"In the days since the Fall of Beacon, our nation has been inundated with record numbers of refugees from all three of the other major kingdoms, as well as the diverse settlements throughout the world. Not just Valeans, but Mistrali and Vacuan immigrants have sought the safety of Atlas in light of the destruction at Beacon Academy, viewing our nation as the only place conceivably safe from overnight decimation. While an estimated forty-two percent of immigrants are stopped by Grimm or bandit attacks on the way to our kingdom's doors, the influx of newcomers is worsening Mantle's existing problems in crime rates, homelessness, and-"
"Turn this Grimmbait off. It's nothing we can't see out the window."
"But-"
"That's an order. And we're on the clock anyways, imagine if the General came down right now."
The two soldiers, one seated at the reception desk and one standing guard in front of the elevator, turned towards the front entrance as they heard it open as if on cue, and both stood at attention as they recognized Winter Schnee in the entryway. She approached the elevator with disciplined hurriedness befitting her role as Ironwood's right hand, and the soldier guarding the elevator quickly stepped aside to let her through.
"At ease." The former heiress tried to say it politely but the stress of fighting the metaphorical and sometimes literal fires Atlas and Mantle were dealing with got to her, and it came off more abrasive than she meant it. As the elevator doors closed, she saw the soldier at the desk slump in his seat with his head in his hands, and in that moment envied him like no one else in Atlas. As the elevator ascended, she quickly scanned the room for some reflective surface to briefly check her appearance, but found none and thought it perhaps to her good fortune that she didn't know just how disheveled she must have looked. She straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath in anticipation to meet the General at the top level. He had called her on urgent business, and now more than ever 'urgent business' meant exactly that.
As the doors opened, she found the General staring intently at various holograms above his desk. He quickly stood to greet her as she approached and caught her peeking at the holograms to try and ascertain the purpose of the meeting before he said a word.
"I understand this isn't a great time, so I'll try and keep this brief."
Winter put forward a hand to interrupt. "If it's this important, sir, detail is better than brevity."
Ironwood paused for a moment, and then nodded. "You're right. From the top, then: four hours ago, a huntsman named Conailte Loach stepped into my office to give me a list of names for the monument. He and his team fought at Beacon for the whole night, and he was the only one that made it out. I was impressed with his abilities, and after I added the names to the list and thanked him for his service, I told him I would do what I could to find him a new team. Not one hour later, a huntress named Laura Thrush stopped by, the leader of Team Lavender. Her team was good friends with Conailte's, and she wanted to transfer leadership of her team to him."
Winter glanced at the holograms again. "That sounds like a kind gesture, sir, but it sounds like you have other plans."
The general moved his arms from behind his back to being folded in front of him as he answered. "I told her I would think about it, but looking at her record, she's nearly unparalleled as a leader: she led her whole incoming class to the relics and to safety during the initiation, and her time in the academy shows the same ability. More importantly, she was far beyond the rest of her team in combat aptitude- just like Conailte. Not only did I feel that Team Lavender would be too far below Conailte's skill level, but I want Laura to remain in a leadership position." The general straightened his stance and turned directly toward Winter, while she watched the holograms displaying Laura and Conailte's recorded combat training sessions. "It took some thinking, but I know what I want to do with these two. I want to make a new superteam, on level with the Ace Operatives, but we can't make them public. We need to show force to keep the enemies of Atlas at bay, but we can't show our full hand, not after Beacon." Ironwood glanced away as the sentence concluded. "We'll make more liberal use of the Ace Ops, and keep this team under our hat as a last resort."
"Do you have other candidates in mind?" Winter asked. "We could pull from the Ace Operatives reserves."
"I had another idea. Laura and Conailte are good enough to be Ace Ops, but they're both Valean, not Atlesian, so they're disqualified. If people ARE qualified to be Ace Ops, I'd rather they stay on that track. Your job will be to find more huntsmen that are good enough to be on that level, but don't qualify for one reason or another. We'll make the team out of them, and while they might be less loyal to Atlas, we'll only need to pull them out when there's only one side to be on."
Winter nodded, but after a moment, turned her gaze back to the general. "Actually, sir, I think I have a name in mind already. When I was at the academy, there was a girl that would spar with me, Melantha Aulnoy. She was a few years below me, but she was still the toughest opponent I ever had, and she should be graduated by now."
"And she had a criminal record." Ironwood nodded. "I remember her. I exonerated her so she could start training as a huntress and as a detective, but having a record in the first place means she couldn't be an Ace Operative. She graduated the same year as Laura and Conailte, too, and quite frankly she'd be the strongest among them. Excellent choice."
