Escaping a mundane reality working on a dust shop was exactly what Shay wanted to do when he joined the Branwen tribe. Yet he hated the fact that he was enjoying himself despite knowing there was always a gun pointing at his head.
As he swept the floor of the dust shop he was employed at, he got distracted when his manager, a blue-haired gazelle faunus with horns and glasses, came out of the main office. "Ready for the rush hour, Urrin?" she asked before putting on an apron.
"Are you really expecting customers? I think we are more likely to get a visit from the revenue service. Again!".
"Well, if we do, then we attend them with a big ol' smile!" she said, emanating a purely positive attitude.
Unfortunately, their conversation was cut short when the store's phone rang, and the manager wasted no time picking it up. "Blau's Dust Shop, how may I-" she began to say but stopped midsentence and went stiff.
Shay noticed it but did not say anything until a couple of seconds passed. "Everything alright, boss?" he asked, concerned about her.
"You may leave for the day, Mr. Possom" the woman said in a monotone voice. A type of voice he recognized all too well.
"I-I-I sure! Just… I… I will help you with inventory and-" he said while removing his apron, only to then jump back in fear when the woman slammed her open palm on the counter.
"I said: You may leave for the day, Mr. Possom" she repeated. After a moment of silence, she added more. "Do not be bothered; I will take care of everything. Leave your apron on the counter".
Shay gulped and slowly walked towards her, handing over his apron. He then exited the store, and once he was far away from her sight, he ran as fast as he could. More worrying, however, was how every store associated with Seido Industries, one way or another, seemed to be closing for the day. "I have a bad feeling about this" was the last thing he said before heading towards his home. For what it was worth, hiding under his bed or in the building's laundry room basement was his best option.
"I gave you the clearances Camila! I don't care what you have to do, you make sure those zaphyres are dropped in the ocean!" a video recording of general Ironwood being filmed from behind, like a security camera, screamed on his scroll.
The video was being watched by Hotaru, Kollector, Sektor, and Ryu in the Dragon Room. "We have already established the voice is a perfect copy. What about the room?" Hotaru asked while touching his fingertips and never looking away from the screen.
"A 3D rendered replica created by well over a thousand pictures from different angles. It has ninety-eight-point seven percent accuracy" Sektor reassured him.
"That still doesn't feel like an angry General Ironwood, if I do say so myself" Kollector then added.
"I already made five other videos of him! The last thing I need is for a leach like you to criticize my acting!" they heard the voice of General Ironwood say from behind Hotaru's desk. That was, of course, General Ironwood's voice coming from his head; but the body was that of Frost.
"You may have his calm and calculative tone done correctly; but that is not how he talks when he is angry, child!" Kollector said.
"We can stop for today. We'll have more time after we are done" Hotaru told everyone.
At that, Frost then removed the head and placed it with a collection of others, including Ozpin, Pyrrha, and a group of councilmen from all kingdoms, hidden under one of Hotaru's bookshelves. The headless body then went to retrieve the still working head of Frost, resting on the other shelf. "Yeah, yeah, I'd like to see you doing this!" Frost told Kollector.
After that, an alarm went off on Hotaru's computer. He went on to open it and it showed what he was waiting for. "The syndicates and stores are all set and ready. Now it's our turn. Is the new Triborg ready, Grandmaster?".
"Fully rebuilt and operational! He arrived in Mistral this morning" the cyborg answered.
"Good," Hotaru said. Ryu then stood up and energy began to emanate from his hands before three portals appeared. "You all know your targets and objectives. We'll be waiting for your signal" he instructed before Kollector, Frost, and Sektor left the room through a portal each. After they were gone, Hotaru then called reception. "Good morning, Lucia. I have confirmation from the janitors that many rooms are filled with a dangerous kind of mold… don't worry, it's only deadly when exposed to it for many days, but security dictates we leave the premises until it has been cleaned… yes, tell all guests they will be reimbursed and we will pay for a third of whatever they are charged in other hotels… yes, offices have to be evacuated as well… home office. I will be the last to leave… thank you". When he hung up, Hotaru and Ryu looked at each other. "No turning back now".
Everything seemed like normal sunset on Vale and Atlas, a calm night in Mistral and a relatively peaceful early morning in Vacuo. That all changed in a matter of seconds.
Almost at the same time, powerful blasts were detonated on the defenses of Vale, Mistral, Vacuo, and Mantle.
As per protocol, the army, police, and whatever security body outside of the huntsmen were dispatched to attend the emergency. Unfortunately, they were not expecting to be attacked by normal people covering their faces; and when citizens saw the confrontation between whomever those people were with the authorities, it only managed to make them afraid; and with fear, then came the Grimm.
Due to the damages being small, it meant not many Grimm could enter at once. Nonetheless, every headmaster was now facing a dire choice.
Wasting no time, Ozpin called for a conference meeting with all headmasters knowing the councils would follow soon enough. "Gentlemen, Vale is under attack. How are your situations?".
