I came. I saw. And I delivered! Hope you enjoy this chapter. Also, I'll be building a shelter because of what I wrote. If you don't understand why, just read on! Enjoy!
Ozpin sat at his desk, watching the matchup. When he saw it was Penny being matched against Pyrrha, he raised an eyebrow. Two Beacon students in a row? While it wasn't impossible, there was something that didn't seem right. Still, he sat down in hope that he was just imagining it.
Down in the arena of the Amity Colosseum, Pyrrha was looking confident while Penny politely saluted her opponent.
Penny put her hands on her hips in excitement, "Sal-u-tations, Pyrrha Nikos! It's an honor to finally meet you!"
"The pleasure is mine," smiled Pyrrha.
"This is going to be so much fun!"
In the same structure behind the closed doors, Ruby was facing Mercury, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. She slowly backed away and tried to go back through the door she came from, but Mercury fired a shot, stopping her. He had no intention of letting her go that easily.
Nora was panicking. She didn't expect Jaune's ex-father to try to kill him right now! She quickly ran off to find help. She forgot to just mass text everyone for help, as she just wanted to find and help her leader as soon as possible. Ren was busy watching Emerald, so it was up to her!
Ironwood was sitting in the front seats, wanting to see how his project would fare against the 'Goddess of Victory.' He noticed Nora leaving in a panic, but merely excused it. His focus was more on Penny, and a bit on Emerald. Since the suspicions, he made a cursory glance at her. He pushed back Ren and Jaune's warning to the back of his mind.
Oobleck began counting down, "3, 2, 1... BEGIN!"
Suddenly Penny was surrounded by her floating swords, commanding them with her hands and body before launching a volley at Pyrrha, who ran forward towards them and leaped through or deflected the blades. The swords flew into the air and turned around, coming back to Penny.
"Showtime," smirked Mercury as Ruby tried to find some way past him.
She panicked and spins forward, becoming a red blur of petals, hoping her move would force Mercury out of the way, only for him to kick her in the stomach with his boots before landing another kick, knocking her back into the ground. As Ruby winced, she grabbed her Scroll out to call for help when a bullet flew and shattered her Scroll. She looked back to see Mercury with his right leg stretched out.
"Let's just keep this between us friends," taunted Mercury.
"Not much of a friend, when you had to fake your injury to get my sister disqualified," spat out Ruby, "You couldn't win against her, so that's why you needed to cheat."
Mercury's forehead grew a tick mark at that comment, "I'll show you just how good I am. I was holding back against her."
Jaune was dealing with his 'family reunion'. He kept taking potshots at Boyd to make sure he couldn't focus on using whatever Semblance he stole while dealing with Aurelian and Vlad. He blocked a diagonal slice from Vlad when Aurelian tried to attack. His shield was blocking Boyd's attempt on making a shot. Aurelian thought he had it, but Jaune suddenly kicked him away. He then expanded the scabbard edge, causing Vlad to stumble back at the sudden expansion. He turned and let a light blade beam fly at Boyd
Pyrrha, having returned her shield to her back during the fight, was twirling Milo in javelin form to block each sword swipe from Penny. Penny forced her her to fly back with another slash, making her somersault as she dropped her weapon. Pyrrha quickly recalled it back to her as Penny readied another wave of blades, with Port commenting on how skilled Penny was. Pyrrha grinned. She hadn't had this much fun in a fight since Jaune! She rushed forward and jumped on an incoming sword and swung Milo down on Penny, just to have her attack halted by a collection of blades. She flipped backward to avoid the retaliation slice. As she landed, Penny was charging forward, slicing with waves of swords. Pyrrha blocked them all but was forced back. She immediately rolled her shield from her back onto her arm with her Semblance before firing a few shots at Penny.
Ruby blocked a kick from Mercury with her arm and almost gets hit in the face, but she backflipped just in time. She ducked under his thrust kick before leaning to the right to dodge his sickle kick before dashing right past him. Mercury immediately took a few shots after her, but Ruby dodges them while spiraling away with her Semblance. She kicked off a wall and fell to the ground, pumping her arms as she ran for the exit, with Mercury chasing after her.
