The Neverending War Chapter 24

The sound of an arial bombardment shakes the city as the airships bring their guns to fire within the walls of Vale. The burning bullhead shakes as bombardments strike large groups of Grimm still entering the city. Gun fire from blocks over signals the approaching mechanized team.

"Alec, I need you on your feet now." Alec blinks his eyes open to the sound of Mimi's voice.

"Status report."

"Pilot is dead passengers are alive, Grimm are incoming."

"Can't get a break," Alec pulls his exhausted body up, "Alright who is not dead yet."

"We are all alive," Paul replies barely standing up, "but we are in no shape to fight."

"I am bleeding pretty badly," Danny says calmly, "I don't know if I can keep my eyes open." Paul starts trying to stop the bleeding from his friend. Her staples have been torn from the wound in her stomach.

"I am out of this one too," Raven says with a grunt as she tries to shift her leg which is in a very unnatural direction. "I would be worthless anyway."

Alec nods as he looks at Tina and Rita who are barely standing, "Mimi please tell me there is more."

"It sounds like the Mechanized Team is a few blocks away, and the airships are firing into to city." Mimi replies.

"Alight close up the opening. We are in no shape to fight. The pilot put out an SOS and we just have to wait them out."

Paul is furiously trying to stop bleeding, "Pass me my medical bag." He yells out to no one in particular, "Danny, I need you to stay awake, focus on my voice." A bag is passed to him as he looks to Raven. "Are you in pain?"

"Yeah, but I am not bleeding out yet." The woman in the torn dress replies laying against the bulkhead out the bullhead.

With a nod he turns back, "Danny you need to stay with me, or you are going to die, talk to me, I am going to try to suture your wound, but it is torn to shreds. It is going to be bad."

"Yeah, yeah, sew me up like I am a teddy bear." Danny replies in obvious pain. The scraping of metal can be heard as the others are trying to secure the door. "Just make sure the scar is gonna be sexy. I hear guys love a chick with scars."

"I don't know about that," Paul replies with a focus on the needle and thread he is using, "I like my teammates in one piece."

"Oh, how you wound me," She laughs and starts coughing from the pain. "Anyway, what is your type if it isn't battle scarred."

"Not the best time to try to set me up on a date Danny, I am trying to keep what is left of our blood inside of you and off my hands."

"Hey, you told me to keep talking, and you need to get yourself a date or two."

"This is going to hurt Danny."

"It has been hurting for a while, so what is your type."

"I can't give you anything for the pain because…"

"I might lose consciousness and die I know, your type Paul."

"Smart, Pretty, Hardheaded," He keeps sewing his friends gut shut, "Someone who puts others ahead of themselves, Creative, and Who never gives up." He keeps suturing the wound trying to seal the bloody rips and tears. "Alright your turn." He stares at the tear he is still sewing up.

"What do you mean?" Danny replies with a coy smile. "And that isn't a type, no hair color, body type, or ever looks."

"I said pretty," he turns to his bag and tries to pull out a bandage only to see he is out. With an embarrassed look he turns to Raven, "Can I have…" Raven nods as she tears off a portion of her dress, tossing it to the Medic who pours cleaner on it as he turns back to Danny, "And you don't get to dodge the question, you want to dig into my personal interests it comes back at you." He wipes the blood away from the wound to allow himself to continue with the desperate suturing.

"Fine ask the dying girl what she wants in a man."

"You are going to live don't talk like that."

"Strong, handsome, stupidly smart, good with his hands, caring, stubborn, I am sure I could give you more suggestions given time." She looks down at her belly, "It is going to be bad, isn't it?"

"Once we get you to real doctors, they will have to undo all of this and probably do some major surgery. But they will be able to put you under which means you will not be in burning pain."

"Actually, it has all gone numb, so it doesn't hurt so much."

"I wish I had something to give you, but I am pretty much out of everything."

"I know, so what are you going to do when you retire from huntsmanning." Danny keeps talking through the pain.

"I don't know to be honest; I was originally going to retire at the first chance I had so probably twenty years, I figured I could go to school and become a real doctor. Maybe specialize in huntsman care, would be nice to open a clinic out in one of the smaller villages keep people healthy."

