A WA Upon the BRIR

AT LAST! At last, at last, at last. Won't lie I was starting to think Volume 9 wasn't gonna happen which, if that had been the case, I would've eventually improvised something. But volume 9 is here and with it comes the all important question for you, my fellow readers: what ending should I start from? Should I do Team WA in the Ever After? Team WA scouring the ruins of Atlas, or Team WA in Vacuo? This will determine what I have Wayne and Aegis doing for volume 9 so give it plenty of thought. But what's today's chapter about then, you may ask? A little idea from a fellow reader who happened to play the game, RWBY: Arrowfell. That's right, today's chapter is a flashback that takes place during the game, but even if you're not familiar with the story of the game I think you'll enjoy this reintroduction to the Adventures of Team WA! Now then I've said nearly enough, so one last thing, a shout out to my artist friend, Overlord, for crafting the wonderful cover art you all see here! Now then, on to the story!

Daytime: Arrowfell

It had all started off so well when they'd gotten to Atlas, initial arrest notwithstanding, of course. General James Ironwood had welcomed them, gave them a place to stay at Atlas Academy, provided both training and upgrades to their weapons. But most of all, he'd made everyone in their group officially licensed Huntsmen and Huntresses. It was easy to be optimistic during those first few weeks.

Despite it feeling like a long time ago now, Wayne could still clearly remember their first mission. The creatures of Grimm had suddenly started appearing on a summit outside of the city of Mantle, where a place known as Solitas was located. In comparison to Atlas's level of technology it was a bit behind, but that was to be expected given the distribution of gadgets between Mantle and Atlas. What was less expected was the state of things when they arrived at one of the local towns in Solitas, Crossed.

"I know there were Grimm attacks," Aegis noted as they entered through the Eastern end of the town, "but this seems."

"Surprisingly bad," Wayne observed as he examined the clawmarks of a Sabyr on the door of one of the houses. "A community this size shouldn't be generating enough negativity to draw in this many Grimm, at least not when things are going well." But for whatever reason the attack had been bad, so bad that the townspeople had to evacuate. Now all that remained of the snow-covered town known as Crossed were damaged buildings and goods.

"Guess that means Ruby and the others really did stumble onto something," Aegis said before pulling out his new scroll and opening a picture on the holographic screen. It was a small metallic orb that looked like it used to contain something. What it was, none of them knew so far but Wayne had a theory. "Where do you think a device like this would be planted?"

"Given what Ruby and the others told us, somewhere it could broadcast as far as possible," Wayne surmised as they continued their search. Thankfully, it wasn't a terribly huge place and they quickly covered ground until coming to the town's largest building, a giant windmill, as the last place to check. The duo drew their weapons as they opened the door cautiously and peered inside. Like the rest of Crossed, this particular area was deserted.

Unlike the rest of Crossed, though, something felt off about the interior of the building. "You feel that," Aegis asked as he looked around the room, "something in here is making my fur stand on end."

"I know what it is," Wayne realized as he looked upwards where the staircase led, "that's negativity, specifically fear." Thanks to his aura shadow training he'd become quite familiar with negativity radiating out of something. And right now, there was negativity radiating right above them, which was a definite problem in a region full of Grimm. But before they could continue their search, their scrolls started ringing.

"Yang," Aegis said in mild surprise as he answered the call for the both of them, "is there some kind of problem?"

"Big problem," she replied over the scroll, "Those spheres we've been looking for are Grimm attractors!"

"We figured that much out," Wayne replied, "one of them is going off right now."

"You have to stop it and then head to the Tumak Ruins," Yang explained, "There are three more of those things. They were activated by Fifestone!"

"Are you four going to take the other two," Aegis decided to ask.

"We're closer to Dormir so yeah," Yang replied, "we'll contact you both when things are finished on our end."

"Be careful," Wayne said, getting a reply that they do the same before the call ended, "you heard her. Let's destroy that thing before there are too many Grimm for us to handle."

"Way ahead of you," Aegis exclaimed as the duo rushed up the stairs. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot at the top of the windmill and they quickly located the orb under some burlap covering. The younger Ursario brother dealt with it simply enough by slamming his weapon on the orb, cracking it and deactivating its functions.

