Just A 'Little' Turbulence

Mistral: Over Lake Madzu

'This isn't good,' thought the pilot as he guided the airship towards the main shoreline, 'We're close to our destination, but this is the part where things get a little tricky.' The pilot was so focused on making slight course corrections, he didn't notice at first that he wasn't alone in the cabin.

"Wooh!" Exclaimed the pilot as he nearly jumped out of his seat upon seeing the new arrival, "I thought I asked you to stop doing that."

"Sorry," said Wayne as he was taking a look out of the front window, "After a couple of months in Mistral I just got used to sneakin' around."

"Well you can sneak around all you want after I drop you and your friend off," Said the pilot, "But you should know where we're at right now has already got me a bit on edge, so for the sake of my heart could you please not sneak up on me again?"

"I'll try to remember that," Said Wayne as his attention was suddenly drawn to a strange sight outside of the airship. For some reason, a number of very small islands with black crystals underneath them, were floating. Not on the water either, but floating several hundred feet in the air around them. "Oh Weiss is gonna want to see this," said Wayne as he turned towards the door.

But just as he was about to head to the cargo hold, the door opened as Weiss stepped into the cabin. "What is this place?" Asked Weiss.

"It's not good I can tell you that," responded the pilot as he maneuvered the airship around some of the floating islands. "The gravity dust in these islands over Lake Madzu is causing a bit of turbulence. Not a problem by itself, but these floating islands have been known to hide some nasty Grimm."

"Too bad," said Wayne as he looked out the left side of the window, "This place is quite the sight."

"Well if we're lucky," said the Pilot, "Our friends sending out the distress signal will keep them preoccupied-."

"Look Out!" yelled Weiss as a burning airship came flying into view. "Oh crap!" Exclaimed the pilot as he swerves the airship out of the way. The ship barely misses the burning wreckage as it crashes into one of the floating land masses and explodes. "So much for a peaceful airship ride," Comments Wayne.

The radio crackled to life again as they spotted another airship a short distance away from them. It was the same people from before. And their airship was under attack by large, wasp-like Grimm. 'I think we found the source of that distress signal,' thought Wayne as they watched two of the Grimm fire their stingers at the airship.

The stingers had some type of organic wire attached to them, allowing the Grimm to anchor onto the airship. Wayne and the others could only watch as the ship was slowly pulled apart before another one of the swarming Grimm slammed straight into the ship. The resounding explosion from the distressed airship silenced any further noise on the radio. Weiss looked on in shock at the sight as Wayne clenched his fist.

"Lancers," Said the Pilot as he sharply increased the speed of the airship, "Blasted # ing lancers." The pilot turned his head to tell his passengers to buckle up. Only to find they'd opened the cargo hatch and slipped down it. "What are you two doing?" asked the pilot over the ship's intercom.

"Taking those things out," said Weiss, "Like I wanted to in the first place!"

"I'm just glad this guy's hauling dust," said Wayne as he dropped in behind Weiss. "Officially I'm not," responded the pilot over the intercom in the cargo hold.

"Well when I give the signal open the rear door," said Weiss as she began loading dust cartridges into her weapon. Wayne did the same with some of the clips on his weapons. "Whatever you're planning on doing," said the pilot, "Do it quick!"

"I'm set," Wayne said to Weiss as he tried to keep himself balanced in the quickly tilting ship. Weiss quickly formed a glyph beneath their feet to help steady them as she finished loading her weapon. "Now!" Called Weiss, prompting the pilot to open the cargo bay doors. A blast of rushing air greeted them as the door lowered, revealing the large wasps behind them.

The Grimm attempted to launch some of their anchored stingers at the ship, but Weiss used some wind dust to blow the projectiles away. Wayne opened fire at the nearest ones, downing a couple by hitting them in the face with his SMG dust rounds. Weiss created a small, vertical glyph in the air and began shooting fireballs. But the Grimm were zigzagging in all directions, and the airships own maneuvering made it difficult to hit more than a couple Lancers at a time.

"Hold on!" Said the Pilot excitedly as he flew the ship around and between several of the floating islands. "We're gonna need a bit more fire power," said Wayne as he downed another couple of Lancers with SMG fire. Weiss simply smiled as she formed five, small, vertical glyphs in the air and began shooting ice dust out of them. "That's more like it," said Wayne as he shot down any Lancer which got too close, while Weiss handled the ones at longer ranges.