"That would be nice, I wouldn't mind living in a small village with you. But you said originally what has changed?"

"Oh, that is easy, I found out that someone was trying to reorganize the Grimm and wanted me and my friends dead I figure that I will have no choice but to stick it out till the end. How about you."

"I want to find somewhere that I will be accepted and loved, get some kind of job that makes me happy find someone to love and live happily ever after." Danny smiles, "I know I know incredibly naïve and silly, but I am bleeding to death so I do not think anyone can judge."

"You are not going to die," Paul says leaning back. "We have a good chance of getting you out of here." He looks at his hands caked in blood and tries to clean them off."

Danny smiles, "Hey Beethoven what are our chances of getting rescued by the Mech boys before the Grimm get here?"

"Fifty-fifty Danny, we have a bit of an advantage because the Mechanized unit more than likely deployed from The Beacon."

Danny nods with a sigh, "I have a fifty-fifty chance of making out of this bullhead and from what you have told me I do not have a perfect chance of making it through the medical procedures. Especially with no Aura left. They can't even use boosters because I burnt it all in the fight with the help of those boosters." Danny places her hand on Paul's face, "Good move getting us those by the way. That kept us fighting." She smiles as she looks at the man next to her. "Too bad that I never got to tell you…"

"Danny, you need to stop talking crazy." Paul shakes his head, "You have lost too much blood, what is your blood type, fuck it I am O Negative." He starts preparing his dwindling equipment for a direct blood transfusion. "Give me your arm."

"No Paul it'll be fine, I am not…, You need to keep up your strength." The weakened huntress tries to fight off her friend and the needle in his hand.

Paul pushes the woman's arm back, "Fine Danny, I will give you what you want." He pulls the woman close as he kisses her on her lips. Either because she was in a bad state, or because she wanted something like this to happen Danny leans into the kiss and doesn't notice the needle entering her vein. "And I will get what I want."

Danny smiles in a semi delirious state, "And what is that Paul?"

"You to live." He looks at her as he tries to measure his breathing to keep the blood flowing normally, "Now breath normally shallow breaths, bring your heart rate down." He stares at the woman he is trying to save, "I bought you time don't waste it."

Danny closes her eyes and starts breathing to lower her heart rate, "Fuck, you can't just do something like that Paul. You are putting your life at risk." Danny stares at the man, "you used tongue," she says out loud and the blushes looking at the six other huntsmen and two dozen civilians staring at her and Paul. "Fuck."

"Any Chance that the mechanized team is close?" Paul asks leaning back against the bullhead's bulkhead. "Cause we are going to need to make it to a hospital quickly. My medical bag is empty aside from some aspirin and adhesive bandages."

"We will know in a few minutes," Raven shifts herself clutching her teeth in pain. She looks at the civilians who are looking terrified, "I am sorry," She looks tired, "We aren't much a group of protectors right now."

Alec stares at the door of the bullhead, "The Mechanized team will be here in time." He turns back to the group, "Until then just…" He looks back towards the door, "Just sit tight."

"We don't have much of a choice, we are stuck here." One of the people in the group replies."

Rita laughs darkly, "Aren't we all." She pulls herself up using her spear as a walking stick. "Look if we could get you all out of here, we would, we have no ammunition and no aura. The Mechanized Team should be here soon, and they likely are with the Beacon and that can get us to Beacon and safety."

"Or we are going to die being ripped apart by the Grimm."

"Yup." Tina replies terrifyingly calmly as she looks at Beethoven, "So I am looking at a closer to sixty percent chance of rescue now."

"Yeah, there abouts," The artificial man agrees. "If we had a bit of aura and a hundred rounds of ammunition, I could make that an Eighty percent."

"Oh, what I wouldn't give for ammunition to use with my machine gun." Tina replies with a smile, "Or even better that Old eighty-eight I salvaged. I could really fuck up some Grimm with that."

Rita roles her eyes, "And If I had any aura left, I might be able to get this wreck flying but we aren't going to live in what if land."

Raven laughs, "Eh, what if land is kinda nice, I wouldn't have a ruined leg and Danny would not be bleeding out."