"Alright, that part was easy enough," the older Ursario brother commented as they both looked out the window, "the next part is gonna be a little more tricky." Case in point, the small group of Sabyr and Razorwing Grimm heading right for them. The Sabyrs would be easy enough to handle but the harpy-like Razorwing's would be a bit more of a challenge.

"Just means we need to get more creative," Aegis remarked as he leapt onto the windowsill, "you said we need to get better at snowboarding while we're up here anyway, right?"

"Pretty sure whatever you have in mind won't quite be the same thing," Wayne replied as he also leapt up onto another windowsill, "but fine, we'll start with your way." His brother grinned as the first Grimm reached them, a few of the Razorwings. Aegis gave the command to jump and the duo leapt out of the windows, diving straight towards their foes. With a wave of his hand, the bear fighter summoned a pair of board-shaped glass panes that the brothers landed on before driving them straight into the faces of two of the approaching Razorwings.

Wayne jumped back upwards as Aegis continued his descent, readying and throwing one of his Crescent fangs that circled around and cut through three of the flying Grimm thanks to its new wind dust feature. By the time the weapon returned to his hand, he'd drawn his other one while Aegis landed both the glass pane and his Razorwing on top of an approaching Sabyr. He didn't stay still, forming a double-bladed ax at the end of his weapon before charging forward and cutting through several more of the feline beasts in front of him. Wayne wasn't far behind as he spun forward in midair and slammed both feet on top of another Sabyr to soften his landing while simultaneously crushing its skull.

He was in motion an instant later as the Razorwings changed direction and flew down towards him. Wayne turned and fired his weapons in their SMG forms, downing the first few before bobbing and weaving out of the way of the rest of them. He swiftly shifted his Crescent Fangs to their sickle form and sliced off the head of a Sabyr as it tried to leap on him. He also cut through the next few Razorwings that tried to divebomb him before taking stock of the situation.

Aegis, meanwhile, was continuing to barrel through their foes, slicing off heads, limbs, and in some cases splitting entire Grimm bodies in half. His momentum was stopped, however, when the ground suddenly exploded under his feet and he was sent flying back a couple meters. The culprits behind this particular attack were large, rather nasty centipede Grimm known as Centinels. It appeared a handful of them had also been attracted by the fear producing orb.

But this new foe didn't deter the bear-eared huntsman as he spun the cylinder on his weapon and altered the glass around its body, transforming it into a stone Warhammer. The first of the Centinels to attack wound up meeting the bottom of the hammer face first, it's terrific force enough to make the monster's body scrunch inward like an accordian before it was sent flying. It crashed into two others but one managed to slither around its other brethren and charged its wannabe prey. That attempt was halted, thankfully, by Wayne's left sickle propelled on a wrist wire that dug into the creature's head.

The Grimm let out a cry of pain before the huntsman yanked him around with both hands, using his body as an improvised weapon to knock away more Sabyrs and Centinels before running his semblance through both the wire and the weapon. The end result was an explosive impact on the largest of the Razorwings as both it and the Centinel collided before being blasted apart by Wayne's semblance. "That's a good start," he said while reeling his weapon back to his hand, "now let's wrap this up and get to the next spot before more show up."

"Way ahead of you," Aegis replied as he spun his cylinder, fusing his semblance with fire dust. By the time it was over, there were more than a couple scorchmarks on the ground. Just the usual telltale signs of Team WA at work.

Later: The Tumak Ruins

"Can't believe all of this came from a simple Grimm cleanup job," Aegis commented as he and his older brother reviewed the information sent to them by Winter Schnee on their scrolls while walking. As it turned out, unusual numbers of Grimm hadn't been the only weird things happening lately. As they'd learned, special mechanical orbs had been used to attract the creatures by producing fear and other negative emotions. The one who'd planted them, Hanlon Fifestone, was a Faunus and former Union Leader with the semblance 'Raw Emotion' that allowed him to draw emotions out of a person.

