The solution to the situation on the wall was easy on paper. Raven and her squad of huntsmen students would clear the fountain square from rioters and Grimm, police and army would then be able to barricade the hole on the wall and allow the repair units to at least block the thing.
Sadly, the rioters were not dumb enough to be all concentrated in one spot, the fountain square in this case. They instead were fairly divided on different spots, holding back police on one side, army on the other, and not allowing the defenseless repair units to move forwards.
Raven was just done decapitating a beowolf as the giant member of team CFVY, Yatsuhashi, arrived swinging his greatsword left and right to kill two boarbatusks that were rolling his way. "The next thing leaving your mouth better be good news or else!" Raven sarcastically threatened, massaging her forehead with her empty hand. The silence from the teen was all she needed to know things were bad. She then sighed, but asked anyway, "Report?".
"They are holding random buildings hostage" he began to explain. "They are also managing to move around fast. Army and police were forced to back away long before messengers can arrive, the reparation team has not been able to leave".
Soon after, a griffon landed right next to them, the shockwave it made was strong enough to push them back as it screeched. Before either Raven or Yatsuhashi had time to react, however, the Grimm was the target of a bullet storm, being disposed of shortly after when Fox landed under it, sliced its belly, and shot a front and a back leg, making the Grimm fall on one side and allowing Coco's bullets to kill it once they hit its exposed belly.
Looking around, Raven saw three other teams besides CFVY with the number of Grimm being kept under control. "Alistair, Scarlatina, Daichi, you are with me! We are clearing the roads, period! Adel, you are now in charge here; nothing gets in, understood!?" she commanded, and everyone nodded. "Good! Move!". She finally instructed, running with the three members of CFVY while Coco went back.
It took some minutes, but they had finally arrived at where the police were in a crossfire with the masked anarchists. Immediately, however, they were forced to hide as a bazooka fired towards them.
Looking back at where they stood, Raven noticed the smoke line and figured that the shot had not come from a roof, but from an ice-cream shop across the street. "Listen here, you: I will take care of the gunner in there; three minutes after I give a signal, you three will enter that building and knock out whoever is wearing a mask and secure whatever ammo they have, no questions asked. Got it?" she instructed them. All three nodded.
Wasting no time, Raven jumped towards the outside railings of the closest building, moving from balcony to balcony until she reached the wall across the corner from her target and then jumped at the other side of the street when she was sure the shooter on the shop was not looking at her direction. She then waited while crouching on one of the shooter's blind spots, unshaded her katana soon after, and signaled for the others to move in.
Just as expected, she then saw the gunner, a small woman in a white dress with a white jacket and boots over black pants and corset. The woman was then ready to shoot, but Raven used that moment to smash through the window, roll once to land on her feet, and jump forward, sword first, into the woman.
Raven's new opponent, in turn, however, managed to jump away, crashing against a table yet not losing her balance. Raven did not stop her attacks as she was already running towards the masked woman. She, however, was not easily scared, preparing her rocket launcher, firing almost point blank and giving Raven just enough of an opportunity to slide on the ground as the missile went above her and exploded against the wall behind her. That startled Raven, but it was nothing compared to the rocket launcher that the woman used as a bat against her head, sending Raven rolling on the ground and slamming against the shop's counter.
That attack left Raven groggy for a moment, but to her advantage, the rocket launcher needed to be loaded, and indeed, the woman was running to grab another projectile. Knowing that it was only them in the store, Raven decided that if she could break the rules no one would know. Before the woman could grab another rocket, Raven threw a fireball with her maiden powers, making the crate explode and sending the smaller woman crashing against the wall and falling on top of a table.
The woman was now clearly annoyed, but that had to wait as she saw Raven jump and get ready to cut her in half with a vertical slash. She got out of the blade's path by jumping forward as Raven's blade managed to cut into the table she was laying on; and as the former bandit unstock her katana from the table, she then went on to cut the other's head as the woman was just standing and looking in disbelief.
Unfortunately for Raven, the image of the woman broke into what looked like glass. Looking around, she then found the woman retrieving what looked like an umbrella from under another table. That seemed hilarious at first until she saw a blade popping from its tip.
Decided to end this fight, Raven activated her maiden powers once again and launched a barrage of ice shards towards her opponent. Unfortunately for her, the woman's weapon of choice opened and made it clear that it was also a strong shield; more than capable of stopping all her ice projectiles. With this new information, Raven then covered her blade with fire before running to attack the woman. The shield managed to block Raven's blade, but it was still carrying enough force to push it back, allowing Raven to roundhouse kick the woman into another table.
Having enough with being kicked around, the woman then deflected the next horizontal slash coming from Raven, placing her left hand on the table, and doing a cartwheel kick on Raven's chin before delivering a horizontal slash of her own and kicking the older woman away.
Raven's aura had absorbed the damage, but it was now clear that the other woman was not just a pushover. She spun around and got on her feet, getting ready to face the other woman as they both had their blades drawn.
They ran towards each other, clashing their weapons once before Raven managed to push the woman away. Nonetheless, the woman then swiftly blocked a left slash and then a right slash before jumping to evade a horizontal swipe from Raven, who also got further down to evade the air kick from the woman. The woman then thrust her blade downwards, and that was blocked by Raven, who then managed to push the woman away.
The woman did not wait, however; she instead went to attack once again, jumping at the last moment to the land with a diagonal slash, forcing Raven to block that attack. The woman then continued with another diagonal attack on the other side which Raven evaded by stepping away but immediately followed with a roundhouse kick that landed on the girl's ribs.