Jaune was spinning forward, the deadly tip of the blade forcing Aurelian away from him. Vlad slashed down at him, forcing him to block with his shield. Jaune's knees buckled under the powerful force. Vlad's Semblance was Momentum Drive, which meant that each continuous swing made his attacks are much stronger. Jaune had seen him use it on some Grimm before. As long as he could swing without disruption, it made him so much stronger in conjunction with the Arc style. He quickly did a reverse sweep kick, forcing Vlad to jump before elbowing him. Vlad blocked it with his Greatsword. Jaune stomped the ground and made a few tiles fly at Boyd, who shot the tiles out of the air. Vlad and Aurelian aimed their ranged weapon and fired, Vlad using lightning dust. Jaune empowered his sword with lightning before firing a huge blade beam at the projectiles, canceling them out.
Nora was rushing to find where Jaune was. She was halted by two guards, telling her that the area she was heading to was off limits. She heard explosions and knew that was where Jaune was. She tried to tell them about the dangers, but the guards sneered at her, saying it was just her imagination. She looked down to see pocket full of Liens and knew Vlad had bribed them. So she took out a purified lightning dust crystal she kept in her skirt pockets and crushed it. The lightning channeled through Nora, giving her the extra juice before punching one of the guards into the wall. The other guard faltered, giving her time to drop kick the sucker. She pillaged the bodies for any weapons and found a pistol to use. Not her best weapon of choice, but it would do. She also took the Lien as payment for making her use one of her crystals.
'It's only fair.' She thought to herself with a grin before she ran off to help her leader.
Pyrrha spun wildly as she deflected and dodged the swords Penny was sending until she got close enough to Penny and landed a few slashes, two to the head and three to the body. She got behind Penny and slashed her upwards. Pyrrha continued her combo in the air as Penny parried her attacks. Pyrrha shifted Akouo into another xiphos managed to land another slash, forcing Penny into the ground. Penny quickly slid to a stop before summoning 12 swords around her. With a few gestures, they split off and spun, three in each rotation, and transformed to projectile mode, firing aura beams at Pyrrha. Pyrrha slid and jumped, avoiding the line of fire when she noticed that 6 of the swords transformed back into blades and were flying right towards her. She deflected each with with her dual xiphos. She avoided another sudden formation of projectiles with a few well placed flips before finding an opening. She lunged forward and attacked Penny with a fierce and mighty stab that sent her flying back.
She straightened up, thinking she had it when she saw Penny charging back at her, using the Aura beams like a jetpack. She jumped into the air, and activated the beams once more to simulate a meteorite crashing into Pyrrha, sending her flying. Pyrrha tumbled onto her back for a second before being able to reorient herself back on her feet. As she stood up, two of Penny's blade came out of nowhere and knocked Akouo and Milo away from her. Pyrrha quickly used her Semblance to recall both of them back, but another two blades crashed into them to prevent her from grabbing them. As Pyrrha's weapons landed on the ground, Penny had 6 blades stab into the ground around the weapons, trapping them with 3 each, and prevented Pyrrha from being able to summon it back. Pyrrha was now disarmed.
Penny grinned as she saw her chance and raised her arms, summoning all the blades she had left. She had 14 in total, and with 6 of them trapping the weapons, she summoned the rest of the 8 behind her.
'Excellent work, Penny,' grinned Ironwood. He would have to congratulate Penny's creator, or father as both Penny and the man himself preferred, Geppetto Polendina. To show that humankind could create the next generation of protectors against the Grimm. His works with Aura was certainly a key factor, especially in helping transfer Amber's Aura into a new host. He leaned forward in interest to see Penny's upcoming victory.
Pyrrha hadn't given up and adopted a fighting pose with her fists. She may not have a weapon, but she had been taught by her father and practiced with others how to fight without her weapons. However, what she saw next frightened her. Somehow, Penny's original 8 swords started to multiply. There were so many blades that they covered a fourth of the stadium. She was so shocked she forgot about the fact that it could be a trick. She didn't stop to think that the audience would be shouting and in shock at so many blades. She started to put as much Aura into her Semblance and was ready to unleash it to protect herself when the blades started to fly towards her like a flood.
'Got you,' grinned Emerald as she focused on conjuring an illusion on Pyrrha.
With this, Pyrrha would overreact and most likely affect and maybe even destroy Penny. Penny was just nuts and bolts, with programs in it. A strong electromagnetic pulse would certainly stop her, and with all her limbs being metallic, also freeze her forcefully. Who knows, maybe limbs would fly off. She saw Pyrrha getting ready to counter the image when she felt something hit her from behind.
