Ashes…Ashes…
Outside Beacon Academy
"Sorry, but I don't know anything about a girl named Cinder," a Haven academy student told Sho before heading into the school.
"Thanks anyway," Sho said, upset that he received no answers from another student. 'This doesn't make sense,' he thought to himself. 'How is it possible that no one from Haven would know anything about Cinder's team?' he asked himself, trying to figure it out. 'Any team that skilled entering a tournament wouldn't go unnoticed,' he continued thinking while making his way toward the front gate.
As he made his way to the gate, Sho spotted Aptom standing outside of the school, waiting for the young Guyver.
"No luck finding your answers," Aptom said, already knowing the answer.
"No," Sho said as he stood next to the Lost Number commander. "How much longer do we have until the attack starts?" he asked, wanting to turn his attention to more pressing matters.
Aptom looked up at the Amity Colosseum, the memories he acquired from some White Fang members gave him enough information on how the attack will start and what would be used. However, the exact time of when the attack will start was sketchy to say the least.
"All I can say is that it'll happen around the time of the final match, and someone called Adam will give his little followers the signal," Aptom told Sho.
"And the White Fang will be using several Grimm that they managed to capture?" Sho asked, worried about how these terrorists plan on using the creatures of Grimm in their attack.
"Try enough Grimm that'll overrun these kids and soldiers," Aptom said. "I wonder how many of them will actually stay and fight," he added, not believing that any of these students will make much of a difference.
"If you had told me about this earlier, then we might have been able to stop it before it started," Sho said, still upset with Aptom not telling him about the attack sooner.
"You'll be fine during the attack, and that's all that matters to me," Aptom dismissively told Sho, annoyed with the boy's concern for the students of this school. "Besides, isn't it their job to be able to fight against these weak beasts?" he retorted. "And if several of them die, then the ones at fault would be the teachers for failing to prepare them for this job," he added.
Sho didn't reply, instead he focused on making sure that no one was near them. While he had gotten used to people seeing him bio-boost, Sho wasn't sure the people of Remnant were ready to see another person transform into a humanoid monster.
"I guess, we should get going to Vale then," Sho said as he moved away from Aptom. "GUYVER!" he shouted, donning his bio-booster armor.
Aptom didn't say anything as he transformed into his Fourth form. Once the two of them had finished changing forms, the two warriors from Earth took to the air and flew toward Vale to prepare for the White Fang attack.
Amity Colosseum
The final match was about to begin as the crowd cheered for the two combatants. Representing Beacon Academy was Pyrrha Nikos of team JNPR and the four-time champion of Mistral Combat tournaments and Penny Polendina, representing Atlas Academy. Both students had displayed impressive skills and won their matches leading up to this final match. However, one of the combatants was not as focused as her opponent.
Glancing at the crowd, Pyrrha spotted her teammates, Ruby, and many of her classmates cheering her on, but a few that she knew not being present such as Yang due to what had happened after the blonde's match as well as Weiss and Blake, both were most likely at the festival grounds. She also did not see any signs of team CRDL, or Sho among the crowd. The lack of team CRDL did not bother her, but Sho's absence was quite a surprise. Pyrrha had hoped that Sho would be here so that after the match she could talk to him once again about what Ozpin had told them. Unfortunately, the young woman would not have time to think about what to say as she had a more pressing matter to focus on.
"Sal-u-tations! Pyrrha Nikos!" Penny greeted her opponent in her cheery tone. "It is an honor to finally meet you!" she shouted excitedly.
Instead of responding in kind, Pyrrha simply gripped her weapons in an attempt at appearing determined to fight in this match despite being very reluctant to begin the match.
"This is going to be so much fun!" Penny declared, unaware of Pyrrha's lack of response or the visible reluctance in her posture.
Another part of Amity Colosseum
Having dealt with the people inside, Lisker disengaged his armor and pulled out a thumb drive from his pocket. The thumb drive for some strange reason resembled a black queen chess piece, which he had received from Cinder earlier today. He looked at the port on the control board and without a second thought inserted the thumb drive into the port.
"That should make it easier for that woman to continue with her plans," Lisker said to himself before heading for the door. "Now all I need to do is deal with these so-called 'future defenders of humanity' and Fukamachi," he added, exiting the broadcasting room.
Before closing the door, Lisker glanced back at the monitors to see the cameras focusing on Pyrrha and Penny. A small smirk on his face, Lisker closed the door before making his way to the airbuses.
"Have fun with your match girls…" Lisker said as he continued walking. "For it'll be the last friendly thing either of you will be doing," he added, chuckling as he imagined what will happen to the two young huntresses-in-training.
White Fang location: Before the match between Pyrrha and Penny started
The White Fang lieutenant returned to where Russel was laying, his chainsaw sword in hand. behind him was Moreno. Both Faunus had sadistic smiles on their faces as they approached the member of team CRDL. The Beacon student could wait to see this human get what was coming to him after what had happened to him. It no longer mattered that the young Faunus wanted to become a huntsman to prove to the humans that his kind were equal to them, the hatred he felt toward Russel and others like him overruled that goal.
"You should count yourself lucky human," the lieutenant told Russel as he got closer. "You'll die for a good cause…" he paused for a moment to chuckle. "An example of what happens when you humans continue to look down upon us Faunus," he added as he revved up his weapon. "Besides, we all have to die at some point," he mockingly finished as he was about to lift up his weapon, unaware that Russel's eyes had opened.
"You…FIRST!" Russel shouted as he rose up while Zoaforming, lunging at the lieutenant, who was now taken by surprise by the transformation.
The lieutenant didn't have time to react as he was lifted off the ground by Russel, grabbing him by the throat with his right hand. Russel pulled the Faunus closer to him and brought his head toward said Faunus's right arm and bit into bicep. The lieutenant screamed at the top of his lungs as his right arm fell to the ground, still holding the chainsaw sword, before being thrown aside while Russel turned his attention to Moreno.