Wasting no time Raven activated her maiden powers again to shoot ice shards at the woman, knowing that she would then use her umbrella as a shield; but she also used fire to propel herself behind the woman. She had no time to react as Raven then used her katana to make a fire wave, pushing the woman to the floor and slamming against the counter, while also taking a big chunk of her aura.
The woman was hurt, but she stood up nonetheless, Raven propelled herself once again to deliver a vertical slash, which the woman blocked, but before she could push Raven away, the bandit grabbed the umbrella and froze it along with the woman's arms. She then grabbed the umbrella from under and threw the woman along with a fireball, destroying the umbrella and leaving the woman in pain on the ground.
Raven calmly walked and stepped on the woman's face, breaking her mask, and revealing her pink and brown eyes as she tried to pull the leg away. Raven was then ready to finish the woman until an earthquake made her fall on the ground. She was confused at first but when she saw the lights flickering and then turning off, she panicked; knowing too well what that meant, the ships had arrived.
When the first quake ended, she then saw the woman running towards the counter. Raven quickly threw another fire wave as she got to the counter, only for the woman to break into glass shards. Confused, she looked around for the other woman until she saw the door open and figured that she had escaped.
Her rival, however, was now the least of her worries. Seido had basically just won. It was only a matter of a couple of hours before the ships were assembled, and a quick look at her scroll was enough to see that the ninjas had still not reactivated the CCT tower. 'Beacon is lost… all academies are lost' she concluded in her head. Another explosion outside made her turn to see a group of masked gunmen advancing. 'There is no way Hotaru will let me live…' she kept on thinking as flashbacks of what happened at the camp bombarded her. She began to breathe heavily, knowing what awaited her if she was caught. 'They will not take me!' she then concluded. She grabbed her sword again and prepared to open a portal to get Vernal as well. 'Maybe Tai will understand. It can be just the three of us, we'll live in the wild, outside the radar, maybe we'll find a way to survive in this doomed world!' she insisted on her head, wanting nothing but come out alive.
Before she could make the portal, however, a backup power generator seemed to have activated, allowing for the remaining lights of the shop to turn on. It was then that Raven realized that when she was shooting the bazooka, the woman was hiding next to a popsicle freezer with empty ice-cream containers marked with a man wearing blue winter clothes. It was not like her to be sentimental, but at that moment she remembered Sub Zero's words.
'But I also know that evil can and must be stopped, and I am willing to fight until my last breath to make sure they fail. I already did once, and I would gladly do it again'.
It took her a moment before realizing she was just wasting her time trying to run away from evil again. At this point she was just prolonging the inevitable and her wishes to just manage to survive by removing herself from the world was just that, a wish. She then heard the door being slammed open, and when she turned around, confused, she saw one of the rioters pointing his gun at her.
"Hands up and drop your sword, babe! Or else you are not walking out of here!" he threatened her.
Raven was sure she could take on this guy, but for her convenience, Yatsuhashi slammed through the window frame and bated the guy away with his giant sword. Looking at the street again, she then saw Velvet leading a police group as they managed to contain the rioters while Fox led people from the building to go on security vehicles from the VPD.
"Building secured!" Yatsuhashi then confirmed her.
Raven then released a long sigh in defeat. "Can't believe their altruistic bullshit got to me…" she whispered to herself.
"Sorry, I didn't get that" Yatsuhashi then shyly told her.
Raven then composed herself before addressing the giant teen once again. "Nothing! What happened!?" she asked him.
"You were right; they had weapons and ammo in there, we also have a map of secured buildings; there are three more down this road. I think that if we clear them, we might be able to join with an army convoy".
"Good!" Raven told the teen back. She then gripped her sword with newfound confidence and opened a portal.
Yatsuhashi had figured out that was Raven's semblance, but he was still unsure of what the woman was doing. "Uh… ma'am?" he asked her.
"Make sure no one goes through!" she then snapped. "If we are going down, we go down in glory! I will be back!" she told the other before stepping into the portal as Yatsuhashi followed her last orders and guarded the portal.
The door to a room slammed open as Blake went through it. Fortunately for her, she then landed on the soft bed. Knowing what was coming, however, she then decided to hide in the bathroom to prepare her gun. Just as she was done, and as expected, the wall then crumbled to reveal Ryu using his minigun as a club with which he tried to clover Yang.
The blond girl, in turn, had just managed to roll out of the gun's path and immediately stood up to deliver a strong punch to Ryu. The man, however, just raised his free hand, caught the punch, and did not even flinch when Yang's weapon fired on his palm, he then effortlessly moved her fist out of the way before hitting her with the minigun once again, sending her crashing to the wall opposite to them. He seemed ready to fire at her point-blank but stopped when he was distracted by shots hitting him on the back, making him turn around out of instinct and find Blake staring at him defiantly. Enraged, Ryu fired his minigun upon her, only for the cat faunus to then disappear completely.
Ryu was unsure at first of what had just happened, but he then heard steps running away. He quickly turned and saw as Blake went around a corner before remembering Yang; and when he looked back, the blonde girl was gone. Ryu then growled loudly as he smelled the air again, deciding to follow Blake for the moment.
Yang managed to get some ground between herself and Ryu, but just as she was wondering what to do, she heard her earpiece activating.
"Yang? Are you there!?" Blake asked, whispering with urgency.
"Blake?" Yang asked back with surprise.
"Whatever you do, don't stop moving! He can pinpoint you with his smell" Blake warned Yang. "Meet me at the hall to the lounge and follow my instructions".