Ren was also ready. When he saw Pyrrha falter, he immediately closed his eyes and sensed that Emerald's aura was affecting her. Ren quickly raised his fist and punched Emerald's seat with a charged up Aura punch.
The impact was enough to force Emerald to lose focus, dissipating the image. However, it was too late. Pyrrha had already begun releasing her pulse. Pyrrha's eyes opened wide when she saw the multiple blades that had been there suddenly disappear. She remembered about Jaune's hypothesis and knew immediately Emerald had something to do with this. She couldn't halt the amount of power she put into the pulse. She could, however, control the direction of the pulse a bit. Instead of doing a full out frontward pulse, she directed it upwards as high as she could when she released it. The result was the blades went flying back when the polarity hit, forcing Penny to lose control of her swords. The pulse, however, was not high enough, so it managed to hit Penny's upper body.
Penny felt her body clamp up from the hit. Luckily, her main hard drive was emp proof, but her top half of the body was frozen. Her hands were forcefully raised into the air and going backward. She could feel it almost ripping apart. Then, her eyes widened when she saw and felt the strings start to wind around her. One of the strings was curling around her right wrist. Another one around her left arm. The last one had just started to wrap around her neck.
'No!' thought Penny. There was still so much she wanted to do! She wanted to stay at Beacon! To make friends with Ruby and her team! To fight Grimm. To be a regular girl like Ruby. To be a real person like everyone else. TO LIVE!
'WhatcanIdoWhatcanIdoWhatcanIdo?' thought Penny rapidly. Her legs twitched, and she realized she could still move her legs! She couldn't move left or right, though. She couldn't go forward or backward. Then, she realized all she needed to do was to bend to her knees. She immediately sent all power to her legs. The result was her dropping to her knees, narrowly dodging the wire that was about to wrap around her neck. The other two arms, however, had already been caught. Her wrist and arm immediately crumpled by the force with ease as they completed curling around. A few milliseconds later, the wires sliced through her wrist and arm revealing to the world that her arms were fake. And with a closer look, the audience could see through the newly opened hole in her arm that the electronic wiring extended through her body. That she was just a robot. Penny had already disconnected the wires after being cut through, to make sure no other wires could threaten her.
Everyone gasped at this sudden turn of events. This savage moment. The blades all dropped down to the floor. The silence was deafening. The amount of negativity in the air rising at this. Pyrrha could only stare in horror at what she had just done. Ozpin stood up from his seat as he saw Penny's limbs falling off her. Port and Oobleck stared in shock. In an Atlas laboratory, Penny's creator, Geppetto Polendina, could only grip the armrest of his chair tightly. He had just seen his beloved daughter's arm be torn off. Ironwood was also standing in shock at this sudden turn of events.
In the distance, miles away from Vale, The Grimm turned their attention towards the Colosseum. They could taste the negativity from the city of Vale. It was just too tempting. And so, the vast majority of the Grimm started to head towards Vale.
Ruby had just gotten back out to the stadium just to see Penny on her knees, her right hand and left arm completely detached from her. She was too late. She fell down to her knees and started to cry.
Mercury had managed to catch up in time to see that their job was done. Grinning, he left the stadium to get ready for the next phase.
Emerald had already gotten up to leave. Everyone was still in shock that nobody noticed her walking through to the stairs. She didn't expect to suddenly be distracted, and looked behind her just to see an empty chair. Shrugging it as an accident from one of the other people besides the chair, she continued to walk towards the exit. She still had her weapons behind her, as she managed to smuggle it in with the help of Neo. What she didn't notice was Ren following right behind her, his own Semblance activated. Emerald was the cause of this. And he would see to it what and/or why.
Nora gasped when she saw it on a television set she was passing by. Then she hid behind a wall as 2 more guards were shooting at her. She gritted her teeth. These punks really were annoying her. She wanted her hammer so she could BREAK SOME LEGS!
Jaune had been busy fighting. He took a peek to see his Aura reserves were at 40%. Aurelian's was at 30%, Boyd at 50%, and Vlad at 77%. Taking on three Huntsman had been taxing. Especially since one of them was a fully trained Huntsman with his two sons acting as backup. Jaune had not time to try to use full immersion link. He need some time and room to even use it. Something they wouldn't let him. He then noticed that the stadium had gone silent. Boyd and Aurelian both noticed it too, and stopped to see what was going on. Vlad was continuing to stare down Jaune. This boy had been an irritant long enough! Then, they all looked at the television that happened to be near them to see a replay of Penny's arms being torn apart.