Moreno backed away in terror as he saw Russel spit out the chunk of the lieutenant's arm that was in his mouth. The memory of Russel beating his team so easily jumped into the front of his mind, resulting in his freezing in place as Russel jumped the Faunus boy, pinning him to the ground. The back of his head hitting the concrete floor jolted his mind back to the present, right into the sight of the bird-like Zoanoid's face.
"You're next," Russel growled out before picking Moreno up and throwing him into a large box crate, injuring the young Faunus, who cried in pain.
Russel ignored the traitor in favor of the White Fang member clutching his stump of an arm while crying out in pain. Rather than slowly approach, Russel jumped to where the one-armed Faunus was, causing said Faunus to look up to see the monster towering over him.
"N-n-no…please…" the muscular Faunus whimpered as he tried to back away, practically begging for mercy as tears poured out of his eyes but were hidden behind his mask.
Russel didn't say anything, instead he lunged forward and with his beak and claws tore into the screaming Faunus as his claws ripped and tore into the lieutenant's flesh.
Moreno watched in horror as Russel ripped the screaming White Fang lieutenant's limbs and organs out and flung them everywhere. He couldn't block out the screaming from the still living lieutenant before he heard the sickening ripping sound as Russel tore the man's head off from his body. His eyes focused on the now standing Russel stood up, holding the severed head of the White Fang lieutenant in his large clawed right hand.
Russel turned his head toward Moreno before crushing the head he was holding like it was orange. Blood, bones, brain matter, and eye balls splattering all over the floor underneath his hand as Russel focused his attention on the older Beacon student. With his would-be killer dealt with and his focus on Moreno, Russel spotted the chainsaw sword one the floor out of the corner of his right eye. The weapon was no longer running, meaning that it had stopped working and needed to be started up again.
Moreno watched as Russel walked up to the chainsaw sword and picked it up. The Faunus student tried to move from where he was while Russel was distracted. Before he could make a step forward, Russel's head turned to Moreno, causing the Faunus to freeze in place as Russel approached him while yanking the severed arm away from the weapon. Now that the arm was removed, Russel lifted the chainsaw sword up above the Faunus's head. It was clear to Moreno that not only did he make a huge mistake targeting the CRDL boy for revenge, but that he won't live long enough to make amends.
Russel was going to kill him.
"W-w-w-wait…AHHHH!" Moreno whimpered before screaming as the chainsaw sword hit his left trapezius area, breaking his collar bone before getting stuck in the bone.
While he fumbled a bit in grabbing the pull cord thanks to his large claws, Russel was able to grab enough of the cord, and yanked it to rev the chainsaw up. Moreno cried out in mixture of pain and terror as the chainsaw started but nothing happened. Russel tried again much to Moreno's rising horror, but the chainsaw wouldn't start, which didn't give Moreno any comfort as the Zoanoid's eyes narrowed into slits.
"Worthless piece of shit," Russel growled out before yanking the entire weapon backwards, ripping and tearing Moreno's flesh and collar bone further.
Moreno screamed as he was also pulled toward Russel by the force of the action. In the back of his mind, Moreno wondered why the White Fang members outside of this room weren't coming in to stop this. That thought was also the last one the young Faunus would ever think about as Russel tore his face to shreds with one powerful swipe of his left claw.
Russel watched as Moreno's body dropped to the ground with a thud, then looked at his left hand and looked at the blood on it. He started to remember the words of the Faunus with the horns before leaving.
"Experience their suffering…" Russel said lowly before clenching his clawed hand into a fist, piercing his own palm, but that barely registered in the young Zoanoid's mind. "I'll show them suffering," he growled as he made his way to the door.
On the other side of the door, the White Fang members that hadn't left yet had heard the screaming and thought it was the human that was finally being killed. However, a few of them thought it was strange when they heard the shrieking that didn't sound normal. If any of them were thinking about going in to find out what was taking so long, those thoughts were dashed when the door was kicked down. Many of them stepped back when they saw this massive green reptile/bird creature walked out of the room. A couple of the Faunus were shaking in terror as the creature sniffed the air while locking its eyes on each one of them. One of the White Fang members was able to see the mutilated remains of their lieutenant and the Beacon student that recently joined them.
"What…the fuck…is that?" one of the White Fang members said, shakenly holding onto his weapon in fear of the creature towering over them.
The bird creature let out a blood curdling shriek before lunging at the closest Faunus, pinning that Faunus to the ground before ripping his chest open with its large claws. That Faunus screamed for about five seconds before the monster plunged its claws back into his chest and crushed his heart. The killed Faunus twitched for a moment before he stopped moving while the creature looked at the other ones still inside the building.
"So…who's next?" the creature asked in a low sinister tone before standing up and crushing the dead Faunus's head under his left foot.
Amity Colosseum
The audience cheered as the fight between Pyrrha and Penny continued with Pyrrha parrying each of Penny's floating swords with her javelin before somersaulting away from one blade that nearly reached her. After completing her somersault, Pyrrha readied herself for the next move while Penny readied her blades for another barrage.
"My word! What a tremendous display from Miss Polendina!" Port complemented from the commentator's box.
Ignoring her teacher's remark, Pyrrha charged toward her opponent while spotting one of Penny's swords heading toward her. The red-haired warrior jumped over the sword, swinging her weapon down on Penny, only for her attack to be stopped by a large number of blades, forcing Pyrrha back on the defensive as Penny backs away as well.
On the sidelines, Pyrrha's friends cheered her on but the top student of Beacon's first years did not hear any of it. Instead, she was looking down to see her Semblance affecting her weapons in an unnatural manner for a brief moment.
