds.
But Nora beat her to the punch. The red head catapulted herself through the gouge in the wall, easily arcing over the full length of the room. Magnhild's head trailed out behind her, the weapon in its warhammer form and buzzing with pink static.
The gunman, standing directly in her path, pulled open his mouth in a thunderous scream, his finger hard on the trigger as the mag was emptied into the floor. But all that noise was barely a blip compared to the roar of battle belting up from Nora's lungs.
Everything came to an explosive halt as Magnhild struck down. The very foundations of the structure shook as the shining pink valkyrie smashed her target into the ground. Ilia was down on hand and knees, her weapon arm still raised as she tried to stay steady against the mini quake.
Jaune was nearly to the hallway seconds after impact, his aura shining strongly. Through the light haze of dust scattered by the crash, Ilia caught a glimpse of Nora's back as the hammer wielder took off down the corridor.
She also saw the rather rough pit she'd drilled the shooter into.
Ilia was a breath behind Ren darting into the hallway. The passage was mostly dark due to a lack of windows. This was somewhat mitigated when Nora absolutely battered her way through a shut threshold along the right wall. The soft glow of moonlight illuminated the red head as she lunged into the opened doorway. It also showed Jaune, situated near the opposite wall, staring down the corridor with his shield raised.
Gunshots barked out from the far end of the hallway, flashes of light briefly brightening the space, showing outline of the shooter. Ilia could just make out the collapsed section of ceiling that the thug was using as cover, the entire left side of that end of the passage dominated by a mound of rubble.
Ilia advanced low along the left wall, using Jaune as a barrier. Ren stepped out to the right and returned a measured volley of rounds towards their assailant. A bullet zipped past the boy's right cheek as he steadily advanced towards the portal Nora had passed through.
The portal from which a lot of random noise and pained grunts were coming from.
About the instant Ilia reached the team's leader, Jaune stomped into motion. The faunus girl was on his heels at once as the sudden dash had the gunman's focus back on them. A glance into the smashed threshold showed Nora drilling her hammer into some lowlife's stomach, blasting them clear out of an uncovered window. As Ilia and Jaune moved past, Ren surged into the room with pistols held high.
Three more shots bounced off the blonde's shield as they scooted quickly around the stack of rubble. Ilia charged up her blade as she made ready to dart past her living barricade. Just as the space opened up, Jaune flooded his shield with aura, the white surface gleaming in radiance.
The cheeky bitch with a sledgehammer hiding behind the pile of debris, ready to ambush them, shrieked as she was blinded. This drew Jaune's attention as he charged her up against a somewhat less ruined section of wall. Ilia kept her sights on the figure with the handgun, the man wildly caterwauling as he loosed blind shots into the floor and ceiling.
She slashed up in a diagonal that parted the shooter's jacket and sheered off the last of his aura. The building rumbled again as a sound like an elephant crashing through a brick wall boomed out from somewhere unseen. Judging by the shrill laughter and paced gunfire accompanying, that was probably Nora and Ren's doing. The thug Ilia'd carved through had maybe a second or two before Lightning Lash's static seized his system.
Her elbow sailed into the back of the stunned crook's skull, sending him face first into the ground. Jaune likewise speared a knee into his opponent's core, driving the air from her lungs as she collapsed into a fetal curl.
The two turned towards one another, the boy's glowing shield and the trail of electricity running along her weapon illuminating the gloomy space. As they collected their breaths, the cacophony of their teammates' own engagement persisting, Jaune nodded towards something behind the chameleon faunus.
There was an old access door, barely cracked open by a small stone resting at its base. Thin slits of the moon's light pierced the darkness and the sound of a soft breeze called out from beyond. In what was becoming standard formation, Jaune marched up to the edge of the doorway, shield raised and Ilia at his back.
June inhaled deeply, "… Three, two, on-"
In a film worthy moment of opportune timing, the blonde shunted through the portal just as another "customer" of Nora's was sent reeling through a wall. From what Jaune and Ilia could see, the hammer wielder had torn down an entire boundary between the first room she'd entered and a second, this latest bout of "reconstruction" breaching from the second room into their current space.
The city was looking to tear this building down, right? Cause there was no way the place was gonna pass any inspection once they were done with it.
An engine was running, corresponding to a boxy old station wagon sitting a ways off in a patchy field of loose gravel and dried grass. Whoever was in the driver's seat hit the floodlights scant seconds after Nora's latest victim rolled to an unresponsive halt.
Jaune and Ilia were not technically "outside" when busting through that door. This was still a "room" of the apartments, albeit one that had been stripped bare of furnishing and weathered by extended exposure. That was no doubt due to the lack of outer walls containing the corner room, only a few feeble support beams remaining on the perimeter.
This left a lot of empty space between the blonde and faunus and the small group congregated around the vehicle. When one on the passenger side of the car caught wind of their presence and wheeled around the long barrel of an assault weapon, that distance became a much bigger problem.
"Krrraaaaaaaagghhh," the rifleman roared unintelligibly as he wrapped his fat finger tight around the trigger. Jaune hunkered down and pushed as much protective aura into his frame as possible. A rapid deluge of heavy rounds slammed into the boy's shield, Jaune physically straining against the rather well aimed bullet storm.
