Vale...
"Nom nom nom nom nom nom..."
"Ruby" Blake called her name.
"... nom nom nom nom nom..."
"She will be like this for a while" said Yang.
"She really likes cookies..."
"Yep. Now let's leave her and seqrch about the Impaler Vampire. We can't just depend forever on team SSSN".
"Yeah" Blake nodded. "Do you think they are okay?"
"Sure they are!"
RWBY: Against All Odds
Jammer...
Neptune was giving out the strunctions to the rest of the team before Sun returned to their temporary 'hideout'.
"Okay, look. The second tower had a few defenses, but not a problem. In this corridor, they have the room where they keep the poison, so it's no good. These few spaces on the map are particularly bad and-"
At that moment, Sun returned and...
"Alright, guys! Let's do this!" ... he started running away from the hideout in the direction of the darkest tower. "LEEROOOOOOOOYYYY JEEEEEEENNNKIIIIINNNNNSSS!"
...
Scarlet was the first to react:
"... he just went in".
.
..
...
"SAVE HIM!" Neptune ran fully armed after Sun. "Oh god, stick to the plan, guys!"
Arc 1 - Disillusioned Vampire
Beacon...
Weiss was reading her scroll when...
"Guys, we lost connections to team SSSN".
Ren spoke:
"They may have cut it in order to avoid getting detected".
"Hmm... yeah, maybe you are right".
Jaune looked at the scroll:
"But, man! They sure got us useful info".
Weiss nodded.
"Names, possible semblances, and the fact that one of them is coming here... Who do you think it is out of the three ?"
Weiss looked at Jaune and Jaune, in turn, looked at Ren.
Ren felt unconfourtable with those stares.
"... Why?"
Weiss said:
"Because you were the one that started everything of this checking on Jammer business".
While Jaune:
"Because some of your minions may have gotten-"
"Forget about when I became the Maou already!" Ren interrupted Jaune while blushing. "Fine, out of the three students that went away, I guess it's the one called 'The Creature of Stein'... probably".
"Why?" Weiss was curious. "Isn't he the weakest?"
Jaune looked at the info displayed on his scroll and understood it.
"Tepes is going out everyday to Vale, so he wouldn't come here. Silver-Clad Werewolf is the strongest so, if he is still wounded by the fight with Pyrrha, that would be his bodyguard. Leaving only the last guy to come here".
"I see..." Weiss nodded to them. "But still, sending only one guy here... to begin with, what are they planning?"
"Well I-"
RIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGG
"It's mine" Ren answered his scroll. "Yes, Nora... yes, Nora... yes, Nora... yes, Nora... got it. I will tell him. Yes, Nora... yes, Nora".
Jaune and Weiss looked at each other after seeing that conversation. Ren spoke:
"It was Nora".
"No way!" Shouted Weiss sarcastically. "I had no idea!"
"She said that Pyrrha woke up. So, Jaune- where is he?!"
Weiss looked at her side and there was merely an outline at the place he was.
"I guess he already went out to find Pyrrha..."
Chapter 8: Truth and Encounter
Jammer...
A girl clad in a purple and gold battle dress walked back and forth in the highest room of one of the castle towers.
The shadows covered her features, which impossibilited Sun from seeing her face, but he already had sent photographies before.
"Ah... Ah... Ah..." Neptune was breathing heavily by his side.
"Sorry" whispered Sun.
"You nearly risked us getting exposed!"
"Shh! She is about to say something".
Sun and Neptune were hiding above, spying on that gurl to discover the next movements of Jammer.
Tracy Khufu was her name, she was the Mummy of Impossible Defeat. The one of least information and with the winning record of 100%. But what was confusing them the most was her role in all of what was happening.
The Impaler Vampire was currently following his own constant scheme by going to Vale daily. The other two members were either scouting him or invading Beacon. But that girl was still in Jammer, sending instructions here and there.
"It's as if she is the actual leader" murmured Sun.
Neptune nodded and, at that time...