'What?' Pyrrha mentally wondered what was wrong with her Semblance, but didn't have time to dwell on it.
Unknown to Pyrrha or anyone else, Emerald was concentrating her Semblance on Pyrrha as her role in Cinder's plan needed to be done.
Streets of Vale: Fifteen minutes before Pyrrha and Penny's match began
"Are you sure this is the way Cardin?" Sky asked as he noticed how they were heading closer to the docks.
"Those White Fang bastards sent the directions to me," Cardin said as he continued reading the directions. "I wouldn't trust anything those freaks say if it weren't for them having Russel hostage," he added, while taking a left turn down an alleyway.
"Less whining and more walking," Nebula interrupted the two boys. "We need to get to Russel now!" she said loudly.
"Hey Neb…" Dew said from behind her leader. "I know he's your boyfriend and you're worried, but don't forget Russel can take care of himself," she pointed out.
"Dew's right Neb," Octavia agreed. "I mean, you saw how he did during the team matches," she brought up. "He took that other team down by himself while these dorks stood around and did nothing," she added.
"We actually agreed to let him solo that match," Dove muttered, annoyed with how Octavia described the match despite it being true.
Feeling bad for the brown-haired boy, Gwen patted him on the back, causing Dove to turn his attention to the knife wielding ballerina, who gave him a warm smile.
"Don't mind Octavia, she doesn't really have a filter for her mouth," Gwen told Dove, causing Octavia to look aghast by her friend's words. "Besides, we really should be focusing on getting to Russel," she reminded everyone.
"I'm more worried about what we'll find when we reach them," Sky said as everyone reached the end of the alleyway.
"If they hurt one hair on his head…" Nebula growled while moving past Cardin.
"It's not Russel I'm worried about," Sky clarified, his mind going over all the horrors Russel could do to the White Fang as they got closer to the location of the hideout.
White Fang hideout
The few surviving members of the White Fang inside the warehouse ran out, wanting to get as far away from the monster inside as possible. Inside, Russel tore a chunk of the neck of a pinned down Faunus with his beak before crushing his head with the palm of his left hand. All around the Zoanoid, torn body parts littered the floor of the warehouse, weapons and ammo scattered as the footsteps of those that ran faded. Unfortunately for the White Fang, Russel wasn't done with them as he stood up and ran out of the warehouse, determined to find those Faunus and finish the job.
Outside the warehouse, a White Fang member made a right turn and bumped into a human woman. The woman screamed after realizing that she just encountered a White Fang member, but couldn't do anything as the Faunus grabbed her and threw her behind him, hoping that she would distract the monster as he made his escape. The woman spotted a strange creature rushing toward him, causing her to scream once again while trying to make herself as small as possible in hopes of not being killed by the monster.
Luckily for the woman, the monster ignored her and continued chasing after the White Fang member that threw her at it. Rather than take a look to see what was going to happen, the woman stayed where she was before passing out from fear.
As for the White Fang member, he made the mistake of turning around to see if the monster was no longer chasing him, only to see that it had not gone after the human woman. Instead, it had caught up to him with ease before pouncing upon him. The Faunus screamed as creature's beak tore into his face.
On the other side of one building, the three members of team CRDL and all of team NDGO heard the screaming.
"Was that…?" Cardin started to ask, but honestly, he didn't want to know the answer.
"It came from the other side," Dew stated.
"Russel!" Nebula cried out as she dashed away from the group and tried to find a shortcut so that she could get around the building.
"Neb, wait up!" Octavia called out to her leader before following suite along with the rest.
"What are the odds that we're just going to end up missing him by the time we get around these building?" Dove asked as he tried to spot a gap between the buildings.
"Pretty high," Sky answered, figuring that Russel was most likely hunting down the White Fang that held him prisoner.
Above Vale
Sho and Aptom had spent the majority of their time in the air looking over Vale in search for any unusual activity. Thanks to the Guyver's head sensors, Sho was able to pick up on any electromagnetic field or sound wave frequencies that may lead them to the White Fang and prevent them for commencing their attack. After several minutes of scanning, Sho had picked up on a particular frequency that caught his attention.
'This feels like…' Sho thought as he turned his head toward the northwest, focusing on the frequency before finally recognizing it. "Russel's over there," he said aloud, gaining Aptom's attention.
"What's that kid doing over there?" Aptom asked, looking at the same area as Sho.
"He's attacking someone!" Sho shouted in shock before taking off in that direction. "We need to find out what's going on!" he added with Aptom following close behind.
"It's possible he might have found some of the White Fang," Aptom suggested as the two continued northwest.
"Either way, we need to find out what's going on," Sho said as he and Aptom flew faster, in hopes of reaching Russel before things got worse.
Streets of Vale
Russel had pinned down another member of the White Fang and was about to tear the Faunus apart. Yet a thought occurred to the young Zoanoid, the leader of these White Fang grunts was heading for Amity. As he considered letting this one grunt live a little longer, the people around the Zoanoid watched in terror as he picked the terrorist up. The White Fang member was whimpering in fear, having already given up on trying to fight back after seeing this monster kill his comrades. The sounds of police sirens approaching almost sound like music to the Faunus's ears.
However, Russel wasn't about to let this terrorist get off so easily just because the VPD were approaching, at least not without telling him what he wanted to know. While keeping his claws on the Faunus, Russel backed away slowly, then picking the Faunus off the ground.
"Before I hand you over to the police, you're going to tell me one thing," Russel said, shocking the civilians as many of them were under the assumption that he was just some sort of new Grimm. "Give me the name of that horned bastard you work for," he told the Faunus.
The Faunus didn't say anything at first, the fear he felt was preventing him from talking. Annoyed with all of this hesitation, Russel pulled the Faunus closer to his face.
"You're starting to piss me off," Russel snarled as his tail blade moved closer to the Faunus's neck. "What…is…his name," he growled out slowly.