Crouching as much as she could behind her teammate, Ilia pressed one hand against the ground as she tried to match her skin tone to the surface.
"Kaaaahh – booooooommm!" Not one to be outdone in the noise department, Nora whirled into view through her newly crafted exit, grenade launcher in hand. The poor sod in the driver's seat of the car actually tried to throw themselves out at her appearance. He miserably forgot about his seat belt.
With a hollow fwoomph, Magnhild belted out a happy little grenade round. The whistling missile arced swiftly through the air, diving down onto the hood of the old car with ruthless zeal. Steel crumpled and glass shattered as the headlights blinked out.
The thug with the assault rifle was tossed to the floor as the vehicle twisted into his legs. Nora's round had been more concussive than explosive, a rare moment of conservation on her part. It still most definitely put the sedan out of commission, the entire front smooshed like a soda can.
Ilia took off along the "room's" inner wall. The moment she left Jaune's proximity the boy bounded towards the grounded goon with the rifle. As Nora was busy shifting her weapon back into hammer mode, the proper door connecting her room to the exposed area slammed open as three rattled youths spilled through the gap.
They were hurried along by swift barks from Stormflower, a volley of less lethals snapping at their heels.
The first things the three took note of were the prone guy Nora'd blown through the wall, their wrecked getaway car and the small group of people laid out around/inside it, and the blonde kid with a shield dashing towards the vehicle crew.
One of the three runners, a brunette with a sloppy off-tail, quickly drew a sidearm on the charging knight's flank. Another of the band, a notably younger boy, knelt down to help their groaning comrade.
Lightning Lash swung out, reaching the moderate distance between a speeding Ilia and the girl with the handgun. When the crackling length of steel finally registered, it had already whipped the gun out of the would be shooter's hand. The girl herself loosed a pained shriek as her wrathful gaze traced the charged cord back towards its source.
She didn't even get a glance at Ilia before Ren plugged her with a shot to both shoulder blades. She dropped in a limp heap, the young boy trying to help his friend flinching at the sound of impact.
Jaune reached the guy with the rifle in time with Ren's appearance. The recovering thug was barely into a crouch, his right hand loosely hefting the stock of the assault weapon. Jaune crashed into him knee first, a flying strike that blasted the barely conscious crook into the side of the ruined sedan.
The entire car rocked from the blow. The driver, his attempt to escape leaving his door open, flopped into a rocky patch of grass with no grace whatsoever. A third guy who'd been sitting in the back seat doing nothing the whole time gathered enough energy to start fiddling with his door. Jaune just reacted to the sound.
As the third occupant swung the door open and took a single, stumbling step out, the huntsman in training rolled over the back of the car all the way onto the far side. Jaune landed right beside the unsteady hooligan and, not giving him a moment to react, pitched the pommel of his sword into the man's stomach. He folded like a piece of laundry, an explosive puff of air fleeing his lungs, followed by a long, desperate wheeze.
Man fell right back into the seat he'd tried to vacate, flopping onto his back before rolling onto the floormats.
Because she still had energy to burn, Nora vaulted from her personally crafted exit in a powerful leap. This, of course, was punctuated by a warrior's battle cry that seemed to reverberate into the night. The last of the three runners still standing had all but frozen with the flurry of activity around them. But the hammer wielder's bestial bellows had sent the face masked figure into full on panic mode.
The manic figure made for the only feasible exit: the door Jaune and Ilia had passed through. The broad blade they held was swung about with vicious abandon as the thug advanced, Ilia in prime position to see the feral madness dancing in their gaze.
It was pretty apparent they didn't see the camouflaged chameleon girl standing between them and their freedom. The knife waving was just sheer animal desperation. Ilia swung out of the way of the figure's charge, the blade never even coming close. Sticking out her leg, she turned her spin into a sweep. Panicky fool went airborne before slamming down onto the floor.
Not one for oversights, Ilia stood briefly before driving her elbow down into their chest. The masked goon's blade scattered away as the blow forced their limbs to spasm.
The youngest criminal, who'd still been trying to rouse his friend, looked ready to bolt the instant Crazy Knife started his run. But before the lad could process his options, Nora swooped in on top of him. Magnhild's head crashed down between the boy and his prone fellow as the battle maiden's free hand pushed the youth's front onto the floor. The spot struck by the hammer spider webbed with cracks, the room groaning from the resulting tremors.
"Be good and still for Aunty Nora, okay?" Ilia didn't think the words could have been delivered in a more disturbed tone, the red head's voice low and raspy. She'd probably cracked it from all the screaming. The boy looked completely overwhelmed, sobbing into the ground.
At this point a row of torch lights beamed in from the nearby treeline. The focused beams lit their positions, Ilia squinting against the sudden influx of illumination. The bright motes bobbed as the people holding them advanced towards the building, a few in the center shifting greatly as they ducked through a hole in the perimeter fence the officers had outlined during planning.
Judging by the lack of gunshots and general scuffling out there, Ilia and Jaune's team had done their job a little too well. There were no runners for the interception team to… intercept.
