The Hunters: Remnants Mightiest Heroes

by th3g1ng3rn1nja

There was an idea, to bring together a group of remarkable people, so that when we needed them, they could fight the battles, that we never could. That day has come, and it is unlike any other. Remnant needs something more than just the agents of BEACON, they need heroes... Avengers AU follow up to Good in to Great, but can be read separate.

12. Pieces

Chapter Twelve: Pieces

Shout out to Steelrain66 and RXWriter; no reason other than thanks for the feedback, brightens me up a little while I am writing the other chapters to see your feedback.

---

The early morning sun rises and brightens up the surface of a large lake; the sections where the low sun peaks through the trees cast beautiful patterns across the path surrounding the lake. Speaking of surrounding the lake; at this current time a young man was jogging around the large lake for his early morning run, it was peaceful as he was the only person going around the lake.

Just simply basking in the soft rays of sunlight and the cool breeze flowing through the trees; Oscar Pine had never felt more peaceful than at these moments of simple loneliness and quiet. Some would think the loneliness would be quite sad but after so long of having a lot of noise around him, these moments of solitude were exactly what he needed, no high flying action, nobody barking orders at him and nobody giving him strange looks.

The only people that would be up at this time were those that were just like him.

"On your right."

Then there were 2.

Oscar watched as a tall blond man ran passed him at what he could only assume was a full sprint, was this some kind of stupid macho thing the guy did to show everyone that he was fast? Well he was certainly going to run out of steam moving at that pace.

Except that he didn't, Oscar watched him as he ran around the far edge and then when he was coming up behind him, still going at the same speed, not breaking his stride or much of a sweat. "On your right."

Oscar then watched again as the man out paced him and sprinted again around the lake, it took a few minutes but it was still significantly faster than when Oscar tried to do it himself and very soon the blond man was once again passing Oscar by with another. "On your right."

Oscar just nodded. "I got you, uh huh."

The next time that it happened Oscar had enough; it was starting to get annoying. "Don't you say it!" And then he picked up his speed to try and out run the blond man but he was still right on his heels and then.

"On your right." Barely an octave raised above what he had been doing the entire time.

"OH COME ON!" Oscar yelled as the blond man turned around the bend and Oscar tried to keep the pace but when he looked back up he was 100 meters behind the man who was fading into the distance and becoming a blur, much like most of Oscars vision so he slowed himself down and then spotted a nice looking tree to sit under while he got his energy back up.

Breathing heavily he almost missed the sounds of running footsteps coming up to him again after a few more minutes as the same calm and collected voice called out to him while he was leaning back with eyes closed.

"You doing okay? Need some water?"

Oscar chuckled weakly as he locked his green eyes on to the pale blue of the tall blond man. "If you have some spiritual energy that can give me my stamina back then I would take it; unless you're using it, I assume you're using it… did you just use it to run another lap? I wouldn't be able tell."

"Hehe, well it was a late start for me."

"Oh late start? Well keep going, don't let me slow you down." Oscar said as he smiled at the man, he had his current suspicions on who this man really was but he could be wrong.

'Might as well introduce myself.' "Oscar Pine." He said as he held out a hand so that the blond could help to pull him to his feet, never any shame in getting a hand up.

"Jaune Arc." It would seem that Oscar's suspicions were correct, as he placed his hands on his knees and then stood up straight as he went to his hips and smiled at Jaune.

"I thought you might be; considering everything." Oscar then waved over the direction of the running track. "Must have been a weird trip for you, waking up here and now."

Jaune sighed as he looked around at everywhere but Oscar and that's when he noticed it; the faraway look, the tension and the overall uncomfortableness of just thinking about the question. "Yeah it is-was, not the easiest thing to adjust to… Nice meeting you Oscar."

Just as he meant to turn and run off Oscar was faster with his words. "Beds are too soft these days right?" He watched as Jaune paused and then turned back to him with a shocked look on his face, turns out that Captain Vale wasn't the best at hiding his true feelings on his face.

"Uh, y-yeah – back then I, well uh I was lucky enough to even have one."

