The fairgrounds were in chaos as civilians ran away from the hordes of Grimm. Atlesian Knight-200s were seen firing at the dark creatures and a vendor hid behind his booth when a group of Ursai run past. Blake and Weiss were then shown watching in horror of everything going on around them. Civilians continued to flee as Grimm continued to run amok and a dead Creep on the ground started to dissipate.
"I don't believe this..." Weiss said as Blake pulled out her Scroll.
"Yang, are you okay?" Blake asked the blonde through the device.
Yang, meanwhile, was running in the hallways of the dorms with Zwei. "I'm fine. Is Bayonetta with you? She's not answering her Scroll and I already checked with Ruby. She's not with her, either." She responded to Blake through her Scroll.
"No, she isn't." Blake said. At those words, Yang stopped in her tracks with a worried expression on her face. "Yang, I'm sure she's fine. She's part of team SCRN and your twin sister. She can take care of herself." She reassured her partner.
Yang closed her eyes and curled her fist into a ball. "Right." She said hesitantly, before she continued forward with Zwei and turned the next corner of the hallways.
"This can't be happening." Weiss said. "The whole school's in danger. All of our friends. Ruby... Dante..." Weiss said, worried about her crush/leader and her brother.
"I'm headed to the docks near the courtyard. The White Fang are releasing Grimm into the school!" Yang explained.
"The White Fang is here!?" Blake asked, alarmed. She received no answer, however, as through her Scroll, Blake heard the sounds of Grimm growling and her expression grew ever more worried. "Yang!" She cried out fearfully.
"Ugh! Gotta go! Be careful!" Yang told them before the call ended.
"Blake, what are we going to do?" Weiss asked worriedly.
"We're going to the docks, and we're doing our job." Blake said, pensively as she used her Scroll to call upon her rocket locker, which landed behind her and opened up to reveal Gambol Shroud. Weiss gave one last look at Blake before nodding in agreement.
Back at Amity Colosseum, the Nevermore screeched as it continued to weaken the force field that was keeping it from getting in.
"Warning: Safety Barriers Failing." The warning announcer, you guessed it, warned again.
As civilians ran past her in a panic, made her way to the arena. In said arena, Pyrrha, Penny, Kratos, Genos and Nu all glared upward at the Nevermore as the beast circled around the Colosseum. "PENNY!" Ruby cried, leaping into the robot girl's arms, crying as she nuzzled into her chest. "I was so worried. The people on those speakers. They were trying to use Pyrrha to kill you!" She said.
Penny was shocked at this, but hugged her friend. "Do not worry, Ruby! I'm fine! Though, sadly, without my weapons attached to me, I'm not very combat ready anymore." Penny said, looking down at her fallen swords.
Ruby hurried over, picking up two of the swords and hurrying back to Penny, handing them to her. "You should still be fine with two. Besides, you can probably crush them yourself." Ruby assured her.
"And I will be here beside you at all times, Penny." Genos added.
"Yeah! We got your back, sis!" Nu agreed.
Penny looked at all of them, smiling happily. "Thank you. All of you." She said.
However, the touching moment was interrupted by another ear-piercing screech from the Nevermore.
"PYRRHA! Kratos, Ruby, that thing's going to break in! You've gotta move!" Jaune screamed from the stands with the remaining members of Team JNPR.
"Nothing can stop it from getting in now. The only thing we can do is ensure it never leaves alive." Kratos said.
"Right! Get ready, everyone!" Pyrrha agreed, the warriors in the arena readying themselves to fight the beast.
Jaune, Ren, and Nora looked up and saw the force field flash as the Nevermore rose back up before diving back in. Unable to sit there and watch his mentor and girlfriend (kinda, maybe, sorta) stand there vulnerably, Jaune attempted to climb over the railing and into the arena.
"Jaune!" Nora said worriedly.
However, before he could jump into the arena, he felt someone grab him by his hood and pull him back. "Relax, dear, I think they've got this." Bayonetta assured him as she returned him to his seat.
Suddenly, the Nevermore completely broke through the holographic barrier and the force of it landing on the arena floor sent everyone skidding back a few feet, but they managed to brace themselves from the worst of it. The Nevermore screeched and lunged towards Pyrrha. The redheaded girl planned to deflect the monster and stab one of it's eyes, but suddenly, the Nevermore was knocked back by a red, twirling blur of roses, with the cause of the blur gripping one of Penny's swords and stabbing into the Nevermore, before jumping back down in front of Pyrrha.