"What the?" shouted Boyd out loud.
'She's a robot!' Jaune mentally shouted.
"Well, that does explain a lot," murmured Alaerth, "She didn't seem to be a living being. Someone with flesh and bones. Her scent always seemed off."
"What I'm worried is about all this negativity," said Aryz quietly, "This could attract Grimm. Many people could die."
Everyone was staring at the kneeling Penny. She seemed to not even be moving. Believing her to be dead, the people whispered in fear.
"Broadcast, what are you doing? Kill the feed!" shouted Oobleck into his earpiece.
"Something's wrong! We don't have control of the cameras! We can't even stop the broadcast!" a voice replied back.
"What!? How is that possible?" interrogated Oobleck. Suddenly, Penny stood back up, scaring everyone in the stadium.
"I'm okay!" yelled Penny, causing the everyone to facefault at this.
"Penny! Are you alright!? I... I didn't mean for this to happen. I'm sorry!" cried Pyrrha.
"It's alright," said Penny, "My arms are fixable. I'm still combat ready!"
Pyrrha looked down to see electricity sparking from the new holes. It was very obvious that Penny should not be okay.
Emerald had almost fallen over when she heard Penny say those words. So Penny didn't die. But it was enough, still. The amount of negativity in the stadium and Vale had already been cast. She continued to walk away.
Suddenly, video feed changed before them into an ominous bright red background with a black queen chess piece hovering in the middle of the background. The rest of the world had the same image. The hijacking of the CCT had begun.
At Atlas, in a private room, Whitley leaned back as he smiled to enjoy what his program had just done. He had been in a bad mood when he saw Weiss was capable of summoning. He would constantly annoy her about that, and now he couldn't.
Soon, a female voice began to ring out for everyone to hear. For all of Remnant to hear, and many of them would remember her words.
"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident," began Cinder. She was standing at a rooftop in Vale, speaking through her Scroll. She had the master control in her hand. "This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both."
Ironwood grimaced when he realized who she was talking to, and rose from her seat, marching up the steps towards the commentator box. He looked around and saw Emerald was already gone and grinded his teeth. He should've posted guards to pay attention to her, but he had put Jaune and Ren's theories off as insignificant. Something that was biting him back in the rear.
"They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here?" continued Cinder, "One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference."
Back in the fairgrounds, Weiss and Blake were gaping at the hacked screen back at the Shopkeeper's stall. Several of Junior's men were panicking, getting their weapons ready.
At the city of Vale, Winter, Xanthe, and Saffron could only look in horror as they were watching the broadcast at a cafe.
"And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither."
Junior was at his bar, fuming. This woman was trying to discredit Jaune's mates! First Yang, and now Pyrrha? This had gone far enough.
"Lock and load, boys!" shouted Junior to his men, who had been gaping at the screen. At the sound of Junior shouting orders, they responded immediately. Going to their rooms to clean up. To prepare. To get ready to dive into a fight if necessary. Melanie and Militia were double checking their weapons. Junior hefted out his bazooka bat. He tried to call Jaune earlier to see if he was alright, but he wasn't answering his Scroll. Growling he barked out some more commands.
"I want transports ready! We have people to help out! We got a young master and his mates to save!"
"Anyone who's slow gets extra punishment," said Militia sadistically as she licked her claws. The gang quickly moved faster. Melanie and Miltia looked at each with worry for Ren.
Yang Xiao Long was listening to the speech from her windowsill before looking back into the room. Taiyang was there, listening to the broadcast in shock. Zwei could only bark to get them back to reality.
Raven and her crew were watching the broadcast with interest. Naturally, most of the bandits were already planning on how to use this to their advantage. Raven, however, had other concerns. Was Yang going to be safe? With Taiyang, perhaps. But she couldn't shake the feeling that just by himself, it wouldn't be enough. Her motherly instincts were coming out more and more. She cursed herself for that. It seems like the trip to Beacon had a much bigger impact than she thought. She closed her eyes to meditate about her decision. Then, Summer's face suddenly appeared in her mind. And she wasn't smiling. That made her blood run cold. To see an upset Summer was something she never wanted. She knew her choices, and she knew what she had to do. She stood up, surprising her clan. She slashed a portal open.
"Where are you going?" asked a bandit member.