"Minor breaches on the wall. Unknown armed fighters are keeping authorities at bay" Ironwood answered.
"Deployed huntsmen have been called; similar riots are occurring on some villages!" added Lionheart.
"Glynda!?" Ozpin called for his second in command to check if the same was happening. To his despair, she nodded.
"Very well. Follow the protocol and dispatch the third-year students. Keep an eye out for anything Seido related and do not disconnect from this call!".
Every headmaster did as order and called for the students. The first and half of the second years would remain on stand-by inside the schools while third years and the top third-years would help the army and police with Grimm and crowd control. As a second and secret measure, however, the teams in all kingdoms but Vacuo and the gods were called to the quarters of the corresponding headmasters.
Unknown to them, however, were the vigilant eyes of Seido throughout the cities, waiting for the moment the vehicles landed, and it was all being watched by Hotaru and Ryu.
"Shade units have landed!" they heard Kollector say.
"Atlas units in position!" Sektor said soon after.
"Haven ships have arrived!" The deeper voice of Triborg said a few moments later.
"The last ship from Beacon has landed!" Finally said, Frost.
"Begin deployment and signal blockade!" Then ordered Hotaru.
"Qrow, keep me up to date about everything!" Ozpin ordered his agent.
"On it, OZ! Once we can cont- a- we- juuuuuu-" the Image of Qrow began to say as the signal seemed to be breaking.
"Qrow? Qrow!?" Ozpin began to say, worried about what was happening. He then looked at the screens of the other headmasters and panicked when Theodore's and Ironwood's were disconnected while Lionheart's was glitching too. In a matter of seconds, the calls finally fell.
"Oz-! O… -pin! You… there!?" Qrow managed to ask before his call fell too.
"Glynda!" Ozpin roared, consumed by panic.
The woman, however, just confirmed his fears. "We can't reach Vale!".
Soon after, Raiden and Fujin arrived with the ninjas. "We heard of the situation. Do we have confirmation that it is Orderrealm?" the thunder god asked.
"I was not sure at first, but I am now. Something is interfering with the signal from the CCT system!".
"If it is Seido, then Sektor is behind it!" Sub Zero said, matter-of-factly.
"Whoever it is, they just ended all kinds of communications, not just between kingdoms, but within the city and school as well; and I fear that all communications, in the entire world, are dead".
Thinking for a moment, an idea then occurred to Fujin. He pulled out his dragon amulet and seconds later the image of Kitana appeared. "Prin- Kitana! Are you alright?" the wind god asked.
"Lord Fujin! Headmaster Lionheart lost contact with the others. What is happening!?" the princess managed to ask.
"The same. But we can still communicate through our amulets" Fujin told the woman. Soon after, they also established a connection with Atlas; but the matter remained that Vacuo was still isolated. "I'll head there right now!" Fujin said, taking Smoke's medallion before heading towards one of the many windows.
Fujin was confident and determined, but as soon as he opened the window, he was speechless. "By the Elder Gods… no!".
As he said that, all in the room went on to look at what he was seeing, only to then feel the same fear when they saw a carrier ship, followed by smaller ones, emerging from the Emerald Forrest.
For the first time in his military career, General Ironwood regrated the 'following of the last orders given' protocol. Not only were most of the Altesian military down at Mantle trying to contain the sudden riots, but he also now had no way to tell his troops to return. Worse of all, however, was the fleet of ships arriving from the opposite side of Mantle. Sonya and her team were in the room with their amulets at hand with Winter standing next to the General. "Winter! Get that tower working now!" he yelled at his confidant "We need our fleet back on Atlas now!".
Before she could leave the office, however, the doors opened, and in came a cadet. "General Ironwood, sir! We are under attack by-".
"Do you think I'm blind cadet!" he snapped at the younger man.
"Sir, you don't understand! An unknown enemy force is already in Atlas!".
That managed to get Ironwood's interest. The cadet then took out his scroll and showed him a video. Some ships seemed to have noticed the incoming alien fleet and seemed to be heading back, but before they could enter the city, they were immediately shot down by mounted guns over random buildings.
"Cadet, do we have a list of the location of those turrets!?" Sonya asked abruptly.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but that is confident-" the cadet began to say before the General slammed his metal hand against his desk, effectively breaking it.
"Answer the question!" Ironwood yelled.
Scared, the man then switched to an overlook of the city where some quadrants were marked with red.
"Wait…" Winter said in realization, taking out her own scroll and projecting a map of her own with similar marks.
"Those are buildings owned by Seido Industries!" Sonya said in realization.
Fujin arrived in a dark alley somewhere in Vacuo; but by the sounds of it, he had to be close to the holes and to a hotspot where the riots were happening. He then jumped from wall to wall until he arrived at the roofs to get a better view of the city and the location of Shade.
He immediately began to make his way towards the building but got distracted when he saw some buildings shaking and then metal monstrosities, which looked like a mixture of what humans referred to as a carrier tank and a drill, emerged from the ground and made their way towards Shade.
