Sorry for the long chapter wait guys, been caught up in nostalgia while playing Medal of Honour Airborne.
Just a quick question before we get going, I need a quick pole from anyone reading... who would you ship Demon with?
Rosaline or Velvet?
Choose wisely!
Naughtbeast
Chapter 21:
How… just how…
These were the words that Demon was thinking through while he waited for the dropship to arrive. He was currently looking at the screen on his wrist and observing where everyone's scroll signatures were heading. It showed that they were all heading towards Vale… at around 150km per hour. They were speeding across the screen and he had to scroll with his fingers just to keep up with them even though it covered a kilometre in diameter. He had heard the explosions and called in the dropship they had from their original coming to Remnant, set it to pick them up and watched where his teammates were going. It had been five minutes of continuous explosions and watching them continuously make their way to Vale at a somehow super fast speed. His Titan would just be too slow to make it to them, but their dropship could get them there in record time.
They had to wait for a while and the Militia pilots nearly crapped themselves when a pack of beowolves stumbled upon their position. The Titan had gunned them down of course but the pilots still didn't believe that evil creatures such as these could exist. The dropship arrived and Demon jumped into the cockpit and the others strapped in, deciding to leave the Titan behind because it would slow them down. After several minutes, the sun actually came up and Demon realised he hadn't slept, yet he just activated his stim to keep him going. As he was flying, he saw that the dots on the tracker had stopped right in the heart of Vale. He gunned the engine and began flying just over the city. As he flew, he had to slow down to avoid hitting the buildings, allowing him to see people running in terror on the streets of the city. He rose just a bit and saw RWBY and the rest of DRSK standing in the middle of the city centre with hundreds of Grimm surrounding them.
What have you gotten yourselves into this time?...
"Tempest! Get your rockets aimed at the biggest Grimm!" shouted Demon over the roar of the side door being opened. Said pilot happily obliged, aiming for the giant snake coming out of a hole in the ground.
"How do you know his name?" called Josh, recalling they never actually exchanged pleasantries.
"I fought with him in a refuelling raid a year back!" shouted Demon, just as the rockets fired.
They streaked through the air and slammed into the side of the King Tiajitu. It didn't quite kill the great beast but Demon quickly righted that with the minigun on the dropships nose. Kira and Rosaline looked shocked to see an IMC dropship again, believing it to be the people who just warped into this reality. They relaxed a bit and joined everyone else's happy expression when Demon stood at the side door, four other Militia pilots with him. The dropship hovered over where everyone else was, right in the middle of the wall of Grimm, and ejected its cargo. Demon and the four others slammed into the ground, weapons raised, and addressed the situation.
"Ok… Angel squad, I need you on damage control, don't split up and you should be fine… try and get as many people patched up as possible! Wait for my order before you head off!" commanded Demon to the Angels.
Josh saluted and the rest of the Angels raised their weapons, mentally picking targets in the horde of alien monsters.
"Who are they?" asked Yang, still eyeing off the Grimm that were waiting to attack.
"Old friends… anyway… FIRE!" shouted Demon, initiating the attack. The square quickly filled with bodies and the resounding sounds of gunfire. Everyone opened fire, cutting down swaths of Grimm who charged to meet their attack with their own. They stopped firing after the Grimm came to close and engaged in close combat. Team RWBY was taking down hundreds of beowolves on their own with Kira and Rosaline were helping along with the task. Both of them had significantly increased in their combat prowess and thanks to the added effects of their new parkour-kits, they were at almost the same level as RWBY. Kira would use a Grimm as a springboard, rocket into the air, and take down Grimm with her Kraber AP while using her parkour-kit to hover for a bit. Rosaline was wall-running, obviously, she practised since the last time they met and was waiting until she had the maximum amount of targets. After the smart pistol took care of the work, she would casually reload and continue firing, coming nowhere near any Grimm, preventing her from engaging in close combat.