"I'll see if I can find any more for the team." Winter declared.
"Belay that order." The general put his arms behind his back again. "Let's give these three a test run before we start looking for a fourth. At their power, I'm not sure they would even need it, and a smaller team is easier to hide. For now, bring me Laura, Conailte, and Melantha, and let teams Lavender and Vermillion know they're being reorganized." Ironwood turned to the window. "Dismissed."
Laura had to fold her wings against herself as the elevator carried her and her teammates to the top level of Atlas Academy, her faunus trait proving too large for Conailte or Melantha to comfortably fit in the room otherwise. The general had summoned the team for an urgent meeting, which meant coming as they were. Of course, all three of them had long since made their duty gear their standard attire, or perhaps vice versa: Melantha wore her black bodysuit covered by a black mid-length trenchcoat with a yellow floral pattern on the right sleeve, her high black boots with her emblem in yellow on the left and a silver anklet on the right, with a yellow belt, socks, and scarf, completing the look with her black glasses, silver wristwatch, and wide-brimmed black hat with black synthetic flowers and a yellow ribbon.
Since the formation of the team months prior, Conailte had let himself grow a beard: not a long or scraggly beard, but a short, well-kept, and dignified beard the same orange hue as his hair that made him almost look like a sea captain, and which Laura recognized as the same style favored by one of his old teammates, Riker Granite. Aside from that change, he looked as he always had: tall and large, very muscular, with his plain grey hoodie, compression shirt, jeans, and running shoes. Minus his build, standing 6'4" and weighing 201 lbs. in lean muscle, he could have rather easily passed for any old civilian, though perhaps the new beard would have still let him stand out there.
Despite him standing a full foot and a half taller than her and being over two-and-a-half times her weight, however, it was still Laura having to compress to allow everybody to fit. Her white Gyrfalcon wings covered her own attire of a green midriff tank top, green and pink skort, high white boots with thigh-high green and pink socks, and the various pieces of gold jewelry across her whole body, including the olive branch crown on her head, a pendant, and all sixteen bracelets that were, unbeknownst to casual observers, her weapons. As the elevator reached its destination, the blonde allowed her teammates to leave the elevator first, spreading her wings as she followed behind them before quickly passing the pair to be in the front as they approached General Ironwood's desk. The General smiled and stood to greet them.
"Sorry for all the fluff missions, but they were necessary to make the three of you look like any old team and not the best in the business. I'm sure you've all been itching for a real assignment, and I've finally got something that I need your skills for."
"Whatever you need, sir, we're ready at your word." The faunus answered absolutely.
"Good. My top fighter, Winter Schnee, is currently stationed at the Argus Base to oversee the operations there and protect the people of Mistral. But I'm moving forward with other plans here, and I want her by my side. The three of you are headed to Argus to recall Miss Schnee back to the homeland, and inform Specialist Cordovin that she'll be taking over operations fully as Atlas begins its embargo."
Conailte raised an eyebrow. "What's going on over the water that makes that trip a huntsman mission? We aren't sailing there, are we?"
Ironwood smirked at the question. "If that were the whole assignment, it wouldn't be a huntsman mission at all. But when Winter returns home, the three of you aren't coming back with her."
Melantha's brow creased with concern, but she mostly hid it as she merely responded with "Sir?"
The general raised a hand to reassure them. "You three will be staying in Mistral, doing whatever you see fit to make it a better place. Clearing trade routes, fixing broken infrastructure, crippling the criminal syndicates: you have total autonomy to do good wherever you can."
Melantha's concern faded to disbelief. "You're giving us a carte blanche mission? What's the end goal?"
"As I said, I have plans in motion, but with Mistral being in the shape that it is, they might do more harm than good: panic, opportunism, even Grimm attacks, and I need the three of you to make sure none of those are bound to happen. I know your loyalties aren't to Atlas, but I trust the three of you to do what's right, and do a better job of it than anyone else I have available- maybe better than anyone else at all."
"This doesn't sound like the usual 'weekend mission.' How long will we have to get the whole mess sorted?" Conailte questioned with a point.
"Between complications in the process and confidentiality of the exact nature, I don't have a set deadline for you. But you should have at least a year, and I guarantee you'll know exactly when you're out of time."
"A year is more than enough." Laura smiled at her teammates before turning back to the general, straightening her posture and unfurling her wings. "The world can count on us, sir."