"Oh, right like she would have given up that kiss," Mimi's ears flick as she listens to what is going on outside. "But tongue huh, I didn't know you had it in you Paul. Making out with a delirious patient." The mocking tone in her voice matches her catlike grin.

"Yeah, make it look worse than it already is thanks." Paul looks at the blood cover ground with a grin.

"Oh, don't worry Paul, I liked it."

"Says the delirious one."

"So, if you are doing a blood transfusion who is happier about Paul being in Danny," Raven laughs as she finishes the sentence.

The civilians look in horror at the eight huntsmen, "What, we could die, and you are all joking and laughing about the fact that two of your teammates kissed." The person that questioned the group was no older than the huntsmen themselves. "You should be doing something, fighting them, running, using your powers."

"No ammo, no dust, no aura and in some of our cases no working limbs fix one of those and you might change the game. But right now, this is our best shot." Raven groans from her position.

"But you are huntsmen, you can fight anything."

Alec looks at everyone, "We are really meant to be heavy hitters and we would have begun to pull back earlier rather than make the last stand we did. We normally would not wade into a wave of Grimm if we were not in a tight spot. But needless to say, if we had more training and time we might be in better shape. The Mechanized unit will be here soon, and we will be evacuated." Alec plops himself down, "Now relax and think happy thoughts, the Grimm are drawn to negative emotions." He draws his weapon and starts checking it, "Shifting gear is blown and blade has been dulled already and the gas tube has been crushed." He pulls a wrap from his pocket and wraps a specific area of his weapon, tightening the wrap and shifting the fabric to hold the weapon in its melee form. "Tina when we are working on our weapons after this, I am going to need your help repairing these weapons and making sure this kind of damage doesn't happen again."

Tina ducks around the collapsing bullhead interior to look at the weapon. "Both are like this?"

"Not completely, this one for my right hand has a blown shift gear and the gas tube got crushed in melee but the other one has a cracked barrel and the trigger mechanism completely shattered."

"That is odd you would think they both would show similar damage since they are identical."

"They are only physically identical; I originally was not going to use the dual dagger-machine guns. I built the right pistol about two years before the left one. My original plan was to use a light buckler in my left hand, but I found the shield pretty much worthless, so I built the left-handed weapon to match the right one." Alec explains pulling out his left-handed weapon. "I had to build it with different parts because The Strip didn't have a stable supply of parts and I would have had to wait months to get exact parts. I was also being sent on a mission by the mayor fairly soon, so I had to make my changes with no delay."

"You will need to replace the entire trigger mechanism it looks like it is a standard civilian mechanism, it is a miracle that you haven't had it give out on you before. That barrel will need replacement with something tougher. The gear mechanism isn't secured correctly we can fix it up with a few hours in the forge. The gas tube will need to be reinforced and replaced, again should be easy with time. And as for the dull blade, well I am sure Mimi will be able to show you how to sharpen a knife." Tina smiles as she makes mental notes. "Danny will be able to fill out the paperwork while she is in the med bay."

"Oh, thanks Tina, volunteer the dying teammate for the paperwork." Danny groans from her position on the ground.

"Welcome."

Rita looks towards the door, "Mimi I thought I heard something outside."

"Boss, Boss we have started securing the areas you told us to." A Black and red suited man yells as he runs up the pair of women clad in red and white respectively.

"Good job dear."

"But we have heard the Precinct is being overwhelmed."

"Oh my."

"We will have to go and check on them."

"Agreed."

"Gather a group and have them go and check."

"Yes ma'am."

The two women look at each other as the fire on a Grimm. "I hope that old man is alive."

"The Grimm are closing on the Bullhead."

The loud stomping from the mechanical exo-suits of the mechanized unit stops as heavy weapons fire erupts the inch thick rounds fire from their weapons as Sirus stares forward, "Copy that Maximillian; we are entering the crash zone the Grimm are pushing hard, do we have confirmation of survivors."

"Only the pilots final distress call, they said there would be survivors."

"Copy that we are pushing in."

"Mechanized we copy, advise you hurry the huntsmen were aura down and had no ammunition, major wounded reported."

"Copy that Beacon lead, we will burn extra." Sirus looks back at his seven other mechanized unit members, "you heard Beacon lead we move now keep that fire up."

