Chapter Thirty
Damian tried to look around, he was in a daze, everything was dark, everything was sore and he could feel something heavy on top of him. He blinked a few times and tried to work out what was happening. Im on my knees, I think? I can't see or hear, what's the last thing I remembered, He thought desperately.
"You okay partner?"
"Scar -cough!- Scarlet is that you?" Damian said now realising he had half a kilo of dust in his system.
"Yea it's me. Are you okay?" She replied. Damian heard the sound of scarlet fidgeting around until she opened up her scroll and its light blinded and illuminated the both of them.
"Oh god that's bright. Ouch!" Scarlet said as she recoiled from the light of her scroll and dropped it on her face. Once Damian's eyes adjusted he realised he was on top of Scarlet.
"What happened?" Damian asked.
"I'm not rightly sure myself, there was the band, then an explosion then you jumped shielded me from the debris."
Damian made an affirmative noise then tried to move. He could.
"Ugh Scarlet cover your ears of a sec." Damian said as he took in a deep breath. He unleashed his semblance and smashed away the wreckage around them. Damian was greeted with a view strait out of hell, people where running and screaming, soldiers were fighting one another and most of his classmates were strewn across the ground. Scarlet popped her head up as well then pulled the two of them down. A voice boomed from a megaphone.
"People of Atlas we have been under the boot of this power hungry tyrant for too long. We the group known as Lost have come here today to free you. On this day we shall end the rule of general James Ironwood." Damian peered over the rubble to see Pine speaking, surrounded by a group of supporters some of who he recognised as the people he met in that ally way.
"We have to help!" Damian whispered to Scarlet.
"I know I know! We need back up though, there's like fifty of them and one of you!" She replied. The two of them started digging around within the rubble, they quickly found Nathan and Ryu, Amber and Ross and Yuki, Blush and Crimson. They sat there in silence for a moment gathering their thoughts.
"So do we fight these guys?" Nathan asked.
"Yea" half of them replied. Damian looked to the undecided half,
"Don't tell me you agree with these guys."
Amber spoke up first. "What they are doing is wrong but, I mean, it could bring some good."
"The ends are only as good as the means in which you use to achieve them." Ryu interjected quickly. "If they think they are somehow better with their holier than thou preaching, someone probably me, might have to adjust their tune." He finished bitterly.
"Wow I feel like this is something near and dear?" Nathan said surprised.
"Just a belief." He replied. Damian took out his scroll and started to call the other team leaders. He got no replies.
"Looks like it's just us for now. Scarlet, Yuki, Ross, Crimson You guys should probably see how your teams are doing. Amber can you take care of Blush she still seems out of it."
"What are you going to do?" Amber asked.
"I." Damian began
"We." Nathan interpreted
"Are gonna kick some ass!" Ryu finished. Scarlet and Ross sighed.
"You hot heads."
Damian and his team leapt out of the rubble and advanced on pine, daring from cover to cover. Pine and his renegade soldiers had now overwhelmed the Atlesian resistance.
"Fan out and search for resistance. I'll find Ironwood myself!" Pine commanded his troops. The soldiers left leaving only his closest associates. As well as Pine their appeared to be six others, firstly a girl ginger girl in a patchy brown coat holding some sort of stick. Next was a familiar looking little girl with a large machine gun. On her right was a taller darker haired boy holding a rod and in a similar black cape. On Pine's other side where three boys, the first had a buzz cut, wore and old pre-war uniform and held a rifle. The boy in the middle had blue hair, wore a white robe and held a curved blade. The last one had messy green hair, brown armour, a rifle in his hand and a broad sword across his back.
"Good work on the missiles guys, I can't believe our plan went off without a hitch!"
"Well we have been waiting an awful long time." The smallest of his companions replied. Damian immediately recognised her voice.
"Your right sister, it has been a very long time in the making." Another one replied. Damian looked to his teammates, there where there of them verses the seven unknown assailants. The odds did not seem good.
"Okay let's hit them hard and fast." He whispered. Ryu and Nathan nodded.
"Nick can you deal with these on lookers!" Pine commanded. The boy with in the pre-war uniform jump and shattered the cover Damian was hiding behind.
"Suck on this!" Ryu shouted as he fired Zang Jishu and point blank into Nick's chest. He barely flinched.