Ironwood smiled, proud of the team's resolve. "You'll depart on the first airship tomorrow morning. Good hunting, team."
The path to the dust mine was far more scenic than it had any right to be, a dirt road lined with trees and adorned with flowers of all the same colors as the dust one could find at their destination and close enough to the sea that the team of huntsmen-in-training could smell the salt in the air as they briskly walked along the path.
"You know, we passed at least three dust stores trying to get here." One of the three girls of the group mentioned to the head of the pack. "Not too pricey, and we don't have to grab it from the rock ourselves."
"It's cheaper and purer." The leader replied. "We're paying a third the price if we grab it ourselves, and you can feel the quality."
"Whole lot of extra work though. And extra walking."
"It's a nice walk," the third girl chimed in. "It's so beautiful out here, right, Noll?"
"It's alright." The only boy finally spoke. "But Beril's right, the extra walking and work is rough."
"Why do you even care about the quality, Sophie? You don't even use dust." Beril added.
"Because I want my team at top notch. Which, once again, is also why I made us grab this before any of you went below half."
"Can you two please just stop fighting about this?" The third girl spoke once again. "At this point we're close enough to the mine that it's going to be faster to keep walking there instead of going back."
"Phoenix is right, let's just get this over and done with." Sophie agreed, while Beril rolled her eyes.
As a first-year team at Haven Academy, the team was still trying to work out its kinks, with Sophie Willow being a passable leader as the heiress to a steel company but not being particularly amazing. Beril Fawkes, having grown up a bandit, was an especially prickly person, although she was too reformed to be outright malicious. Noll Hawthorne, the only boy on the team, didn't want to get involved in any of the drama and was mostly in the academy to simply learn how to fight. Phoenix Zampella fell into the role of peacekeeper, having joined the academy to both witness and be part of the stories that would be told to the next generation like the ones she'd heard growing up, including writing even the most mundane adventures her team had in her diary. Perhaps someday, if they had interesting stories, she could publish them like she'd dreamed, but for now, there wasn't much to tell: they were a first-year team like most others.
As the four approached the mine, they found it suspiciously quiet, not hearing the normal sounds of machines and men throughout the quarry. As they were about to enter, they only saw one man, who held up a hand to stop them.
"Hold it. Mine's closed until we can clear out the Grimm."
Beril looked as if she were about to blow a gasket, but Phoenix stopped her from saying anything as Sophie stepped forward to talk with the man. "You're having Grimm trouble?"
"Yup, for about a week and a half now. Lot of people stopped by here on their way to Atlas, and our machines couldn't keep up with demand. We closed for a bit to get 'em repaired and up to date, but that's when the Grimm moved in. Now, everyone coming by has been too low on dust to actually do anything about 'em."
"Well, my team's fine on dust." Sophie motioned to her compatriots. "We wanted to restock while we still had a good amount. Maybe we can help?"
"No offense, but you all look a little green to be dealing with this." The man answered. "Couldn't live with myself if I let you all in there and you couldn't hold out."
"We might still be in training, sir, but we're good at what we do, and we can get out at the first sign of trouble."
The man contemplated for a moment. "Not gonna offer you a reward, just so you're not trying to weigh the options of staying or leaving. But alright. If you want to try and help clear out the Grimm, go right on ahead, but remember to get out if there's trouble, you hear?"
Sophie nodded. "Yes, sir." She turned to her team, who had readied their weapons: Noll his flag, Phoenix her hooksword, and Beril her flamethrower, and Sophie drew her dual swords as she turned back to the mines. "Alright, Team Soft Bronze, let's get to work."
The landing strip of the Argus base was covered with airships and rushing soldiers moving supplies as LCA's transport set down, opening its doors to reveal the city to the team within. As they stepped out of the craft, they were approached by the base's famous commander, Caroline Cordovin, flanked by two much larger soldiers. Despite not even standing at eye level with Laura, she addressed them with all the bravado of someone twice their collective size as her accompaniment got to work unloading supply crates from their transport.
"I didn't believe the radio transmission at first, but here you are, three huntsmen from our great kingdom! Why, with transport like this, you must be on assignment from the general himself!"
"We are," Laura answered. "We've been sent to recall Specialist Schnee to the Atlas homeland and deliver your orders to take over Argus Base operations fully."
"Winter's being sent home?" The woman questioned, before rapidly regaining her composure. "Well enough, the general's right to want her by his side! I'll run a tight ship here in Argus. Are the three of you staying around?"
"Ironwood wants us to be acting all through Mistral, but we can return here when we're needed."