"…A…Adam…Taurus…" the Faunus stuttered before passing out in fear.
"Adam Taurus huh?" Russel repeated as the police finally arrived.
Once a police officer got out of his patrol car, Russel chucked the White Fang member at the cop's feet. The officer was caught off guard by what the Zoanoid did, but kept his gun trained on him regardless while his partner dealt with the terrorist on the ground.
"He's all yours," Russel said before jumping fifteen feet into the air and digging his claws onto the wall of the nearest building, ignoring the shocked expressions on the police's faces.
"FIRE!" one of the police officers said before shooting at the Zoanoid causing the others to fire as well.
The bullets that did hit Russel barely did anything other than annoy him, but he ignored the gunshots as he made his way up the building before vanishing from the police's sights.
Back on the ground, teams NDGO and CDL finally reached the area just in time to see police stop firing at the building Russel was climbing on.
"What's going on over there?" Dove asked, looking over the area before spotting the White Fang member being pushed into a police car.
"I'm going to guess Russel had something to do with it," Cardin said, figuring that was the mostly likely case for what happened.
"And where is he!?" Nebula snapped at her boyfriend's team leader.
"I just got here too, how should I know?" Cardin defended himself while backing away from the female team leader.
"I'm thinking the roofs," Octavia said, drawing everyone's attention.
"How do you know that?" Dew asked.
Wordlessly, Octavia pointed at the large figure jumping from rooftop to rooftop. It was a little tough to make out who or what it was, but the long tail and large claws were a noticeable feature to Russel's Zoanoid form.
When Nebula looked up to see what her friend was talking about, she started sprinting toward the direction Russel was heading.
"RUSSEL!" Nebula cried out as she continued running.
"They just can't stay still for more than five minutes," Sky complained as the six teens followed after Nebula, who was chasing after Russel.
Up on the rooftops, Russel continued jumping from one building to the next, his destination was the Amity Colosseum where the rest of the White Fang were heading for. Once he landed on another building, Russel stopped when he saw two familiar figures standing on top of the same roof as him.
"Sho…Aptom…" Russel said slowly, earning a nod of acknowledgement from Aptom.
"Russel, what happened?" Sho asked, noticing the blood on the Remnant Zoanoid's beak and claws.
"Some White Fang bastards caught me," Russel started to say before looking over his right clawed hand. "Big mistake," he added, flicking some of the blood off of his claws.
"Damn kid…" Aptom replied. "You would make one hell of a Chronos soldier," he praised the boy.
"How many more of the White Fang are left in the city?" Sho asked.
"I don't know, a couple or so," Russel answered, barely remembering how many he already killed. "All I know is that the larger group is heading there," he pointed to the floating arena.
"That sounds like it lines up with what you told me," Sho said to Aptom.
"Yeah, it looks like the attack will be happening soon," Aptom said as he looked down at the streets. "It probably would be better if the kid and I deal with any trouble that will happen here while you head to the floating lump of rock," he told Sho.
"Hold on, I'm not staying down here when that horned bastard is leading his little cult up there," Russel interjected.
"You'll be more helpful here on the ground while Fukamachi deals with real problem," Aptom told Russel. "Besides, I have a feeling that this horned bastard you're after won't be up there," he added.
"How would you know?" Russel wanted to argue, but was cut off by the sight of several airships appearing above them. "The fuck…" he said as he looked up.
"Looks like it's starting," Aptom said.
"What do…" Russel was about to ask but was interrupted by a loud broadcast.
This is not a tragedy…
'That's Cinder's voice,' Sho recognized the voice.
Amity Colosseum
Pyrrha could only look in horror at the sight in front of her. Her fight with Penny had tough but that meant nothing as she looked over the mutilated body of Penny. Pyrrha never meant kill the girl before her, but when she saw the insane number of blades sent her way, she had no choice but to use her Semblance send out a magnetic shockwave. The move worked, but in sending the blades back to Penny, the wires wrapped around the girl's left arm and stomach and easily tore her to pieces. It didn't even matter to Pyrrha that sparks were emerging from the severed areas of Penny's body instead of blood, as far as Pyrrha was concerned, she had just killed an innocent person.
Pyrrha was not the only one who was horrified by what had just happened. Many of the people watching were silent while Port and Oobleck were trying to get the broadcast of the match to stop being recorded.
"Broadcast, what are you doing!?" Oobleck shouted into his earpiece. "Kill the feed!" he ordered them, only to have no response. "Say something!" he continued shouting.
In the stands, Ruby could only look on in horror that her friend was killed by another of her friends. She couldn't believe someone as sweet and kind as Penny could be killed by the equally sweet and kind Pyrrha.
While everyone in the stadium were silent, the monitor screens started turning bright red as the image of a black queen chess piece appeared on each screen. Once the image appeared a female voice was heard through the loud speakers of the entire colosseum.
This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians…
The words of this mysterious woman made several of the people in the colosseum uneasy, whether it was because of the event that had just unfolded before them or the past few events such as the earlier outrage during this tournament, or the large amount of Grimm that attacked Vale before the festival even started. While those who were listening to this woman's voice, Jaune could only look at where Pyrrha was, mouth agape as he tried to wrap his mind around what happened to cause Pyrrha to react the way she did. He knew that his partner would never do anything like this, so something had to be wrong about all of this. Yet he couldn't truly figure out what it was because this woman was still talking.
…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.
Vale
Listening to his woman's words, Aptom didn't know whether to roll his eyes, if he could, at how self-righteous this terrorist woman was or laugh because, from what he had seen from his own research about this world's government, what she's saying holds some truth.
As for Sho, he clenched his fists, trying to keep his anger under control as he continued to listen to Cinder's speech.