"I remember when I was out I used a rock, fell asleep a few times stood up or sat up, a couple of jeep rides I got a second of shut eye." Oscar said casually as he felt Jaune's eyes on him while he picked up a rock and absently skimmed it across the water, watching it skip 3 times before twiddling another between his fingers and handing it over to Jaune.

Jaune chuckled after a second before the distant look got in his eyes again and he took the stone off of Oscar. "I remember having to hide out in a cave with a couple of guys on my unit, an old friend had water dripping on her hair for the whole night and woke us up screaming and yelling… then I get here and I lie down and I feel like I can't get back up again like I'm-"

"-Floating on a cloud?"

"…Yeah…"

"Doesn't feel right."

A moment of pleasant silence fell over them as Jaune the swished his stone and it skipped over 12 times before it hit the other bank. "How long for you?"

"I got back 1 year ago, did a few tours in Vacuo and Mistral, a few missions in Atlas as well. That was before I left; I needed to leave… I didn't like what I saw happening to myself over there, now that I'm back I work at a veterans centre in Vale. Figured I could help others who had gone through the same stuff I had, let them know that they are not alone; if you ever want to come along, see the people, listen to some stories or make me look good in-front of the girl at reception then I would be happy to see you."

"You know you are the second person to suggest that to me, maybe I will pay you a visit."

"Hey if you like good biscuits, some juice and a few board games and puzzles to do then it's the place for you, I know it sounds like I'm describing a retirement home but this just makes it easier for everyone to get comfortable before someone wants to talk or share… no pressure on that by the way."

"I gathered; thank you Oscar, and if you ever want to run - well if you can call what you do running - then I am game for it."

"Oh it's like that?"

"Good to meet you Oscar."

"Good to talk to you Jaune." Oscar then watched as the blond then turned and ran through a path in the woods, his broad figure slowly disappearing through the leaves until Oscar couldn't even see the messy mop of blond hair anymore. "Huh, Captain Vale… would be cool." Oscar said wistfully as he then walked back to where he had chained up his bicycle; he needed some orange juice before he headed home.

Meanwhile Jaune was now moving at a full on sprint up the long winding road that lead to Ruby's manor, the conversation and the meeting with Oscar Pine still going over in his head. He seemed like a kind man, he had very soft green eyes and Jaune made sure that he made a lot of eye contact with people, it was the best way he had learnt to judge a person character.

This Oscar Pine reminded him a lot of the Professor, his eyes held a certain wisdom and knowledge behind them. And the words that he used as well showed that he was a natural at communication and talking to people, if he had the background of a soldier then Jaune was certain that he would have some similar experiences similar to him in a way, minus the fighting Grimm. Thankfully those monsters were extinct, although Jaune had no idea why they were extinct, maybe Nora had turned up after he had gone on ice and decimated all of them, he would have to ask her the next time he saw her.

Speaking of his team and his friends; Jaune had now arrived back at the manor gates and there was the queen herself stood waiting for him, hands behind her back dressed in her exercise outfit, still with her necklace around her neck and with the beads around her wrist. Other than that the outfit was a simple dark purple set of leggings and a crop top showing off her midsection, a small scar was about an inch away from her belly button and when she saw Jaune looking at it once she had offered to tell him the story to which Jaune declined; he didn't share the stories of his many scars so he wouldn't ask anyone else to share their ones.

Of course Yang's scars along her arm were proudly shown off to everyone she could show them to, to her it was a symbol of her strength and Jaune thought much the same, it took courage and more bravery than possible to show something that once caused such pain off like that. Nora had very little scars on her body due to her biology allowing her to heal quickly, Ren stayed covered up most of the time but from the life he had lived Jaune knew he had some, Ruby had a gaping hole in her chest from one of her own explosives so the scar tissue around that would be expansive, not that Jaune ever wanted to see them, and then there was Weiss with her eye which again was an obvious one and while Jaune didn't pretend to understand magic he surely believed that if she was as good as she said then she would be able to cover it up with something, but instead chose to show it off. Again Jaune was impressed.

