Silence. Silence filled the room before her, no shouts of worry or orders or the clanging of boots against concrete as they rushed to prepare defenses. Just silence. She stared at Glynda, and Glynda stared at her screen. Oddly enough, it was Velvet who spoke up first.
"What do you mean, 'Grimm are coming?'" She asked, eyes locked on hers.
I don't know, I heard a voice in my mind, the voice that I heard the whole year I was in the Darkness, the one who changed me. She said Grimm are coming and that everyone around me is going to die. Please, you have to believe me, there's going to be an attack.
Coco sighed, cocking her head to the side. "You heard a voice in your mind?" She nodded. "The same voice of whatever turned you into this?" Another nod. Coco turned to face Port, "Are we sure Grimm can't be schizophrenic?" Pyrrha recoiled in shock. She wasn't mad! She was a monster with distorted memories and a menagerie of emotions and conflicts raging inside her mind, but she wasn't mad. She pulled the scroll away from the glass indignantly. Typing as fast as she could.
I'm not mad, I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me. What harm could it do to raise an alert? Please.
"She's right about that, what harm could it do to put everyone on alert and at the ready?" Oobleck conceited, giving her a fatherly once over to make sure that the pain had passed.
"She?" Coco retorted, staring at the man in shock. "It is a Grimm. We have no reason to-"
"Doctor Oobleck, check the perimeter defenses as fast as you can," the man nodded once before disappearing from room in a green blur. "Professor Port, gather those who are on rest at the central courtyard, be sure to check the barracks for any who might be sleeping." The man's eyebrows raised in delight at the prospect of waking sleeping students, finally an opportunity to bellow as loud as he could. "I'll get right to it," he said and marched out of the room, whistling a lively war tune as he did.
"Miss Adel-"
"Wait wait wait wait." Coco shouted, her arms placed indignantly upon her hips. "Are we going to actually trust this thing?"
Glynda rounded on the girl, eyes burning with fury. "Never interrupt me again, Miss Adel." The two had a staring contest, one which Coco quickly lost as she lowered her head and nodded.
"As I was saying, Miss Adel, take your team and those on guard duty to the outer defenses immediately, I need you to push back any first waves that may be coming." Coco nodded reluctantly before gesturing to her team to follow as she left. As she watched them go she noticed Velvet hesitate slightly at the door, before deciding to turn around and give her a timid wave goodbye. She was gone by the time Pyrrha had recovered from the shock of friendliness and remembered she should return the gesture. Pyrrha turned to face the only other living thing in the room, typing a quick thank you on her scroll as she held it in front of the glass.
"I am not doing this for you," she said curtly, "I am doing this because it is the intelligent thing to do." With that she turned, quite literally, on her heels and stormed out of the room, drawing her riding crop out from the crook of her arm. Glynda stormed through the door, and, despite her not placing a finger upon it, it slammed shut behind her; leaving Pyrrha staring at an empty room, mind frantic with worry as her reflection stared back at her.
She turned from the glass and began to pace mechanically about the perimeter of the room. She wasn't sure when the Grimm were coming except that it was soon. Not much help there. She was sure, however, that if anyone died tonight their blood would be on her hands. She may not have swung the claw that killed them, but their deaths would be a direct result of her choosing to seek out the people left in Vale. A dull, painful thud still echoed through her head with every pulse of her heart. It was a manageable pain though now, and quickly fading to the back of her mind as potential guilt swam through her conscious. Her boots echoed around the room, her thoughts lost in endless terrible scenarios with one common theme: them being her fault.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed, there was no clock in her room, nor was there one in the observation room. The scenarios that raced through her mind and the utter feeling of helplessness she felt made it feel like hours had passed, though she doubted that was the case. She was ripped from her thoughts by a sound, a single faint scream that barely managed to reach her ears. It was muffled tremendously by the concrete surrounding her cell, but it was there. It sounded like it was someone calling a name in panic; not the usual, guttural and incoherent screams of battle. Her head snapped around the room, thoughts turning to the scream: whose name was it? Who was screaming? She was pretty sure why they were screaming: someone they cared about was in danger. But how much danger?
The ceiling of her cell shook softly, dust and pebbles drifting through the tiny cracks already there. Another scream, followed by a faint roar and another shaking of the ceiling. She had to get out. People were getting hurt up there, she had to help, not only because it was her own fault, but because it was the right thing to do. The only thing she would allow herself to do. But how? How to get out? Her eyes scanned the room for any weaknesses, but she found nothing. The door was a solid and thick steel, the rest concrete, save for the glass window leading to the observation room. Three feet tall, and six feet wide she would definitely be able to fit through it, but she would have to smash it with something. Again she scanned the room and found what she already knew from her days spent here: it was totally and completely empty. Just her and the concrete. It was then she remembered, her eyes flitting to the crater she had made in the wall with her fist. She was never strong enough to make such a dent while she had been human, but now? Maybe.