'I knew she was using me, but I never thought this was what she was planning,' Sho thought to himself before he remembered one important piece from his meeting with Ozpin and his inner circle.
"When she dies, the one who took half of her power will get the other half,"
Sho's own words repeated in his head as it dawned on him about why Cinder was saying all of this.
"It was her…" Sho whispered as he used his head sensors to find Cinder before taking off, much to Aptom and Russel's surprise.
"Where's he going?" Russel asked.
"Probably going after the one whose talking," Aptom answered as he looked at the airships above. "But that's not our problem right now," he added as he saw Creatures of Grimm jumping out of the airships.
Amity Colosseum
They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil.
Hearing this, several of the students from Haven and Shade Academies looked at their Atlas and Beacon counterparts warily as the broadcast continued.
What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference.
Beacon Academy Dorms
"What in the world is going on?" one of the third-year students asked as she and many other students were flooding the hallways.
"Don't know, but we got a text from one of the teachers saying we're all needed outside of our dorms," another student replied while following the crowd.
"Probably wants us to be used as riot control or something," a third student joined in.
Regardless of the reason, the third- and fourth-year students of Beacon Academy were exiting their dorms and were heading out. Once the first couple of students opened the double doors, one of them spotted a figure standing twenty meters away from their location. The silhouette of the figure looked somewhat familiar to the students.
"Isn't that the first-year student with the armor semblance?" one of the students asked.
Another student looked at the figure to see it standing there with its hands over its chest. The figure pulled its chest open and particles started gathering around the chest area. The student's eyes widened in terror as he turned around to shout at his peers to turn around. However, there was nowhere for the students to go as the figure fired the charge particles at them.
The massive beam hit the students so quickly that many of them didn't have time to respond as they felt the searing pain of the beam burning away their bodies as well as the interior of the dorm, they were in into nothingness. The beam tore through the dorm, killing everyone inside as the size of the beam nearly encompassed the dorm, leaving very little of the building standing.
The one who killed the third- and fourth-year students was Guyver 2, who had just accomplished the second part of his job.
"Now that, that's been taken care of…" Lisker said as he closed the chest plates covering his Mega Smasher. "…it's time to have some fun," he added darkly before making his way toward Beacon Academy.
Fairgrounds
Weiss and Blake listened to the words of this mysterious woman along with many others, horrified by what had happened in the arena. Neither girl said anything, but they knew what this woman was talking about couldn't be true.
And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, and this horrible act. But that is not all as Ozpin has also kept secrets from the public such as harboring a member of a terrorist organization within his very school.
Blake's eyes widened in fear as the black chess piece changed to the picture of her without her ribbon.
Blake Belladonna, daughter of the former leader of the White Fang, Ghira Belladonna. Why would the Headmaster of a Huntsmen Academy provide asylum to someone who is responsible for many innocent people's suffering? Everyone knows what the White Fang has done and how they continue to spread hatred and suffering for both human and Faunus alike.
Feeling eyes placed on her, Blake did the only thing she could think of, she ran before anyone could say or do anything. She ignored Weiss calling out to her, there was no way she could defend herself because she understood what this woman was trying to do.
But that is not the only other secret Ozpin has been keeping from everyone.
The image of Blake changed to a recording from one of the hallways of Beacon Academy's dorms. It was the recording of Sho and Jaune talking, something Jaune had hoped that nobody would ever discover.
"Oh, why not, I might as well tell you too,"
Jaune's voice was heard, much to the boy's horror as he watched from within the arena as his secret was about to be revealed by himself.
'There was a camera in the hallway,' Jaune thought, shame flooding through him as he could only watch.
"I'm sure Cardin will just tell everyone anyway when he's had his fill of having me do his crap," the Jaune on screen said. "I faked my transcripts to get into Beacon,"
The Beacon students that were surrounded Jaune, Ren, and Nora looked at the blonde, angered and disgusted that this boy snuck his way into their school while they worked so hard to get in. Ren and Nora were shocked by this revelation that their friend and leader had lied his way into Beacon. This caused Ren to look toward where Pyrrha was still on her knees.
'Did Pyrrha know about this?' Ren mentally wondered as he tried to understand what was happening while the mysterious woman began to talk once again.
Now why would Ozpin allow someone with fake transcripts to enroll into his school? Did this boy even have the most basic of training? Did he have his Aura unlocked before entering? If not, then what would have happened to him if he were to be injured or worse while under Ozpin's care?
Those questions started to plague the civilian audience as they could not believe that the Headmaster of one of the four Huntsmen Academies would allow an untrained child to put himself in danger. The most outraged among the civilian populace were the parents of young children, as the thought of this boy could be seen as an example for their children to do the same reckless thing as Jaune.
That's not all that has been hidden from everyone as a few of Ozpin's students have kept a far more horrifying secret.
The next recording that was revealed had no video footage, but the voice was recognizable to the majority of the first-year students of Beacon.
"Should I just continue to pretend that everything is alright, that nothing happened in that village of sadistic Faunus, and forget about how that one Faunus tossed a crying toddler into that cauldron and boiling that little girl alive while the mother cried and begged for her baby's life?"
The voice of Sky Lark was heard, and the pain in his voice felt too real to be fake. When he mentioned that such a horrifying thing that could be done to a baby was done by a Faunus, many of the human students began to move away from the Faunus students. The Faunus students in turn tried to convince their human peers that there was no way that could be true. However, the woman continued to talk.
Personally, I do not know if what that young man said was true or not, but the possibility that such a village exists is very unsettling. And if it is true, then why hasn't anyone done anything to stop such an atrocity from continuing? Or how about how Ozpin overstepped his bounds and covered up the numerous deaths when the White Fang got a hold of one of Altas's new robots? Why would he and Atlas keep these secrets from the people? Was he so focused defeating Atlas in this tournament, that he simply ignored them, or did he think the people would forget about his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets? Or maybe this was his message to a 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. What I do know is that peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves.