Naturally, Yang was overcome with questions, but she also knew this was not the time to question whatever Blake was thinking. She moved around, carefully as to not make any discernible noise, having missed Ryu as he went around a corner. Finally, she reached her target with Blake waiting and making sure Ryu had not caught up with her. It was also then that Yang noticed that Blake was not wearing her boots. "Pst!" Yang said, calling for the other girl's attention.
"Good!" Blake said back as she moved to stand next to Yang as she began to take off her black vest. "Give me your jacket and wear this!". Yang's puzzled face was enough for Blake to continue with an explanation.
When the drills broke through the outer wall, all of Shade went into total chaos with the invasion becoming a battle for survival. The instructions of using only long-ranged weapons were completely ignored as every team was now fighting as to not get captured and taken into the drill tankers.
May Zedong had been instructed by her leader, Brawnz Ni, to hide on the roofs as she weakened the invaders that the other boys of her team fought. That worked well at first, but unfortunately, the invaders had caught on to their strategy as one of them arrived behind May. The girl had just managed to stand up while turning her rifle into an ax and then swing, but her attacker just moved back while also activating electrical brass knuckles.
The Tekunin landed a hard punch on May's back, taking a big chunk of her aura and pushing her off the roof. Things then got worse not just because of her hard landing, which almost broke her aura, but also because that distracted her teammates who were then quickly dispatched by the Tekunin.
May was still conscious, but the punch she received had incapacitated her legs, making her crawl to retrieve her weapon. That, however, was stopped when the Tekunin that attacked her landed in front of her. She looked up, panicking at the unemotional neon blue eyes, and felt like crying when she saw the thing preparing to punch her once again. She then covered herself, waiting for the inevitable, until she heard the swish of a blade and then the sound of metal being broken before being showered by a cold thick oil-like liquid. When she finally realized she was still awake, May opened her eyes to see her attacker had been stabbed in the back by a man with long white hair using a katana. "Wha…?" she managed to say in between gasps of air before hearing the invaders who took down her team speak.
"Unit LK-RMNT-101025, Fujin has been found! Sending coordinates" one said as the other four suddenly changed their weapons into laser blades and buzzsaws before charging at him.
The man, who May then decided to call 'Fujin', took out an empty crossbow and shot, from out of thin air, bright blue arrows which the others evaded, but she then saw that he had planned to separate them. The first robot, wielding pulse blades, arrived and went for a spin attack. Fujin then pulled his katana out of the body before kicking it towards the invader, pushing them both with a powerful gush of wind soon after they collided.
Another of the Tekunin then seemed ready to try and slice Fujin with its buzzsaws as it charged at full speed while the man was still distracted. Unfortunately for it, Fujin spun once on his tows before throwing the katana at high speed, managing to not just go almost all the way through the invader but also to push it to the ground. Another went on to stab him from behind with pulse blades, but Fujin jumped high in the air before the attack could land; the god even managed to turn in the air, grab his crossbow and shoot more arrows that hit the machine without a miss. He then landed on top of the pommel of the katana and fired more arrows point-blank on the still struggling Tekunin, effectively disposing of it.
When Fujin was done with that, two of the remaining drones arrived by the front and the back, keeping their distance from him so that they could use their flame throwers; but once they fired, Fujin jumped in the air once more and, unexplainably for May, was able to run in the air for a moment before landing next to the Tekunin with countless arrows and then, miraculously, retrieving his katana almost as if he was a telepath.
The drones seemed ready to fire once again, but Fujin created a tornado that pulled in the one lying on the ground, and just as one of the robots shot a fireball towards him. The powerful wind gush that Fujin used to push the body overpowered that of the fire and managed to crash against the shooter.
May was focused on the fight going on in front of her until she saw the last robot running at full speed with pulse blade deployed, ready to maim Fujin; but just before it could, May got ahold of her sniper rifle and shot once, managing to stop the invader at the last moment, blowing a piece of its back and managing to make Fujin turn around in surprise to then kicking the cyborg while pushing it away with a wind blow.
Fujin then looked at the girl – who he thought was unconscious – reloading her gun before shouting at him. "Get down!" she ordered him, and he immediately complied, allowing her to shoot another of the remaining robots in the head. Fujin then disposed of the final robot as it tried to ram him by first pulling it towards him, catching it in another tornado, and shooting it towards the sky. May was unsure of that strategy until Fujin got next to her and she was able to see the Tekunin fall at full speed on the ground neck first and leaving a pool of its oily fluids under it.
With that done, there did not seem to be more drones coming, so Fujin sheathed his katana and went on to help May. "Is everything ok?" he asked, emanating calmness and peace towards the girl; a completely different feeling from what she had just seen him do.
May wanted to nod, but when she tried to stand, her legs gave in. "Ah! My legs are still stunned!" she told her savior while rubbing her legs. She then remembered her teammates and quickly looked back and released a sigh of relief when she saw them, still unconscious but close by.
"Your friends?" he asked her, and she nodded. Fujin then went on to pick them all up and dropped them next to a tree along with May soon after. "I better get you to somewhere safe. Maybe at the-" he began to say until they felt a constantly growing rumble and then saw as one of the drills rammed through the wall before positioning itself to face Fujin.
The already weakened wall crumbled further on some sections in front of Fujin and May, but their main concern was that the drill began to head towards them at a speed faster than before. So much so that when it went over debris mounts it was able to momentarily be in the air.
In response, Fujin tried to push the vehicle away with a stronger wind current, managing to slow it down; but then, metal spikes emerged from the treads, allowing for it to stick to the ground and continue moving forward. Fujin was not sure of what to do, as he could not move the teens out of the way in time.