Cordovin nodded, satisfied with Laura's answer, before Melantha stepped forward.
"One more thing. Before we left Atlas Communications space, I confirmed with the general that our transport would be the last one out from Atlas until further notice, and Winter's transport will be the last they accept before the embargo fully begins."
"An embargo? Ah, for national security, of course! Ironwood needn't worry, I won't let a single ship head north until we receive word."
"If you have any particularly homesick soldiers, perhaps you should send them as accompaniment to Specialist Schnee." Laura advised. Cordovin thought for a moment.
"Some names do come to mind. I'll gather them while you inform Miss Schnee of her reassignment- she should be in the ready room right now, second floor, third door on the right."
"By the way," Conailte interjected. "Ironwood told us to ask if the Ursai are still hunting."
Cordovin's face shifted to fury, and as she answered, every soldier on the tarmac stopped and stared. "Will he NEVER let me live that down?! If I taunted him even a third as much as he me, I'd have been court-martialled years ago!"
Laura quickly got between Conailte and the Specialist. "We meant no offense, ma'am. We'll go inform Specialist Schnee while you muster her accompaniment."
The older woman rapidly regained her composure. "Very well. Wait in there for me as well, so we can discuss your mission further."
Laura nodded, and the three walked into the base complex.
As they arrived in the ready room, they found Winter observing a large video screen. She turned to the door and was evidently surprised to see the team.
"Team LCA? What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Ironwood wants you close to home. We'll be taking over the Mistral mission in full."
The answer didn't alleviate her surprise to see them here, but she quickly gathered herself. "If you were wanting an easier assignment, I would have said to go to Vacuo. Things are a mess here: huntsmen going missing, towns disappearing off the map, Grimm attacks in every corner. Criminal activity is at an all-time high, and everybody is still worried that Haven might be next."
"That's why we're here." Laura answered. "We're ready for anything, and that's why Ironwood sent us."
Winter smirked. "I was about to go to a dust mine in the area that recently got overrun with Grimm, you should start there."
"Get some work done and get some dust, I like the sound of that. We can head out as soon as Cordovin's done talking to us," Conailte answered.
As Winter left the room, she turned back towards the team. "Ironwood made the right call. This place needs the best it can get, and it doesn't get much better than you three."
"And he's right to want you by his side," Melantha responded. As Winter walked out the door, she passed Cordovin, who nodded to her as she entered the room and shut the door behind her to ensure the privacy of her conversation with LCA.
"You'll have to forgive my outburst earlier."
"Oh, you're fine, I shouldn't have brought it up." Conailte quickly apologized.
"Actually, you should have. The tantrum is just to make sure nobody else on the base goes around repeating it. What you told me wasn't a taunt at all: it was the passphrase for access to the Argus Base requisitions and commissary. Once I put you three into the system, you'll have full access to the ammunition and technologies of Atlas! We can't give it out for free, mind you, but it's the highest-grade tech and dust you'll ever find!"
"That's very helpful, thank you." Melantha thanked the older woman, who nodded in response.
"Of course, I'll just need your names to get you into the system." The specialist pulled out a tablet as she asked, "Last, first, middle?"
"Thrush, Laura Madison." The leader answered first, immediately followed by her second in command.
"Laoch, Conailte Hayden."
Melantha waited until the specialist had finished typing the previous two before she also answered. "Aulnoy, Melantha Teagan."
Cordovin nodded as she finished the task and put the tablet away. "Alright, your huntsman licenses should now give you full access. I look forward to working with you all." The woman turned and opened the door to leave as Laura turned to Conailte.
"Conailte, go to the armory and grab the dust types we all use. Melantha and I will head for the mine, you wait there if you get there before us."
"Got it." The ginger answered, stepping towards the door and using his semblance to bounce off the ground, through the doorway, and down the hall at extreme speed. Melantha and Laura stepped onto the balcony, as Melantha used her own semblance to transmute her hat into smoke and some smoke into a flowing black cloak. The cloak was laced with gravity dust, which Melantha used to take to the air alongside Laura as the two flew toward the mine.
As Noll's flagpole struck an Ursai up and across the face, sending the beast reeling back, the earth dust woven within its flag glowed a brilliant orange and new rock burst forth from the ground before him to impale a Creep against the ceiling, killing it instantly while the new rock formation also blocked the lunge of a Beowulf towards him. Noll leapt forward, stabbing behind him to impale the Ursai before jutting the weapon forward again to stun the Beowulf. As he landed, the boy used his semblance to duplicate himself into three, surrounding the poor Grimm before simultaneously stabbing it with the reverse end of their flagpoles. As the three clones turned towards another Creep nearby, the beast burst into flames, and out of the corner of their eyes they could see Beril as the culprit launching the fire.