"Ruby?" Pyrrha said in surprise.
"Leave her alone!" Ruby roared with an angered, determined expression on her face, pointing Penny's sword toward the Nevermore.
The Nevermore rose up and circled around the arena before lunging back down. Ruby held Penny's sword defensively. Suddenly, the Nevermore's eyes were taken out by Nu's swords, causing the giant demonic bird to trash around in the air in a panic, before Pyrrha used her magnetism to lift Penny's remaining swords and plunge them down deep into the Nevermore, keeping it pinned, allowing Penny to rush in and get two good slashes to either side of its beak, before Genos rocketed forward and came down on the Grimm's head with an axe kick, knocking it unconscious and allowing Kratos to jump on its back and wrap his swords around its neck and stab into it, before yanking back on the chains, pulling the blades through the beast's neck and decapitating it.
Suddenly, more Nevermore, nowhere near as big as the one that was just defeated, but still twice the size of most the students, poured in and tried to attack our heroes, but they were all slammed out of the air and into the ground by dozens of rocket lockers.
The lockers then opened up, revealing the weapons of various students, including Crocea Mors, StormFlower, Magnhild, and Yatsuhashi's large sword. The respective owner of the sword pulled it out from his locker and was shown alongside Scarlet gripping his cutlass and flintlock pistol, Sage with his sword and Neptune with his gun in hand. The camera continued to pan over showing Sun with Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang in its staff form, Ren and Nora carrying their respective weapons and the remaining members of Team CFVY, the members of Team ABRN, as well as Flynt Coal and Neon Katt of Team FNKI, all gripping their respective weapons.
Pyrrha walked up to Penny and held her hand out. "Penny, I'm sorry our battle nearly cost you your life, but from here out, I plan to make up for it." She said.
Penny smiled and shook Pyrrha's hand. "Think nothing of it, Pyrrha Nikos! I know you had no intention of truly harming me." She said.
"Exactly. It wasn't your fault. Either of yours." Ruby said.
"She's right." Jaune said, walking over to Pyrrha and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Whoever was on that microphone... they're the ones that did this. And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else." He said.
"It was Cinder. And well said, Jaune. No one else will be lost this day." He said, though looked at Jaune's hand on Pyrrha's shoulder and growled. "Though, you may lose your hand if you don't remove it from my sister's shoulder!" He warned, Jaune quickly moving his hand away, laughing nervously.
"Kratos..." Pyrrha said, annoyed and slightly embarrassed at her brothers overprotective behavior. However, she then looked back between him and Jaune, the three of them exchanging determined expressions. They then looked over to Ruby, who smiled at the impressive ensemble of students.
A gunshot then rang out, another flying Grimm dropping to the arena floor and dissipating, everyone looking to the Grimm, then to the source of the gunshot, Bayonetta. "I hate to spoil such a touching moment, but it seems as though we have company." She said, pointing upwards, everyone following to where she pointed and noticed hippogriff-like Grimm land on top of the Colosseum. They then screeched and flew towards the group of students.
"Griffons." Ren called the Grimm species out by their formal name.
"Anybody got a plan of attack?" Neptune asked.
"I have a plan. Attack." Kratos said, raising his blades.
Pyrrha sighed and rolled her eyes at her brother with a slight smile. "Yes, Kratos, we all loved the Revengers, but now's not the time for movie references and simply 'attack' isn't a plan." She said.
Ruby quickly pulled out her own Scroll and used it to summon her locker, which opened up revealing Crescent Rose inside. However, Ruby was stopped when a Griffon landed on her locker and roared at her before being decapitated by Rebellion, which flew back to Dante's hand. "Pesky things, aren't they. Don't want to mess with these things without a weapon, Ruby." He told her as he walked up to the group.
"Perfect timing as always." Bayonetta said, kissing his cheek.
"Gross!" Ruby said, flinching away from her sister kissing Weiss' brother. "Still, he's right about facing them without a weapon." She said, collecting Crescent Rose from her locker.
Another Griffon swooped down in an attempt to attack Jaune, but was scared away by a fireball. Everyone looked to see Port holding his blunderbuss-axe in hand, with Oobleck holding his weapon in its club form. "Students! I think it would be best for you to leave." He instructed.