"Is that all you've got." He replied as he batted Ryu away with the butt of his rifle.
"Ryu!" Nathan and Damian screamed. Nathan swung Thaw hammer down on Nick's head. It released an explosion on impact which took him be surprise but he shrugged it off quickly and countered with punch to chest that sent him crashing to the ground. Nick then placed his boot on Nathan and began to crush him into the arena floor.
"Leave him ALONE!" Damian screamed, with an explosive burst of energy he lunched at Nick. Damian raised both his arms and slashed at him with his ethereal claws. Nick crossed his arms and blocked the attack, though it shredded through his coat sleeves. Damian continued thrashing away at Nick, but he managed to block each and every one of his attacks. Nick now stood there with nothing more than a destroyer coat.
"Why'd you have to go and fuck up my coat." He said chucking it on the ground to reveal metallic body covered circuitry and a glowing light in the centre of his chest. Damian went in for a punch and Nick grabbed it and began to clamp down hard, crushing it.
"I wasn't even finished with my introduction!" He then swivelled Damian around on his arm and kicked him I the chest, causing him to crash on top of Nathan.
Nathan and Damian got to their knees and tried to stand. Nick grabbed both of them by their faces and pulled them off the ground.
"God these guys are pitiful, maybe the Iron titan has gotten soft." Pine cackled. He then turned to his companions, "Bon, Rolo, Melody!" The three of them jumped to attention. "These guys aren't a problem so go find where Ironwood is at."
"Got it."
"Affirmative"
"Yes sir." They replied one after another before running out off to the west gate. Pine turned to Nick.
"Stop toying with them, don't you want to save your energy for Ironwood."
"I've not even broken a sweat." He replied maliciously.
"I'm not even sure how you would do that Nickel." The boy with the broadsword replied.
"Technicalities a side-."
-CRACK-
There was a brilliant light, Nickel was knocked backwards and dropped Damian and Nathan.
"Why do I always have to clean up after you boys." Gagana said in a light hearted tone. She continued to punched and kick sending out blue sparks as she did. Nickel kept getting knocked back, further and further.
"Enough!" He shouted. Two giant war glaives erupted from slots in his arms. He clasped his hands together and brought his blades crashing down on Gagana. Gagana blocked replied them with a wall of aura and kicked him in the stomach while he was off balanced. He crashed to the ground but quickly recovered.
"Anyone call for reinforcements." Scarlet called as she and the other twenty students charged forward. They quickly surrounded the four of them.
"Wow I am surprised that ALL of you made it out alive, oh well. Cerulean do your thing!"
"My pleasure." The blue haired boy replied. He rubbed his hand across the length of his blade. Black smoke bellowed from its hilt. He lifted his blade to the sky and the smoke began to manifest into a recognisable form. The students quivered and looked on in shock as the smoke solidified into a monstrous four story tall draconic Grimm. It let out a deafening roar as it extended it's wings which reached from one side of the arena to the other. It's markings started to glow, first at its feet and tail all the way up to its head. From a dull to a brilliant and bloody red. It then opened its mouth and engulfed the crowd stands in black fire. Everyone stood their frozen with fear.
"What the hell are we going to do." Nathan squeaked.
"You're going to die for us and our cause you moron!" Pine replied. The dragon then directed its attention at Nathan.
"Get out ta here!" He said pushing Damian and Gagana aside before being consumed by fire.
"Nathan!" Gagana shrieked. The fire dissipated leaving Nathan in his stony grey form, relatively untouched. Gagana gave a sigh of relief.
"Let us deal with this!" Maya shouted. "Heartless creature the knows no love or humanity. I Maya Brass and my team BLYD shall vanquish you for your tyranny!" she and her team released their semblances. Maya - now glowing golden - unsheathed her great-sword and charged at the Grimm. It reared its head round and took a deep breath.
"Stop!" Qiu Lin commanded. The beast froze in its tracks. Demir and Yuki drew their weapons and charged after their leader who was now scaling the beast.
"Cerulean!" Pine shouted, "why isn't it killing everyone!"
"I… I don't know." He stuttered.