Naturally he'd had help distributing the orbs in the form of Atlas's top mobster, Amoncio Glass, who'd also been providing weapons to numerous thugs that'd been terrorizing the streets of Mantle recently. Wayne and Aegis had taken down more than a few of said thugs before being sent out to Crossed. As for the mobster and Union leader, they'd both been found out by team RWBY and were now in Atlas custody, but not before the latter had managed to activate several orbs he'd hidden around Solitas. Since the Ursario brothers had been close at hand, it only made sense for them to assist in searching for and taking out the orbs.

The good thing about the Tumak Ruins was they had a bit more open space to work with in the location they'd found the orb. "The best part is that both Glass and Fifestone are pawns," Wayne noted sarcastically, "according to this latest report, Ironwood believes they've located the base of the actual mastermind."

"Yeah, Yang said she and the rest of the team were heading there by train," Aegis recalled, "kinda figured we would've heard from them by now. That train was supposed to be swinging by near here." Wayne was about to respond to that when his scroll started going off.

"It's Weiss," the older huntsman informed before answering the call, "hey guys, is the train running behind?"

"Try completely derailed," the former heiress replied, "we found another conspirator."

"Another one," Wayne questioned, "who else was working with the mastermind behind this whole thing?"

"Harper," Weiss answered, "as in Lieutenant Colonel Olive Harper. She set us up to be attacked and then for the train to go off a cliff. Obviously we're fine but we ran into that group of mercenary huntresses, Team BRIR."

"Yeah Blake told us to keep an eye out for them when we went to Crossed," Wayne recalled, "did you happen to take them out?"

"They attacked us at the entrance to the ruins but we fougth them off," the huntress answered, "now they're running around here somewhere so keep your eyes open and be careful."

"Got it, where are all of you right now?" The older Ursario brother asked.

"Just on the other side of the ruins," Weiss surmised, "let's try and meet in the middle if we can."

"We'll head that way," Wayne replied, "stay safe until then." He received a quick 'I will' in answer to that before the call went off and he returned his scroll to his pocket.

"So we've got another problem running around here besides Grimm," Aegis noted, his own slightly enhanced hearing managing to pick up the gist of the conversation. "You think we could talk those huntresses down since they've already gotten their tails beat once by team RWBY?"

"Only if we're very lucky and they happen to be out of energy for fighting," Wayne answered, "from what Weiss told me Team BRIR isn't the most polite bunch of huntresses they've ever run into."

"Oh darn, I guess that's just too bad," Aegis commented sarcastically.

"And here I thought you were maturing a bit when you mentioned talking them down," the elder brother commented.

"Sure we can try but if we get to smack down some smug mercs it'd pretty much make my day," his younger brother replied. Wayne was about to comment before the two of them heard some noise further up in the ruins. The duo immediately crouched and moved in with their weapons drawn, traversing as quietly as they could in the snow-filled ruins. When they got a little closer they began to make out voices, four female voices.

"What in the world happened back there," one of them said, "we got upstaged by KIDS!"

"Kids that clearly got some training in Atlas academy," another voice said, "the whitehaired one was definitely Atlesian."

"Wherever they come from Thornmane assured us they were just greenhorns," a third voice chimed in, "that fight should've been easy."

"It might mean Thornmane's intel on them was off," a fourth voice suggested, "we should check back with him and make sure we didn't miss anything."

"What are you thinking," the first voice asked.

"There are just….some things that don't add up," the fourth girl replied, "it made sense when the orbs were being activated one at a time. A bunch of greenhorns looking to climb to the top of the charts just so happens to be in the areas where Grimm attacks are at their worst. If they space 'em out just right it would seem like they have weird luck, always being there in the nick of time like comic book heroes. But there's no way they'd be able to be at all the locations at the same time, so why would they activate them all at once?"

"The answer to that is simple," Wayne decided to speak up as he slipped out of hiding with Aegis following behind, "team RWBY are not the culprits you think they are." Naturally the huntresses immediately went on the defensive with their weapons raised and pointed in their direction. As for the huntsmen, they raised their hands in a nonthreatening gesture. "Easy now, we're not here to fight."

"Who are you," asked the apparent leader of the group, a girl with platinum blond hair that was cut short save for a couple long strands in front while the rest spiked out in a tomboyish manner. Her outfit was an interesting mix of brown leather pants with spikes running down them, spiked shoulder pauldrons that seemed a size too big while also possessing a white cape flowing down her back and a sleeveless grey and blue tank top that stopped at her midriff. Though Wayne's biggest concern were her large twin daggers that looked like crystal blades with spiked handguards.