Demon cut down a wide area of Grimm and allowed the Angels to move off and help the civilians. He put the chaingun on his back and began using his odachi to protect the Angels while Josh tending to the wounded. He marvelled at how well it managed to cut through the Grimm's soft flesh and even when he hit the armoured parts it just sliced right through like butter. He did notice, however, that every time the blade took down Grimm, the blade would glow a slightly brighter red. It continued for a while, but after he didn't have time to kill anything, it just dimmed down to its normal red sheen. He was just a few streets from the main centre square and the next time Grimm attacked, he let the Angels take them down.
The sniper took his time to fire his Longbow, but every time he did he somehow managed to kill more than one Grimm with each shot, even managing to take down 5 in one go. Tempest, however, probably would have fit in at Beacon without many changes. Every time he fired one of the shotguns, he would use the recoil to load another shot, essentially allowing him to unload the entire clip without needed to purposely pump another shell. He even went as far as to begin using the recoil to send the butt of the gun to melee beowolves down. The scientist seemed to not want to kill these creatures as he hesitated to take them down and began inspecting the Grimm, becoming quite disappointed when he found they dissipate after death.
After a couple of minutes, though, the amount of Grimm seemed to die down… before an entirely new wave surged through the breach in the town centre. This time, Ursai, Deathstalkers and a couple of King Tiajitu came through, adding to the pandemonium. RWBY and KRS (Kira, Rosaline, Sid) were pushed back from the sheer force of the attack, unable to kill them all. Luckily for them, team JNPR decided this would be the perfect time to make an entrance. They all heard a massive boom and a second later, a streaking pink comet slammed into a King Tiajitu's head, killing it instantly. The others dropped out of a bullhead that flew overhead, crashing as soon as they left compliments of a couple of Nevermore feathers. They began to help fight back the horde… until another wave came. The sheer amount of Grimm that were surging out of the breach were immeasurable, the breach becoming wider as they struggled to barge through one another. In a few seconds, everyone was once again cornered in the city centre, forming a make-shift firing line to keep the Grimm back.
"So… about five minutes on this world and we're already screwed!" complained Josh, trying to shoot a Deathstalker's eyes with his carbine.
"Who said we're screwed… it's not over until the skinny lady sings!" said Demon, tapping a button on his wrist screen as he did.
"Wait… you mean her don't you?"
"Yep…"
"OH COME ON! WHY HER! Don't you have anyone else?"
"I do… but here she comes!" announced Demon, pointing to a blazing mech falling towards the ground. It slammed in the centre of the group and when the dust cleared, Vanessa was standing in the centre of it, gigantic scythe in hand. She jumped over everyone and began killing Grimm by the dozen. With each swing of the gravitationally enhanced scythe, multitudes of them were cut into pieces. A King Tiajitu tried to get a hit on her but was stopped when a scythe removed its head. She was cutting them down without much thought… but there is only so much a giant mech can do. Eventually, they began landing hits on her and cut down the Titan's shielding. It broke after such constant punishment and they watched as panelling was gouged out with swings from Ursa Majors and pieces of wiring were ripped apart by beowolves swarming over the large beast.
Just as Demon was about to call in another Titan to help out with the Grimm, he heard a familiar sound… he turned to see another bullhead cresting over a nearby building. As the side opened up, it revealed Professor Port and the team he had seen earlier that day. They jumped down and began taking down Grimm. The one with the massive greatsword slammed into the ground, sending beowolves everywhere, while the blind one and bunny girl from before fought Ursa and some Creeps. After that happened, Demon saw probably the most beautiful thing happen. The girl in khaki walked up to a beowolf major and proceeded to talk it down. He cringed a bit when it was kicked in the nuts, but the next thing he knew, her handbag transformed into a minigun and began tearing up Grimm, freeing Vanessa and allowing her to retreat.
He continued watching the fight erupt around him, switching to his pistol to ensure he didn't accidentally hit any friendlies with his chaingun. After a while, they were able to push back the incoming Grimm and out of nowhere, Miss Goodwich closed the breach with her magic riding crop. Just as that happened, Demon looked up to see a massive fleet of what must have been Remnants air-fleet. A gigantic carrier was flying overhead, using turrets to take out Nevermore's while smaller attack fighters were gunning down the Grimm on the ground. He looked around and saw the bunny girl happily jogging towards her team, completely oblivious to the giant Ursa trudging up behind her, the army assembled above not noticing the threat.