She looked down at her armored, white fist adorned with crimson spikes, flexing the armored fingers there. She moved towards the glass, placing her palm over it as she did so, this glass would be tough, absolutely. She was in a prison cell designed to hold criminals during questioning after all. But even then it had been designed to hold humans, and she...well she wasn't completely human anymore, was she?
Taking a breath and removing her hand from the glass she took a step back, right fist raised. There was really only one way to find out. With a shout she threw all her weight behind her fist and punched the glass. The impact sent a thrum up her arm, and the glass didn't explode in a shower of shards as she'd hoped. But, it did yield and crack some. Curiously, she removed her fist; save for the dull shock that had first ran through her arm, she felt fine, there wasn't a scrape on the plate of her gloves, and the spikes on her knuckles were unchipped. The glass was not so lucky. Four deep gouges where her spikes had struck had been etched into the surface, tiny sparkles of shattered glass fell from the puny pits as she stared at them. Drawing her fist back again she punched the glass, cracks webbed across the surface, the gouges were almost half an inch deep now.
Again, the roof shook as she heard more muffled and monstrous howls in the distance. Her friends were running out of time and she needed to help them. Gritting her teeth she drew her fist back again and struck the same spot with all the force she could muster. The glass split apart with a crunch as the center gave way and crashed backwards against the tile floor. The chunk shattered even further as it collided with cold tile, sending tiny spikes and chunks twirling across the smooth surface. Tiny bits still tinkled as they split off from the larger chunks still adorning the edge of the frame.
Carefully, she clambered through the hole, armored plates scraping softly against the shattered spears of glass that reached out to her for revenge. As she pulled her last leg through she noticed that the frame for the glass was particularly thick, the glass itself seeming to be a little more than an inch thick. A small smile crept across her face as she examined her hand and the thickness of the glass frame, she didn't have any aura, but after punching through more than an inch of bullet-proof glass, she was still unscahted. Her armor was proving quite useful.
Forcing her mind away from her new armor and strength she rushed towards the door of the interrogation room, throwing it open and launching herself into a concrete hallway. Harsh, artificially white light streamed from bulbs overhead, while gray tile lined the floors. To her left the hall seemed to continue for about three more doors before ending in more concrete, to her right the hallway stretched on for about fifty yards, signs hung every fifty feet, with EXIT written across them illuminated by red bulbs. An arrow underneath pointed towards the end of the hallway on her right. It took her all of about a second to register all of this before dashing down the right side.
She hoped everyone was unhurt, though that seemed unlikely. Bone boots thudded against tile, she was halfway now, the sounds of battle increased as every step took her closer to the source. Shouted orders, the clanging of steel, roaring Grimm, explosions, and discharged dust rounds drifted down into her hallway from a staircase in front of her. She leaped to the stairs, wasting no momentum, and easily cleared the first four, and so she climbed, taking the steps four at a time.
The sign on the landing told her she was on B2, so logic told her that the ground floor would be the one two up from where she was. She dashed up the next two flights of stairs, hardly slowing her stride, she was on B1 now, just one more floor to go. The sounds were louder now, she could make out words among the orders and calls, hidden behind those were the roars of anger and pain, of both human and Grimm. She could see the ground floor doorway now, the door itself was removed from its hinges, though where it had wound up she wasn't sure. Hurtling through the empty frame she found herself at what must have once been an office area, where the police of Vale must've processed any that came through, now though the desks were pushed together in groups of four, plates of food spread across them. Half eaten MREs and canned foods on plastic plates, a few spilled drinks here and there. It only furthered her worry, most of who remained must have been in the middle of dinner based on the brilliant orange hue the setting sun turned the sky. They were caught off guard, and that was very very bad.
Exit, she had to find the exit, she scanned the room until she found another EXIT sign, identical to the ones below, hanging on a closed double door to her left. She sprinted towards it and barreled through the doors into a large lobby area with two more large, oak doors intricately decorated with carvings of two crossed axes with a shield overlaying them both: the symbol of the Vale Police Department.
The sounds of battle were no longer muffled, cries of pain and fury, roars of challenge and animal whimpers, and an order to get the wounded to safety scratched at her ears from just beyond the oaken portal. She sped up, she had been the reason for those wounded, she would protect them; not nearly enough atonement, but it would have to do for now. She sprinted towards the doors, bracing an arm before her as she barreled into them, forcing them open so far and fast they banged against the brick walls of the building.
Before her stretched a wide, hexagonal courtyard with a twenty foot fountain in the middle, at the far two vertices of the hexagon two streets entered into the plaza, all the other walls were those of buildings, what once must've been important docking and shipping offices were now improvised fortresses. Ruined fortified positions occupied the building corners closest to the two streets, the one building that separated the two streets was almost nothing more than an empty, burned out shell with only three walls left standing. The paving stones of the courtyard were pockmarked with craters, the fountain itself once had a statue on it, but all that remained were two feet and half an ankle rooted to the top.