She turned and incinerated a few more Grimm, effortlessly killing the smaller ones that approached her, and forcing the smarter ones to keep at a distance just beyond the fire's reach, growling at their target in anticipation for an opportunity to move in for the kill. During one controlled blast of fire, her target, a Beringrel, marched straight through the flames, forcing the girl to dodge a burning hand as it tried to land a punch on her.
Before it could land a second, a blade swiftly appeared from its neck, and as the beast staggered, a second burst through its chest before both retracted back into the beast. As the Beringrel fell and evaporated, Beril saw Sophie turn away from her, drawing her twin swords into her ready position: the shorter sword with a crossguard faced at an upward angle held straight in front of her in her left hand, while her longer gladius-style sword in her right was held above her head, pointed directly in front of her. As a Boarbatusk rolled towards the leader, she used the forward sword to block the attack, and brought her right sword across to kill the monster, before blocking a strike from a Beowulf and returning with another cut across its throat.
Phoenix, from across the cavern, shot at a third Grimm coming up behind her leader, while dodging an attack from an Ursai without even so much as thinking about it. That was her semblance: her body would contort entirely on its own to avoid something coming towards her too quickly, and the poor Grimm were ironically too slow to not strike more slowly as she thoughtlessly weaved through their strikes while converting her automatic rifle into a large hooksword, embedding it into the paw of the Ursai and smacking a Creep with the arm she'd just pulled off before cleaving the Ursai's head and reconfiguring her weapon to shoot a three-round burst at the dazed Creep.
She felt her body bend forward on its own as a rock formation appeared from the wall behind her, impaling her next target for her. Without even turning to look, she knew Noll to be the one responsible, and yelled a quick "thank you" before rolling out from under the rock and shooting another Grimm. Across the cavern, as Sophie used both of her swords to block the strike of an Ursa, Beril shot from behind her to incinerate the thing, giving Sophie an opening to stab it straight through the midsection. The fight was going well, but something felt off to Sophie: the Grimm didn't seem to only be in front of them as they traversed into the mines in their extermination effort, but also seemed to be coming from behind them, down the paths where they'd already been.
There's no way more Grimm would be coming into the mine after us, right? Sophie thought to herself, but quickly dismissed. No, if her team was in any danger of being trapped in this mine, they had to move.
"Team! We've got Grimm coming from behind us, if we don't leave now we'll be stuck here!"
"How are we going to get through them on the way out? The Grimm from the mine will just come from behind!" Phoenix yelled back.
"Noll, use your clones to cover our six!" Sophie ordered.
"No, I'll do it!" Beril yelled. "My flamethrower can cover the whole cavern behind us, Noll needs to get us out!"
"Sophie?" Noll yelled, trying to clarify who was doing what. Sophie panicked for a moment before making the concession.
"Fine! Noll, help us clear the path! Beril, use your fire to keep them off us!"
The team got to work trying to push back out of the mine, Beril shooting her fire deeper into the cave to keep the ones further on at bay, but even with Noll's clones at work, the tide of incoming Grimm felt endless. Progress was slow, and the team really was starting to run out of stamina, dust, and aura.
Sophie fought with all her might to not let her teammates die from her initiative.
Laura touched down on the dirt path to the dust mine, turning as Melantha set down just behind her: while Melantha's cloak did give her flight, Laura's natural faunus wings had always been considerably faster. The taller woman kept the cloak on, knowing the team was about to get into a fight and that the gravity dust within could be used to reflect and redirect any strikes from the Grimm. Without turning, Melantha knew Conailte was coming up right behind them at extremely high speed, but with a kick into the dirt he stopped on a dime before hitting either of the girls. He carried in his arms several small boxes of dust, dominantly gravity dust with some hardlight, wind, and combustion dust.
"Got the kinds you two use, I'll grab mine when we're not on the clock." The boy explained as he handed the boxes to Melantha, who turned them into smoke with her semblance for easy transport. Laura nodded to him before the three stepped down the path to the dust mine, finding an old man looking at the cavern entrance with horror across his face. Laura approached him and spoke first.
"Sir, we're a team of huntsmen. We came to clear the mine."
"Forget about the mine!" The man yelled. "Some kids came by wantin' to help, but now the Grimm are trapping them in there! I can't have their blood on my hands!"