After about a minute of shooting, they'd destroyed nearly all of the Lancers when the ship suddenly shifted violently. "What's going on up there?" Asked Weiss as she and Wayne looked back.

"We've just been hooked," Called the Pilot as two of the Lancer's harpoon stingers came in through the ceiling of the cargo bay.

"I got 'em," Said Wayne as he slammed one of his Crescent Fangs into the side of the airship before jumping out of the cargo bay. Then, using his weapons like pick axes, Wayne quickly climbed up to the roof of the airship. "Can you cut their anchors?" Called the Pilot.

"I can if you pull down fast," replied Wayne as he reached the roof and jabbed his left weapon into the ship's hull. "Then hold tight!" Called the Pilot as he accelerated the ship rapidly before pointing it straight down. The surprised Lancers where pulled off the ship as Wayne released a thin, crescent shaped blast of his semblance cutting both anchors on the ship.

The result was quite gratifying as the two released Grimm slammed into one of the floating islands the Pilot had narrowly missed. The sound of laughter over the cargo hold radio told him the Pilot was more than happy to have them detached from his ship.

"Can you fly us in between some of the islands?" Wayne heard Weiss ask. The Pilot was more than happy to comply as the airship was maneuvered into a narrow spot where two of the islands connected.

"Just don't scrape me onto the side of one of these," said Wayne as he crouched down and held onto the ship. When they were nearly halfway through, Weiss used her glyphs to shoot three fire balls into the walls above them. A number of large stones broke loose and showered the pursuing Grimm as the remainder of them were crushed by the falling debris.

Wayne connected his right weapon to his wire and swung it around above his head while this was happening. Thanks to his semblance running through the wire, he was able to cut up any stones which were threatening to hit the air ship. The shower of debris lasted a few moments longer until they flew out of the other side of the gap and back into open air.

"Alright!" cheered the pilot over the intercom, "You kids did great, we're completely clear!" Wayne sighed as he was about to climb back down into the cargo hold, only for something else to catch his eye. "We're not quite clear yet!" Exclaimed Wayne as he swung back into the cargo hold.

Behind them, a much larger version of the Lancers which had been chasing them came into view. "A Queen Lancer!" Weiss called out. "Are you serious?!" Questioned the Pilot over the intercom.

The new threat screeched at them as it began closing the distance. Wayne quickly loaded lighting dust clips into his weapons and opened fire. The Grimm merely screeched in annoyance as the lightning rounds didn't even scratch its head. Weiss formed more vertical glyphs and fired her own ice projectiles, but these only seemed to enrage the Queen Lancer.

Now it was the Grimm's turn to shoot at them as it launched several spikes, these not anchored, at the airship. Weiss quickly threw up a shield with one of her glyphs while Wayne shifted his weapons to sickle form and deflected any of the spikes which came near. But they couldn't stop all of them.

The ship shook a bit as some of the projectiles impacted against the engine, causing them to lose altitude. "You gotta get rid of that thing!" Called the Pilot over the intercom. No kidding, thought Wayne as he and Weiss looked behind them.

"You said you had a couple new tricks right?" Asked Weiss. "More than a couple," replied Wayne with a smirk.

Weiss nodded as they both leapt behind the cargo, cutting all of the straps holding it down as they did so. Then, using a gravity glyph, Weiss levitated the cargo as Wayne charged his semblance. Using a blast of wind dust, the huntress in training flung the cargo out at the Queen Lancer.

Timing it just as the cargo reached the Grimm, Wayne launched a javelin-shaped blast at the nearest container. A number of explosions sounded as the air was filled with smoke and bursts of electricity. "I hope he doesn't mind losing his cargo," Said Wayne, "That was a lot of dust."

"But I don't think it was enough," gasped Weiss as the Queen Lancer came flying out of the smoke. "The shoreline's in sight," Called the Pilot, "But we can't make it with that thing back there!"

"Weiss," said Wayne, an idea forming in his head, "I think my semblance can pierce its armor, but it's moving too fast for me to get a clean shot."