"To fulfill my rule of one," replied Raven, "Duncan, you're in charge now. I don't know how long this will take."
At that, she entered in her portal.
"Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the Tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Even with the help of the 'angel', people died. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is... equally undesirable. Our Kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark."
Two Atlas soldiers were watching the message on their Scroll. They had been posted at the border of Vale, to be on the lookout. They heard many stampeding footsteps and quickly turned around to see Grimm flooding their view. They opened fire, trying to get rid as many as they could. Other patrols were also dealing with the same problem. One of them decided to hit the emergency button before putting it as level 9.
"So I ask you: When the first shots are fired... who do you think you can trust?" finished Cinder as she looked across Vale with a malevolent smile.
The screen cut off to complete static.
"The feeds are all jammed! We can't get a message out!" shouted Oobleck to Port.
"Will somebody tell me what in the world is happening!?" asked Port to the technicians.
Suddenly, the sound of the wailing alarm could be heard all around the Colosseum. Even in Vale, the alarm was going off. The screen was flashing orange, with the word CAUTION on it.
"Alert. Incoming Grimm attack. Threat level: Nine. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner," announced a synthesized voice.
At this, the crowds began to flee, screaming wildly and completely ignoring the order to be calm. A threat level 9 had never been seen before for Vale! The highest they had ever gotten was a level 6. The most recent one being the Breach of Vale a few months ago.
Ironwood entered the announcer's box, grabbing a microphone, before telling everyone not to panic. Suddenly, a giant Nevermore appeared on top of the arena's domed force field, screeching loudly as it clawed and pecked at the shield.
"How did it get past the kingdom's defense?" asked Sun in shock.
"It seems that this Grimm was not alone," noted Yatsuhashi as he looked up to see more flying Grimm.
Back at the 'family reunion', Jaune looked at the Arc family.
"Can we do this later? Whatever's going on, we have a duty to stop it. We can settle our grudges later, but right now we have a job to do now," asked Jaune.
"No," replied Vlad calmly, a voice filled with spite, "This takes precedence over everything else. Your existence must be erased."
"Father," said Aurelian softly, "We cannot deny that Jaune is a stain to the Arc family but as much as I hate to admit it, he is right, we are Huntsmen. It is our job to guide people to see our greatness, not to abandon them. Plus, this is a threat level 9. We cannot just ignore this."
"And we won't," smiled Vlad, "We just need to kill him before we help others. If they ask, we can just say he was part of the group that's causing this trouble, or maybe claim some Grimm got to him and killed him, we'll just have to get our weapons… a bit more bloody than we'd please, but it won't be anything a wet rag cannot fix."
"Fine," growled Jaune. He immediately tried to use a full immersion link but had to cancel it when Boyd fired a few shots. He retaliated with sniper fire, infusing wind Aura into it for penetration.
Nora was getting pissed. Why didn't she bring her hammer! Oh right, rules stating not allowed to bring weapons in Colosseum unless for a fight or emergency. Some people bypassed this rule by either hiding them or disguising them. Her hammer, however, couldn't do that. It was too obvious. As she rummaged through her pocket for another Lightning Dust crystal, she touched her Scroll. She facepalmed at this. She should've just called for help! She immediately began calling for Pyrrha and Ren.
In his offices, Ozpin gripped his cane tightly as he saw Vale come under attack by the Grimm. Behind him, Qrow and Glynda had arrived.
"Get to the city!" ordered Ozpin. Before Qrow could say anything, Ozpin gave them a fierce look.
"NOW!"
Qrow and Glynda exchanged looks before deciding to follow orders. Sure, Ozpin would be the only one to defend Amber, but it should be enough. Saving more lives was important. They quickly ran, going into the city as fast as they could.
Ozpin picked up his scroll to dial to Ironwood, waiting impatiently.
Ironwood was watching the Nevermore trying to break through the shields when he heard his Scroll ring. He looked down to see it was Ozpin. He gulped in fear. He never explained about Penny to him. He picked it up before stammering out, "Ozpin, the girl... I-I can explain!"
Ozpin ignored that as there were more precedent matters, "You brought your army to my Kingdom, James. Use it."
Ironwood's face turned back to determination before dialing to his ships, ordering them to attack all Grimm in sight.
Back at the ships, an Atlas ship captain was barking orders as fast as he could. All turrets were firing, into the Grimm hordes, decimating them, but there were just too many of them. Hundreds of thousands. He spoke into his scroll, commanding the Blue Two and Three to fall into defensive position. Blue One had been overrun. Blue Three responded, but Blue Two's communications was silent. He kept asking for their status.