The far two streets oozed grimm of all shapes and ages, the majority of which were Creeps, followed by Beowulfs, then Ursa. A dozen pairs of Boarbatusks roamed the courtyard, their rolls ripping new paths through the paving stones. Fully grown Deathstalkers stabbed and swiped, and she could even see the tops of a pair of Goliaths cresting over the far shell of a building as they trudged through the twin streets. She had been trained all her life for combat, fighting, and winning, tournament after tournament, training against student and Grimm alike. Her mind was used to the fight, but it was not used to the chaos of a full scale battle.
The hunters were spread out loosely among the courtyard with no cohesive formation, a fair number of shots rang out from the rooftops, indicating that some projectile users had been stationed on the roofs during the attack, but still not nearly enough to provide the cover fire required against this mass of Grimm. The hunters were slowly, but steadily being pushed back towards a building on the left side of the plaza; the roof fire seemed heaviest from there, and she could make out people dragging or carrying those who could no longer fight inside.
A roar and a yell dragged her attention back to the main fight, just in time to dodge the remains of a Beowulf flying past her right and smashing one of the doors behind her. Her senses returned and she dashed forwards across the plaza. An explosion tore through the air by the fountain as earth, chunks of paving stone, and dismembered Grimm parts rained down. Her feet moved without conscious thought, pushing off from the smoking remains of an Ursa and leaping to the ground, sprinting as soon as her boots made contact with the stones below. She had to get there, had to save them before anyone else got hurt because of her. All of this was her fault.
She was twenty feet from the fountain when a familiar voice tore through the air, her eyes snapped to the source and she saw Velvet Scarletina being launched thirty feet by a swipe from an Ursa Major. Velvet's back and leg collided against the fountain with a crack of stone and bone as it crumbled. Her heart caught in her throat until she heard a faint moan of pain. The Ursa Major roared in triumph and rushed her friend. A direct blow like that against a small girl like Velvet would leave her easily in the red of her Aura, another swipe would shatter it completely and quite possibly kill her. And that was if she hadn't taken any hits already.
That could not happen.
Pyrrha poured every ounce of energy she had into her legs and ran.
"Velvet!" A and panicked voice tore across the plaza, and she saw the other members of her team, Team CFVY, locked in combat with a Deathstalker over forty feet away. There was no way they could reach her in time, and Velvet knew that. She tried to get up, but pain shot through her leg and she noticed that a piece of bone from her shin tore through the skin. That wasn't right, she thought, her mind addled with pain and probably a concussion from the impact. She was faintly aware of someone calling to her, shouting at her to move, but the pain and the roar of the Ursa Major scant feet away drowned it out.
She'd messed up, isolating herself from her team for ranged attacks, but she'd done a hell of a lot of damage with her copy of Ruby's sniper. Somehow though, the stench of the approaching Ursa Major's breath as it reared up on its hind legs and roared in triumph over her made that less worth it.
Her arms scrabbled for her camera on her right, but it was just out of reach. The Major raised its claw over its head and it had just begun to descend when her fingertips made contact with the camera. She was too slow, she knew it and the Ursa knew it, but still she stared defiantly at the creature that would be her end, eyes hunting for a solution to a problem she could not solve. White and red flashed above her head, and a massive crunching of bone and the squishy rending of flesh filled her ears, contesting with a shocked grunt from the Major. Her eyes told her the creature now lay on its back as a figure clad in white with red trim pummeled it again and again, but her brain had no idea what to do with that information. It was filled with questions.
The figures fists were stained an ever deeper black as they tore through the Major's body, contrasting sharply with the otherwise ivory white coloring. Every time a fist connected bone cracked and blood spurted from the Major; its flailing and grunting growing ever weaker with each strike. Finally, its arms collapsed limply at its sides, the grunting stopped, but still the figure beat on, smashing its skull until only the jutting of the spine from the neck and a black smear upon the pavement indicated anything had been there at all. The battle still raged around Velvet, her leg was still on fire with pain, but her mind could only register the white and red figure as she stood and approached her. Her mind was a conflict of fear and relief, as Pyrrha Nikos gingerly slid her arms underneath her body and lifted her with both arms, holding her like a large dog. Her eyes locked with the blazing emeralds of her rescuer and the attempt at a comforting smile that her mouth had twisted into. It was a ghastly sight, and she found her mind fighting over whether to be unnerved or soothed by it. Her mind was filled with questions, but she managed to push them to the side.
"Thank you," she uttered quietly to the creature that held her as they ran towards the designated medical building. Pyrrha's smile grew wider, and so did Velvet's unease.
A/N: Hello everyone! This week has been busy as all hell for me, move in, first classes, new friends, goddamn ridiculousness around every corner.
Got to start a new D&D campaign though, but that's all the spare time I've had. Let me know what you guys and gals think of this chapter, can't really make up my mind on how I feel about it.
See y'all soon!