Outside Amity Colosseum
Sho flew toward the floating landmass while hearing Cinder's speech. While Cinder's words ring a degree of truth about Ozpin and the way he conducted himself, the young Guyver wasn't sure if he agreed with her since what Cinder was saying could be a distraction.
"How could I be so stupid," Sho berated himself. "She's doing this to get everyone to fight each other while she sneaks off to where Ozpin's keeping the Fall Maiden," he continued as his head sensors picked up four large creatures flying toward him from his right side.
Sho was able to make out the shapes as Nevermores, each of them at least twenty or thirty feet long.
"I don't have time for this shit," Sho cursed as he readied himself for their attack.
The lead Nevermore flew straight for Sho, mouth opened wide as it was trying to kill the Guyver with one bite. As the Nevermore got closer, Sho dodged the black bird and fired a Pressure Cannon at its rear. The gravity blast tore through the Nevermore's back with little effort, causing the bird Grimm to dissolve into nothingness. The head sensors on Sho's head detected two more Nevermores flying toward him while the third one climbed higher in the air before stooping toward him. Turning around to face the two coming at him, Sho fired his Sonic Buster attack, destroying the Nevermores with ease before turning his attention at the one diving down at him.
Despite the speed the Nevermore gained from its higher elevation for its stoop attack, Sho's Control Medal was able to process the Grimm's attack at a much faster rate. This increase processing power allowed Sho to dodge the incoming attack, allowing Sho to grab a hold of the Nevermore's back before plunging his free hand into the Grimm's back, killing it with a much ease as he did its brethren.
As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there…is equally undesirable…
"How much of your words are even true Cinder?" Sho asked, turning his attention back to the colosseum before a new thought entered his mind. "She wouldn't be there while giving this speech of her's…" he realized the flaw in where he was going. "She would be heading for the school," he changed directions from Amity Colosseum and headed toward Beacon Academy.
Street of Vale
…Our kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark.
"Doesn't she ever shut-up!?" Cardin shouted as he smashed the head of a Beowulf with his mace.
Ever since that broadcast started, the Grimm started dropping from the airships that were above the city. After the initial shock wore off, the seven students called for their weapons lockers. At first, they all had to rely on their fairly crude hand to hand combat skills, or whatever improvised weapons they could get their hands on. The three human members of team CRDL were surprised to see how adept Nebula was in hand-to-hand combat compared to them and the rest of her team as she alternated between charging her fists with her plasma Semblance and throwing it plasma balls at the Grimm that attacked her before their weapons arrived.
"Just ignore her and focus on the Grimm," Octavia told Cardin as she slid around the Grimm, slashing at them with her Kris, aiming for their legs.
"Easier said than done," Cardin replied as he blocked the jaws of another Beowulf by using the shaft of Executioner. "She just keeps on talking," he complained.
So, I ask you: When the first shots are fired…who do you think you can trust?
"That better be the last time I hear her voice," Dove said as he fired shots at an Ursa, unaware of another Ursa approaching him from behind.
"Watch out!" Gwen shouted to Dove before throwing several of her knives at the Ursa.
"What…?" Dove said as the knives flew past him and hit the Ursa behind him, causing the beast to roar in anger.
That roar was enough for Dove to jump to his left to get away from the Ursa before shooting at it. The Ursa backed away for a moment before dropping to all fours and looked ready to charge at Gwen. Gwen drew another batch of her knives from her dress and was ready to throw them, but as the Ursa was about to charge at her, a large green object tackled the Ursa, pinning it to the ground.
Dove and Gwen were stunned as they saw the green object turn out to be Russel, who picked the Ursa up with his hands before ripping the Grimm's head in half.
"Man, are you a sight for sore eyes," Dove said as he stood up.
The Zoanoid looked at his teammate for a moment.
"Dove, in the entire year that I've known you, I've never seen your eyes," Russel pointed out as he impaled a Beowulf that tried to sneak up on him with his tail blade. "And what are you guys doing here anyway?" he asked.
"We were trying to rescue you," Dove told his teammate.
Russel looked at the Grimm filled street with civilian running in terror, police officers shooting at the Grimm from behind their cars, the rest of his team and team NDGO fighting before turning his attention back to Dove.
"Good job," Russel replied in the flattest tone he could muster in his current form.
"A little help here guys," Gwen called out as she kept her distance from another Beowulf while throwing her knives at it.
Dove and Russel looked at the ballerina before nodding their heads and moved into the help deal with the Grimm that was attacking her.
The Beowulf ignored Gwen's knives as it lunged at the girl, aiming to take her head off. Gwen spun to her right to dodge the Beowulf's attack and threw three more knives at its back. The knives stuck to the Grimm's back, but barely deterred the beast as it spun around to attack Gwen once again. Just as the Beowulf was about to lunge at Gwen once again, the wolf Grimm was knocked to its side by Russel, who pinned the Grimm down and impaled it with his tail blade. Another Beowulf popped up from behind Russel, but a couple of shots from Dove's sword distracted it enough for Russel to turn and jam its right hand into its chest before ripping it out of the Grimm's body.
"You know, it's kind of odd how most guns barely do shit against the Grimm," Russel lamented as he looked at where Dove was standing.
"Cut me some slack man," Dove said as he approached Russel. "Not everyone can turn into a badass monster like you," he pointed out.
Russel looked over his shoulder before pointing at Aptom, who landed on top of a damaged car, switching from his Fourth form into his Omega Blast form before charging at two Ursa. The Lost Number commander deployed his vibration lancers and sliced the two bear Grimm in half with ease before moving on to the next Grimm that tried to attack him.
"He doesn't count!" Dove shouted, remembering how Aptom wasn't even from their world.