Back to Blake; she stood there with a firm and impassive gaze watching through her beautiful amber eyes as Jaune made his way over to her. To be fair to her, there wasn't much that she couldn't really do without being exceptionally beautiful, something that both Yang and Nora had pointed out to her amusement hoping to get a reaction out of her other than an eyebrow raise.

"Well of course, I am a queen after all." Was all she said, to this day Jaune wasn't sure if it was a joke or not, but Ren had laughed and she hadn't had him executed in the night so she must have thought it was funny.

"Your highness." Jaune greeted politely with a small bow of his head, always best to maintain foreign relations after all.

"Captain; did you go out running, before we run together?" She questioned with a concerned look and a hand placed on his shoulder.

"Couldn't sleep, but I'm good now." Jaune assured her with what he hoped was a confident smile.

"We can just do yoga instead for now then." Was Blake's response as she then turned swiftly and Jaune followed her through the gates into the garden where she was quick to make out Ren already up and hard at work.

Ren was currently trimming his little bonsai tree that Blake had gotten him as a gift for helping to save Menagerie, she had given all of them a gift for helping out and Ren was the easiest for her to gift something too and also the first person she gifted. This plant was something that Ren had treasured very quickly and had since looked after day and night; he loved the moments of peace he got from it and found the entire experience soothing, it reminded him of his home and the little memories he had of his mother and father, both were big into plants and flowers.

Something he wished he had shared with them back then but now he was catching up for lost time, he did try getting the others into it with him but Yang kept spouting scientific facts and treating it like an experiment and wanting to go off of a strict schedule to monitor growth and nutrient production, but Ren preferred to just treat it with feeling and love; the less science the better in his opinion.

Science at this moment was currently being dragged outside for some fresh air. "Ugh there is too much sun this early in the morning, can we turn it down?" Ruby complained, still clad in her pyjamas and with a hand over her eyes, slumped and grumbling to herself.

Ren just smirked to himself as he tended to his little Lucky; that is what he had decided to name the plant. Someone else however did not find this statement nearly that amusing however. "You cannot just turn down the sun!" Weiss cried out, dressed in a white dress and jumper, Ren had not seen her wear anything that wasn't actually white and he doubted she owned anything that wasn't white.

"I get enough nutrients from my coffee."

"No, from now on you will be drinking water-"

"GAH!"

"-And you will be having a dedicated hour to being outside in the sun, doctors' orders."

"This is outrageous! Propitious! I will not stand for this at all! None of the others have to do anything like this!"

"Because they exercise and enjoy the outside; I refuse to let my leader be anything less than healthy, and holing up in your laboratory is decisively unhealthy for you, so we will be out here for an hour."

"What do you suggest I do with my hour every day then?"

"Read a book, learn a language, do puzzles or crosswords?"

Ruby looked completely disgusted. "Go eat a raisin cookie."

"RUBY ROSE YOU WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!" Yelled Yang from her chair as she heard the last little bit of the conversation, she honestly couldn't believe that her little sister had just used those words to another person, even someone as cold as Weiss.

She had been sitting there and minding her own business, drinking her milk, watching Blake and Jaune sweat, talking with Nora and enjoying nature when she just had to say something about her language, honestly it was getting bad.

Next she will be telling people to eat nutrition bars, gosh what was it all coming to.

Back to the entertainment; she watched as Blake showed off just how flexible she could really be and Jaune do his best to copy, and in Yang's humble opinion he needed a tighter t-shirt to probably do the moves professionally. "Well this is worth waking up for."

Nora who was sitting opposite her was watching Ren in his gardening apron and gloves. "Mmmmmmm."

Yang tilted her head at her fellow destruction derby partner and then shrugged, who the heck was she to judge what the tastes of someone should be.

---

Far, far away but not too long ago, past the furthest planet Venetia a massive space station was just exiting its hyper-speed and currently activating its advanced cloaking tech and closed communication, waiting for a transmission from the planet Remnant so that they could begin their attack.

"Sir we have arrived and all systems are operational; it would seem that this backwater planet does not have the technology to detect us or counter us in any way at this distance."