"I can help with that," Said Weiss as she twirled a few times and stabbed her sword into the floor, "In fact, I can do one better." As she said this, a large glyph formed on the floor as a glowing white armor rose from the center of it.

The armor bowed to Weiss before taking a fighting stance. "That'll work," Said Wayne, "Now we just need to get it in line."

Weiss nodded before calling back to the Pilot. "Pull up now!" She yelled. Almost immediately, the air ship shifted as the Pilot complied with the order. As they began their climb straight up into the air, the cargo hold flipped upside down. Wayne, Weiss, and the armor flipped in midair as they landed on what was once the ceiling of the air ship.

Wasting no time, Wayne and the armor raced out of the cargo hold, flipping over the engines as they launched themselves into the air. Mimicking each other's movements, both Wayne and the armor pulled their arms and legs in as they shot towards the Queen Lancer like a pair of bullets. "Here goes," Said Wayne as he hooked his weapon onto the armor's hand.

Back on the ship, Weiss used all of her concentration to control the summon as it flung Wayne towards the Queen Lancer before forming a sword of its own. Wayne charged his semblance in midair as he twisted and turned, putting his two Crescent Fangs together to form his double-bladed staff. Just as Wayne was about to strike, the giant armor materialized behind the Grimm as another of Weiss's glyphs shot it forward.

The surprised Grimm couldn't react in time as both Wayne and the armor slashed through it. 'Now for part two of the plan.' He thought as he shifted back to face the large insect.

Weiss created even more glyphs, allowing both Wayne and the armor to leap across from one to the other, slashing the Queen Lancer even more. Enraged, the large Grimm began firing its spikes in every direction. But they were either deflected or too slow to hit the speeding figures as they continued to slash away at the Grimm.

The air ship was a different story, however, as the Queen Lancer launched its large anchor stinger. The armor deflected it easily, but it flew into the passing air ship, damaging the already struggling engines.

'Gotta finish this now!' Thought Wayne as he jumped off a glyph aimed at the airship and released a large crescent slash from his weapon.

The Armor's sword slashed it at the same time as Wayne's own attack hit, slicing the Queen Lancer in half. With a final shriek, both the Grimm and the armor dissolved. Wayne, using the momentum from the final glyph flew back towards the now descending airship.

'Hope this works,' thought Wayne as he split his weapons back in two and attached his wire to his right weapon. Timing it as well as he could, Wayne flung his right Crescent Fang at the passing ship, snagging it on one of the wings. 'Oh # $,' He screamed in his head as the momentum from the quickly descending airship yanked him towards the shore.

'Might not have thought this whole thing through,' He mused as he quickly reeled in his wire. Meanwhile, Weiss began forming black gravity glyphs in front of the smoking airship in an effort to slow it down. But the numerous glyphs used up to this point had taken its toll on the young heiress. She threw up one gravity glyph after another, but they did little to slow the ship down.

'This is gonna hurt,' Wayne realized as the ship crossed over the shore and into the forest. The Pilot made one last ditch effort to pull up, but only succeeded in tilting the ship up as it slammed into the tree line. The ship's sudden stop threw Wayne forward as his weapon dislodged from the wing. For a short few seconds, he felt nothing but rushing air as he flew straight into the trees.

Then, painful impact after painful impact assaulted him as he crashed through several branches. 'Ow, ow, ow, # $, ow, # #,' he thought as he finally ran into something solid. In this case, that solid object was a large tree which collapsed upon impact as Wayne finally fell to the ground.

'Definitely not a recommended landing strategy,' he thought as his vision swam. Wayne tried to get back up, but the impact had taken its toll. Collapsing back down onto the forest floor, darkness filled his eyes as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Wayne and Weiss have finally made it to Mistral, but their arrival didn't play out quite as planned it seems. Hello everyone, first I'd like to once again say welcome back to everyone who's read the previous story and for those are just getting around to reading this, welcome. Also, thank you my reviewers, followers, and viewers for keeping me informed about the latest volume of RWBY and for your feedback and constructive criticism. Be sure to drop in next time as Aegis and the Belladonna's, and Sun's, plan to reveal the truth to the Faunus runs into a slight snag. And Wayne will discover a familiar, and terrifying presence he hadn't expected to encounter again quite so soon. 'Til next time.