"My name is Wayne Ursario," he answered before indicating his sibling, "this is my younger brother, Aegis Ursario. We're here under the orders of General Ironwood to aid team RWBY in their investigation."

"More greenhorns," the second member of team BRIR commented. She was a dark-skinned girl whose long, red, dreadlocked hair was done up in a pair of pigtails that hung down to her shoulders. Her outfit was even more simplistic with a white, strapless leotard top, black short shorts, knee-high black boots and spiked pauldrons on her shoulders and arms. Her weapon was a large, wristmounted flamethrower on her right arm that connected to a tank on her back. She looked at the brothers suspiciously, her crimson eyes peeking over the sunglasses she wore.

"Well if your 'friends' haven't told you already," the platinum blonde said, "I'm Bianca Prisma, the leader. The fiery one here is Roane Ashwood, and that's Ivy Thickety and Ruda Tilleroot." Ivy simply nodded her head with a frown. She had brown hair that she parted to the left and calculating, avocado-colored eyes. Her ensemble was a bit different, consisting of a green sleeveless jumpsuit, a sleeveless green jacket over it, dark brown boots, long fingerless gloves that stopped at her elbows and a spiked belt around her waist. Her weapon appeared to be a type of whip resembling a thorny vine.

"Maybe you guys can explain why team RWBY had that orb," Ruda Tilleroot said. Her orange hair was styled into a messy bun with some loose strands hanging over the orange-visored goggles on her forehead. She wore a short-sleeved black shirt that stopped at her midriff and was covered by a green, sleeveless turtleneck. Her black pants were covered by some type of baggy cargo chaps which were held up by a pair of spiked belts. Her weapons were large drills, one on each hand.

"Pretty much what they said," Aegis chimed in, "team RWBY found the first orb out in the tundra where the Grimm numbers had been increasing. They had to wreck the thing so the Grimm would stop attacking before taking it back to Atlas. We found out recently the orbs are filled with fear and other negative emotions courtesy of union leader Hanlon Fifestone and distributed with the help of Atlesian mobster Amoncio Glass."

"But that doesn't make sense," Roane interjected, "why would a union leader and a mobster be working together?"

"Money and high-tech hardware would be more than enough to convince Glass," Wayne answered, "as for Fifestone, he was threatened by the mastermind of this whole thing who, based on what we overheard, is likely Bram Thornmane."

"And why would our employer want to distribute orbs around Solitas to attract Grimm," Bianca questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm afraid we don't have an answer for that quite yet," the huntsman replied, "but perhaps you can help. Take us to Thornmane and we can all question him about his real motives for hiring you to get rid of team RWBY."

"Sounds simple enough," Bianca agreed while mulling over their options, "but you also have to understand we can't take chances with strangers. Thornmane is our current employer and for all we know this is some clever trick for the both of you to get close to him and take him out. So how about a deal? We're going to question Thornmane, but we're willing to let you both go first," she readied her blades, "if you can beat us, that is."

Wayne sighed as both he and Aegis drew their weapons. "This really isn't necessary," he said, "but I suppose you do have your pride as professionals. You up for humoring them, Aegis?"

"Heh," his brother almost snorted as he cracked his neck, "I was half-expecting a fight anyway." They all took their stances, with Wayne donning his helmet. Roane opened up with her flamethrower, her hair and eyes glowing red as her semblance 'inferno' augmented the weapon's power. Aegis countered by quickly spinning his earth dust and forming a very large, earthen tower shield in front of him as he and Wayne stood back to back. If the elder Ursario brother recalled what he'd heard about RWBY's initial encounter with BRIR correctly, one of them had the ability to leap into the ground.

It turned out to be Ruda who leapt up, or rather phased through the ground, popping out like a Centinel before assaulting Wayne with the drills on her hands. The elder Ursario quickly blocked her initial strikes before retaliating with a kick which Ruda avoided by diving back into the ground. By this point Roane had stopped firing her flamethrower, allowing Bianca and Ivy rush at them in a zigzag pattern. "Aegis, Polar Bear," Wayne called as he managed to score a kick on Ruda this time before she dove back into the ground.