The commander grunted and continued to stare at the pale blue dot in the distance while the rest of the crew worked around him; weapons checks were currently happening in the hanger and usually that would be against protocol; however the circumstances caused for things to happen out of the usual order.

They were going to attack a planet under Valkyrie protection, the last time they had done that was near enough 500 years ago, maybe more. The survivors from that time were very confused and scared with the details but now they had advanced further and the commander was ready.

He was returning to the sight of his people's greatest failure, his clans greatest failure, where his great-great-grandfather had lead a force of over 1,000 of the collective to their deaths.

But this time would be different.

This time the commander would be there.

This time Nora Valkyrie would die.

---

The wind howled as it kicked up the snowy tundra outside of the remote Atlas base. This specific base was focused on long range threats and missile launches, so it was a very strategic instalment in the Atlas military.

Dove didn't need much to start clearing it out however.

"Agent Bro-" a dart went right through the soldiers eye and he dropped down dead as Dove quickly turned and flung another at the guard behind him, going right through his throat and then flinging his knife at the third persons heart.

In less than a second the 3 all dropped down into their own puddles of blood, the dart that went through the woman's neck meant that she was still alive long enough to see the once decorated agent use her officers hand to unlock the door before she lost vision.

Dove walked through the door and drew a pistol of the guard at the door and then struck him in the throat quickly before curving the bullet and going through the alarm to stop anyone else from coming to the control room. He then grabbed the guards head and held it over the barrel of the gun and at point blank range blew his brains over the wall.

The guard on the other wall turned his rifle onto his back but Dove was quicker and the ripped it from his hands and then front kicked him so hard that he broke his back on the wall and even dented the metal. One technician tried to get a communication out of the base but Dove put one between his eyes and as another guard took cover around the corner hoping to get a clear shot off but a bullet bounced off the wall and into his lung, a slow death.

Dove reached the main computer and one brave agent tried to tackle him but was met with firm resistance as Dove lifted her up with one hand and then snapped her neck without looking. Then using the hand of the officer he unlocked the computer and then using the codes he stole from General Ironwood he set the base to self-destruct, with enough time for him to leave.

And kill a few more pathetic humans along the way, more time to hone those skills of his.

He would never miss again.

And Lie Ren would be his kill.

---

The radar dish on the top of the main tower for Sanctum air force was quickly destroyed as Pyrrha flew straight through it at Mach 1, the resulting explosion drawing the eye of every military personal on the runway, then they looked over at the glowing black object streaking back around towards their jets.

Pyrrha destroyed all of the jets with black blasts from her hands and then flew into the main hanger as the few personal that were in there took aim and unloaded as many bullets as they could into her hoping it would either hurt her or send her away.

"POUR IT ON!"

"SOMEONE BRING OUT THE .50 CAL!"

"FUCK THAT; WE GOT ANYTHING BIGGER?"

The soldiers all gathered into their firing formations behind various covers and maintained their shooting even as Pyrrha was unbothered by the rounds of lead and the few grenades that were thrown towards her.

One soldier brought out an RPG and prepped it accordingly. "CLEAR!" the rocket blasted at Pyrrha and the resulting explosive covered her with smoke and heat.

The shooting stopped.

"Did that work?" someone asked quietly.

"Move up." Said the sergeant as she aimed her weapon still at the floating cloud, dust explosions might pack a punch but she had heard different stories about the pride of Sanctum air force.

Pyrrha blasted out of the cloud of smoke and tore straight through the last few jets in the hanger and then shot out through the ceiling and disappeared into the sky.

"Ma'am; what was that all about?"

The sergeant stared at the hole in the hanger roof and tried to follow where Pyrrha could have possibly gone. "Nothing good."

Millions of miles away in deep space a transmission came through at that exact moment, the beeping of the console alerted the crew and they all turned their gaze towards the figure standing at the ships window.

"The time has come, we attack now."

The ships engines prime and the journey begin as they fly towards Remnant. "Sir additional coordinates have been received for invasion."