"Now's not the time guys," Gwen interrupted the two boys. "We got more Grimm to deal with," she pointed out.
Russel stayed silent for a moment as he sniffed the air, much to the confusion of the two humans. Russel turned his head toward the west and spotted members of the White Fang approaching. The oddest part was how these Faunus were walking alongside the Grimm and weren't being attacked. The young Zoanoid wasn't the only one as the rest of team CRDL and team NDGO noticed this.
"KILL THE HUMANS!" a female member of the White Fang shouted as the other members of the White Fang and Grimm charged.
"They just won't cut us some slack," Cardin complained as he readied his mace.
"Gee…I wonder why?" Dew remarked as she gave the members of team CRDL a sideways glance, remembering that bit about the Faunus village the all-boys team had kept a secret from everyone.
"Bitch about it later," Nebula told her teammate as she switched her crossbow into its sword form. "We have to deal with this first," she focused her attention on the advancing terrorists and Grimm.
Before either Cardin or Nebula could give out a command to their teams, a familiar large reptilian bird creature blew right past them and struck down one of the advancing Grimm with ease before moving to the next one. The White Fang members stopped their advance when they saw the creature take down a third Grimm before focusing its attention on them.
"Russel…" Nebula said as she watched said person pounce on a White Fang member with bird wings, pinning the Faunus on the ground.
Russel's taloned feet were on the Faunus's wings while his hands were on his prey's ribs. The Faunus tried to break free by hitting the Zoanoid's arms with his weapon, but Russel didn't notice.
A sickening tearing sound could be heard before the pinned down White Fang member screamed in pain as he was flung toward an Ursa. Blood poured out of Faunus's back as most of his wings were still held down by Russel's talons. The Ursa in turn swatted the mutilated Faunus away before charging at Russel, much to Nebula's shock and causing her to switch her weapon back into its crossbow form.
"Move it Russel!" Nebula shouted as she aimed for the Ursa's head.
Hearing Nebula's voice, Russel sidestepped the charging Ursa, giving the purple haired girl an opening to fire two arrows at the bear Grimm's head. One of the arrows bounced off the Ursa's skull while the other hit it in the left eye. The Ursa roared out in anger as it swung its arms around before one of its arms was caught by Russel mid-swing. Russel impaled the side of the Ursa's head with his tail blade. As the Grimm dissolve, Russel turned his attention back toward the White Fang, causing them to flinch at he glared at each one of them while the Grimm continued to attack.
Inside Beacon Academy
Lisker slammed a student's head into the wall, crushing it in the process. Releasing his hold on the pulverized head, Lisker turned his head toward two more students who dropped their weapons and chose to flee.
"Now, that's not very "Huntsmen" of you kids," Lisker mockingly told the fleeing students before firing his head beam twice.
Each shot pierced the backs of the students' skulls, killing them instantly. Lisker's head sensors detected more people approaching his location from behind. Turning around to see several students wearing Haven and Atlas uniforms rushing toward him, Lisker unleashed his Sonic Buster attack, destroying their molecules with ease as many of them barely had time to complete their screaming before being essentially erased from existence.
"This is barely a challenge," Lisker lamented as he continued making his way throughout the school to continue his killing spree.
One female student from Shade academy tried to catch Lisker by surprise when he walked past an open door, but the bronze Guyver caught the girl by the throat.
"Not even close," Lisker said before tossing the girl up in the air for a moment before activating one of his vibration blades, vertically bisecting the girl in one strike.
The two halves of the student hit the floor, her blood and organs falling out after making contact with the floor.
Above Vale
Sho dodged a Griffon's attack before countering by slicing its head off as another Griffon tried to attack the floating Guyver. Barely reacting to the Grimm's attack, Sho fired a head beam right between the Griffon's eyes.
"What is with these things coming after me!?" Sho complained as another small flock of Nevermores fly toward him.
Wanting to get rid of the bird Grimm quickly, Sho unleashed a powerful Sonic Buster attack at the flock. With the constant assault of Grimm, Sho was starting to feel exhausted as he fired a Pressure Cannon attack at a Griffon flying at him, blowing its head off with ease.
"I won't be able to reach Beacon at this rate," Sho realized as he descended toward one of taller buildings to land on.
Once his feet touched the building, Sho's head sensors detected the presence of three individuals at least two buildings left of him. Taking a look, Sho spotted the figures standing on top of one of the buildings, two women and one man from what he could tell. The male figure was holding something away from him, which Sho suspected was a Scroll due to the size. Moving to the edge of the roof, Sho tried to get a better look at who they were.
On top of the building Sho was looking at, Cinder stood next to Emerald and Mercury looking over the carnage that was happening on the streets of Vale. She ordered Mercury to record everything, despite not really seeing any need for the footage as Cinder believed that everything was going as she planned.
"Cinder, look," Emerald said as she pointed at one of the buildings across from them.
Curious as to what Emerald was pointing at, Cinder spotted a familiar blue colored figure.
"Sho…" Cinder said softly as she looked at the Guyver with a smile on her face. "Focus on the city, I'll be heading for the Maiden," she told the two.
"What about him?" Emerald asked as she drew her weapons.
"Don't bother…" Cinder answered as she turned to leave her underlings. "I don't need either of you to throw your lives away," she told Emerald, causing the green haired girl to smile.
Making her way toward the edge of the building, Cinder turned to look at Sho once again.
"What will you do Sho?" Cinder whispered as she jumped to the next building before breaking into a sprint.
Beacon
With the chaos that was going on everywhere, Blake was actually surprised she made it to the school. However, the Cat Faunus's troubles were not over as she was stunned by the devastation that was seeing before here. Numerous bodies of students littered the halls, many of which were mutilated in ways that didn't match any of the Grimm. These attacks were more precise and were clearly done by weapons, weapons that were far deadlier than anything any Huntsmen or Huntress would use.