"Way ahead of ya," his brother responded as he spun fire dust on his weapon and Wayne charged the energy of his semblance to his sickles. The duo slammed their weapons on the ground almost at the moment the enemy was on top of them. A surprised Ruda took some damage by passing through Wayne's semblance before getting a face full of steam as she exited the ground for her latest attack. This created a lull in her attacks that the huntsman used to strike her in the stomach with energy he'd stored in his other weapon.

The impact was enough to send Ruda ragdolling before the duo split just in time to avoid the confused swinging of Bianca and Ivy's weapons. Unfortunately, the trio caught on quickly and moved out of the steam before Roane ignited her flame thrower again and bathed the area in fire. The brothers were forced out of the cloud, coming in on opposite sides of Team BRIR's three members. Ivy stepped in and used her semblance, Threshold, to generate two portals on either side of Wayne and one in front of herself that she flung her whip through.

The thorny weapon came out of both portals and seized Wayne's wrists, pulling them upward so that he couldn't use his weapons. On the opposite side, Roane readied her flamethrower again but this time Aegis was ready. He produced and fired a pointed glass crystal that embedded itself in the barrel of the flamethrower, halting the burning material on the other end. The surprised huntress switched on her Inferno semblance just as the half bear faunus got within striking distance.

She deflected the first few strikes of his now glass sword with her weapon before Aegis went low and swept her feet out from under her with the blade. She rolled away just in time as the sword embedded itself in the ground. Roane got back to her feet and tried attacking with an inferno-infused punch but Aegis spun the ice dust on his weapon before reforming it into a halberd blade that he used to slam into her midsection. Strangely, the damage seemed to be nullified even as she went rolling away.

'Her semblance keeps her from taking damage,' the younger Ursario realized, 'guess I'll just have to keep at it until her aura runs out.' As he thought this, however, Ruda emerged from the ground in front of him and aimed her right weapon at his face. Aegis blocked the blow in time and forced her back before charging forward to engage both huntresses. During this time, Bianca Prisma had hesitated in her charge towards Wayne, glancing back for a few moments as she decided whether or not it would be more fruitful to engage the younger brother.

This would turn out to be a mistake on her part as Wayne channeled his semblance into Ivy's weapon, running it all the way back to her handle where the energy was released. The brunette yelped in surprise from the sudden sting as Wayne yanked her whole weapon through the portal which quickly closed behind it. The huntsman rushed forward, shifting his weapons into SMG form as he fired at Bianca who deflected the bullets with her twin blades as they closed the gap. He didn't undo the whip wrapped around his right arm for the moment as it would've taken a few seconds he didn't have.

He clashed with the leader of Team BRIR, his sickles meeting her prism daggers as they exchanged a quick number of strikes and blocks. As this was happening, Wayne was charging up his semblance in his right weapon while keeping an eye on Ivy. She was attempting to find an opening to rush in and grab her weapon or, failing that, use her portals to help her leader. It was only thanks to the elder Usario brother's proximity to Bianca that she hadn't tried anything, which he took advantage of when Bianca came in with a right-handed high vertical strike.

Wayne moved in, shifting his right weapon to SMG form so that he could more easily shove it past his opponent's head while also moving forward far enough that her wrist hit his right shoulder instead of the blade of her weapon. He trapped her arm with his left and pushed his right arm against her neck, causing her to spin around as she fought to stay upright. It wasn't the most standard armlock ever but it allowed the huntsman to swing his right weapon around and fire the stored energy of his semblance as a massive blue bullet that slammed into Ivy's chest as soon as she got close. "Ivy," Bianca exclaimed before her left weapon started glowing.

She slipped from Wayne's grasp then as her body sank into the ground, exactly the same way that Ruda did. 'That's right, her semblance, Refraction, let's her copy up to two other semblances,' he recalled before moving out of the way just in time to avoid the BRIR leader leaping up and swiping at him with her dagger. She made like she was diving for the ground again, but at the last second a portal opened along with one next to Wayne. He dodged out of the way as Bianca attacked him again then dove under the ground.