"I guess enough time had passed" the 'Mummy' pressed a few buttons in the keyboard. "Now I don't have to worry about what I will do exactly with the battle situation out there".
Her words confused Neptune. 'What is she doing?'
The girl clad in purple and gold finished was she was doing and spoke:
"Doors have eyes and walls have ears, isn't that right? Team SSSN!"
Sun nearly attacked her instinctively, but stayed hiding. The girl came out of the shadows.
Her skin was tanned and her eyes were purple just like her hair. Bandages covered her legs and arms while a black scarf was around her neck. The girl smiled:
"It seems your really believed you could make a fool out of us. You even entered a laboratory with 13 hidden cameras. Well, we can play hide-and-seek, but you confused predator and prey!"
The girl stopped her smile and snapped her fingers. A hologram appeared displaying all of the members of team SSSN in sequence. While above their images...
BEACON HAS INFILTRATED JAMMER. THE HUNT IS ON
"It can't be!" Sun shouted without believing.
"There you are!" Four bandages spread from a box in the back of the girl's waist. "Currently, the rest of the school is after your heads, but the two of you shall be mine!"
The duo jumped in opposite directions while drawing their weapons, ready for the battle that had begun.
Vale...
Yang and Blake had decided to go the Dust Cafe and pause their search.
They where just chatting and eating when a newcomer suddenly entered the store.
"It's him!" Whispered Yang.
Blake looked at that direction, the direction where a calm bespectacled red-eyed boy was standing.
"Vladimir Tepes, the Impaler Vampire" Blake muttered his name and she could swear that, even if it was just for one second, he had looked at her direction.
Beacon's Infirmary...
'Okay, here goes!' Jaune mustered his strength and opened the door.
The light from the windows illuminated the white room. A girl deserving of the adjective 'beautiful' was sitting on the bed.
Her red hair was flowing freely as there was no ponytail that time and, although there were a few curatives here and there, she had a calm and pure smile.
"Pyrrha" just looking at her smiling right at that moment calmed Jaune.
"You came" Pyrrha blushed. "I have been missing you".
Beacon's Cafeteria...
"Reeeeeennnn!"
Weiss and Ren turned aroung instinctively, but a white and pink blur was all they saw.
"Hug from behind!" Shouted Nora.
She appeared out of nowhere and hugged the boy in green.
Weiss first was surprised, then blushed and then was surprised again when light disappeared from Ren's eyes.
"Again... it's happening again... the nightmare is about to restart!"
'Oh no' Weiss remembered that night in which Ren ran away and only returned after taking over the school. 'He is going evil again!'
"Nora, you have to stop!"
"But I want to hug him!"
"He is going evil again!"
Weiss looked at him. The smile of insanity appeared on his face and...
"Pff... Hahahaha! Can't believe you fell for it!"
Ren started laughing and so did Nora.
Weiss first blushed from embarrassment, then her face acquired a red of anger and finally...
"Doofuses!" She left them behind.
Beacon's Infirmary...
'Okay, Jaune. Calm down! It's just Pyrrha, so slow that heartbeat! It's far easier than fighting with my life on the line and- oh, who am I kidding? Fighting with my life on the line would be much, MUCH easier!'
Jaune felt red going all the way up to his head when that question from Pyrrha came:
"Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah! Totally fine! I was just thinking abou yo- I MEANT STUFF!"
Pyrrha blushed, but at that same moment...
"Pff" she couldn't hold it back anymore. "Hahahaha!"
"Not funny, Pyrrha!"
"Sure it is!"
'No it isn't' thought Jaune. But the sight of her laughing made him calm down. Pyrrha was fine and that was most of what mattered.
"It's good to see you fine, Pyrrha".
"You too".
Jaune pulled a chair and sat down. The atmosphere in that room imediately changed.
"Now... could you tell me what happened?"
Pyrrha sighed.
"It's going to be a long story".
Dust Cafe...
Vladimir Tepes, the Impaler Vampire compressed and hid all of his surprise when he saw them.