CRAP!
Demon began sprinting towards her, trying to get her attention over the din of automatic weapons fire, knowing he wouldn't be able to accurately hit the Grimm without hitting her. The Ursa was a couple of metre from her when one of her teammates pointed it out to her and she finally turned around in realisation, not able to react in time. Demon acted before the Ursa had a chance to hit, flicking his right wrist and sending a grappling hook to the giant bear. It was about to swing when the hook caught onto its side and Demon pulled as hard as he could. With a colossal amount of strength, he managed to pull the Ursa all the way to him over about 20 metres and held up his foot, allowing the Grimm to fly into it. With the speed of the pull coupled with the near brick-wall strength of a pilot kick… the Ursa's head decided to do it a favour by collapsing and pulverising the thought processors of the beast.
The bunny girl hesitantly looked up when she realised nothing was going to hit her and saw Demon standing over the decaying corpse of the Ursa that was previously trying to kill her. She smiled and nodded before returning to her team. Demon turned back to find RWBY, JNPR and KRS were all going fine, except the Angels seemed to be having trouble. They were cut off from the others and formed a firing circle, just managing to hold out… but that would never last. Already one of Tempest's shotguns had jammed and his other was very low on ammo, Josh had sustained a slash on his left arm, only letting him fire with his right, the sniper was struggling to find his targets when they were this close and the scientist was pressured to prematurely fire his Smart Pistol.
Demon watched as a large Ursa taking a slash at Josh… and was shot dead by a minigun. Looking up, he saw a military fighter that was flying overhead with two chin mounted miniguns. He heard the guns spool up and saw it take down Grimm, giving all the students a break.
Everyone regrouped in the city centre and talked about what had transpired. Team RWBY, JNPR, Kira and Rosaline were conversing near the city fountain while Demon was checking up on Vanessa. The Angels hesitantly walked over and addressed Demon and the Titan.
"So… hello again!" hesitantly started Josh, half-hiding behind Tempest.
Vanessa turned to Josh and the lights on her chassis turned red, indicating that she was 'pissed off' in human term.
"Joshua…" deadpanned the mech.
"Are you still a little bit annoyed about what I did?" asked Josh, a tiny bit of hope twisting his words.
"Yes… at least Demon takes better care of me!" she retorted, standing to her full height and towering over the pilot as well as drawing the attention of everyone else.
"Calm down Vanessa… it's alright…" comforted Demon, trying to make sure his Titan didn't turn his friend into a puddle of blood.
"ALRIGHT! NO! It is not 'alright'… this asshole is still alive and breathing. I thought by now he would have been shot to bits but he hasn't… so that means nothing is alright!" she said, cracking her gigantic knuckles.
"Woah… what's going on here?" asked Yang, just walking in on the situation.
"Just a little tiff… I can handle it" responded Demon, still watching the exchange.
"JUST A LITTLE TIFF HE CALLS IT! Ha… what an understatement… and you even know what happened, I bet the others are just DYING to know…" deadpanned Vanessa again, staring intently at Josh as much as a person without eyes can.
"Well… they don't really need to know do they?" hopefully asked the medic, trying to get out of this predicament.
"Yea… we do… what's happening?" Yang questions, crossing her arms as she did.
"Well… Vanessa used to be my Titan AI… until I kinda sold her to Demon and completely forgot she ever existed…" said Josh matter-of-factly.
Everyone just stopped where they were until Ruby spoke up.
"Dude… that's like… really mean!"
Silence hung in the air, Vanessa and Josh continuing their stare-off, until Demon decided he'd had enough. He walked up to Vanessa and jumped onto her back. With a few button presses on the core, she shut down and the Titan's body went down on one knee.
