"Is today the day Dad?" Rayn-Bo asked, cracking the knuckles on his massive mechanical gauntlets.
Opal flapped her wings, flying high above them. "Yeah Dad. Is this the day our adventure begins?"
Drake chuckled. "Beat me and you'll find out." he cracked his own knuckles and readied himself.
Opal dove down and struck out with a kick, but Drake locked his arms and blocked the attack, which forced him back a few feet. He reared an arm back and took a swing at the pink haired girl but she backflipped away and his fist was met with his son's titanium armored fist.
Their arms stayed connected for a second before Drake pulled his hand away, shaking it in pain. "Forgot how hard those damn things are." he chuckled and charged his son.
Rayn-Bo launched another powerful punch, which Drake ducked under, and looking over, he grabbed his son's arm and held it in place as bullets started pinging off the metal.
Drake took a tight hold on the mechanical arm and turned, swinging his son behind him and launching him at his daughter, the two crashing together in a heap.
The siblings stood and they looked at each other, a look of determination set on their faces. They nodded and Rayn-Bo reared his arm back while Opal fluttered her wings and backflipped into his open palm.
With a shout, he launched his sister, her wings streamlining her flight and guiding her straight towards her father.
A flash of yellow disagreed.
Opal suddenly found her face in the white palm of her Aunt Yang. And promptly fell to the floor.
"Last minute training?" the blonde asked.
Drake laughed. "Yeah. Thought I'd have them ready to leave by the time you all got here in the Bullhead. We're all set to go?"
Yang nodded. "The other two are packing the food and we're waiting on you three."
An hour later, they were all in the Bullhead Airship, their destination: Beacon Academy.
"So. Today's really the day? It's been twenty years already? Fuck!" Zayna muttered.
Maria sat in one of the padded chairs, pruning her daughter's feathers. "Twenty years passes by quickly. Im just glad the children have grown enough."
"We gave them the best knowledge we could." Virgil stated, before sighing. "Our... our son even made his own kingdom."
"Where is he anyway?" Juane asked, getting a glare from the Ice Queen.
Before she could make a retort the sounds of choppers filled the air. They looked out the windows, ad noticed a platoon of helicopters surrounding them.
Drake and Silver rushed into the cockpit, noticing the many heavily armed attack helicopters, all marked with a four pointed star with a needle sticking down the top.
"Ulysses choppers.."Silver muttered. "So he's going back to the past along with the other kids."
Drake patted the pilot's shoulders. "Keep flying to Beacon. Who is 'he'?" he asked Silver.
Silver strode back into the room with the others. "He's our son. Dante. Remember him? He ran away a few years ago and all we heard about where he went was the kingdom of Ulysses springing up out of nowhere and a letter with the Ulysses mark and his signature."
"Welcome children. As you may or may not know, this is Beacon Academy." Professor Ozpin spread his arms outward, showing Beacon in its somewhat destroyed and militarized glory.
"Ozpin. You haven't cleaned up from the last fight we had here." Drake stated, noticing the destroyed archway, scorch marks, and blood stains.
Ozpin shrugged. "It was a memorable battle. Besides, it was more efficient to use all resources for the machine instead of some renovation."
"There's a lot of security around." Yang stated, noticing the many mechs and guards patrolling the school's grounds.
"A preventative measure." Ozpin replied. "Before Atlas was silenced they sent over as much of their military force as they could here. Ulysses also sent a sizable contribution." his gaze fell on Dante, who met his gaze unflinchingly.
Ozpin motioned for the group to follow as he walked towards the main building. "We've recently lost contact with all other kingdoms except Ulysses. The reason is not isolation to ward off invaders. It's simply because they cannot respond."
"What do you mean Ozpin?" Rayn asked. "If this was a joint 'save the world' project, why drop out?"
A military officer ran towards Ozpin, interrupting to give his own information. "Ozpin, sir! It's on it's way. It will be here within minutes!"