"We're out numbered five to one could you guys get your butt's in gear." Pine said as he drew is sword. His hands glowed blue and he projected a beam of energy on his allies. They all sprouted wings made of blue light. Ulrik charged forward, Cheshire and Ross hot on his heels
"We'll take the blue haired bastard!"
"We got green and shaggy." Brett said as he mounted his jet board.
"Dibs on the robot!" Mary shouted. Damian turned to Lyssa and Newt.
"Where's Bianca?" he asked.
"She's taking care of Crimson, Amber and that reporter girl… what should we do?" Lyssa replied sounding unsure. Damian wasn't sure what to tell them, he wasn't their leader.
"Mmm… go help Ulrik I guess, he's a man down."
"Gotcha! We'll get on that!" Lyssa said, pulling Newt by her side.
"Guess that leaves us with the main guy, Pine." Damian said to his team. Pine was flying high in the sky and kept swooping down helping his allies. Damian and Ryu tried to shoot him down to no avail until Nathan said.
"I've got an idea! Gagana do you think you can switch teleport me with him?" she paused for a second and nodded. She pressed her palms together and began to concentrate very hard. Nathan could feel his body lightening.
"SWITCH!" she shouted. Nathan disappeared and in his place was Pine, who immediately crash landed face first into the hard arena floor. Before he could recover Damian grappled him and forced him into a head lock.
"Don't think you'll get away that easily." Pine shook and thrashed around trying to escape. Ryu gave him a solid punch to the gut to wind him for a bit. Damian panted from the effort of trying to keep pine under wraps.
"How are the others doing? Is Nathan okay?" Ryu and Gagana started to look around.
"Everyone seems fine, ... maybe not BLYD actually, yea they could probably use some help." Ryu replied.
"Okay you find Nathan then the two of you go help out, I'll stay here with Gagana."
"Sure thing." Ryu said before he jogged off into the carnage.
-Brrr Brrr … Brrr Brrr-
Damian could feel his scroll vibrating.
"Ugh Gagana could you – Ouch – get that for me – Fuck it – I'm a little busy trying to choke the life out of this guy." Gagana kicked pines legs out from underneath him and pinned him to the floor and started jabbing him in the side with her dust infused strikes.
"That works too." Damian said catching his breath, he took out his scroll and saw that Bianca had sent him a voice mail.
"Can anyone here me, I'm sending this to all the other leaders. I'm pinned down with three useless bodies and I can't carry them away myself, especially with all this gun fire!" that is about as sincere a cry for help as you could have expected from her, Damian thought. A moment later Brett sped over with his team, Rylee had managed to tie up their opponent and she was now dragging him across the arena.
"Need a lift?" Brett said extending an arm out to Damian.
"Ramona, Oscar I need you to help Rylee and Gagana on watch, we should be back in a few." As they set off Damian noticed that Ulrik's team was having little luck with their fight while STRM had manage to partially freeze their target.
"How'd it go?" Damian asked.
"Oh you know, ain't nobody faster than us." Brett said. "There they are!" he pointed ahead. Damian started to fire on the crowd of soldiers and Brett pressed a switch with his foot and shoot out a stream of smart missiles. One of the soldiers unladed a clip on Brett and hit him in the leg, he lost his balance and fell of his board and Damian was catapulted across the group of soldiers. They were both quickly surrounded.
"Time for the queen of the arena to test her metal!" a voice called from above. Everyone looked up to see Lafayette spinning gracefully through the air. She fired a volley of shots, each one hitting a soldier. When she landed on the ground all the soldiers fell to the floor. She blew the smoke off her gun barrels.
"I still got it!" She shouted excitedly. A sigh of relief came from the pile of rubble. Bianca popped up from under a folding chair.
"Thank you." She mumbled as she crawled out, Amber, Crimson and Blush followed suit.
"Okay guys show me where the problem is at." Lafayette commanded to Domain and Brett.
"Shouldn't we find a safe place for the girls first?" Damian asked.
"Not many places in Atlas are safer than by my side." She said boldly. Damian thought about it for a moment. Lafayette coughed to gain his attention.
"Oh right bad guys this way." He said as he walked towards the main arena. Once they arrived in the arena Lafayette's jaw dropped and they ran into combat. Gagana, Rylee and Oscar where still on guard duty but now Timothy had joined them with a giant block of ice. Damian stopped in his tracks when he heard a voice.