"Are you mad?! This arena alone is nearly overrun with Grimm, with no telling how the rest of the stadium is fairing. You can't handle this on your own!" Kratos said.
"Never forget, Mr. Nikos, we are still Professional Huntsmen!" Port reminded him.
"But we did a-" Ruby started, but was interrupted by Oobleck.
"Miss Rose! This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I'd prefer it if my students could live to tell about it." The fast speaking Huntsmen told her.
Ruby nodded at the Doctor's words before grabbing Crescent Rose and twirling it into it's scythe form. "Let's go!" She ordered.
As all the students left, Ruby was distracted by the flash of Velvet's camera. She stopped to look at the photograph she took but was interrupted when her leader called out to her. "Velvet!" Coco yelled.
The three present members of Team SCRN were the last to leave, each one giving a nod of respect to their teachers as they did so. "Fight well." Kratos said.
"You really are heroes and Huntsmen." Bayonetta said.
"Try not to die. I wouldn't want to learn history or Grimm studies from anyone else." Dante said finally as the three followed the others out.
With the students cleared of the arena, Port and Oobleck stood back-to-back with their weapons in hand as the Griffons circled around them
"One final match, Barty! Place your bets!" Port laughed maniacally.
Civilians continued to run and flee in panic as they reached the docking bays of the Colosseum. Atlas Soldiers were seen directing civilians to calmly step into the Air Buses. A female student was seen breaking down in tears as another person tried to comfort her. Suddenly, White Fang Bullheads were seen dropping off more Grimm at the docking bay. Two Atlesian Knights escorting General Ironwood effortlessly gunned down an Ursa. As they proceeded forward, the Knights were suddenly brutally ripped apart by a much larger, armored Beowolf variant. The Beowolf then noticed Ironwood as the General started to run towards it, gradually picking up speed as he neared the charging Beowolf.
He screamed a loud battle cry as he pulled out his revolver from his coat. Ironwood ducked and slid under the Beowolf's swipe and shot at it a couple times. The Beowolf then charged at Ironwood again, who fired his revolver a few more times before having to duck under another swipe. The Beowolf attempted to swipe at him again with its left claw, but Ironwood effortlessly stopped it with his own right hand. The General then fired at the Beowolf's feet, the explosion causing it to get airborne and, still gripping it's claw, Ironwood proceeded to swing it back down to the ground with his own brute strength. Ironwood then picked up the Beowolf, aimed the revolver at its skull and shot it, causing black blood to splatter from it. Ironwood then watched the body of the Beowolf dissipated before leaving. The students were then shown exiting the arena entrance and gathered together in front of Ironwood.
"What's going on!?" Ruby asked.
"Grimm are crawling all over the city. The White Fang's invaded Beacon, and to make matters worse, some... vagabond has seized one of my ships. Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control. So I'm..." Ironwood explained, but was interrupted by a sneak attack from a Creep, which was swiftly dealt with from a bullet to its head. "...going to take it back." He finished.
As Ironwood turned for his ship, he was stopped when asked a question. "What should we do?" Jaune asked.
Ironwood turned and faced the students. "You have two choices. Defend your Kingdom and your school... or save yourselves." He explained, the students exchanging looks with each other. "No one will fault you if you leave." He assured them. Ironwood then proceeded to climb up on the dropship in front of him. "Let's move out!" He addressed the crowd.
As Ironwood left, the students looked at each other and murmured before a certain monkey Faunus spoke up. "I mean... come on!" Sun exclaimed.
"If we left the people here... And the people at Beacon, we could never call ourselves Huntsmen and Huntresses." Kratos said.
"So, then, what are we waiting for? This party's getting crazy and we're not there to make it crazier!" Dante said.
"We can take a ship to Beacon!" Jaune said.
While the students headed to the nearest airship, Terumi was seen giddily fidgeting around with the controls of the Atlesian Airship, callsign "Blue-2", like a child in a candy store.
"Hmm... let's see, what does... this button do?" He wondered, pressing the button. After the button was pressed, a noise was heard. "Just a beep and a little rumble!? Boring!? Where's the explosions!?" He snapped, before looking back at the controls. "How about ... this one?" He asked with the press of a button and the airship suddenly emptied its cargo of Atlesian Knights, all on standby, as they fell to the ground with a massive thud. "Oh, come on! Two for two doing nothing!" He snapped.