First came the solid light barriers that blocked access from the city to the mountain's top. Then, it was the mounted guns atop some buildings in all levels that began to take ships down. That gave Seido's ships the perfect opportunity to land and for their troops to begin their ascension towards the academy.
Lionheart had given the order that only the best qualified second-year students were to help the teachers. Unknown to most of them, however, was the LKKJ were on the front line of the defense, away from any of the sight of the other students.
At first, it was surprising how the invading army of Seido was composed entirely of Tekunin drones, but their metal bodies were out in the open for all to see.
Kitana had managed to decapitate a gunner close to her before reuniting with Liu Kang. "What are they thinking sending them without hiding?" Liu asked, shooting fireballs to keep their enemies at bay.
"We know what they are!" Kitana answered while propelling three drones in the air and then pushing them towards an incoming group. "The people of Remnant don't! They might as well be men in armor".
Out of the blue then appeared a red drone wielding two pulse blades. His attacks were blocked by Liu Kang and his nunchucks; but before anyone could do anything else, Kung Lao's hat sliced the robot in half. "Plus, they don't really look like they belong to Seido, do they?" the other monk asked sarcastically.
They decided to ignore Kung Lao's comment and then looked for Jade. After a while, they found her having taken care of a small group of drones before the other three helped to dispose of the last one; Kung Lao cutting both of its hands, Kitana throwing her closed fans which stabbed the robot's eye sensors through the back of its head, and Liu Kang delivering a fire punch through its back which then made the torso explode.
Jade wasted no time with greetings or jokes. They were done with one sector, but there was more to cover. She pulled out her amulet to communicate with Lionheart, but to their dismay, the man did not pick up the call. "Professor? Professor!? Professor, where are you!?" Jade asked many times without answer.
Liu Kang thought of their situation for a moment. "I don't like this; we must return to Haven now!" he ordered.
"We can't leave the battlefield!" Kung Lao countered.
"If they somehow managed to get Professor Lionheart, the Haven will be under Onaga's control in no time" Kitana reasoned.
At that point, Jade decided to establish a compromise. "Kung Lao and I will remain behind to help; the closest sector is southwest; you two head back to the academy and find the headmaster".
Everyone nodded in agreement and both Liu Kang and Kitana began to run towards Haven.
When Jade and Kung Lao were left alone, the Shaolin monk faced the Edenian woman. "So, who's in charge?" he asked.
In the distance, however, they were able to hear Liu's echoing voice. "Jade is in charge!".
Kung Lao and Jade then looked at each other again. "After you," he said politely. She smiled and they both then ran to their next target.
Before arriving at the academy, however, both Kitana and Liu Kang made sure to warn the other headmasters about Lionheart being missing.
Back at Haven every student left was either preparing barricades or already standing post.
Once Kitana and Liu Kang managed to enter, they asked around if anyone had seen Professor Lionheart, careful to not reveal that he was missing, as to prevent panic among the students and remaining staff.
Things only got worse when the south watch sounded the alarm, informing all that the enemy was getting close to their front. "What are you two doing!? Go and get ready!" they heard a male soft voice say from behind. Kitana and Liu Kang turned around and saw a pale redhead and a giant tanned student with green hair. Both Liu and Kitana had interacted with a fair share of students while in Haven, and despite these two always being outside of their reach; if anything, they at least learned their names.
Kitana, nonetheless, had no time for careful explanations. "We must find Professor Lionheart; do you know where he is!?".
The other two just looked at each other with confusion before Scarlet answered. "How should I know!? I saw him hours go! I don't know if he is in his office, at another wall, the armory or whatever, we are needed-!". His sentence got interrupted by an explosion coming from the south. "Shit! They got here already!?". Thankfully, the sound came from a lightning bolt that fell on the main courtyard. "Oh, great, it's just nature fighting against us now!".
The disbelief in both Sage and Scarlet's faces only grew when they saw the smiles on Liu Kang and Kitana. "Wrong," the boy said before he and Kitana ran towards where the lighting landed.
"Hey! Hey! We have a job to do, hey!" Scarlet yelled at them. Once he and Sage were convinced the others wouldn't return, the bigger teen decided to follow. "Why do I even bother?" Scarlet sighed in defeat before following as well.
It didn't take them long to arrive at their destination; and while both Sage and Scarlet were not expecting a man in a straw-hat emanating lighting, it was more unbelievable who the two people with him were.
"What the… Sun!? Neptune!?" Scarlet basically screamed. His two teammates then noticed the four arrivals and happily went to meet their teammates closely followed by Raiden.
Scarlet made it no secret that he had a problem with Sun's carefree attitude, but even now that was reaching absurd levels. "Oh, man! You don't know how glad I am to see you two!" Sun said cheerfully.
"But you… and him… Vale!" Scarlet insisted, being only distracted by the way the other two students acted towards the straw-hat man.
"Lord Raiden, thank you for assisting us!" Liu Kang said while he and Kitana knelt.