In Blue Two ship, the bridge was wrecked, computers sparking, and soldiers dead. A pair of high boots was walking through the destruction, wearing an Atlas uniform and holding a pink umbrella. Neo grinned as she walked to the jail cells. She had infiltrated the ship easily and killed off all the soldiers. She stopped at one before opening it.
"Well... it's about time." Rang a voice from the shadow. Neo grinned as she held out a familiar looking bowl hat and a cane. Roman Torchwick stepped out from the shadow. He was free again and inside an Atlas battleship. Just as planned.
"We need to get moving," said Pyrrha to Penny, "Can you still fight?"
Penny nodded as she manipulated the six swords that had trapped Pyrrha's weapon back to herself. She could easily restore the connection to those swords. The other 8, though, she had forcefully disconnected the wires from her back. She wouldn't be able to use those until she got back in for repairs. Pyrrha quickly used her Semblance to recall her weapons back before turning to Penny.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "I didn't know you were... a robot. I would've never -"
Penny waved her off, saying it was okay when Pyrrha's scroll suddenly rang. She picked it up.
"Pyrrha! Ren! Jaune's in trouble! Vlad and his sons are trying to kill him! And they bribed guards to block my way! I don't have my hammer!" shouted Nora.
Pyrrha gasped at this. She would not let her future husband die! He had promised to protect her no matter what, and she would gladly do the same for him!
"Go," smiled Penny, "I can tell he means a lot. I can handle myself here."
Pyrrha nodded and rushed out, hoping to find where Jaune was.
At the airships, Blue Two suddenly turned towards the other ships and began to fire at the engine of the closest one. That ship collided with the another ship before a series of explosions erupted on both ships, sending them tumbling down to the waters below. Vale had just lost its Aerial defense.
"Woo-hoohahahaha! Oohh, it is good to be back!" cackled Roman as Neo stood by his side, smiling.
Ren had been tracking Emerald silently. His eyes narrowed as he saw Emerald meet up with Mercury. So they were right! Mercury had faked in injury. He felt his Scroll go off and picked up. His eyes widened in fear and shock at Nora's message. He immediately decided to abandon this mission to look for Jaune. As he was about to leave, he saw several Bullheads suddenly appear. The doors opened to reveal the White Fang was invading. He saw that in one of them was Adam Taurus. The leader of the Vale branch. Blake had told them all about him at one point.
"Bring them to their knees!" ordered Adam as Emerald and Mercury got onto a Bullhead. They needed a ride down for the next phase. Another Bullhead opened its door, revealing several Grimm. Ren's eyes widened as Grimm started to jump off, ready to rip apart whatever it could. Ren quickly changed his bullets to explosive rounds and immediately fired at a Bullhead containing Grimm.
To the White Fang, they were surprised, as well as Emerald and Mercury. At one point, there was nobody there. The next second, a man wearing green suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was firing at a Bullhead. The said Bullhead took too much damage from the bullets and started to spiral out of control, down into the city, taking it's load of Grimm with it. Before anyone could do anything to the man, he suddenly disappeared again.
"Was that?" began Emerald.
"Lie Ren," finished Mercury, "Looks like he was following you the whole time, and you didn't notice."
"How?!" cried Emerald. "I should've been able to tell if someone was following me."
"No use now," growled Adam, "I can't sense him anymore."
He pulled out several vials of green liquid before throwing them at five Creepers, two Beowolves, and an Ursa. They instantly transformed into the mutant forms.
"Happy hunting," laughed Adam as the Bullheads pulled away from the stadium. They had other places to be, more 'justice' to be served.
All around the Colosseum, more Bullheads were releasing Grimm and throwing the mutation formula on them. The guards stationed there had no idea how to fight these sickly green looking Grimm, and panicked.
Pyrrha and Ren had met up with Nora, who called in her weapon, and were running to where Nora heard the explosions. They had to deal with both regular Grimm and mutant Grimm.
"Why are these versions here?" wailed Nora.
"It seems that Dr. Merlot escaped, and is now in league with the White Fang, along with whoever Emerald and Mercury are working for." guessed Ren.
"So you and Jaune we're right… It doesn't matter. We cut through!" shouted Pyrrha.