"Not working so good for you?" Juri asked as she walked up behind him.
"How'd you get on here?!" He growled as she simply shrugged. Terumi then smirked evilly. "Good thing I brought this!" He said, holding up a Scroll with the Black Queen insignia, before he inserted it in the console. "Oh, here comes the fun part! All the chaos! And all that wonderful despair!" He said.
As a squadron of Knights shot down Grimm, they suddenly stopped as their visors and LED's turn a dark crimson and they turned around, pointing their guns at Glynda and Qrow as they continued to fight the Grimm, the realization shocking them as they saw the Knights now turned against two of their now former masters.
"What!?" Glynda asked, shocked.
On the courtyards of Beacon, Weiss and Blake were nearly caught off-guard by the local Knights also succumbing to the virus and turning towards them. "Look out!" Blake yelled, tackling Weiss to the ground, the two avoiding the onslaught of bullets, but the Knights surrounded them, preparing to fire again, before they were all decapitated by a massive shuriken flying like a boomerang and decapitating all but one of the knights, before flying back to Ryu, who caught the Windmill Shuriken.
The last remaining Knight turned to attack Ryu, but Blake shot it in the back of the head. "Ryu! What's going on?!" Weiss asked.
"Cinder's group. They're carrying out their mission. And it looks like that mission is the fall of Beacon. And part of it involves taking over the Atlesian Knights." He explained.
Meanwhile, the oblivious general, still en route to the Airship, got a nasty surprise when the Knights on his dropship suddenly activated and turned on him.
"No!" Ironwood shouted as he reached out, the dropship suddenly losing altitude, plummeting from the ground as two flashes could be seen from the cockpit. The students watched in horror as they saw dropship fall from the sky. Ruby decided to run to the bay doors of their Air Bus.
"Ruby, wait!" Bayonetta shouted, hurrying after her sister.
"Bayonetta!" Dante said, about to go after her, but Kratos stopped him.
"No, Dante! The battle here is over, but there is still one to fight at Beacon! And we'll need as many people as we can get for that. Your sister is there. She'll need you." He reminded him.
"Dammit!" Dante snapped.
Jaune put a consoling hand on Dante's shoulder. "Don't worry, Dante. Those two can handle anything together." He reassured him.
"Yeah, you're right." He said, looking back at the sisters.
Ruby then jumped off the Air Bus as it barely took off, using her Semblance of speed to safely land on the runway after free-falling in the sky, Bayonetta right beside her as a bird. As she ran to the stadium, she foundd it nearly empty and full of brown dirt, where she saw a locker. She punched in the code and latched on with Crescent Rose as Bayonetta landed on her shoulder, still in bird form. The locker immediately took to the skies, landing on top Terumi's stolen airship with a thud.
"Oh, come on! I was just starting to have fun!" Terumi snapped, going to investigate the noise.
Back at Beacon, the hacked Knights continue to fire, but they were cut up by flurry of slashes. Weiss was seen taking down a few knights using a combination of Myrtenaster's strikes as well as her using her Glyph Semblance, while Blake fought off a group of White Fang soldiers, before using her Semblance to dodge a dual sword-wielding soldier before getting overwhelmed by more White Fang members, but they were all suddenly knocked back by Weiss. Afterwards, Weiss and Blake stand back-to-back as a group of beowulves surrounded them, but they were each hit in the chest by a shuriken, which then exploded and blew off their upper bodies before Ryu landed in front of the girls.
They prepared to move on, but noticed a group of human Atlas Soldiers fighting off an Atlesian Paladin, which had also been affected by the virus and turned rogue. The Paladin easily beat down the soldiers.
"I have to stop it!" Ryu said, rushing for the Paladin
"Come on!" Weiss said, but before she and Blake could assist Ryu the soldiers, they noticed a Bullhead about to crash land. An armored Beowolf was seen jumping out of it before it could crash with the aircraft. The Beowolf landed on the ground and started to chase after fleeing civilians. Weiss and Blake exchanged one last look with each other before parting ways. "Be safe." Weiss told her.
As the two parted ways, Blake was seen running just outside the dining hall. However, she stopped when the Beowolf from earlier latched onto the side of the building above her. Her attention was then drawn away from the Beowolf when she heard a wounded scream inside the burning interior of the dining hall. She then gave a look of horror when she saw a familiar figure throwing an Atlas soldier. "No... Adam?" She said, horrified.