"No…" Blake whispered as fear build up inside as she broke into a run, hoping to reach her dorm room and to find Yang.
As she continued to run, Blake saw someone she had hoped to never see again. Inside the cafeteria was Adam Taurus, her mentor, cutting down numerous students. Once she made her way to the entryway, Blake's eyes widened in fear as she spotted Guyver 2 entering from another entry.
Lisker spotted Adam stabbing an Atlas student in the chest with his sword before taking notice of a somewhat familiar face a few yards behind the bull Faunus.
"It looks like you have a guess," Lisker said as he pointed behind the White Fang leader.
Adam followed the Guyver's finger and indeed there was someone standing before him.
"So, the reports were true…" Adam said as he looked over his former subordinate. "You should have kept on running Blake," he added.
"Adam…why?" Blake asked. "Why are you and the White Fang doing this?" she needed to know the answer of why her former mentor would go through with all of this.
"You should already know," Adam said as he walked toward Blake, stepping over a dead student. "We are doing this for the Faunus," he told her. "Like we always have," he added.
"No…not like this," Blake struggled to keep a hold of her weapon while Adam approached. "The White Fang was supposed to help humans and Faunus exist peacefully," she said.
'What a naïve fool,' Lisker thought as his head sensors started to detect someone approaching.
"You still don't get it," Adam said as he got closer. "Humans and Faunus will never be at peace with each other," he told Blake.
"But what about him?" Blake pointed at Lisker with her weapon raised. "He's a human underneath that monster suit!" she shouted in rage.
"I'm only playing nice until this job is done," Lisker told Blake. "After that, I could care less what happens to him and his followers," he added, coming off as very indifferent toward the whole ordeal.
Blake was stunned by how Lisker dismissed her words, that she didn't pay attention as Adam knocked her sword away and kicking her out of the cafeteria.
"Haven't I taught you that you must never allow yourself to be taken off guard," Adam scolded Blake like she was a child. "And it's as he said, our little alliance is only temporary," he told her. "That is the best you can ever get from humans, temporary cooperation!" he yelled. "That dream your father fed you is nothing more than that, a dream!" he added as he leaned down toward her. "And it's time that you wake up," he finished.
"BLAKE!" a female voice cried out, drawing everyone's attention to the source turned a corner revealing Yang.
Blake's eyes widened when she saw that it was Yang rushing down toward where she was. Yang's right arm was pulled back as she leapt into the air, ready to punch Adam. However, Yang's punch never reached Adam as Lisker got in between them and caught Yang's fist, her momentum being redirected as Lisker spun around for a moment before coming to a stop with his back towards the two Faunus.
"These two are in the middle of something," Lisker told Yang as he tightened his grip on Yang's fist, crushing her gauntlet with ease. "So please don't be so rude interrupting them," he mockingly added, continuing to crush Yang's hand.
Yang cried out in pain as she struggled to break free of Lisker's grip, yet the Guyver's hold was stronger. Lisker lifted Yang off the ground while continuing to tighten his grip causing the metal gauntlet to bend and apply more pressure onto the blonde girl's hand, resulting in her screaming more as she felt her bones snap. Yang's loud screaming rang in Blake's ears as she watched, helpless as she laid there in fear for herself and her partner.
"Stop!" Blake screamed before feeling a sharp pain in her stomach. Looking down, Blake saw that Adam's sword had pierced her stomach, causing her to cough up some blood.
Adam said nothing, all he did was keep Blake pinned down as he waited to see if his former pupil was actually just a shadow duplicate but the sight of Blake's blood told him otherwise.
'How pathetic,' Adam bitterly thought as he couldn't believe that his former subordinate would be this weak willed.
"B-b-b-Blake…!" Yang cried out painfully as she tried once again to break free of Lisker's grip.
"When will you kids get it…" Lisker said as he activated the vibration blade on his free hand. "that everything you do…" he added before tossing Yang higher up in the air. "amounts to NOTHING!" he shouted as he struck Yang with his vibration blade.
Blake watched in horror as Lisker cut Yang diagonally with such ease. She hoped that it was a shallow cut, but that hope was quickly dashed when she saw half of Yang's body, from her legs up to her right arm, dropped to the ground while Lisker grabbed the remaining upper half. The stunned look on Yang's face shifted into horror as Lisker grabbed her by the neck before throwing her to the ground between him and Adam. Blake could hear Yang gasping while Lisker walked toward the bisected girl.
Yang's breathing was very rapid as her mind was finally able to register what had just happened to her. She started screaming loudly as the two Faunus watched and Lisker turned around to face the bisected girl. The Guyver took a few steps toward Yang, who was still screaming in horror before Lisker's foot came down on her face.
Blake watched and listened as the sickening crunch sound replaced Yang's screaming as blood, bone, brain matter splattered the ground right before her eyes.
"N-n-n-no….NO!"
Author's note: Well, that took longer than expected, but I managed to get to the part I wanted to reach, the bloodbath. I'm sure I pissed off a lot of Yang fans even more than back in chapter two, but I'll be honest with all of you, Yang was always meant to die in this story mainly as a means of showing you that nobody is safe in this story. If I plan on killing someone in this story, they will die and main character status won't save anyone. So, unless the characters have a way of cheating death, then anyone in this story is fair game.
Also, don't expect this story to actually be following the canon of RWBY. I may not be watching the series anymore, but I do keep track of the current events of it, and I've come to the conclusion that there is no fucking way I make this story follow the canon storyline while altering it to fit with the Guyver lore. It would be a lot easier for me to simply just let the story go in its own direction while adding elements of the canon that would fit with the story.
Hopefully, I'll be motivated to keep writing after I finish the volume three arc, but I'll worry about that when I get to that point.