May was also concerned about that but knew that there was nothing she could do now and that Fujin would not be able to push the drill unless it was not holding itself to the ground. Looking around for anything to help them, she then saw a weakened part of the wall a little far away from them, '… and with the right shot…' she thought before coming up with a plan, quickly loading her gun and preparing it for a strong shot. "When I tell you, stop what you are doing!" she told him. Fujin did not hide his shock at all but May had no time to explain. "Just trust me!" she screamed, both pleading and with annoyance. With not a lot of options left, Fujin then nodded.
May then crawled behind Fujin, not wanting for whatever was driving the monstrous machine to somehow figure out her plan. She then watched patiently and carefully, waiting for the right moment, and already aiming her gun. 'Hold it… hold it…' she thought as sweat began to come down her forehead. "NOW!" she screamed, and Fujin stopped. Immediately after, May fired, and the shot was, indeed, strong enough to make the wall fall and form a rubble mound.
The drill, however, was going so fast it was unable to move away from it and ended up going up in the air. Fujin finally understood May's plan and used his powers again to push the drill up and away, making it then land upside down and blocking the hole it had just made.
Not wishing for more harm to come to May and the other kids, Fujin took them all to a roof. May wanted to express her gratitude but was immediately stopped by the strange man. "I was never here," he told her before jumping down. May had regained control over one of her legs and limped to the edge of the roof with her weapon as a crouch. She was disappointed, however, when the man was nowhere to be found.
Her thoughts about Fujin were then interrupted when Nolan seemed to be waking up. "Thank you" she whispered before going to help her teammate; hoping that whatever Fujin was doing, he was successful.
WHAM! And the golden mace had now struck another metal duct as Smoke managed to roll out of the way from it, cursing that the Naknada had marked all his weapons with an anti-yokai charm.
Kenshi and Jade were keeping Kollector's Tekunin security at bay. Noticing that almost no other drones were coming, it was clear that their assumption that the Naknada was focused on taking down Shade before the ships could be deployed was proved right.
Smoke jumped out of the way from another of Kollector's attacks, and just as the Naknada was retrieving his mace, the ninja shot one of his harpoons, tying the chained ball and then pulling it. That managed to stop Kollector, and Smoke shot his second harpoon with the intention of stabbing Kollector on the head.
Kollector, however, managed to deflect the harpoon by grabbing his sickle and slashing it away. Smoke had no time to rethink a strategy as Kollector immediately grabbed the chain with his still free hands and pulled hard enough to make Smoke fall forward and back-first into the ground. Smoke then quickly recovered as he saw Kollector ready to stab him with two knives before spinning on the ground and swipe kicking the Naknada to the ground before recoiling his harpoons.
Their fight was then momentarily stopped as a Tekunin passed between them thanks to a psychic punch from Kenshi. During that, Smoke then saw that Kollector had dropped his bag when he fell, and if the intelligence Sun had received was true, then the scrambler should be in said bag, and by Kollector's more overprotective nature of it as he retrieved it, he had just confirmed that theory.
"You realize it's just a matter of time before we defeat you here?" Smoke mockingly asked the blue creature.
"Shade will still fall, Earthrealmer. Who do you think the defeated will then be?" Kollector answered back.
"Not if I break the scrambler!" Smoke he responded, noticing the toothy grin in Kollector. "Or… destroy your bag, it's all the same in the end" he added, pleased that his plan to taunt and anger the Naknada worked as it then ran enraged towards Smoke. The ninja, in turn, activated the trident heads and deflected the slashes from Kollector's knives.
The fight went like that until Kollector intertwined his knives with the tridents and raised both his and Smoke's hands; and before the ninja could kick the Naknada away, he saw as Kollector prepared a powerful slash with his sickle. Smoke turned into a cloud and moved back, but the slash still managed to go through some of it, and when smoke rematerialized, he was then able to see the now bleeding cut on his pectorals. Smoke hissed in pain, but instead of rejoicing in his attack connecting, Kollector went to grab some of his green vials. Smoke backflipped before the vials broke and released the toxic liquid and vapors to then jump in the air to turn into a cloud once again and quickly move around.
Unlike before, however, Smoke was aware that an ambush attack was more than dangerous, so he just materialized behind Kollector before shooting his harpoons once again. The Naknada moved and began to swing around his mace, which Smoke then moved away from until he reached Kenshi; and when the blind samurai sensed Smoke's closeness as well as the incoming attack from Kollector's mace, he switched places with the gray ninja, pushing away the mace while Smoke threw a smoke projectile that teleported the robot to the other side of the room.
"Anything you need to tell me so urgently?" Kenshi asked, never losing Kollector's position with his katana.
"I think it is safe to confirm the scrambler is in his bag" Smoke answered back. "I have an idea; I'll brief Jade, you take care of Kollector" he added.
"My pleasure" Kenshi then told him before running towards his new opponent.
"SUB ZERO!" Frost screamed towards the empty night sky. "WE ARE NOT DONE! COME AND FACE ME!" she insisted while blowing ice blasts from her core towards random trees.
Sub Zero, however, was waiting calmly with Ermac and Hanzo still recuperating behind him. He had a plan and waited patiently until the time was right.
"Five minutes…" Hanzo remarked while holding an open scroll.
"I'm going in" Sub Zero answered immediately after as he began to walk towards the newly made ruins. "FROST!" he finally screamed back, immediately gaining the attention of the woman. His body was in pain, he had just managed to stop the bleeding, but he kept moving forward as he made two ice axes. "I agree… let's finish this!" he told the woman as he assumed a fighting stance.