"Deploy the ground forces to that sector, keep all air units on standby. They shall be used in the second assault on the city that Do've has selected for us."

"Sir we have incoming object on the starboard, moving fast." Called out a second technician.

"Bring up visuals."

"Yes sir." The window in-front of the commander was then replaced with a holo-screen of a black object soaring through space at a high speed, further zooming reviewed it to be nothing to be concerned about.

"Lower shields and open hanger 3C, tell units to stand down, they are friendlies." After a few more moments when the object had landed in the hanger the bridge doors opened and Do've walked in and stood opposite the commander.

"You can remove the human disguise now."

"I thought you would like to see the animals you are about to slaughter."

"They are hideous."

"Indeed, it is good to be back commander." Said Do've as he ripped off the mask and the showing pale skin to now show off his deep blue complexion and then the 2 clasped arms in a proper greeting.

"It is good to have you back old friend, it has been far too long."

"Nearly 10 rotations if my count is correct, contact has been minimal with the collective, but I see you have made some expansions to your ship. She looks as powerful as the first time we stepped foot upon her."

"And she has helped turn the tide in numerous wars across the galaxy, tales I shall regale you with later after the battle is won; and provided they do not interfere."

"Yes, that was one thing I wished to ask about, my handler mentioned a group proclaiming themselves the Protectors of the Planets; who are they?"

"Insignificant scum; street rats, smugglers, deserters, assassins, and one disgraced royal."

"Are they trouble?"

"They have thwarted the plans of Kronos the deserter and they have managed to destroy an old mad celestial name ID; they are nothing if not creative in their approach."

"Those are no simple feats… it was always a shame about Kronos, I thought we would fight together side by side for the rest of our lives."

"You and me both old friend, but it was not his destiny to rule the collective and he could not come to terms with that, it drove him mad."

"Sir we have entered the atmosphere; ground forces are ready to depart on your command." Interrupted one of the flight crew, the 2 friends shared one look at each other and then turned out of the window.

"Troops, this is your commander; today we do what we have done a thousand times and what we shall do a thousand more times still, Remnant will fall to us because we are inevitable, unstoppable… we are the collective and may the light of the Source shine bright!"

The commander and Do've turned to look at each other. "May the light of the Source shine on you my friend." Do've said as he watched the commander head to his war room, it was time to done his ancestral amour.

The fight was here.

---

"Salutations and a good morning to you Ruby." Came Penny's voice from a plant pot as Ruby jumped at the sound and Weiss scowled at the plant pot.

"Penny? Why didn't you reply earlier when I asked you questions? I was worried." Ruby pouted adorably.

"Weiss told me that for your health I was to stay a little longer in sleep mode and only come out if an emergency occurred; since your health was involved and she is a doctor I complied. You need more vitamin D, and several other vitamins as well."

"Great everyone gang up on me why don't you." Ruby muttered as Yang was about to open her mouth.

"Is there an emergency to report then Penny?" Weiss asked before Yang could say one of her insufferable remarks, no doubt laden with innuendo or un-cothness.

"Yes, I have activated to inform you of several objects that have entered the upper atmosphere, they are of unknown origin, I also tracked an object of high moving speed leaving the atmosphere, but it posed no danger to us so I did not report it."

"Do you have a map of the trajectory for the objects coming in?"

"Yes, current projections indicate they have turned towards BEACON, and are accelerating at an alarming rate."

"If they turned then it means they are manned or have control." Ren said quietly as everyone then nodded in agreement.

"Okay then everyone; funs over, suit up and meet in the hanger, we are taking a trip over to BEACON. Nora, Weiss, when we get over there we can try and make them smaller, the rest will manage ground control and try to clear the area if we miss anything." Ruby commanded, she had been playing some podcasts of tactics in the background while she worked on her new suit and some of it had sunk in.

As they all ran back into the manor and to go get their suits on Yang turned quickly to Weiss. "Congrats Ice Queen, you get to see the world's most air sick super soldier."

"Hey!"