'She's getting help from Ivy,' Wayne realized when he saw, by a near miss, that only one of Bianca's blades was glowing with a reflection of Ruda on it. He continued to dodge around his adversary's attacks, having to stay on his toes as several blows came very close to striking him. 'It must require a good bit of energy to use two semblances at the same time, or perhaps she's pretty drained from her earlier battle with team RWBY.' Whatever the case the huntsman needed to do something fast before she started scoring hits on him, so he began gathering and shaping the energy of his semblance.

'Gotta time and angle this just right,' he reminded himself as he moved into position, hoping this would work. Just as Ivy opened another pair of portals for Bianca to jump through and emerge behind Wayne, the huntsman struck. He released his semblance in the form of multiple small boomerangs that curved into both portals before ducking. Bianca, to her credit, managed to angle her body in such a way that she avoided the spinning energy blades.

Ivy, however, was so focused on where she should put another portal for her leader that she didn't notice the attacks all aimed at her until it was too late. When she tried to run, the portal-wielding huntress was bombarded by Wayne's semblance until her aura broke and she fell to the ground from the onslaught. "Ivy," Bianca exclaimed in worry once again. A worry which would only increase when she glanced over at her other teammates.

Aegis had continued his assault against Roane while also figuring out a strategy of creating small, floating glass walls that threw Ruda's blows off when she tried to attack him. Roane, for her part, was using Inferno in an attempt to fight back against the half bear faunus but had found her physical strength lacking against Aegis's own, especially after he'd used Ursus Cleaver to cut the line on her still plugged flamethrower. When it looked like her semblance and aura were starting to fail, that's when he really made his move. The next time Ruda, obviously noticing her teammate's declining power, came up for another attack, Aegis jammed the back of his weapon into her stomach and fired energy dust out of it.

Ruda grunted in surprise as she landed on her back. Roane attempted to beat the bear brother over the head then but he ducked the blow and grabbed her by the waist, lifting her up and slamming her down on Ruda. He finished it by jamming his weapon into the inferno girl's stomach and pulling the trigger with ice dust this time. The result was both of them frozen to the ground with their auras breaking.

"I'm set over here Wayne," Aegis called while twirling his weapon and resting it on his shoulder, "how are things over there?"

"Just the leader left," he called before turning his full attention to said opponent, "who will surrender if she's smart." Bianca's gaze shifted between them and her downed teammates as a look of mild disbelief crossed her features. It was one thing to lose against a team who had them matched in numbers, especially when they underestimated them. But to lose a four on two bout even if they were still a little worn from their previous fight, was unacceptable in Bianca Prisma's eyes.

"You acknowledged earlier that we had pride in our profession," she began, "so you'll understand if I want to fight on. And besides, you've probably given me the key to winning." She held up both blades then as they glowed, revealing two reflections. The first was Roane and her semblance, Inferno, while the second reflection, was Wayne.

"Shit," the older Ursario brother cursed, "you really don't want-." But he was cut off by a battle cry from Bianca as she swung her right blade, releasing the power of his semblance in the form of multiple boomerang blades. The huntsman rushed out of the way, quickly noting the trajectories of the attack weren't all on target. Bianca didn't seem to notice as she swung her blade again and again, this time releasing crescent blade after crescent blade.

Wayne kept just ahead of the attacks, firing a few shots from his left weapon as he circled around in an attempt to keep her occupied. Aegis took this moment to leap in with a stone hammer but it was blocked when Bianca held up her left weapon and her hair and eyes seemed to blaze as if on fire. It was the Inferno semblance and it nullified the impact before she struck back with a few swings of her dual daggers. Aegis blocked them in quick succession but was knocked back when she released a powerful blast from her right weapon, possibly more powerful than she meant too.

The younger Usario brother was knocked onto his back and raised his weapon just in time to stop a flaming foot from stomping on him. "I'll win this for my team!" She declared while raising her left weapon, only for it to be stopped by Wayne's sickle on a wrist wire as it caught her weapon and allowed him to yank her off his brother.