The princess then looked towards the four teens. "May we have this conversation elsewhere?" she asked.
"Come on! They are doing their part keeping Seido at bay!" Sun said loud enough for all to hear.
Kitana's shock about the monkey faunus revealing delicate information quickly turned into rage. Fortunately for Sun, Neptune intervened. "They can help us find where Professor Lionheart is!".
Scarlet and Sage, in the meanwhile, were still processing what they just heard. "Seido is-? The professor is-? Who are the-?".
Scarlet was not done talking before Sun began to head towards the headmaster's building; he, however, stopped everyone on their tracks. "NO!" he screamed. "You are not doing this Sun! I will not go anywhere until someone tells me what is going on!".
Before anyone could say anything, Sun stepped close to his teammate. "Ok… but have in mind that everything I am about to say is nothing but the truth, ok?" the monkey faunus said and Scarlet nodded, admittedly confused by the other's choice of words. Sun took one deep breath before continuing. "Seido Industries is actually a coverup that an alien army from another dimension uses to infiltrate Remnant. Hotaru is the head of their military and has joined forces with robot ninjas that want to turn us into slaves to reproduce or robot warriors. That guy over there is called Raiden and he is a god, while those two over there are not from Remnant, they are from another… subsection of the same universe from which Seido come from, but it's ok, they want to help us defeat Seido, they just didn't want to cause a commotion, but now their identities were revealed and Seido knows they are now our allies and because they want to take over the world, the academies stand on their way and now they are attacking all academies intending to bring them down and establish control over the entire world! Ok?".
Scarlet and Sage were baffled; but a quick glance at Raiden and the other two supposed students made them believe the tale, farfetched as it may be. "Ok then… what… were we… gonna do then?".
At that, Raiden stepped forward. "Professor Lionheart went missing. Although communications are down for you, Liu Kang and the others gave him one of these" the thunder god said while taking out his dragon amulet. "It works with magic, so whatever Seido is using doesn't affect it". Scarlet and Sage looked at Sun when Raiden said 'magic'. Their leader just looked at them with stern eyes, indicating them to pay attention. "But we have lost contact with him. Our greatest fear is that Seido has already arrived and have taken him".
The shock of the moment passed as shots were heard in the distance. At that, Scarlet returned to reality. "Ok. I didn't tell you guys before, but when Sage and I were preparing the barricades, we saw Professor Lionheart heading out of his office, we thought he was heading towards one of the barricades, so we didn't pay much attention to it".
"Where did he go!?" Kitana insisted.
"He was heading somewhere close to the CCT tower, I think" Scarlet answered.
Raiden looked in that direction and concentrated to detect something that felt like Lionheart's aura. It took him a moment before seeing the cold and emotionless auras of the troops from Seido and the ones from the fighting students and teachers; unfortunately, they were all experiencing fear at that moment, which was Leonardo's distinctive quality. Raiden would have then given up had it not been for a presence he felt from inside the CCT tower. At first, he thought it might have been a maintenance crew that got stuck in the altercation, but when he noticed it was just one soul, he thought otherwise. "There is someone alive inside the tower!".
"What!? No one should be there! Especially at this hour!" Neptune pointed out to the others.
"Could he be causing the interference?" Liu Kang wondered.
"Only one way to find out!" Sun said before sprinting towards the building. Lionheart's whereabouts had to wait if someone was messing with the CCT; and if that person was the cause for Haven going down, then logic dictated there could be three more on the other academies.
"Come on, come on! Work you piece of junk!" Professor Lionheart screamed with a mixture of panic and rage. 'I have to reach Lady Salem!' he thought to himself. 'If I can make her stop the Grimm attacks, we may have a chance to fight back against Seido!'.
Lionheart's forte was not computers or communications, but Watts had been 'kind' enough to give him a little help in case things went bad for Salem's group. Besides a quick deep course on how the towers worked, the scientist had installed a special function on his scroll, able to temporarily scramble the signal from the tower or, in this case, unscramble whatever Seido was doing. Watts must have been expecting him to do that as well, so a quick call was in the best interest of them.
The scroll had been working for a while now, but Lionheart's heart almost stopped working when he heard the doors slam open. Worse of all was the commanding voice of Raiden that came soon after. "We know there is someone in here! Come out and surrender right now!".
Lionheart began to walk backward to get Stalwart. Unfortunately for him, he crashed into a wobbly desk and made some equipment fall on the ground. He had managed to grab and put on his weapon milliseconds before Kitana materialized out of thin air with fans in hand and ready to fight. "Professor!? I found him!" she yelled to the others who got to where she was in a matter of seconds. Sadly, for Lionheart, he was immediately bombarded with questions.
"Professor, why did you abandon your office and amulet?" Liu Kang asked.
A chill went down the headmaster's spine. "I… you see… I… forgot it…" he explained not entirely confidently.
"What are you even doing here?" Neptune then asked, interrupting the headmaster's explanation. "Communications are down anyway".