The moment the ship took off Jaune was hunched over and struggling to keep his cereal in his stomach as Nora patted his back telling him to let it all out. A sickness that got a little better when Ruby opened the doors and Ruby, Nora and Weiss flew out of the door and up to meet the incoming objects while the Bullhead hovered slightly in the back ground, Ren ready on the main cannon to destroy any passing debris.

"Well I didn't think they were asteroids, the energy signature is not like any I've ever seen." Ruby said as she had zoomed in and begun to analyse the incoming objects.

"The Collective." Nora murmured as she tightened the grip on her hammer, Ruby and Weiss shared a quick look at Nora's quieter tone.

"Who exactly are they?" Weiss asked

"The attempted to conquer Remnant about 500 years ago, or around that time I don't recall the exact date – mum helped me put a stop to their efforts with the might of the Valkyrie army under my command, I have heard tales of them conquering other planets but they were not going to take one under my parents rule."

"I take it they're probably hoping you are old or dead?" Ruby asked as she primed her repulsors.

"Please; the passage of time only makes us Valkyrie stronger, in another 400 years I shall be extremely powerful… and death is just a state of mind."

Before Weiss can add some sense back into this conversation the approaching large ships open fire forcing the trio to split apart and had to move out of the way as they went right through the middle of them and watched as the shots from Ren's cannon did very little damage to the ship's hull.

"Blake follow them to the ground, protect the BEACON agents, Penny is telling me there is one large one still incoming!"

"Got it." Came her short reply, as Ruby then turned towards the sky she saw the massive starship enter her vision, with several smaller objects zip towards them.

"Guess we focus on the smaller fighters then, let's get to work."

Down at BEACON the battle had started and was not going well for the agents down there; The Collective had the upper-hand when it came to tactics and weaponry, they had advanced laser weapons which shot penetrating bolts that shot through cover, as well as hard light shields that blocked all of the bullets that were shot towards them, not to mention their physiology was studier than that of the human and faunus that were currently battling for their lives.

Glynda rolled under a blaster bolt and returned 3 of her own bullets in quick succession before ducking behind the concrete as an agent next to her had a hole pierced through his chest. "We need back up at the main courtyard now! Send everyone!"

Just then a blue skinned alien moved around the cover and aimed its blaster at her, she kicked out knocking the blaster off to her side but not out of the aliens hands and then quickly shot it in the chest a few times but to no real result as the amour was to strong, the alien grabbed her gun hand and threw her back to the ground and aimed at her head with an evil grin that disappeared very quickly as he was grabbed from behind and then flung across the battlefield back at the arriving ships, bouncing off the hard hull and falling on 2 other aliens.

Several blaster bolts hit Yang afterwards but they all dissipated quickly and just left her feeling slightly uncomfortable, but she turned to Glynda with a confident smile. "Hey there Goodie we're here to help."

"Then less standing around and more smashing around please Miss Xiao-Long." Glynda requested as she picked herself up and crouched back behind the cover, right as Yang then leapt over to the attacking force and punched one alien into the ground while kicking another through the statue of Jaune Arc.

"Sorry Cap!" Just then Glynda watched as a shield flew over and smacked between 2 aliens and knock them down and then as he catches the shield he rebounds a shot towards one of the ships, where a new person who is dressed in a complete black cat suit is crouched and then pounces into a group of 5 aliens and with a couple of leg sweeps and swift kicks she had all of them floored, the flexibility and the movement was astounding, it reminded Glynda of a younger her with the skill exhibited and the precision given; not that she was bragging or anything.

Just then Nora swings down out of the sky and smashes the drop ship through the middle with her war hammer and then throws it in an arcing circle knocking down a few more of the soldiers and then she takes back off into the sky with a "WHOOOO!" and she smashes 3 more small fighter ships and launches a lightning bolt at a fourth.

"IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!" Nora bellows out in the All Tongue, the language that everyone understands, lucky she also understands all languages as well.

Just then the air shimmers and a massive armada ship appears in the air and numerous smaller fighters fly out of it and head towards the city and B.E.A.C.O.N. Jaune just sighs and Ren turns around and looks anywhere but at the massive ship.