"Aye."

The loud stomping begins again as the eight armored members of the team start running; their running leaps covering a half dozen meters each bound. The smoke from the crashed Bullhead guiding them. The growling, gnawing sound from streets down tell them to run. They glace over as the massive explosion that was the VMAS Hope the light from the explosion creating a second sun the sky. The loud bounding noise from the exo-suits moves forward the heavy automatic fire from their weapons echoing through out the city.

The second sun that was the VMAS Hope makes General Pincter cover his eyes, his jaw tightens harder than he thought possible. The city he was ordered to protect is on fire the beasts of a past generation killing new children. A loud growl from behind him causes him to draw his service pistol and aim at a winged bat like creature black with red eyes and the unmistakable Grimm mask. He pulls the trigger as guards rush over after a half dozen rounds the beast is dead.

"Where is our antiaircraft fire."

"Overwhelmed sir. The Grimm have been focusing on them individually."

"Well fuck us I guess," The General holsters his pistol. "Grab your rifles men, looks like it is time to find out if any of you have been skipping firearms practice." Grabbing one of the rifles for himself the General prepares to sell his life dearly for his home. "I want squads made, open up the antiaircraft guns. No matter what those guns are to keep firing."

The logistics and command personnel that had just become front line soldiers open up the best they can. But the Grimm are stronger and more than capable of breaking the barely reorganized scratch squads. The command center is falling there is nothing that can be done by the soldiers to change that.

"Alright anyone listening, this in General Pincter Command is being overwhelmed," The General speaks calmly into the radio in front of him firing his weapon, "You will not send reinforcements here, you are to secure the city and protect civilians." A few more rounds leave his weapon. "You will keep the antiaircraft weapons firing." Another series of shots can be heard. "You will protect our home. Pincter out." The man shuts off the signal and reloads his rifle. "Alright set the explosives and prepare to move out." No one replies. The General takes a shot at another Grimm as his rifles runs dry. He pulls his pistol as he slings his rifle to his back.

"General," Headmistress Crimson Imerta curtsies slightly as she walks into the command center. "I am sorry for my delay I had to cut through half the city." Her professional clothing singed from combat. A Grimm comes up behind her and she slashes it with her sword, faster than the General can react.

"Thank you, Lady Imerta," The General returns his holster and find another magazine for his rifle.

The Headmistress smiles, "I am afraid it doesn't look good outside either. I did my best to save who I could, but the Grimm swarmed out of nowhere."

"Yes, almost like they were being lead again."

"General I ask that you only hold your opinions until we have secured Vale, after that I will talk to you about everything."

"Agreed." The General nods, "How are my cadets doing?"

"I wish I knew; my teams are deployed all over the place, but the unit that was with your Cadets in the city has been taken out of the fight and your Cadets engaged the Grimm in Melee," A scream is heard from outside, "I promise to tell you everything when this is over."

"Go Huntress."

Crimson Imerta dashes out of the command center, a feeling in her body that she didn't know that she still could have. As a pair of Grimm appear she slashes falling horizontally though the air, the pair are dissolving before she takes another step. Outside is still a mess as she bounces in the air slashing through the flying Grimm. A larger Nevermore dives at the slowly growing collection of dissolving Grimm falling out of the sky. Bouncing from a dissolving monster the Headmistress of Beacon flies through the air at the Nevermore with her sword pointing forward. At a speed that should kill an ordinary person the pair collide and Crimson Imerta's sword, Light in the Black, tears through the creature of death. Landing with a hard hit Imerta looks around stunned soldiers staring at her.

She looks out to see a group of Beowolves heading down a street, with a scowl she dashes that direction.

All over the city battles are expanding as the Huntsmen from Beacon engage the Grimm, the Generals soldiers fighting against an age-old enemy and the Mobsters from the criminal underground joining in as new friends. Hold out locations have been formed by civilians and police. From an outsiders view the attack is bad, but it has been placed under control. The fighting is now a case of a grind. The Huntsmen will start annihilating the packs of Grimm before the end of the day, and once they have time to reorganize the army will be coordinating them off.

Inside the shelters, the holdout locations and unaffected areas of the city the civilian populace they all wonder where are their protectors and what happened.