"I… I…" he stuttered trying to explain himself. A smirk of luck finally fell upon him when his scroll ringed and showed a green checkmark. Immediately, all students and people in the kingdom began to receive messages for a short time before the device showed Sektor's Tekunin symbol and overheated the device, destroying it in the process.
"Did… professor Lionheart just fix the CCT tower?" Scarlet asked while going through some random messages from people asking if he was ok.
"He did…" Raiden said with a hint of skepticism in his voice. "Was a way to reestablish communications within your knowledge yet unknown to the others?".
"Well… I… I was not sure… it was… a… a… prototype?" Lionheart said defending himself.
"And you didn't tell the other headmasters?" Raiden asked while crossing his arms. Worse of all was how Kitana and Liu Kang seemed to be getting on Raiden's mindset.
Lionheart was now sweating and almost trembling in place. 'Think, Leonardo! Think, think, think!' he told himself while arming his weapon without the others noticing.
"WHAT!?" Sun screamed, distracting everybody from whatever was happening.
"What is it?" Neptune managed to ask before the monkey faunus sprinted and grabbed Raiden by his tunic.
"AMULET! GIVE ME YOUR AMULET NOW!" he yelled at the god.
"For the love of… what is it, Sun!?" Scarlet asked with annoyance.
"I just got intel on what Seido is doing! This is not an invasion; they are just distracting us!".
Silence fell upon the room. The shock on everyone's face was asking the same question: What was he talking about?
Sun then played the video file from Maurice that finally made it through.
'Sun… if you are watching this… know that I am sorry for what I did, but you, and whomever your allies might be, won't be able to defeat Seido, or should I say Onaga's forces without this…'.
Fortunately for Beacon, the invasion came mostly from the Emerald Forest with some troops managing to attack from the sides.
Teachers and students were out on the field, fighting against what was mostly perceived as robots of unknown origin. All except for a few who knew those 'robots' were living beings stripped of their consciousness. While the ninjas and teachers disposed of the invaders, teams RWBY and JNR just were unable to do anything but cripple or try to make the invaders unconscious; something other students were less than happy about.
Under instructions from their allies, Ozpin had forbidden physical combat, fearing the machines would use their saws, blades, or the like; instead, he had ordered for only guns to be used. It had been almost an hour since this all started, and there were small victories that managed to hold the invaders but never truly stop them.
As the battle went on, some of the robots were able to hit some of the students with their electric riffles, managing to break their aura with a couple of well-placed shots before falling to the ground, paralyzed but still breathing and then being carried away by the invaders to ships still roaming the controlled space.
A female student from the second year who was hiding on a treetop had just been shot by one of the robots. Some were already on their way to retrieve her, only for one to be shot point-blank by Ruby and who arrived in the nick of time before knocking the other one against a tree with the blunt side of Crescent Rose's blade.
That made other robots notice her, making them store their guns and run towards her with bladed weapons deployed. Ruby just picked up the girl as best as she could before using her semblance to take them both away. Once Ruby made it back to the main building, she reached Jaune who received the student and began to carry her to the improvised infirmary.
"Anything to report?" he asked.
"I think we might have lost a sector in the south. She was the only one, so they could have captured her team" she answered, panting.
"Crap…" was all Jaune could say before leaving. "Report to Oobleck and Sub Zero!" he then told Ruby. The girl saluted before using her semblance again.
While some students were out in the field, others who could travel fast worked both as messengers, given their current lack of proper communication, and rescue units. Jaune, on his end, felt more useful helping to coordinate informants between the fronts. Sadly, he could not have a clear picture of how many students Beacon had lost.
On another part of the field, Ermac was rampant with his attacks, fighting small groups of enemies with Ren and Yang covering him so that he could use his powers more efficiently.
Nevertheless, something bothered Ren. "It doesn't make sense!" he screamed from behind a rock as Yang arrived to catch a breath and take cover while he stunned two robots approaching Ermac from behind.
"What!?" Yang asked back.
"I saw them! they are faster and are better at short-range fighting. Why are they fighting us using stun guns!?".
As luck would have it, one of the robots saw Ren and Yang before taking away a student. It stored its gun back and switched its arms into buzz saws before sprinting towards them at full speed. It jumped in the air and spun around to the land between the two students. Had Yang and Ren not jumped back in time, the blades would have probably cut their heads off.
The machine then decided to focus on Ren, making the boy block the saws with StormFlower's blades. The robot then heard Yang cocking her gauntlets, so he jumped in the air and landed behind her as she shot many rounds following its movements. Once on the ground, the robot went for a vertical slash, but Yang managed to catch the saw with her hands before it touched her nose. The machine, however, seemed to be ready for that and was ready to cut her with the other saw.
It was then that they saw the robot's arm stop in midair as a green aura surrounded it. In a matter of seconds, the arm was then pulled apart and both teens saw as the appendage flew towards another robot Ermac was fighting, getting stuck on its head. Yang then punched the robot with enough force to dent its helmet and the Tekunin drone finally fell unconscious.
