"I'm sorry I called you ugly!" Tsuruya shouted apologies at the Beringel as it swung her around, smashing her into the ground and into walls. Finally, it let go, sending her bouncing across the cracked pavement and into the same car Gwen had been sent into.
Tsuruya sat up, bumping her head on the warped steering wheel. "Oof. That hurt."
Gwen pushed her way out from under the hood. "Okay, how do we kill it? Beringel are extremely tough."
Tsuruya kicked out the door and crawled out onto the street, looking around for the gorilla Grimm. It wasn't anywhere in sight, which only made her more worried. Gwen climbed over her and stood up, brushing off her combat skirt. Tsuruya was about to warn her to be careful when the Beringel returned.
It landed on top of Gwen, smashing her into the ground. Its large hands gripped her waist and lifted her up, bringing her crashing down into the ground over and over again. Tsuruya couldn't even tell if Gwen was conscious or alive, the way it was flailing her around. She readied her sword to try and distract the monster in any way she could.
An arrow shot in from somewhere down the street, piercing into the Beringel's eye. It dropped Gwen and staggered back, ripping the arrow from its eye and hurling it away. It snorted and beat its chest, challenging its attacker. It walked over Gwen, stepping on her leg as it went. Tsuruya saw her wince at the pain, which was a good sign.
Once the Beringel was moving away, Tsuruya crawled out the rest of the way and grabbed Gwen, helping her up. "Let's get out of here. How bad are you hurt?"
Gwen stuck out her tongue. "I think I'm going to throw up. Where'd it go?"
"Someone got its attention."
That 'someone' appeared the next moment, colliding with the same car they both had and landing in the trunk. Nebula pulled herself out, shaking off the hit. The Beringel threw the next attacker as well, and Octavia collided with Nebula. A moment later, she stood and forced her way out of the car.
Gwen waved at her teammates. "Where's Dew?"
Nebula, who had given up on moving for the time being, answered through a fair bit of pain. "Everyone else was right behind us. It'll probably throw her next."
Tsuruya and Gwen looked over just in time to see Dew tear the head off of the Beringel. She kept running in their direction, like the gorilla was just an aside. It made sense the next instant as a large rhino-like Grimm crashed through one of the near buildings. More Beowolves and Ursa followed after it, backed by several various crustacean Grimm.
Out of the smoke and dust of the collapsing building, Penny arrived. She landed on the rhino-Grimm's back, swinging her swords around like some carnival ride. She slashed them through the monster's neck and hide, causing it to roar in pain before tumbling onto its side and sliding to a stop. Penny leaped off and beheaded a Beowolf before landing on another one.
May dropped down from the top of some building and landed beside Tsuruya. "Hey, we wanted to find the Human-form Grimm, right?"
Tsuruya nodded. "We need to meet up with Pyrrha first. I think we were going to do that on day two?"
May didn't look too happy about waiting, but she shrugged. "Better than day five."
Dew skidded to a halt in front of them, hoisting her weapon over her head. "They're pushing back. Don't let them stop us!" She immediately charged back the way she came, destroying a trio of Beowolves along the way. Octavia followed without question.
Nebula took a moment to look over Gwen and Tsuruya. "You two should probably take a break somewhere."
May patted her rifle. "I'll get them inside somewhere. Don't worry."
As Nebula rushed off, Tsuruya and Gwen hobbled over to the nearest door. May ran ahead, kicking open the door and sweeping the room. She stepped back and held the door open for them. It was an old dust shop on the first floor, with probably living areas on the two upper floors. There was a door at the back that most likely would lead to a stairwell. It looked like a Grimm had busted its way through the window at some point, wrecking all the dust canisters and knocking over the shelves.
Gwen frowned. "Perfect. This won't explode ever at all."
Tsuruya wasn't sure how sarcastic the remark was. "Um… explode?"
"Don't worry about it. If you stay down and keep quiet, no Grimm will find you so nothing has to explode." May waved goodbye. "We'll come and get you once this charge is done." With that, she was gone.
For several minutes following, there was nothing but the sounds of roaring, screeching, and gunfire coming from outside. They took shelter at the back of the store, behind a rack of magazines that were mostly about guns. Every now and then, something heavy would hit the ground and cause everything to shake. Somehow, Gwen had fallen asleep in all of this, leaning on Tsuruya's shoulder.
The light from outside was fading when Nebula and May came back. They looked like they had been fighting the entire time, easily several hours. May had lost her beanie somewhere along the way, and Nebula's clothes were torn in a number of places. They smiled when they saw that Tsuruya and Gwen were safe. May stayed at the front of the store, looking out and scanning the streets with her finger on the trigger.
Nebula knelt down and shook Gwen awake. "Come on. We've set up camp in the subway."
Gwen blinked a few times, then rubbed her eyes with her hands. "Oh, oh, I fell asleep. I guess I'm gonna be first watch, huh?"
"Probably." Nebula helped them both to their feet and was about to lead them back out when the building shook. May and Gwen fell over, and Tsuruya and Nebula hugged the wall until it stopped. Once the tremors were over, Nebula lifted her weapon and pointed it at the other end of the store. "Was that a Grimm?"