"What's with these Grimm!?" shouted Aurelian as he dealt with the incoming Grimm wave.
Vlad ignored his son, as he was too busy trying to kill Jaune. Jaune felt his arms getting sore as he mostly tried to parry Vlad's sword. It was getting heavier and heavier with each swing. Jaune quickly switched to the shotgun on his shield and fired all his bullets, infusing them all with fire and shadow Aura for damage and impact, hoping to dissuade Vlad. It worked, but he had left himself open.
"Gotcha!" shouted Boyd in glee as he grabbed Jaune's arm, "Now your Semblance is mine!"
He started to attempt to steal it. However, he made a huge mistake. He was provoking the dragons. And when one provoked them, they shouldn't incite their wrath.
Boyd found himself in a mindscape. He looked around in confusion before shrugging. He had dived into other people's minds before. Part of his Semblance involved going into someone's mind for a brief moment before taking their semblance. However, before he could do so, he found himself staring at a very angry red scaled dragon. The dragon's pupils were in slits. Boyd slightly shook in fear before grinning.
"So, you're the source of Jaune's power. Well, it's mine now!"
"Foolish one," growled Lung Wang, "Did you really think you can control my power so easily? That you deserved it? That you can just steal it? We are bound to Jaune because he has not only been chosen, but he has proven himself worthy."
"I'm a true Arc," yelled out Boyd, "I am more worthy than Jaune."
"The fact you merely use a name as one for judgment already disqualifies you," sighed Lung Wang, "Still, you want something right?"
Boyd nodded his head in excitement. He would regret it immediately.
"Then taste the wrath of a dragon!" roared Lung Wang as he took a deep breath and spat fire so hot that upon contact, it incinerated Boyd and the ground around him.
Boyd screamed in pain and let go of Jaune. He looked at his arm to see that second degree,third-degreeird degree burns from just touching him.
"What are you, freak?" trembled Boyd before he recollected himself and used another Semblance he had stolen.
Jaune found himself stuck in a prism, one that was very similar to the one Pyrrha had been in. It was Prism Trap.
"Excellent. Now keep him in there as I build up my momentum," grinned Vlad as he used his Semblance to power his strikes. He started to get closer and closer.
Jaune frowned before putting his shield on his back and his sheath in his belt, transforming it back to normal. His knees were slightly bent, right foot forward, and left foot back. His right hand was on the grip of his sword, holding it tightly while his left hand grasped the sheath. He was positioned as far back as the trap would let him.
Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora had arrived to see Vlad ready to swing his blade down at Jaune. Pyrrha recognized the trap that Jaune was in and screamed. She pulled out Milo and shot at Boyd, distracting him. Ren and Nora were charging in, but their path was blocked by Aurelian and some Grimm. They all watched as the Prism Trap dissolve right as Vlad was swinging his Great sword at an angled downward arc. One that would cleave Jaune in half.
Jaune however, was not idle. As soon as he saw the trap dissolve he took a step forward, left foot in front before drawing out his sword from his sheath at speeds unheard of. They saw two blades were about to meet.
'Fool,' thought Vlad, 'Struggling to the end. I'm using a Greatsword, with more weight, higher density, crafted from the finest blacksmiths. Not to mention I'm using full power with my Semblance. There is nothing that can stop my blade!'
Jaune had also streamed as much Aura into his blade as he could. The dragon's powers seeped into the sword, too, making it glow brightly. Vlad had made a huge error when giving Crocea Mors to Jaune. He thought it was just a rusty old blade. That could be far from the truth. Nobody, save for the dragons, knew the true legend of the sword's origin, but the blade was crafted by a legendary blacksmith. Blessed by the heavens above, the sword material was made of metals not from Remnant. A legendary blade, capable of being able to handle all seven dragon's powers into it. Any other sword would easily shatter from such power.
As the swords crashed into each other, there was a bright flash of light, forcing all those not part of the fight to close their eyes. A sword being broken could be heard, followed by the sound of flesh being cut.
As the viewer's eyes adjusted, Boyd and Aurelian were grinning. There was no way Jaune could've won. As the dust cleared from the clash, their eyes bulged. For standing there was Jaune Arc, his sword perfectly fine. And on the ground was Vlad Arc, his Great sword broken in half, and bleeding from his chest. The other half of his blade was embedded into a wall.