As Ermac turned to see if Ren and Yang were ok, they saw another robot with blades heading towards him. Ren managed to react in time, shooting at their foe and giving Ermac enough time to turn around and kick the machine together with a soul push, making the robot crash against a squad of other robots in the distance.
"Like that?" Yang asked jokingly.
"… Like that" Ren answered back before they both waited for the next student pickup.
Qrow had just managed to take down a barricade of rioters, clearing the way for his sister and the members of CFVY to fight an incoming pack of Beowolves. While Coco kept them covered, the other members of her team went on to fight Grimm on their own while Raven took care of the alpha. Raven slashed her way, jumping and cutting through them until finally reaching her target. The creature jumped and tried to pounce her, but the woman went on to slide on the ground, cutting the beast on its belly, but not killing it.
The creature roared, but before Raven could attack once again, she had to jump out the way from a missile that hit the spot she was standing on. She managed to look up at the roofs where a masked man wearing a black vest over a white shirt was standing with a bazooka on his shoulder.
Raven's anger worked against her as now a group made of Boarbatusks and Beowolves surrounded her. One last look towards the roofs at least showed her that the man in question was gone, so she began to block and evade the rolling hog-like monsters while also stabbing and slashing the Beowolves.
While having to block a push from a particularly large Boarbatusk she then saw the same man emerging from an alley; he, however, was more than ready to shoot at her once more. Before he could, however, Qrow landed behind him and use his weapon in scythe mode to stun all men. The bazooka fired nonetheless, but it hit the group of Grimm next to Raven, while also blowing the Boarbatusk away, allowing her to then deliver the finishing blow to her opponent.
Qrow then joined her sister to compare notes. "How are you holding?" he asked.
"Peachy" she answered sarcastically. "For crying out loud, how long will it take them to fix the damn wall!?".
"Communications are still down, but I'm willing to bet people like that bazooka guy are still out there keeping the repair crew from the hole. We still have a long night ahead of us!".
"Can't we just bust into the hotel and finish this?".
"Do you really think they are not considering us attacking the hotel?".
"Come ooooooon! We can take them. Heck! I can take them!".
"You know what Oz said! No-!".
"I know, I know, no maiden powers, but I did not mean it like that, we can-". Before Raven could finish that thought, a new alpha Beowolf landed behind them and roared; but before it could strike down either of the twins, the blade of a katana seemingly made of blue light went through the beast's belly and up towards its head. Before the Grimm's halves separated, it turned into smoke, revealing Velvet holding a solid light version of Raven's sword.
"Umm… with all due respect, sirs… we have a job to do… right?" she asked them awkwardly.
Raven was the first to address the faunus girl. "Go tell your leader to come with me. We are taking care of that wall ASAP. Understood!?". Velvet just nodded. "Good! Meet me on the fountain square, begin to clear every rioter you see if I have not arrived!". With that final instruction, Velvet ran away.
In the meanwhile, Qrow just kept on staring in Beacon's direction. "Are you thinking what I am thinking?" he asked.
"This is all just a folly to keep the capable fighters away from the school. Are you just figuring that out?" she answered back.
Ignoring the insult, Qrow continued. "You are fully in charge until I get back".
"Good luck little brother," she said while patting his shoulder. One last reassuring nod from him was the last thing Raven saw before heading to her rendezvous point. Qrow made sure he was alone before turning into a bird and then began to fly towards Beacon.
If Jaune's timing was correct, Ruby should be arriving within a few minutes; that, in turn, meant she had to run towards Miss Goodwitch to deliver a new strategy if Seido's troops have not been stopped yet. "Yo! Arc! The ER is getting full, where should we put these!?" he then heard Russel yell from behind him.
Surely enough, he and Sky arrived carrying a paralyzed student each, followed by Cardin holding three others and Dove wilding his weapon. "Good news, we are holding the left clearing; the bad news is we lost a lot!" the former bully said before putting the students down. "These were all we could get. Dove managed to keep some bots away, but I don't think our guys will be holding much longer at this pace…".
Soon after, Ruby arrived, falling face-first into the ground. "Ruby!" Jaune yelled and all five boys sprinted towards the girl.
Ruby then stood up using her weapon as a crutch. "I'm fine! Ah!" she screamed before falling to the ground. "Ok, they got my leg, they almost got Professor Peach".
An explosion was then heard by all present, and sure enough, they saw Nora going up in the air, but before she could fall to the ground, Penny flew and managed to grab her. Moments later, Weiss and Kuai Liang emerged from the same direction the girl came from panting. "We are being followed!" Weiss screamed and was immediately followed by a squad of three robots wielding buzz-saws, light swords, and flame throwers correspondingly.