Laura quickly turned to Conailte. "Conailte, ignore the Grimm and find the students. Keep them safe until Melantha meets up with you." Laura turned to the detective. "Melantha, you follow after him, but you're on extermination. Cut down every Grimm you see to clear the way out." Turning back towards the cavern entrance, Laura added, "I'll make sure the rest can't come in after you."
Conailte once again used his semblance, rapidly launching himself into the cavernous dust mine as Melantha sprinted behind him, forming her sword from smoke and beheading two Ursai on the way in with a single strike, plus a Beowulf on the backswing before she disappeared into the mine. Behind her, Laura slid four bracelets off her wrists, which flew into the path of the cave entrance before creating powerful sound waves that blew away the approaching Grimm. The faunus flew high above the Grimm that survived the initial attack, and while she kept the four bracelets guarding the cavern entrance, four more slid off her wrists to start blasting more sound waves from different angles, crushing the Grimm either against the ground or between two extremely powerful concussive walls of sound, filling the air with black haze as any new Grimm to arrive were quickly decimated by Laura's freakishly powerful weapons, all while she flew the open skies in total safety.
At least, until she heard the cry of a Nevermore from the east, and saw it rapidly approaching her. As it did, Laura released four more bracelets from her wrists, two going in each direction to be alongside the Nevermore on its path to the faunus in its sights. As the Nevermore got between all four, the blasts of sound began, holding it midair even as its wings stopped flapping and it contorted and writhed in agony. After only seconds, the beast evaporated, and the four bracelets returned to surround Laura as she continued to fly above the cascade of rapidly dying Grimm. Even in spite of all her power, though, she knew her two far stronger teammates were the ones these students were depending on, and she knew with all her heart that they could get to them in time.
And it was a good thing that they would, because Laura could hear much larger Grimm coming from behind the mountains.
Every two steps forward felt like it came with one step back as the students pushed through the incoming Grimm, struggling to get through to the mine's entrance as the monsters just kept coming from the very direction they needed to go, as well as from behind them further on in the mines. Noll used his semblance to form a small army of clones to cover the Grimm from further on, but the others couldn't seem to kill the Grimm much faster than they were coming in, though the student team continued to fight with all the ferocity they could muster.
Sophie took position behind Beril and Phoenix as the two started firing into the cavernous halls, hoping to grind the Grimm before them until their numbers stopped- if they ever stopped. As Phoenix stopped to reload her weapon, Sophie leapt forward, slashing at the incoming monsters with all the energy she could, but at this point she was rarely even able to kill them in one hit and was forced back, exhausted, as Phoenix resumed her bullet storm. Part of Sophie wanted to apologize to her teammates as their inevitable doom closed in, and to speak some final words to the huntresses and huntsman that she and nobody else had failed. The other was determined, however, to give every last effort she could to ensure she wouldn't have to make that apology, or at least ensure they would live to remember it.
As Phoenix once again stopped to reload, Sophie burst forward once again, but her body couldn't keep up with her drive as she collapsed to her knees before the Grimm, her swords too heavy to move into the path of the monsters' gaping maws and powerful arms, all closing in on her as Phoenix screamed her name. As the Beowulf's jaws neared her face, she suddenly saw an arm intercept the beast, lodging itself into its bite seemingly unharmed. It was a pale, muscular arm that she didn't recognize, and even as she turned to face her defender as he threw the beast into another of its own kind, she didn't recall his face. He launched a blast of plasma from his arm at a Boarbatusk and performed a flawless Superman punch into an Ursa, sending it flying as far as it could go in the tight corridors of the mine before turning towards Sophie.
"Sorry I'm a little late." The ginger, bearded man greeted her.
"Late?" Sophie questioned. "You just saved my life!"
The man smirked with a small shrug. "You know me." As he turned and continued to cut down the incoming monsters with ease none of Team SBNZ had ever even witnessed, Sophie turned back to her compatriots.
"Do you two know him?"
Ordinarily, both girls would have shrugged or otherwise answered her question to the negative, but in their relief that Sophie was okay neither even thought to entertain the question, instead rushing to her with open arms. The hug broke quickly, though, as Phoenix and Beril stood ready to protect their leader from any monsters that somehow got past their new mysterious protector. As he thrust his wrist-mounted plasma blade into the skull of a Creep, he and the rest of SBNZ heard a commotion from further along the path out of the mine.