"Have the force protect the main building at all costs. We CANNOT lose that building until we are done, do you understand soldier?" Ozpin gripped his arm tightly, apparently to the point where it hurt.
The man nodded and started shouting orders at men and machines alike.
"We must get inside, lets hurry." with that, he started running, forcing the others to follow him.
It didn't take minutes. If it had, there may have been a lot less suffering.
It came within seconds.
"IT'S HERE! OPEN FIRE!"
As the group of heroes, young and old ran to their objective, they saw everyone with a gun raise it to the sky and start firing.
The sky had long since turned black and midnight coated pods were being dropped into the school's yard. When the pods hit, Grimm, way larger than before appeared, and started attacking.
Ren looked back and noticed that the Grimm were being held off quite easily at first. The bullets were gouging holes from them and they turned back into shadows when they were beaten. However, those unlucky enough to have a physical weapon saw the devastating effects that the Shadow Grimm had.
Blades would pass right through the Grimm's body and start corroding, bludgeons would strike empty air and start dripping onto the pavement, shields would rust and peel at an alarming rate. The weapons would begin to fall apart seconds after the strike, leaving the men weaponless and at the mercy of the Shadow Grimm, who latched onto their victims and stared into their souls as their body was forcibly turned to stone.
The machines weren't doing any better. All around them, Elysian Knights were powering down and falling to pieces while the massive Elysian Paladins were melting into puddles, leaving only a stone pilot with his screaming face frozen in time.
"Guys we need to help them!" Ren shouted.
Juane's mouth dropped in horror. "They're turning to stone..."
"There's no time to save them! After them, it will be us! And the children need to make it out of this!" Ozpin shouted.
Ren waved them on. "Go! I'll stay and help out." He readied his Storm Flowers and started firing at the massive horde of Shadow Grimm.
Soon, Juane, Nora, Phyrra, and their children stood beside him.
"What are you doing?" he scolded.
Nora put her shoulder against his. "Helping you crabby pants. If your turning to stone then so are we. Teammates stick together remember?"
"Thats correct." Phyrra agreed.
Juane waved the others to keep going. "Yeah. A team means that we're friends till the bitter end man." he patted his friend's shoulder.
"Thanks guys. Let's hope they can do this." Ren smiled and got ready to fight what could be his last battle.
Drake and Silver closed the large double doors to the room they were in. "Damnit." Ozpin muttered. "I thought we had more time."
"Well we don't so hurry this up Ozpin." Yang spat out, stroking her daughter's hair.
"Here." Ozpin opened a door into what looked like a walk in closet. "There are armored suits in there that they will need if their equipment is to last the passage."
Minutes later, all the kids had changed into matching, skintight black jumpsuits. The white armored pieces were shoulder plates, thigh plates, and various pieces around the midsection.
"You children are going to save the world. We're going to send you into the past to help defeat an evil that your parents could have defeated easier with help." Ozpin looked at the children who were suited up and ready.
"You... have no questions? No complaints or anything?"
The teens looked between each other and collectively shook their heads. "Why would we?" Helena asked. "You explained it pretty well and you asked us to save the world."
"Our parents did it." Rusty looked over at his mothers. "Why cant we?"
Ozpin nodded and took a step forward when the entire building shook. He fell to the floor, dropping a pocket watch into the center of the room.
"Shit! The doors!" Virgil yelled as he and the others went to hold the doors shut.
Ozpin went to stand but the building shook again. "The watch! All of you grab it at once and it will take you to when you need to be!"
Pieces of the building were raining down on them as the kids scrambled to grab the time device. Hands clasped the metal watch until they all were holding it.
"Press the button!" Ozpin yelled.
Opal looked over at their parents, who were looking back at them, crying in both pain and pride. She could see the Shadow Grimm clawing at their backs through the crack in the doors and their bodies were quickly turning to stone. She saw the smile that her parents had on their faces and closed her eyes, not willing to see any more. Her thumb drifted over the button and pushed it, causing them to fall.
They fell into the twisted void of time and space, leaving everything they knew behind in a place where it was already gone