The fallen shelves across the store shifted, several items tumbling onto the ground from their places, glass shattering and dust puffing up in a cloud of mixed colors. Nebula raised her crossbow to her eye and stalked forward, watching everything ahead of her. Something was moving beneath the fallen shelves.
Everyone else had righted themselves. May urged the others towards the front, looking back and forth between the street and the shelves. Unfortunately, it was when she was looking at the shelves that something broke the asphalt on the street. It was a small crack that she would have spotted if she were looking when it formed, but didn't notice when she turned back.
Nebula lowered her crossbow when she was about halfway across the store. "I don't know what those tremors were, but they're gone now."
The floor caved downward a split second before a large, toothy, worm Grimm erupted from underground right under Nebula. Her legs disappeared into its maw and it clamped its jaws down on her waist. There was only about three seconds when everyone was frozen, three seconds in which it thrashed around its head, digging its teeth into Nebula's legs and body. Gritting her teeth through the pain, Nebula angled her crossbow downward and pulled the trigger, shooting a bolt into the worm's jaw.
It let out a wail from somewhere underground, the spat her out through the window. May fired three shots at it, backing out into the street. Tsuruya and Gwen climbed out through the window and dashed over to Nebula. Gwen grabbed her team leader and tried to haul her up onto her feet. Nebula collapsed right away. Her legs were a bloody mess, covered in gashed all the way up to her midsection.
She coughed up some blood. "It crushed my legs. I'm not moving."
May ran past them. "It's time to go!"
Gwen grabbed Nebula again, intending to carry her. "We're not leaving you here!"
The street cracked open and Nebula slid into the hole. Gwen held on, keeping her from disappearing into the darkness below them. Tsuruya grabbed her other hand, and they pulled her up together. Nebula protested, trying to get them to leave her behind, right up until they finally laid her down on the pavement.
Gwen tried to get under her arm to lift her. "We're going to get you back, and you'll be fine. Tsuruya, help me."
Just as Tsuruya got under Nebula's other arm, some tentacle appendage tipped with a toothy mouth latched onto Gwen's leg. It pulled her to the ground and dragged her away.
Nebula struggled to reach out to her. "Gwen! Take my hand!"
Gwen reached back, and another snaky mouth bit her arm. Three more grabbed her, two on her legs and one on her other arm. They lifted her into the air. More snake heads rose up out of the ground, but these ones were much larger. More than half a dozen heads that could have easily swallowed a car, each surrounded by a swarm of the smaller ones. The closest one was bearing down on Gwen. The smaller tentacles threw her up into the air, where the big one caught her between its jaws.
Tsuruya could see there was nothing she could do. Between Gwen's screams and Nebula's, she just wanted to get out. She started dragging Nebula, but she had no doubts this monstrous Grimm could catch them in an instant.
Another big head came after Gwen, seeing that its companion had only caught her legs, and bit down on the rest of her. They ripped her in half and occupied themselves with finishing that one meal before heading off for another.
It was almost worse for Tsuruya when Gwen's screams stopped. Nebula was choking on her tears and trying to scream through them. She kept going in spite of it, trying to put as much distance between her and the Grimm as she could. She forced herself not to look when the subterranean Hydra let out a horrid chorus of shrieks, which were followed by the ground shaking and cracking around them. She didn't want to see it coming. Something was speeding towards them.
Qrow grabbed the two girls and lifted them under his arms, then ran. He darted in and out of alleyways, and even through several buildings and a pack of Beowolves. Finally, he arrived at the entrance to the subway. May and Oobleck were standing outside, waiting for them. The three ran down into the subway together.
Everyone was there, only visible by the faint light of a lantern. Qrow dropped Tsuruya so he could offer more care to Nebula, who had gone into shock. Dew and Octavia ran over and helped him set her down. Tsuruya backed away from the scene, feeling very responsible for everything that had just happened. She didn't know what she was supposed to do now. A strong hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from the group.
Pyrrha quieted her with a finger on her lips. "Follow me."
Tsuruya just wanted to stop and rest for the whole night, but she followed Pyrrha. It was down the tracks of the subway quite a ways before Pyrrha opened a door and showed Tsuruya through. Inside was what she'd heard referred to as a Creep. It was trapped behind steel pipes and re-bar, set up like a prison cell.
Pyrrha smiled. "I got one. How do you feel about torture?"
"It's a violation of Human rights."
"Yeah, me too. Good thing they're not Human in any sense." She shut the door, then smacked the bars of her makeshift jail with her spear. "Time to have a talk, Creep. You decide how this goes." She sat down and watched, waiting for its response.
The Creep growled, but not at Pyrrha. It ignored her entirely, like she wasn't even there. It was facing Tsuruya, snapping its jaws at her, but not advancing on the steel entrapment. It was certainly more interested in her.
Tsuruya let her aura drift through the room, free-floating over to the Grimm. Maybe this was how they communicated before. Time crawled by slowly, every minute feeling like an hour, and her aura draining the whole time. Nothing was happening. The Creep was just hissing and snarling.
Pyrrha eventually sighed and switched her spear into a rifle, aiming at the Grimm. "Well, we're not getting anywhere. Maybe it's just Creeps aren't intelligent."
"Maybe it is just that you are not intelligent."
Author's Note: Snarky Grimm. And for the rest of the story, expect casualties. A lot of casualties.