His mechancal glasses analyzed and the match was perfect: Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna.
The boy was instantly surprised, but that was dissipated by wonder. 'How? How did they track me down? Tracy was supposed to feed fake information to that anomalous team? Or is it mere coincidence?'
His thoughts ran fast, but he was grabbed by his arm:
"C'mon, Vlad! I'm hungry!" Said the girl hugging his arm.
Under the blue hood from her jacket, one could see her pure silver hair and orange eyes that seemed to play with any person in front of her as a potential prey
"I am sorry, Luna. It's just that it is too noisy here".
"I know, right?" She smiled at him, revealing the canines slightly bigger than the rest of the teeth. The smile was calm, but the eyes were serious as she whispered: "you want a sound-proofed barrier?"
"I am telling you, it's as if someone is knocking a bell hard every three seconds".
"Hahaha! Sometimes I find it hard to understand you. Let's go!"
The girl pulled him into the store. Most of the customers were unaware of the secret dialogue the two mercenaries-in-training had at that moment.
And the 'vampire' merely side-glanced at the two beauties of Beacon.
'They may be a nuisance, but only potentially'.
"I was just walking through the streets at night. Until we met".
"Tepes?"
Pyrrha nodded upon receiving Jaune's question.
"It all started when I heard cries from afar. A girl with red hair was being chased by him. I don't kniw who she was, but when I saw the tears on her eyes I knew the situation was serious. And that was before he attacked.
"Pierce her, my spear!"
"I entered the battle, deflected the attack and the girl ran away. I wanted to question him, but he kept ignoring me and I, interrupting him, until...''
"It seems you are not letting me pass. Very well then, I will just defeat you first".
"Of course I still tried to talk to him, but he was clearly angry behind that calm face".
"You don't deserve my words. You have interfered with something that had nothing to do with you and now you shall pay for that".
"That was when we fought. The rest was just our own battle and my defeat".
Jaune heard that entire story. He couldn't understand exactly what Teoes was planning, but what he couldn't believe was...
"He defeated you... in a one-on-one battle?"
Pyrrha smiled, but it seemed hollow somehow.
"Yes. We fought and I lost. During the battle, my semblance was constantly interfered, but I liked it. It seemed like the chance to prove my skills instead of my talent. But his tenacity was bigger than mine".
"What do you mean?"
"I was about to win that battle when he smiled. He did something I would never expect: he purposefully took hits without even using his aura".
"What?!" Jaune had his eyes wide open. 'But that would mean...'
'That there would be no use for that, right? It's different from Yang, I mean, if he didn't use aura...'
Pyrrha continued to speak:
"That was when I finally got 100% sure his semblance was teleknesis. By receiving my slash without aura, my blade went through his muscles. He wasn't thrown back and his blood was moved right into my eyes with his powers. Not only that, he managed to hit me with that poisoned spear".
"What kind of guy is that?" Jaune was surprised at the tactics he used. "He put his life on the line like that?"
Pyrrha nodded.
"The battle wasn't over at that and continued, but I guess he was sure he had won at that time. One could say that it was just part of the plan. After I was poisoned, the battle only became harder and harder. And when I finally thought I could beat him..."
"He deactivated his aura again" he remembered the sight of Tepes at that time: a boy with an arm barely attached that couldn't even walk anymore.
"Yes. He gave up his leg to defeat me. I was impressed, after he defeated me, do you know what he said?"
Jaune shook his head. Pyrrha's eyes seemed really serious:
"He said: 'It's my victory, Hunter'. After that, I started to faint while he smiled, I think that he thought I had already truly fainted because he muttered: 'a situational draw... I will never like those Hunters, giving their all for people they don't even know'."
'I can't believe I fell for that!' Weiss was walking angrily through the corridors of Beacon.
'Those two have been only making fun of me the last few days!' Weiss was already blushing upon remembering it.
Making her shipping skills look noobish.
Reading her mind.
Set her up in the perfect date with Neptune just to wreak havoc in the school.
And now that.