Frost's thrusters propelled her at such speed that she was basically flying towards Sub Zero with her drills deployed. She was done with strategies or complicated moves, she just wanted to stab Sub Zero until he was nothing, but a carcass filled with holes.
Sub Zero, however, was aware of his limitations so he mostly blocked Frost's barrage of attacks, blocking the point of the drills with the blades of his axes, and managing to push her weapons away with his own slashes. He had just managed to parry her left drill, but she used that momentum to spin her torso and went to stab him on the middle of his forehead. Had his reflexes not been so sharply trained, he was sure that his brain would have been gone; thankfully, however, he managed to stop her attack by pushing her arm upwards with the crossed handles of his axes; trapping the drill with the lower side of the blades from the axes. Being more than aware of the other drill, Sub Zero then kicked Frost away with his left foot covered in ice.
It was a powerful kick, managing to push Frost back and making her kneel, but she was still far from done fighting. Sub Zero, however, had now moved on to the offensive, jumping in the air to deliver a double vertical slice and forcing Frost to block the axes with her arms. Their struggle continued, but Frost's attention shifted when she heard something moving from behind her. Her suspicion only grew when she saw Sub Zero momentarily shifting his focus behind her. Now knowing someone was sneaking up behind her, Frost waited until the last moment before activating the propellers on her heels, detaching her legs, and giving two roundhouse kicks, managing to kick whoever was attacking her before also moving aside, disengaging her drills from Sub Zero's axes, and landing a couple of feet away.
Looking back at what had just happened Frost was then able to see the now unconscious body of Cardin on the floor; and as hard as she tried to, she could not hold back her laugh. "Winchester? Really? Out of all the snot eaters in that school, you go with him?" she asked once her laughter died down.
Sub Zero did not answer, however, looking with concern at Cardin before ice-sliding towards Frost again with ice fists this time. Frost did not create a weapon of her own this time, instead of blocking the powerful left hook from Sub Zero before delivering an uppercut with her free hand. Sub Zero moved back before delivering a roundhouse kick which she expected and caught once it connected, grabbing it with both hands and then throwing the man away before noticing another teenager running towards her, a boy with green hair and daggers, a friend of Cardin, most likely. Annoyed, Frost activated her ice cannon and fired ice projectiles towards the boy. she had to give him credit as he immediately stopped running towards her and instead began to run around, back, and forth; but before she had figured his pattern, Sub Zero had tackled her to the ground with another cold shoulder.
Frost was ready to curse herself and her former master, but instead, she rolled out of the way once Sub Zero tried to stab her with an ice scythe. Thankfully for her, his attack missed and did a cartwheel kick which Sub Zero blocked but still managed to make him slide back. She was unable to keep fighting him, however, when she saw him looking at something seemingly above her. Soon after, she heard more rubble moving and saw another teen – blond and wielding a sword – wanting to jump on her; she instead created an ice wall that stopped him before she refocused on Sub Zero.
She was ready to tackle him again, but another side look from Sub Zero was enough to tell her that more of Cardin's friends were trying to take her down. Sure enough, the blue-haired boy decided to charge towards her, screaming as loud as possible and shooting from the top of his halberd. Frost in return jumped back and created another ice wall to cover herself, noticing that the three teens had come together and were moving towards Sub Zero. "No, you won't!" she screamed, moving away from the wall, charging her core, and then shooting a powerful ice beam towards the four people.
Sub Zero saw the attack coming just in the nick of time for him to roll out of the way; the remaining members of Team CRDL, however, were not so lucky as the blast froze them in place. After landing facing upwards and his mask breaking apart, Sub Zero tried to get up, but to his dismay, Frost had shot more beams and first froze his legs followed soon after by both his arms. Worst of all was that the shots were so powerful his appendages were now buried underneath giant blocks of ice.
Sub Zero struggled to get out but stopped when he saw Frost, her core bright red and constantly emanating fumes. She panted for a moment before using her cryomancer powers to create a giant chaotic ice blade, clearly an inferior design from that what Sub Zero was able to do. She then looked at her former master, wanting to rejoice on the fear that his face must be showing right about now, but that pleasure quickly turned into confusion and then rage when he just kept looking at her with calculating and confident eyes. "RRRHHHAAAAAA!" she screamed, jumping in the air, and being propelled by her thrusters; and when she reached a point exactly above him, she activated her thrusters once again, falling to the ground at an ever-growing speed "DIIIIIIIEEEE!".
Ryu stopped to follow Blake's scent, sure of getting closer to the girl. It got even better once Yang's scent got mixed into it. He then placed his back against the wall when Blake's smell got stronger and remained constant for a long time, meaning she was standing still. Ryu then charged his weapon and stepped out, firing multiple rounds until he saw that there was no one in that hall. He was confused at first until he found the source of his confusion, one of Blake's boots. Going further down the hall, he then noticed how both their scents went two separate ways at the same time, meaning that they had figured out his strategy.
Ryu then stored the minigun on his back, and slowly moved around the halls to look for the girls with his hearing. By removing their shoes, they had reduced the sound factor as well, but he was still able to hear the faint steps around him. He moved through the halls for a moment until he was able to hear a doorknob being busted. Ryu ran to the source, and sure enough found Blake next to the open door, looking at him with eyes wide open.
Wasting no time, Ryu jumped in the air and prepared to deliver a punch directly onto Blake. To his disappointment, however, the girl just vanished. He was enraged but had to turn on to the defense when he heard a gun being clocked from a hall some feet away. He grabbed his minigun once again to use it as a shield from the incoming bullets, and when he could hear no more of them bouncing off, he put it down to then see Blake making a turn. After storing the gun back, he then began to follow her again.