"Sounds like my friend's here," the huntsman noted. "So now I'll help yours!" The man leapt past the three girls with extreme speed, reaching Noll and kicking the monster three of his clones were fighting in a single bound. As the three girls turned back towards the exit they saw two Beringrels approaching, and were about to call out for the huntsman to come back to fight them before they saw a third figure behind the monsters, wearing a black cloak and wielding a long, slender sword that was brought behind their head before slicing clean through both of the powerful beasts in a single flash of the blade, which carried the signature glow of gravity dust but was also accompanied by an orange flash from the figure's arms. Behind the new ally, there were no more Grimm, and Sophie instantly knew that the figure must have killed all the Grimm further along. They stepped closer, before lifting their hood to reveal the face of a woman with black glasses and a look of concern for the students before her.
"Are you all alright?"
"Thanks to you two." Beril answered. "Who are you guys, anyway?"
"I'm Melantha," The woman introduced herself. "You've met my teammate, Conailte. Our leader's outside keeping the rest of the Grimm out. We came to clear the place out, but the mission's changed to getting you out of here."
"What about the Grimm deeper in the mine?" Phoenix asked. "Will you come back for them once we're out?"
"That's the idea," Conailte answered the question, suddenly appearing next to the three girls, joined shortly by Noll. "We've gotten rid of the immediate problems, so we should be good to get you four out of here and take care of the rest ourselves."
Just then, Conailte's scroll buzzed, and he quickly answered it. Laura's voice came over the device, with her usual dignity and straightforwardness.
"Conailte, have you found the students?"
"They're all right here, safe and sound. We're headed out with them now."
"Good. I need you and Melantha out here as soon as possible, I spotted Sphinxes headed this way."
"On it." Conailte responded quickly, ending the call. "Melantha, where should we keep the kids? They can't handle Sphinxes."
Melantha turned towards the students. "You four either find a place to hide or stick to fighting smaller Grimm, we'll handle the big ones."
"Wait, she said Sphinxes!" Beril pointed out.
"How many do you think there are?" Phoenix asked worriedly.
"My gut says six, but that'll never happen." Conailte answered. "Two Sphinxes, it's possible. Four Sphinxes, there's an outside chance. But six Sphinxes? I'd like to see that!"
"In any case, we have to move." Melantha barked. Conailte used his semblance to launch himself out of the mine, as Team SBNZ and Melantha all ran behind him.
"So what are we doing, Sophie?" Noll asked. "Hiding or fighting?"
With no hesitation, she answered, "Fight, but hide if you need to."
With these new defenders by their side, the downtime to recharge a little bit, and the reduced chances of being cornered outdoors, Sophie knew her team would be able to handle this.
As the students emerged from the mine, they could hardly believe their eyes: a small blonde girl with wings was flying through the sky, pursued by four Sphinxes, flying with incredible speed and grace as she continually avoided the beasts. As their gaze returned to the ground, they could see Conailte fighting two more on his own, their strikes bouncing off him harmlessly as he shot one with the plasma blast from his arm.
"Get to the smaller ones!" Melantha ordered, as she coalesced some smoke in her hand into a throwing bomb. With a trained motion, Melantha lifted one leg straight into the air, stepping forward as she wound her arm around before releasing it at the third Sphinx following Laura. The third Sphinx recoiled from the explosion, as the fourth crashed into it from behind. Both looked towards Melantha, and dove towards the new target as Team SBNZ ran into the nearby forest and Melantha drew her sword once again. One of the beasts breathed a blast of fire, which dissipated entirely into smoke before it even had the chance to hit the huntress.
As the other lunged forward to bite her, Melantha brought her weapon behind her before she threw her sword, and while it spun at such extreme speed as to appear to the naked eye as a perfect circle, hardlight dust within the weapon activated at both the midpoint of the handle and the intercept between the handle and blade, lengthening the weapon to two-and-a-half times its initial length as it flew straight into the mouth of the creature, its spinning cleaving straight through and bisecting the creature's head at the back of its maw.
As it emerged from the other side, both it and the Grimm evaporated into smoke, but the smoke that had been her weapon returned to Melantha's arms and re-formed into her signature weapon, including the hardlight extension as she leapt towards the other Sphinx. As she neared the monster, it tried to swat her away, but Melantha's cloak glowed purple, and the gravity dust within exerted its force to draw the beast's paw just above her body, leaving the beast vulnerable as Melantha planted her feet, brought her blade behind her body, activated the combustion dust woven into the arms of her bodysuit, and twisted her whole body as the gravity dust-infused sword swung at mach speed through the creature of Grimm where its neck met its body. The Sphinx's body split into two, and each evaporated into smoke.