Jaune sheathed his sword and put his shield on his back, tired from the fight. His aura levels were now at 10%. He looked down at Vlad, who was still conscious, but growling in anger. Jaune noticed that Vlad still had more Aura than him, and made a grunt of annoyance. In terms of tournament rule battle, Jaune would've been the one to lose as he had less Aura than Vlad. But in a real fight, Jaune was the victor. Not only that, but Vlad had gotten too cocky and didn't even think that Jaune could block or even destroy his attack, leaving no room for him to try to dodge when his sword broke. So it was basically he lost the battle but won the war. Still, he needed to let them all know his feelings about the Arc name.
"I'll only say this once," declared Jaune, "I have no interest in the Arc family. Give the title to Aurelian, I don't care. But stop trying to kill me. If you intend to pursue this path, then I will not hesitate to cut you down. You and your sons."
At that, he turned around to leave. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora were starting to run towards Jaune to help him. They all called out his name in happiness, and Jaune gave smiled back at them. With them all together, everything would be fine. That was when it happened.
Suddenly, a Bullhead appeared before them and started to fire in between them. Jaune was stuck, trying to avoid the shots when the Bullhead started to concentrate fire on him specifically. Three Mutant Creepers had gotten behind him. Jaune was about to turn around to deal with them when the Bullhead's side doors opened to reveal Adam. He shot the three Mutant Creepers. Jaune looked behind him to see Adam with a malevolent grin as the Mutant Creepers started to build up power for an explosion. He had no time to jump and sprout his wings, much less dodge. Jaune couldn't even grab his shield. The only thing he could do was to helplessly cross his arms for protection as the Mutant Creepers exploded, sending him flying off the Colosseum.
They all witnessed Jaune's Aura shatter around his body as he fell down to the city of Vale, completely unprotected. One blast was enough to take out the Aura of any grown Huntsmen or Huntresses, but three of them at once, with Jaune weakened from battle? Jaune had no chance. For NPR, they had to watch the whole thing in slow motion in their minds as they watched Jaune be blasted off from the explosion, unable to do anything. They felt their hearts stop when the Aura crackled and disappeared from Jaune's body. Their bodies started to move, but they felt like their limbs weren't obeying them as it was also going in slow motion. They couldn't urge their own bodies to move faster.
"NOOO!" screamed Pyrrha, trying to use her Semblance to catch him. But it was too late. He was out of her reach, plummeting to his doom without Aura and unconscious.
"One down, one more to go," grinned Adam. Mercury and Emerald, who were still on the Bullhead, frowned. They didn't know Adam had been planning this part out. Cinder would not be pleased to hear that one of the potential recruits she wanted had just been killed by their "ally".
"Get us down to Vale," shouted Adam to the pilot. The pilot nodded when he felt his controls stiffen. He tried to force the airship to move, but it wasn't budging. That's when he noticed the ship seemed to have an ominous black glow around it. Everybody else noticed it, too.
"That's not good," gulped Mercury. They looked to see Pyrrha with her hands raised. Her face filled with nothing but pure rage and a small hint of sorrow.
"You're not going anywhere except to the afterlife!" roared Pyrrha as she manipulated the ship with her hands. She made a sort of tearing gesture, with her left hand holding the main bulk of the Bullhead while she tore the wings off with her right hand.
The people in the Bullhead tried to open fire, but Nora and Ren beat them to it, already firing at them. They had no choice but to shut the doors for cover. Pyrrha quickly tore off the other wing before lifting it up into the air. She then threw it down with all her might. The Bullhead went careening towards the ground at almost mach speed. Many of the people inside it couldn't move! A few seconds later, Pyrrha saw with satisfaction that the Bullhead blew up upon impact. With luck, they were all dead. But it didn't change anything. They had just lost Jaune Ryu-Long, their leader.
Andd... done! Well, since Jaune just died, guess my story ends! Marking it as complete. See ya on my next story! And now to run to my shelter.
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Just kidding! Real notes below.
And the first casualty... is Jaune?! What will happen next? Find out next time, as I'll upload the next chapter on Wednesday at the strike of 12 am! Pacific coast time! Of course, with that, it could mean fanfic will take a bit of time before it does upload, but yea!
Alright, I'd like an honesty check. Who thought I was going to do that to Jaune? I did kinda hint it when Adam found out about Blake and Jaune XD. Rofl Plot twist!
Review if you can! Each review will bring me closer to my next goal, as I've finally cleared the 300k viewers! Thanks for reading my story!