"Well… with that over. Team, I would like to introduce you to some friends of mine. This is Josh, Tempest and two other Militia pilots! Josh and I go way back and Tempest has covered my ass more times than I can count"
The others exchanged pleasantries and Demon learnt that the sniper was called Jaeger and the scientist was Markus. While the others were distracted, he felt a small tug on his shoulder. He turned to see the bunny girl from before shyly trying to get his attention by tugging on his arm.
"Hey!" began Demon "Are you ok?"
"Yea… thanks for the save out there… I'm Velvet"
"Nice to meet you… I'm Demon by the way. Badass fighting back there!"
"Thanks, who are your friends by the way?"
"Well… this is…" he stopped himself as he turned to see Josh staring at Velvets ears. He was slowly opening his slack mouth and then closing it again, looking as if he was trying to say something. He eventually managed to get out a sentence.
"Are those… rabbit ears?"
Velvet shied away a bit and tried to hide behind Demon. Demon saw this and answered for her.
"Yes, they are… and if you have anything against them I will break your legs"
"Umm… ok then… would you mind elaborating a bit more on our current situation… BECAUSE YOU NEVER MENTIONED DAMNED ANIMAL PEOPLE!"
Demon's blood boiled a bit and he felt Velvet shift a bit behind him again.
"They are not animal people…" he answered, his voice low and growling "They deserve as much respect as anyone. They are known as faunus on this world and they are humans with traits from a creature."
"Ok then…" Josh replied, his tone a bit less accusing "So would you care to explain to my why there are teenagers wearing insane clothing and fight with weapons that are crazier than Zruci's!"
"Who's Zruci?" asked Ruby, interrupting the conversation.
"He's an insane scientist who died because of one of his inventions, but that's not the point. Josh, some people on this world have a shield protecting them known as aura as well as increasing their physical attributes. This allows them to fight probably just as well as a pilot and can soak up as much fire as a Titan. They go to schools to learn to fight the creatures that threaten them… hence, the insane weaponry"
"Sure… I TOTALLY believe you…" deadpanned Josh, completely sarcastically.
Demon pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the small nook beneath his helmet and chestplate. Josh was in a bit of shock and tried to stop him but Demon pulled the trigger, sending a bullet into his brain… or would have if he didn't have aura. A small red flicker occurred as the bullet connected with his aura, doing nothing except lowering it a little. Josh stood there for a second, trying to comprehend what was happening, while Markus had a different idea.
"Remarkable! Simply remarkable!" he chimed happily, pulling out his massive datapad and began scanning Demon. He moved around the man, pulling out several devices to test him. Demon just waited while he did everything, being poked and prodded by several implements, not really caring what happened… until the moment he tried to test Velvet. Markus pulled out a needle and was just about to jab it into Velvet before she could complain, but Demon was faster. He grabbed the needle and smashed it into pieces, alerting Velvet to what was happening. She paled a bit and stepped behind Demon again, avoiding the scientist.
"Back off!" threated Demon, his voice becoming a bit darker.
Markus' face became confused before he nodded and walked back to stand at Josh's side and informing the leader on what he had found.
"From what I can gather, this aura acts in tandem with the person's will and can be activated when the person decides for it. It does appear to have a certain amount of reserves and it is nowhere near infinite and it does not appear to stop kinetic energy, rather it stops the energy from causing permanent damage to the person"
"Hmm… interesting… so Demon, how do we get it…"
"Well… you have to earn it"
Tempest happily pulled out his shotguns, somehow managing to find more ammunition out of nowhere, and cocked them both, spinning them as he did.
"What do I have to kill!" he happily questioned, a smile crossing his face.
"You don't have to kill anything… it kinda just happens" informed Kira, not sure how to explain it.
Tempest's smile faded and he slung his weapons over his back again. Josh was still trying to take in everything and Jaeger was… combing his hair? He had taken his mask off and was using a piece of smashed glass to see how he was combing his hair.
"Is he always like this?" asked Demon, checking with Josh.
"If you mean is he always a complete narcissistic douche… then yes"
"Great… well I guess there is someone you need to see soon, so we better go back to Beacon"
"Beacon?"
"Yea… you're going back to school"
And with that… Josh's world was completely destroyed by the prospect of repeating the most hated years of his life…