"Hello, my darling." Adam said, grinning creepily.
All across Beacon Academy, various students battled the many Creatures of Grimm: Jaune was seen slashing at an Ursa, while Neon roller-bladed away from a Boarbatusk. Coco opened fire on a Griffon, while Arslan was seen fighting an Ursa Major before it ran off to attack Nora, who fired at it with her grenade launcher. Ren was seen firing his guns at a retreating Beowolf before it dropped dead. Kratos was seen surrounded by a circle of creeps, before spinning with his blades out, decapitating them all. Lastly, Dante was seen fighting beowulves that came at him from all sides, so he blasted them all away by blasting his shotgun while swinging it like nunchaku.
The alpha Beowulf rushed at him from behind and lunged towards him, but it was shot in the head and killed, Dante looking back at it, before looking to where the bullet came from to see a boy in black pants and shoes with an open black trench coat and a red silk shirt underneath with red eyes and silver hair, holding a black and dark purple revolver. The boy then gave Dante a bit of a salute, before taking off after a Creep the size of an Ursa. "Huh. I can't place him, but I feel like I've seen that guy before." Dante said. (Shameless OC cameo!)
The camera then dynamically zoomed under an archway before panning up a building, slowing down until it revealed Cinder, Azula Emerald, Mercury standing on the rooftop, the latter filming the chaos with his Scroll.
"Beautiful." Cinder said.
"I can't just sit around anymore. I've gotta get in on this!" Azula said maniacally.
"Have fun." Cinder said before Azula launched herself away with fire from her feet.
"It's almost sad." Emerald said with a sorrowful expression on her face.
"It's horrendous. Focus on the Atlesian Knights." Cinder instructed Mercury.
"Oh, I'm getting all of it." Mercury confirmed.
"Good. Continue the broadcast until the end." Cinder instructed once more. Suddenly, a tremor rocked the three of them. "And do not miss what happens next." She added before she walked off as Mercury continued filming with an evil grin on his face, while Emerald's expression only grew more worrisome.
Inside his office, Ozpin watched the battle on three video feeds, one showing some buildings, the middle showing a group of Atlas soldiers struggling a against a Deathstalker on Beacon's main avenue and the last showing civilians stuck on a rooftop waving for help, while an Ursa slowly crawled up the side of the building, but thankfully it was killed by the silver-haired boy in the black trench coat... who somehow miraculously got there from Beacon, don't ask. Ozpin then started to walk away from his desk, grabbing his cane in the process, before proceeding to the elevator. However, he was stopped in his tracks when a sudden tremor shook the ground.
Back in the city, Glynda and Qrow continued fighting, before they too were shaken by another tremor. Qrow stabbed his sword into the ground to keep himself standing. "No..." Goodwitch said in horror.
Another tremor shook Jaune as he battled an Ursa Major, with Sage and Scarlet piggyback riding on it with worried expressions on their faces.
Elsewhere, a mountain started to violently shake and crumble, as various body parts of a monstrous-looking Grimm were revealed, before the mountain completely broke apart, releasing a titanic Wyvern. The Wyvern roared and flew over the abandoned Mountain Glenn, heading towards Beacon. As it flew, it exuded a black, tar-like substance which dropped to the ground in the city of Vale and spawned various Grimm.
Ozpin approached the window of his office, noticing the Wyvern getting closer. The massive Grimm excreted more of the black substance, which dropped to the ground and spawned more Grimm near the base of the CCT. As the Grimm charged forward, the camera panned across the members of Team SSSN and Team JNPR in a lineup as they prepared to battle the incoming enemies, with Jaune and Pyrrha exchanging a smile with each other. Before they could go forward, Pyrrha noticed Ozpin standing the entrance of the tower, while Team SSSN ran off to fight off their enemies. Pyrrha then walked towards her headmaster without saying a word to her teammates, much to their confusion.
"Where's she going?" Nora asked.
"I'll go find out. You two stay here and keep fighting." Jaune instructed.
As he went to follow Pyrrha, the camera then zoomed in to a building in the background, with a familiar figure standing on the rooftop with her weapons in hand. A close up of Cinder's eyes were seen glowing ominously.