'I swear, when I get my hands on them-'
"Somebody, help me!" Cried a female voice.
Jaune's mind was still analyzig everything.
'Tepes fought Pyrrha, but before that... he was pursuing someone'.
Weiss ran as fast as she could.
Jaune was finally understanding what was happening.
'Maybe a target. Students here can do missions, like grimm extermination. If that's a mercenary school...'
Weiss saw that girl: a white and red blur passing in front of her.
At that moment, a black and green slash came at their direction.
Jaune opened his eyes wide.
'The girl Pyrrha helped is a target for assassination! The Impaler Vampire has been roaming out in Vale daily to analyze her behavior, track her down and kill her!'
Weiss rapidly took out her rapier and blocked the slash.
Green shocks flew out from both blades and she backed away.
Upon looking behind, the girl was gone.
Upon looking in front, she saw HIM.
A boy with a black sleeveless shirt with a green circuit-like pattern. Sleeveless gloves and exposed arms full with scars.
He also wore jeans and boots. Even the neck had scars and a large one was accross his face. He had medium length black and white hair.
'Wait a moment, that guy...'
His piercing stare made her recognize him right away. Those eyes that glowed out like neon was proof enough.
The X-shaped pulpils contracted and Weiss realized both of them already knew each other was an enemy, but she smiled:
"Sure saves the trouble of tracking you guys down. Isn't that right? Jammer's Creature of Stein!"
The boy in front of Weiss showed his teeth in aggresivity and she noticed the canines were slightly bigger than the rest.
"To think out of all the students one of the 'potential enemies' would be the one to interfere..."
"Interfere? You just attacked a student and have the nerve to say that?"
Infirmary...
"Alright, Pyrrha! I got it!"
"Huh?"
Jaune suddenly got up, startling her.
"Look, team VLNT probably was sent on an assassination mission and the target was that girl. The Impaler Vampire has been stalking her for days to find the perfect opportunity to eliminate her, so, on the night you saved her..."
"That's why only I was there" Pyrrha realized it all. "He planned to kill her there, where no one would interfere or hear. But..."
"Yeah" Jaine nodded. "You weren't on the plan. Now, let's go further ahead. Team SSSN infiltrared Jammer and collected information".
"Yeah, Nora told me about it".
"Yes. Impaler Vampire and Silver-Clad Werewolf went to Vale, while the one called Creature of Stein came here. Since it's so different from yesterday, it can only mean two things".
Jaune gaver her time and Pyrrha thought about it.
"That Vladimir Tepes is still wounded".
"That too, yes, but the first thing was..." Jaune looked at Pyrrha's eyes and she understood it was serious. "The target is a Beacon student. And the second thing is: they plan to kill her today".
Sparks flew out as Weiss blocked the third slash and evaded back.
On the few attacks traded, she could already grasp most of the enemie's skill.
The weapon was a black and green whipsword, which gave him mid-range advantage.
But that wasn't important now.
'I need to tell the rest he is here!' Weiss took out her scroll and looked at the screen, but all that was there was stactic.
'What the?!' Upon looking ahead, her enemy was holding his own scroll raised in the air.
Weiss finally understood that.
"A jammer..."
"It's the basic technology after all" the enemy hid his scroll in his pocket. "Old tricks are the most useful".
"Not a problem. I just need to beat you up and THEN I call them".
"You sure are arrogant. Are all the Schnee like that?"
"You..." Weiss's voice carried anger.
The boy's eyes were calm, however.
"The target may be lost, but I already fulfilled my purpose. After you are down in the cold hard floor, nothing of this will matter anymore".
Weiss opened her eyes wide. 'He contacted them!'
Dust Cafe...
A table was knocked three times and silence took over that small space.
The girl covered in the blue hood loked around and spoke:
"The yellow/black duo over there can't hear us anymore. What is it, Vlad?"
The boy with red eyes adjusted his glasses and said:
"Newton encountered that girl in Beacon".
"You kidding! Really?!" The girls checked her scroll. "Why does he never send messages to me?"