After reaching a wall he tried to find her using his hearing again, only to hear another door being broken somewhere behind him; whether it was Blake or not, he did not care. He headed back and found the open door which he then kicked open, activated his gun, and fired at everything in the room, wrecking every piece of furniture, but not having killed any of the girls. He growled for a moment before hearing footsteps on the hall again and went out only to see Blake's shadow and then another door cracking open. He had learned his lesson, however, and decided to ignore it, only to stop once he heard more bangs and door locks being broken from behind him. Enraged, Ryu released a powerful roar before slamming through the wall nearest to him to enter the room.
Unsure of what was happening, Yang looked around as she heard and felt the crumbling of walls getting closer; and indeed, in due time, the wall to the room she was on was torn apart. Ryu emerged from the dust cloud, his uniform ripped and covered with dust while he activated the minigun once again.
Yang had mere moments to run away as the gun seemed to have switched to more powerful blasts, being able to go through the wall. Worst for her was that when she was away from the room, Ryu just came out crashing from it as well. "Room sixteen! Room sixteen!" she urgently said on her earpiece, barely missing the shots coming her way.
Ryu followed her, growling loudly as he reached the hall she was now at. He then wasted no time in aiming his gun, but his perfect shots were stopped when something tied his leg and made him fall on one knee. He then looked up, only to see Yang was now gone, but he quickly turned to see Blake trying to pull from the ribbon tied to his leg. Annoyed, Ryu grabbed the ribbon and pulled it, easily taking away her weapon in the process.
The fear on Blake's face was enjoyable, but as he expected, the girl immediately ran away, and he pursued. He then saw Blake make a sharp turn to another hall and stopped when he reached it, seeing every door was busted open; all but one that was slowly moving. Ryu grinned, knowing what Blake had done, but in her need to run she had tried to close a door incapable of doing so. Nonetheless, he still pretended to walk down the hall until he reached the door. He then peaked inside and saw Blake's bow from behind the bed. He then pretended to move away and down the hall until he was no longer next to the door frame. He then waited a few seconds before running back, kicking the door open, entering, and firing at everything in the room until there was nothing left standing.
Happy with what just happened, Ryu then walked towards what was left of the bed, expecting to see Blake's torn carcass. His pride quickly morphed into shock when he saw nothing. He once again growled in anger, not knowing how she had managed to escape until he remembered her ability to create clones. His thoughts were then interrupted when he heard beeping. Beeping coming from… the roof!
Sure enough, when he looked up, the roof was covered with what looked like explosives; and as he tried to run away, they all blew up, caving the roof and making pieces of rubble and heavy furniture fall on top of him.
Once the destruction was done and both girls heard no more sound coming from the room, they entered slowly with Yang's gauntlets being pointed towards the pile of debris. All that they could now see from Ryu was his right hand covered by a torn glove, the mouth of his still powered minigun, and his right hip. Both girls sighed, relaxed for the first time since all this began.
Blake then looked intrigued at their defeated foe's hip and noticed there was something blue and shiny sticking out of his pocket. "Blake! What are you doing!?" Yang questioned her partner as the cat faunus went to retrieve whatever was on the said pocket.
Blake explained as she kept moving forward. "Maybe this can-" she tried to explain, but when she grabbed the object in Ryu's pocket, his hand jumped back to life, making both girls jump back and scream; but as soon as the hand came back to life, it also fell once more. They both took quick breaths of air before looking at the object in question, which Blake recognized as a fancy-looking key, made from square shapes and a blue gem on the handle. "A key?" she asked herself and her partner.
"Hey! Look at the number!" Yang then pointed out. '2001' Was printed on the handle, but both girls were confused by it. That was until they then saw the '1820' on what remained of the room's door.
"A room… over the restaurant… those would be the suits…" Blake rationalized.
"And I don't think HE needs a room of his own" Yang mentioned while pointing with her head at the debris.
"Then that means…" Blake said quietly, stopping when she realized what she was holding. Looking at Yang, she then noticed the other had figured out the same.
"Onaga!" they both said in unison.
Their discovery was interrupted, however, when they saw the lights down the hall flickering; and when the earthquake began, they both felt horror. "No, no, no, no!" Blake yelled. "No way! It can't end like this!" she screamed while punching the ground, tightly holding the key.
Yang also felt defeated, allowing the sadness to take over her as she thought of all the things Seido would destroy for their own selfish needs. She was beyond enraged, but at the same time, there was nothing for her to direct her anger towards. She thought about her dad, the last memories she had of Summer, the fun times she had during life with her sister and friends, and even with the ninjas. She then looked at Blake and saw the shiny gem on her hand. 'Damn asshole!' Yang thought to herself, thinking of Onaga. 'If only I could kick your ass, then every other of your freaks would run away like the little…' she thought to herself as she then looked around the room until her sight was fixed on the still active minigun and the state of destruction the room was in.
An idea, stupid as it might be, then formed on her head. Then again, she was not known for being the brains in her team. Decided, however, she then stood up and walked towards the debris. Grabbing the minigun and pulling it out, thankfully without Ryu.
"Yang… what are you doing?" Blake questioned her in between sobs.
Yang then placed the minigun on her back before addressing the other girl again. "Blake, I can't order you to come with me. But desperate times call for desperate measures". She then turned around to look directly at the key.
"Yang, are you serious!?" Blake asked screaming. The stern look on Yang's eyes told her all she needed to know.