"You doing alright over there, JRNI," shouted one of the lead officers. Ilia could make out Blake walking onto the property beside him, the remaining members of RWBY spread out amongst the advancing enforcers.
But the mention of that name had the chameleon girl turning her sights swiftly on Jaune. The blonde knight stayed posted up against the now scrapped car, attention on the inquiring officer as he tossed the man a quick thumbs up. Ilia turned her gaze onto Ren and Nora, the jade gunman now standing beside the hammer meister.
Ren wore a knowing smirk, feeling Ilia's gaze without looking. Nora, her hammer still pitched into the floor, was roping up her captives with a few handy dandy zipties. She was looking right at Ilia, her grin halfway between smug and reassuring.
With a palm still pressed against her own mostly compliant perp, the faunus girl copped a small smile as her shaded skin turned to its normal hue.
A scoff reached her ears, "Fucking animal rights activists? Should have guessed." The venom was being spewed by the face down slag Ren had shot twice in the back. Apparently, she'd gone down in such a way that she had a primo view of Ilia's position.
Well, the half of her face that wasn't flat on the ground.
Ilia was going over in her head why walking over and stomping this girl's skull in wasn't appropriate when a black cat crossed their path. Blake stepped up to the felled thug in utter silence before swinging one of her black boots into the back of the girl's head. She promptly rolled off her front and onto her back, seething in agony and unable to move.
Ren snorted whilst the lead officer notably looked away from the scene, happily whistling a tune of ignorance. From somewhere off to the side, Yang voiced a loud "woo-hoo!" that had Jaune holding his face in his hand.
Ilia and the rest of the crew sat by around a pair of squad cars as the little criminal cell was lead off the property. Nora was actively booing the parade of perpetrators as they passed, her and Yang tossing kernels from a bag of popcorn they'd scored off one of the cops. Ren made the uncharacteristic choice to join in on the merrymaking, announcing the passing of each individual like the most unenthused sports caster in existence. The fictional life stories he narrated pissed the absolute hell out of every crook that was wheeled by.
But Nora and Yang were having a fucking ball with this. Ruby was careful with the cup of hot chocolate she'd acquired, lest she do a spit take whenever Ren produced something particularly juicy. Weiss' eye rolling muscles had never been worked out more thoroughly than in the last half hour.
The chameleon faunus contributed a humored huff before a tapping on her shoulder caught her attention. The girl turned to face a smiling Jaune. The two held gazes for a short instance. Then Jaune's fist raised, hanging in the air before her. Ilia's knuckles rapped against his at speed.
Maybe a bit too fast, considering the way Jaune was shaking his hand afterwards.
"So," the girl probed, "that measure up to Arc standards?"
The boy swiftly sobered, stroking his chin as though considering her words. "I'd say you broke even. Maybe a re-do is in order." That earned him a big smile from Ilia.
And then Blake, who'd been watching the entire exchange, leaned out from her old friend's side to stare at the blonde knight, little grin in place. "So, Team JRNI, huh?"
Jaune flashed a wink as Weiss groaned in the background.
Look at the slider for this chapter… Now back to chapter one… then take a gander at chapter two's. Yeah, not hard to see what kind of stuff I like to write. Action is my bread and butter, it's why I got into RWBY in the first place.
Originally, this scene had some grander aspirations in mind. Had the idea of doing an entire hallway sequence as a throwback to Netflix Daredevil and Defenders. Might have even gone as far as doing an entire siege of the building, a la Dredd or The Raid. For once, I reigned myself in. I really couldn't afford to let this spiral into another five-plus chapters because I got over indulgent again. Have other projects that need my attention.
… But now that "Raid" concept is really getting to me.
The opposing force is maybe a tier above your average street rabble, some of them do have their aura unlocked and they've got their hands on some decent firepower. But there's no way they can stand before a squad with Nora fucking Valkyrie on board! No, stealth was never an option. Ren does use rubber bullets and Jaune never really swings his sword throughout the conflict. Fighting your opponent while holding back enough not to kill them even when they're trying their damndest to gut you puts you at a large disadvantage.
That's just how big the gap between petty thugs and even hunters in training is. Moreso for team JNR plus Ilia, the former having survived the Attack on Beacon and the latter a veteran operative of the White Fang. This really isn't a "fight" for them, just a bit of clean up. The highlight is just watching them work together. Jaune, Ren, and Nora are a well oiled machine at this point, and Ilia is just very adaptable.
Honestly, the crooks got lucky that Team RWBY weren't on the assault force. The building would definitely have collapsed.
… just like Atlas Huh? What was that?
Originally Team RWBY weren't gonna be part of the end sequence. I wanted to keep this primarily on the newly minted Team JRNI plus a spot of Blake. I ultimately caved and had them show up to get a few tid bits at the end.
Which would be the funnier "Woo-hoo!" for Yang to use? Toby's from the Spider-man movie or good old Homer Simpson's? I really can't decide…
There you have it though. Short, sweet, done. I do hope it was an enjoyable read for what it's worth. Here's hoping it won't be too long before the next Volume drops, see you later friends!