"Guys watch out Qui Lin is struggling to control the Grimm she's saying it only has another few minutes max." he looked around.
"Who said that?"
"Oh Sorry it's Demir, I'm communicating with everyone telepathically, I can act kind of like a relay." Damian ran off towards Ulrik to help him with the final member of Pine's crew. It turns out Cerulean was a slimy bastard indeed, every time they got close to him he would disappear in a puff of blue smoke and reappear elsewhere ad in the fact that he still had the gift of flight from Pine he was untouchable. Ulrik was furious and red with rage.
"Hi Ulirk need a -."
"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD IM WORKING ON IT!" Ulrik snapped.
"Sorry." Damian replied quickly. Ulrik leapt into the air trying to grab Cerulean. He missed but then Ross jumped on his back and phased right through another cloud of blue smoke.
"Is he really there?" Damian asked.
"I've been beginning to think not." Newt answered as he popped another copy with a well-placed bullet.
"Demir can you hear me?" Damian thought to himself.
"Loud and clear, what's your request for this cognitive radio station?" Demir replied.
"Can you get Ryu or Yuki over there I need some eyes on where Cerulean really is."
"On it." Damian waited patiently for a few seconds then Demir responded.
"Yea Ryu is on his way."
"Thank you." Damian said aloud.
"Say what?" Newt said, he apparently had been taken by surprise by Damian's Silent glare, he had made while thinking to Demir. Ryu showed up within moments.
"Think your eagle eyes can scout out Cerulean?" Damian asked.
"How many times have I told you it's not x-ray vision."
"Well aren't you useless." Ryu sighed.
"I'll try." His eyes opened wide and started cycling thorough a myriad of colours until they eventually stopped on a blue. His eyes then started darting about independently like a chameleon. Ryu then pointed to a point over his left shoulder without turning.
"He's On the roof with three others."
"Oh we forgot about them." Damian said turning to the point Ryu was pointing to. As he did a collection of canisters rained form the sky loft and covered the stadium in a thick smoke. Several people screamed and shouted but all where shortly muffled by the grimm roaring.
"Stay the hell away from my students!" Ironwood shouted from a drop ship. He jumped out in full combat gear along with a full platoon of Atlesian knights and landed on the Grimm's head. He drew two hand cannons and began laying into the already weakened creature. It flicked its head and flung him into the air. Marian swung out of the dropship on a rope and caught him mid fall. Gwynn and Ruaridh jumped out after them. Ruaridh slammed his shield on the ground realising a pulse of energy dissipating the smoke. The Grimm started to glow again as it charged up another blast of fire. Gwynn slammed down his staff and storm of lightning and ice whipped up around the Grimm, consuming it. When the storm faded the grimm disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.
"Where are those traitorous bastards! I want them court martialled and dishonourably discharged! Preferably out of a cannon." Ironwood snapped. Damian looked to where they had been holding their defeated enemies, they had all escaped. A bright green energy appeared from the roof of the stadium. It was Nickel, he had his armed out stretched and was charging some ball of energy.
"Get behind me!" Ruaridh shouted as he raised his Shield. Everyone scurried behind him as a defensive bubble formed into life. Nickel fired a powerful laser at them which cut through the rock and metal of the arena like it was butter. Once the light faded Damian looked up, they were gone. Ironwood walked a couple paces away from the group and supported his head with his hand. He sighed loudly then turned to his staff and students.
"You all did a tremendous job and keeping the peace. I thank you all." He said solemnly. Nathan raised his hand.
"Are you behind sarcastic? This place is nearly destroyed."
"Nathan builds can be rebuilt, lives… Lives of those we lose cannot. So on those grounds you did spectacularly, your team specifically by stalling the attempts of this group. Now I imagine your all exhausted, let's get you back the Academy." The dropship descended to the ground and everyone entered through the ramp on the back. Once sat down Damian was finally able to start processing what had just happened, he also felt like collapsing asleep.
"Damian wake up where at the Academy." Gagana called out to him, as if from a distance land.
"Oh sure." He dragged himself to his feet, everything hurt. All the students had to pass by the nurse's office – Ironwood's orders – Damian had no real injuries and was almost immediately emitted and told to get some rest.