"Again, I am not asking you to do anything" Yang insisted.
Blake then took a deep breath and held it in. she released it after a few seconds and spoke once again. "You are not doing this alone" she then answered with a fake smile. "Let me get my weapon and then we will pry open an elevator".
"Good enough for me!" Yang said, faking the happy tone with which she said that.
With a plan in mind, both girls then left the room; and it wasn't until the faint sound of the metal doors of the elevator were being cracked open that Ryu emerged from the debris, snapping bones back into place.
"DIIIIIIIEEEE!" Frost screamed at the top of her artificial lungs as she fell towards the ground, ready to stab Sub Zero through his chest. She could feel it, the freedom; she would finally be free from Kuai Liang once and for all. Yet another thought came to her mind when just for the fraction of a second, she noticed there was no fear in Sub Zero's eyes. She could excuse it as him accepting his fate at the hands of his superior rival, but the fire blaze which materialized into Hanzo quickly changed that thought.
The force of her attack was not easy to block, however. It was of such strength that, combined with Hanzo's hurt leg, it forced the yellow ninja to fall on one knee as he hissed in pain. But hurt as he might be, he still refused to allow her to hurt Sub Zero.
"You miserable dog!" Frost cursed out loud, removing one hand from the ice blades' grip to then create one of her smaller ice swords.
Hanzo valiantly unhooked one of his katanas and blocked all of Frost's blows, gritting his teeth and continuously sweating as he held back the pain from his leg.
"Just! Die! Already! You! Bastard!" Frost then yelled each word after her attacks were blocked by the yellow ninja every time. She kept on going until she saw Kuai Liang's face once again; a big grin plastered over his bruised and dirty face. She should have been seething, screaming in rage due to how he was mocking her, but that smile scared her. 'How could he be so calm?'
Almost as if he were a psychic, Sub Zero spoke again. "You always were so focused on being the best, you never really considered how a clan actually operated Frost".
His cryptic message was just that. 'What is he blabbering on about?' she asked herself. Hanzo was nowhere close to being able to push her back, so she quickly looked around to see the three guys from Cardin's team had gotten out of the ice but were still behind the wall, just standing there while Ermac was nowhere to be seen. 'It's just the three of us, what the fuck is he blabbing abo-' it was then that she saw the empty rubble pile where Cardin's body used to be.
Her thoughts were then interrupted when a lough 'CLANK' was heard by everyone, and Frost's back was suddenly overcome with pain. The impact also made her drop her weapons as whatever had slammed her in the back managed to raise her in the air. Everything only turned for the worse as the weapon was dangerously close to her now overheated core.
"Who…?" was all she managed to ask in disbelief.
"Who do you think!?" Cardin answered rhetorically.
"You idiot! You almost hit my-!".
"Where do you think I was aiming?" he then asked with a smug smile. Frost then turned her head around to look at the teen with anger at first, willing to kill him until she saw his thumb resting over a button in his mace. It was then that she remembered what the mace could do.
"You wouldn't…" she told him, consumed by fear.
"By the way: 'I' am breaking up with 'YOU'" he told her before pressing the button.
"Goodbye, Frost" she heard Sub Zero say from behind her as a yellow light appeared and went away while Cardin Covered his face with one arm.
'Fuck' was the last thought that went through Frost's mind as her core exploded with the help of Cardin's mace, breaking her body apart into an infinity of small pieces, sending Cardin flying back with such force that he went through the ice wall and leaving a spiked ball made from ice right where Frost used to be on.
"Cardin!" Russel screamed in panic as his leader rolled on the ground as he went through the wall, finally stopping ten feet away after crashing against the remains of a column. All members of CRDL ran towards the teen while Sub Zero and Hanzo materialized next to him, with Sub Zero putting Cardin's head on his lap to then slap the teen on his cheeks.
"Cardin! Wake up! You did it, kid, you did it!" the blue ninja began to say, genuinely worried about the boy.
Cardin's entire body felt pain and he was only able to see white and hear a buzzing noise for a long time. When his sight finally returned, he was also able to hear Sub Zero's voice in the distance. His body, however, still felt nothing but pain. "You… are a crazy… asshole…" he said with a groggy voice. "But… damn…! Did that… work!".
Indeed, Frost was gone, and they had won. Their moment of silence, however, was interrupted when they heard something slam against the ground and then roll towards them. Everyone looked at the object in question, and while the ninjas felt relief, team CRDL felt panic as they saw the lazy eyes on Frost's head.
"Dude! What the fuck!" Sky screamed.
"At ease" Hanzo assured the teen. "She is gone".
When the head, indeed, did not move, the boys felt calm. Dove, however, felt something about the head was… off. As the rest helped Cardin sit up, Dove went on to pick up the head. "There is no blood…" he pointed out.
"Makes sense, she is now more machine" Hanzo answered back.
"Then… shouldn't this be leaking that dark blue liquid?".
Everyone then looked at each other in realization. Dove was right. Immediately after, they all then heard the head activating and releasing a gush of mist. "You… you… all of you… Rhaaaaaa!" the head screamed in pure rage as powerful turbines then activated from under the neck. They were so strong that Dove lost hold of Frost, and when it reached a certain distance in the sky, more small engines activated, propelling the head towards somewhere on the distance.
"What… was that?" Dove asked, unsure of what had just happened.
"We underestimated Frost… again…" Sub Zero concluded and sighed in relief, their fight done for the moment.
Their thoughts on that matter, however, stopped when all their scrolls began to constantly beep. They were confused at first, but then they all realized they had done it. Their mission was a success.