Meanwhile, in the air, Laura continued to evade her pursuers, releasing bracelets from her wrists as she flew in circles. As the last bracelet left her wrist, she turned and faced the incoming monsters, who didn't notice the sixteen bracelets surrounding their path to the faunus girl. As they approached, Laura let all sixteen bracelets rip at maximum power, producing soundwaves that mostly canceled each other out against the bracelet in the opposite direction but still staggered the student team and even Laura's own teammates on the ground. The unaware monsters flew directly into the wall of concussive sound waves, being entirely stopped within the sound waves as the force quickly crushed them to nothing. As the beasts evaporated, the sound stopped, and Laura brought the bracelets back to her wrists.
While the two Sphinxes fighting Conailte were distracted by the death of their fellows, Conailte took the opportunity to release his weapon: after his previous plasma shot, the weapon had vibrated against him due to his semblance, rapidly accelerating and building potential energy which Conailte now released as he disconnected the weapon from his arm, letting it bounce away at terminal velocity straight into the midsection of one of the Sphinxes. The monster exploded on impact, and Conailte used the gravity dust in his arm brace to bring the weapon back after it continued flying through the air for a short distance. As the other Sphinx tried to bite the huntsman, its teeth bounced off him, forcing its jaw open wider than it could open it on its own, rendering the creature's face disfigured such that biting again was impossible. As it struck him with its tail, that too bounced off him, impacting the monster itself and impaling its stomach. With one more use of his semblance, Conailte jumped directly at the beast and put all his force into a kick that sent the creature reeling back into the nearby cliff face, before leaping once more with the plasmatic blade that slashed across its neck to sever its head from its body.
As the last Sphinx fell, all the remaining Grimm ignored the four students and rushed the three trained huntsmen, who quickly annihilated them with minimal effort while the members of Team SBNZ each tried to assist but could hardly accomplish anything before each Grimm they attacked was already slain.
As the last Grimm was slain, the three huntsmen met in the open.
"Are all the Grimm in the mine dead?" Laura asked her teammates.
"Not yet, we waited until after the kids were safe." Conailte answered.
Laura nodded. "You two get on that now. I'll talk with the students."
As Conailte and Melantha both reentered the mine, Laura approached the four students.
"I don't know how we can thank you," Sophie spoke first. "But they never told us your name."
Laura smiled. "I'm Laura Thrush, the leader of Team LCA. We'll finish the job in the mines, but we'll make sure that you get rewarded, too."
"That's great!' Beril shouted.
"We weren't offered a reward when we took the job." Noll reminded her. "It's just whatever the owner decides to give."
"That's right." The owner of the mine said, approaching the five. "Was just tryin' to figure out what's fair, is all."
"There's no need." Laura interrupted. "My team and I don't need anything, and we'll reward them ourselves. Your business was already suffering from the attack, and we don't need to cost you any more for fixing it."
The old man smiled. "That's mighty kind, ma'am. Thank you all for your help."
"How are you going to reward us?" Phoenix asked as the old man walked away. "Are you guys rich from your other huntsman jobs?"
"Not exactly." Laura smiled. "My team has access to the Argus Armory for the duration of our mission here in Mistral, and we'll be willing to use that access to get high-quality dust and technology for the four of you. But that's not all I'd like to offer."
"Oh?" Beril perked up, already satisfied with the existing offer but now curious to hear more.
Laura looked over the four of them. "What you did today was admirable, and I'm glad to see that kind of drive in students as young as you. But it's obvious to me that you have a lot of room to grow. You four also probably know the area better than me and my team do, and we would appreciate the extra hands on our mission to make Mistral a better place wherever we can. If you'll come with us on our travels, we'll continue to supply you with our armory access, and on top of that, we'll provide you with all the training and mentorship that we can to make you the best huntsmen you can be."
Sophie stood bewildered. "You're willing to train us?"
Laura nodded. "You've proven you have the heart, now you just need the skill, and we'll handle the supplies, too."
Sophie turned back to her team with a smirk. "What do we think, guys?"
Beril and Phoenix stood shaking as giddy as schoolgirls, while Noll answered, "Do you even have to ask?"
The leader of SBNZ turned back to the leader of LCA with a smile and an outstretched hand. "We're in."
The faunus smiled back and shook it. "We won't let you down." As the exchange happened, Conailte and Melantha both returned from the mines and stood by Laura's side. She turned to them and said, "Team LCA, we have a second mission now." The two looked at the student team and smiled as Conailte answered.
"Then let's get to work."