Before they could reach the others, however, a smoke bomb teleported the robot with flame throwers away. Penny had long since placed Nora on the ground and proceeded to ram herself against the one with the saws. Sub Zero went on to attack the last one, but that drone teleported away. Kuai Liang then looked back, expecting the machine to materialize next to him only to then see it appearing next to Ruby and the others, quickly blowing Dove and Sky away with well-placed roundhouse kicks.
Before it could hurt Ruby, however, Jaune blocked its attack with his shield, and while distracted, Cardin went on to deliver an explosive blow on the robot's head. Unfortunately for them, the Tekunin drone blocked the attack and did a leg swipe that took Cardin to the ground while Jaune barely got away. He then looked at Dove and they both agreed to attack at the same time.
They charged and clashed their blades with the machine, but every blow was blocked or evaded by their opponent. That was until a giant sword fell from out of nowhere and went through the robot's back, effectively killing it. The sword was shortly followed by Qrow, who grabbed the sword by the grip and spun, throwing the lifeless body towards Smoke and his opponent, the first having the fraction of a second to turn into a cloud before the body pushed the other robot into the ground; and when the still conscious yet broken robot was just getting up, the cloud materialized and Smoke then managed to penetrate its forehead with two fingers which then seemed to melt the drone from the inside before the now fallen pieces dried up soon after. Smoke then sighed in relief and then turned to give an indagated look to Qrow.
"Hey, I knew you were good enough to getaway. In a way, you should be flattered" Qrow said jokingly.
The silence was then broken when they heard the clashing blades of Penny and her adversary. While the robot girl had more control over the fight, she was still unable to land a proper hit on her opponent who was able to block her swords most of the time. Once they had their weapons locked, it was Hanzo's spear going through the Tekunin's head that finally stopped the fight.
Penny's shock when her face became covered in the mixture of blood and the Tekunin lubricant and coolant was noticeable to Hanzo. He was still surprised at how human the girl was despite being a full machine. Nonetheless, the fear she had towards the ninja was also more than obvious. The irony of them being murdering machines while she retained some degree of innocence was not lost on him.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby said excitedly while limping towards them man. "Did you get the situation under control?" she then asked, hoping for the best.
Her uncle's sigh was a clear indicator of the opposite. "Far from it, kid. I decided to come back once we took care of one of the rioters' heads. One of us had an idea, but we won't know until they come back here. Although from the looks of it, you are going to finish before they do".
Everyone's face now showed only disbelief. "What!?" asked Weiss after a long silence.
"Before getting here I got a look around. The bots attacking from the sides have grown weak and are retreating to support those coming from the forest" he then explained.
After Qrow was done, Hanzo continued, trying to understand the situation. "So, if the attacks on both sides failed, they must be helping the only front they have under control".
"Yeah, but even that will fall in a couple hours" Qrow added.
"We still need to rescue the captured students!" Sub Zero added.
"If they have prisoners, then they must be at the big ship floating next to the forest; I saw them taking some of the kids to it".
"How did you do all that!?" Ruby then asked, confused by her uncle being able to do all that in a relatively short time.
"Maybe when you are older, kid" he assured his niece.
"I'll tell Professor Ozpin! You all stay here and wait for orders!" Jaune told them before beginning to run towards Ozpin's tower; unknown to Cardin and his team that he would be contacting the headmaster via amulet.
That was the plan, at least, until the medallion began to glow so much the light went through Jaune's pocket and it began to burn him. After a quick round of complaints, Jaune then pulled out the medallion; panicking by the fact Cardin and the others now knew of the secret communication device once they saw Sun on the other side.
"Is this thing working!? Can everyone hear me!? Hey Lui, how do I know if everyone can hear me!?" the image of Sun asked someone on his back.
The message was, indeed, being heard by everyone who had one of the dragon medallions. Every headmaster, all the Earthrealm, and Edenian warriors could hear Sun, but he could not hear them. "Ok, ok, I get it! To all who are listening right now, the troops of Seido must be retreating towards one point at this moment and you might be thinking to yourselves 'we will win within a few hours!'. That is a lie!". That sent chills and confusion among everyone. "I got a message from the inside of Seido, I know the source and I believe it is telling the truth; please listen to this message carefully!".
With that, the image of Sun pulled out his scroll and played Maurice's message.
"Sun… if you are watching this… know that I am sorry for what I did, but you, and whomever your allies might be, won't be able to defeat Seido, or should I say Onaga's forces without this…" Maurice said, taking a deep breath and then releasing it.
Immediately after, he began a presentation in which small windows showed important information. "If my calculations are correct, Seido must be fighting you according to plan five-zero-zero-nine-eight-eight-one-three; referred to as 'The New Guard'. This plan's objective is to separate the academies, as buildings, from any kind of huntsmen or student with only the headmasters being left".
"The New Guard is divided into three parts: First is to separate the huntsmen and students from the academies. Once the huntsmen and experienced students are far away, attending an emergency where their assistance is obligatory, communications will be cut via four separate scramblers, one for each kingdom" as he said that, illustrations showed dots getting away from the center of a map which was then surrounded by a red circle, followed by green dots appearing inside the red circle. "Once communications are down, ground troops will be sent to invade the academies; they, however, do not seek to kill students, rather render them unable to fight. Do not worry about them, Seido will not do anything to them for the duration of this plan" as he explained, diagrams of the gun's mechanism were shown.