"That isn't important right now, Luna. We will need to go out and those two will pose a problem"
The girl simply smiled:
"I can take them".
"Let us not hasten ourselves" he looked at the scroll. "Let's separate them. You can drive my Cursed Mermaid to Beacon while I take care of the other".
"My my" the girl's smile seemed less playful and more hollow. "You aren't thinking of playing at this time, right?"
"I..."
"I mean, it sure looked to me that you just wanted to beat Pyrrha Nikkós back there and want to fight one of them right now just for fun".
"It isn't for fun!" The 'vampire' calmed himself. "I am just taking down two birds with one stone".
"You are risking too much and you know it. But..." Her smile seemed playful again. "If you are fully aware of that, who am I to stop you? Have fun!"
"... thank you" the boy got up from the chair. "Now let's go. Today we end all of this".
Ren and Nora read the same message and couldn't believe it.
"Wait wait wait!" Nora looked at the scroll for the third time. "Those guys are killing someone here?!" She smiled maniacally. "Let's go, Ren! Time to stop some evildoers!"
"WAIT!" Ren grabbed her.
"What?"
The boy in green deperately looked through the scroll and spoke:
"Team SSSN and Weiss! No, wait... Yang and Blake's signals too! All of them are lost!"
"Aaaaand?" Nora looked at him as if nothing important happened.
"That means Jammer already got them".
And he finally realized the cruel truth:
'We are too many steps behind!'
Yang and Blake pursued them just as they got out of the Cafe.
In the end, they were in the back of a dark alley, where two eyes were shining in the darkness.
"I am positive that there will be no interference here" a cold smile appeared in the shadows, with the canines slighty bigger than the rest of the teeth. "Well... I believe you two have matters to settle with us and won't take a 'no' for an answer".
Yang and Blake readied their weapons. At that moment...
"They won't and you know it" a girl with a blue hood covering her silver hair spoke from behind them. "Stop playing like that, Vlad. It may be fun to you, but's boring and pointless for me and one of us kinda has to go now".
Blake felt a shiver through her spine. 'They aren't taking this seriously?'
'It may be better this way, though... I mean, we didn't come to battle, but for answers. If Jaune was right about this guy getting badly wounded after fighting Pyrrha, there is more to this story than just defeating someone powerful to make an example of it'.
'First: it would be needed to be done in a flashy way, to make obvious who did it and the meaning'.
'And second' Blake's eye shone with her conviction. 'In chess, nobody sends a king to take down a knight. HIM fighting someone of Pyrrha's caliber in the middle of the streets at night is way too abnormal'.
'Well, as long as we don't exaggerate here, we may escape if things get rough'.
"Well, I guess you are correct" the boy answered the blue girl as he stepped out of the shadows. His coat seemed to be made of pure darkness as his red eyes glowed ominously. "I believe introductions are necessary; as you should have been informed by now, I am the one who defeated the infamous Pyrrha Nikkós. My name is Vla-"
"That's right, and you are going to pay for that, four-eyes!"
Who interrupted the Impaler Vampire was none less than Yang. And upon such words...
"BWAHAHAHAHA!" The girl in blue broke into laughter on the ground... "Four-eyes! Haha! So funny! Pff! Hahahaha!
"... four... eyes...?" ... the enemy dropped his smile...
"And there goes my escape plan." ... and Blake facepalmed.
Heretic Notes:
Because cliff-hanging climatic build-ups for battles are way too mainstream.
Hmph... the bad thing is still the pacing, but at least I can see the true climax coming.
I guess it will take 3-4 chapters to end this arc. I may need to find some good bgm for the arc finale by the way.
Well, doesn't matter! Next chapter will finally have the battles!
D-Don't be mistaken! I only did this cause I had nothing better to do. That's why I made the chapter, you hear?! I-It's not llike I made it for you people or anything, b-baka!
Hope you people liked what you read.
Next chapter - Chess of Fates Upon Vale
Heretic, out!