The atmosphere on the thirteenth floor was not a good one. Jaune was finally done healing Pyrrha, but the girl had still seemed to be weakened. Was it her near-death experience? Maybe a secondary effect from Jaune's semblance. Whatever it was, the redhead was resting on the boy's lap as he just petted her head.
Nora was sitting away from them, knowing Jaune needed his time with Pyrrha, but dreading that their world was about to end, and she was so far away from Ren. The thought of not being able to spend her last days with Ren for whatever reason clearly upset her.
Qrow was in no better mood. His flask was at least a coping mechanism that pushed him through to the next day, but right now it was just worthless; there was just no next day, no point.
Ruby, in the meanwhile, seemed to be the only one with some semblance of hope left, walking all over the destroyed floor thinking of what to do. Neither Yang nor Blake was answering their earpieces, the airships had finally arrived, there was still no clear way to one of the terminals, and communications were still dead. And still, after all of that, she was still trying to figure a way out.
"You are gonna pop a vein kid" Qrow finally said, taking the younger girl out of her thoughts.
The fact that he was just sitting there doing nothing angered her. She just looked at him, frowning and thinking of all she could ask about why he wasn't doing anything. But at the same time, she knew the answer.
Qrow knew exactly what was going through Ruby's head. Summer made the same face when she was angry but couldn't do anything about it. The older man then stood up, cleaned himself, and hugged her.
The response from the girl was immediate. She burst into tears as she responded to the hug. "That's it, kid; let it all out," he told her while petting her head.
"It's not fair… it can't end like this!" she insisted.
"I know, I know. Trust me, kid, I want nothing more than just end in our favor, but…" as hard as he tried, Qrow was just unable to finish that sentence.
Having calmed down a little, she then opened her eyes to see a slightly burned portrait of Hotaru. The pristine and high-quality suit, the calm and reassuring smile, all a facade with the only intent being the destruction of the same world he claimed to love and wanted to help.
Sadness, hate, guilt, whatever emotions ran on that floor, all came to an end when they heard something they were not expecting. And indeed, Qrow felt it, his scroll was ringing. The older huntsman looked puzzled at the device, still not believing the thing was working again. Opening it up, he then saw the caller ID: Ozpin. Skeptically, he then answered the call. "Oz?" he asked.
"Qrow. Good to know you are still alive. What about the others?". Qrow then stepped away and showed everyone present. "Miss Rose, Miss Valkairie, Mr. Arc" he politely said to his students before noticing the girl on Jaune's lap. "Is that… Miss Nikos? What happened?".
"Long story Oz. Tell me you have good news".
The long sigh coming from the headmaster seemed to be all but good news. "The invasion stopped immediately. The Tekunin drones apparently looked confused at first before some killed themselves and others ran into the woods or threw themselves off the cliff" He reported, "However, I don't think that quake we felt was natural, am I right?". Qrow's silence was more than revealing. "Understood. I'll evacuate the students and teachers will go underground… I will tell the other headmasters of what happened…" he then lamented.
"What about you Oz?" Qrow asked him.
Ozpin did not give a direct answer, not wanting his students to know about the vault. "I'll take care of it. I would rather lose it for a long time rather than the alternative…" the man said lamenting. "At least law enforcement and rescue units should be able to communicate now. That is something. Emergency broadcasts have already begun".
Ruby was at the listening range, but she just didn't care, consumed by her anger towards the orderrealmners. That is until she heard the word 'broadcasts. "You mean… things like the news? TV? That kind of broadcasting?".
None of the people in the room, or Ozpin for that matter, knew what she was asking that for. The headmaster still answered. "Yes, Miss Rose".
"So, we should be able to send a message to everyone?" the girl asked with growing enthusiasm.
"In Vale…" The headmaster specified. That, however, didn't seem to be bringing her spirit down.
"Ruby, they are already assembling the ships, we are done," Jaune told her.
"We may not be able to stop the ships from being built, true. But we can still stop them for good!" she insisted, with more energy behind her words.
"Headmaster, I need someone in here; can you open a portal?".
"I… can get ahold of Raiden, but… what are you thinking Miss Rose?" he then asked, less skeptical and more intrigued.
"I am tired of them lying to the world. I'm just thinking of showing Vale, and eventually the world, what these monsters really are after!". All logic dictated that Ruby had just lost her mind. Yet at the same time, they felt she had something going on.
"What do we have to lose. I'm in kid!" Qrow assured her.
Jaune also felt inclined to help, but he also felt like he needed to be with Pyrrha. The redhead, however, was having none of it, seemingly having read his mind. "Go" she encouraged him.
The boy was still emotionally confused, however. "But… what about…?" he tried to ask before he felt Nora's hand land on his shoulder.
"Let me take her to Beacon. There is something I must do myself there and I don't want her here either!" she said, sounding like the normal Nora once again.
Jaune smiled at that and nodded in approval as he helped Pyrrha stand up and placed her arm over Nora's shoulder. He then looked at Ruby with a smile before switching to Qrow. Both felt a horrible tension and awkwardness between them.
Jaune then walked towards the uncle and niece duo, stopping just in front of the older man. "Look, kid, hate me all you want, honestly, I don't blame you; but if we do anything, you must trust me until we get out of it. Deal?" Qrow offered as he offered his open hand.
Jaune, indeed, looked at the hand with skepticism. But whatever his overall feelings towards Qrow were, this was not the time for his emotions for what happened to Pyrrha to cloud his mind. "Deal!" he said as he took the other's hand and shook it.