The gun's designs were then replaced by the map diagram again. "All phases have a time limit, the same for all academies. If the headmaster has not been captured, phase two will begin. The invaders will give the academies a false sense of victory by retreating to just one flank. Confident in victory, the remaining students will be sent to retrieve the prisoners and take down the carriers which will be thought to be the base of operations. This is a facade!" as Maurice explained, the green dots got together on one point between the center and the circle's line.
"Once the premises of the academies are empty enough, phase three will begin" after Maurice said that the map then became a 3D model that then moved to show a 3D representation of the Night Beetle. "During the chaos, energy fluctuations will go unnoticed as well as seismic activities. Seido will use these to open the portal back to Orderrealm to transport the almost completed assault battleships" The hotel's hologram then went up to show a cavernous image where four alien-looking things were glowing. "These weapons cannot be taken down by anything known in Remnant, I repeat: These weapons cannot be taken down by anything known in Remnant. Once the final assembly is completed, ships will be teleported to each academy via portals. Once within firing range, the offices of each headmaster will be destroyed to dispose of the headmasters. Once that is achieved, teachers will be hunted down and killed under the excuse of being close collaborators" the hologram then showed the pictures of the four headmasters with the smaller pictures of the faculty appearing under them.
"In the end, Seido Industries will justify their attack by blaming the faculties of creating a fake emergency to up their approval within the kingdoms. The heads of many syndicates are willing to 'confess' that they created the riots after being paid by the academies to do so. Fake video files are being recorded in which each headmaster and teacher is revealed to be saying incriminatory evidence of the academies' participation in the riots" as Maurice explains, different body models that look like those of the headmasters appear with lines connecting them to a white robotic body.
"With a vacuum of power, Seido Industries can quickly gain influence and take over the academies directly or by proxies, making it easier for the GCI to begin. With no one left to declare for the academies' innocence and Seido gaining all kinds of control, all kingdoms will easily fall under the control of Onaga" a fully displayed map of Remnant that has the cities marked with their normal crests has them replaced with the blue square of Seido.
That ended the presentation, for the moment, as Maurice appeared once again on full screen. "That is their endgame; but I have detected two ways in which the operation can fail: First, the scramblers" as he said that a small render of the device began to rotate on the screen. "They are short-ranged, meaning they are within the proximities of the academies; furthermore, they are not in the vehicles. Each is carried by a member of Onaga's close circle" with that, four pictures appeared on the screen. "You already know about Kollector, he is leading the Vacuo invasion. Sektor, the head behind Seido Industries' technology, and the grandmaster of the Tekunin clan of assassins is in Atlas. Mistral is under attack by Triborg, four automaton bodies connected by a hive mind. Finally, attacking Beacon is Frost, Sektor's apprentice; she can use ice-based attacks and her body is full of the latest Tekunin weaponry and augmentations".
"The second way is stopping the ships from reaching Remnant. Right now, the hotel must be empty except for some Tekunin guards; but if you reach one of the main terminals either in the Dragon Room or the first floor of the actual Seidan base under the hotel, then you can input a termination code I have sent you, overheating the electrical wiring of the batteries needed for the portal to work" as Maurice explained that, a map of the hotel highlighted the location of the terminals.
"This is as far as my knowledge of 'The New Guard' goes. Time is of the essence right now. Take care, and once again, I am sorry for what I did! And Sun, I… I… I… loooooooo-". Maurice seemed unable to finish that sentence as shortly after people were knocking violently on his door. Without anything else to add, the mouse faunus finished the video.
With that done, the amulet then went quiet. While almost everyone was horrified of how they almost played their part exactly how Onaga wanted, Kuai Liang felt a turmoil of emotions. Anger, sadness, betrayal, confusion, disgust, he could not begin to even know how to feel after discovering Frost was alive. Two different hands falling on his shoulders finally brought him out of his trance: one from Smoke and the other from Hanzo.
His best friend gave him a comprehensive look, knowing that Sub Zero was experiencing the same horrible feeling of betrayal from someone close for a second time.
Hanzo, on the other hand, looked at him with determination. While Frost's betrayal hurt, they also had a mission before them.
The Beacon students had other things to worry about, as all members of team CRDL were left dumbfounded, trying to process all they just heard. That, however, was interrupted as the medallion then showed a hologram of Ozpin. "All of you! Students, the ninjas, teachers! I want all in my office NOW!".
Ruby looked for a moment at the shocked faces of CRDL before speaking. "Professor, what about-?".
"I GAVE AN ORDER, MISS ROSE!" The image of Ozpin said before being cut. Deciding not to anger the teacher any further, everyone present complied and went on to search for Miss Goodwitch and the other teachers.