"Trust me," the huntsman said as he reeled his weapon back in, "it takes more than that semblance to win a fight against a skilled opponent. Let me show you." He switched his weapons back to their SMG modes, and returned them to his coat before advancing at a casual pace. Bianca narrowed her eyes at this before swinging her right weapon, sending out a crescent slash that Wayne dodged before resuming his slow approach. She unleashed a few more that were also evaded before slamming the prism dagger on the ground, sending out a wave of energy.

Unlike Wayne's earlier use of his semblance that caused steam to form, this wave was much hotter and evaporated the snow much more quickly to where no steam even had time to form. Yet Wayne just leapt over it before landing and dusting some snow off of his coat. "Gotta admit this is a new feeling," Wayne commented, "being on the receiving end of my semblance for a change."

"Then take this seriously!" Bianca exclaimed as she leapt at him, her body still flaming due to her continued use of Inferno as she brought her right dagger down with Wayne's semblance running through it. The huntsman braced his stance before catching the blade with his left hand, the power of his own semblance radiating out of it as the two clashing energies fought for dominance. Snow was blasted away from them and ice melted underfoot as the adversaries continued their struggle.

Then, almost abruptly, Bianca's aura flashed as both copied semblances sputtered out and died. "What, but how," she asked in surprise as she backed up. Wayne, having halted his semblance at the same time her's stopped moved and swept her legs out from under her. He then quickly put a knee on her chest and yanked her weapons out of her weakened grip before holding them to her throat.

"I think that makes this our win," he said before moving both daggers to his left hand and removing his helmet to place back on his waist.

"H-How," Bianca asked, now noticing how utterly drained she felt.

"As you no doubt noticed," Wayne answered before standing up and offering his hand to the BRIR team leader, "my semblance is incredibly powerful. But it's also incredibly draining if you don't adjust the output of energy appropriately. Trying to use both that and a damage negating semblance at the same time, I'm honestly impressed you didn't run out of energy sooner."

"Guess that's what I get for using a semblance I'm less familiar with," Bianca admitted as she accepted Wayne's hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "I imagine you went through a phase of feeling unstoppable yourself, at one point."

"A long time ago," Wayne answered before venturing over to Ruda and Roane. He set his hand on the ice trapping them and began melting it with his semblance. "I got over it."

"Good for you," Roane grunted as the two teammates got to their feet. Aegis, for his part, was helping Ivy to her feet.

"But we lost fair and square," Ruda admitted before turning to Bianca, "I think we might consider bringing help if we're going to confront Thornmane."

"No, we're no longer in good enough shape to storm Arrowfell," Bianca admitted before withdrawing something from her pocket and handing it to Wayne. "But I'm also convinced now that you guys are telling the truth. You don't come off as the ruthless people Thornmane told us you were. So use that key and it'll grant you access to the crystal nexus, a network of tunnels that will lead right into Fort Arrowfell."

"You sure you just want to hand us this," Aegis asked before Ivy and Roane shoved some identical keys in his hands.

"Just get going," Ivy said, "Thornmane won't stay in the same place forever and team RWBY is gonna need a way in."

"Consider it our atonement," Ruda added as she gave Wayne the last key, "mercenaries or not, we'd never knowingly be part of something that would threaten so many innocent people. This is the will of the keepers of Arrowfell."

"I understand," Wayne said, "we'll stop Thornmane, so rest easy."

"Just remember to return the keys when you're done," Bianca quipped while accepting her daggers back. The bear brothers both nodded in understanding before heading off. The rest of the mission would go much like many of WA's and RWBY's other missions. They'd get the keys to Ruby and the others, bust into Fort Arrowfell and fight their way to Bram Thornmane.

The duo would step back and let team RWBY handle the man himself, it was their first mission as huntresses after all. Upon his defeat it was revealed that his plan was to make Ironwood look bad by using the fear radiating orbs and advanced technology to draw in Grimm and sow discord in Mantle. After that, he was taken into Atlesian custody and both teams RWBY and WA were congratulated for their role in ending the conspiracy. It was the first of many successful missions in the kingdom of Atlas and optimism was high during that time. Then everything came crashing down.

Like I said it's good to be back! I might be a little rusty with this story but I don't think I did half bad, all things considered. But of course, tell me what you thought of the chapter in your comments or reviews about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Also, check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! But most importantly, tell me what ending you most want the main story to pick up from! 'Til then.