"It's not real if I don't look at it." He whispers to himself as Jaune; who is fairly disgruntled right now, looks up to where Nora is.

"You had to ask didn't you?" Ruby meanwhile looks at the whole situation and realises that all of the ships they had destroyed so far were unmanned, possibly leaving the large capital ship as the base of operations and the main control for all of the destruction. "You guys get back on the Bullhead, we can cover you up to the ship and then you can try and board it."

"The word try fills me with confidence." Blake mutters as she runs over to the Bullhead.

"Got it, Ren let Blake fly."

"Ha."

"Rude."

The boarding party crew all strap themselves into the Bullhead. "Okay, PENNY do we have an opening area?"

"Why yes old man, there are several, I have marked the closest on the screen and the Queen just needs to follow the cues."

"Old man? Why does she get Queen?"

"Easy, she is more likely to cut my hair in my sleep." Quipped Yang, the obvious culprit behind the name changing. The Bullhead then leaves the ground and Jaune is all out of guts to throw up right now, which is quite lucky right now as the next thing that happens is quite shocking.

On the brief and quick journey up as Blake zips them through multiple lazer fire and Ren returns blasting ships on the swivel cannon, charging up for the missiles and the rail gun that he saw were attached.

"Incoming projectile." Yang points out over Blake's shoulder as she blocks her vision by leaning to close to her and pointing at the object on the window.

Blake elbows her back out the way and spins the ship out of the way, during the spin Yang who was stood up hits the ceiling and then smacks the floor, not that it does any damage but Blake feels a little bit better about herself as she smirks to Ren who notices the shift in her mask and smirks back.

"That's why we wear seatbelts Yang." Jaune says calmly.

"Shut up."

The projectile that Blake managed to spin around then flies back around and follows them as they zig and zag through ships and blaster bolts.

"Must be heat seeking; deploying flar-" Right before Ren or Blake can deploy any counter measures the projectile smashes through the door and stands before all of them.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune questions shocked and in slight awe at seeing the beautiful warrior woman stood in-front of him, the last he saw of her was when she left begrudgingly with Ironwood and the rest of his elite squad.

The woman in question pauses for a second as she regards Jaune who has stood up from his seat and as the 2 take a step towards each other – Pyrrha quickly grabs him by the front of his amour and throws him to the back of the Bullhead, smashing through a crate of spare amour parts for Ruby.

Yang takes a wild swing just in immediate response and Pyrrha ducks under and then pushes her to the side quickly as she then does a leaping punch at Blake extremely quickly, who scrambles out of her seat and uses her head as a spring board and then clings to the ceiling, right before Ren can even react to anything Yang then takes a few bounding steps and then tackles Pyrrha out of the front window.

Her arms wrapped around her waist and then when she felt Pyrrha start to pull away she grabbed her hair and then yanked her head back, bringing a knee into her gut. She took a fist to the face but gritted her teeth through it and wrapped her arms around Pyrrha's neck and started to squeeze as the 2 of them tumbled down to Remnant, with and elbow or a knee being thrown between the 2 of them as they smashed into the ground.

"Blake stay on course; Ruby do you read me? Pyrrha is in the playing field, Yang just took her out of the ship but I think they might both be heading back down to BEACON again."

"Okay, as if there were not enough problems; we will try to get this sorted up here quickly then so that we can help her out, um Ruby out? Yeah out."

Jaune frowned; comm talk was a much needed lesson for their youngest it would seem, but for now there was the mission to focus on, not on his friend and right now he couldn't think much of Pyrrha either, no matter how much he wanted to.

Because the Bullhead was about to crash through the hanger.

SMASH

SCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

BOOOOOOOM

A lot of things happened at once as the ship did indeed crash through the hanger, it smashed through a ship that was trying to exit the hanger, then it scraped its way across the hanger floor with sparks flying up across the entire area and then Ren fired a shot off to the hanger door controls, or at least what he believed to be the door controls and that's when the large boom came from. Now the ship was currently at the other end, almost coming out the other side of the hanger and hanging near the edge, looking out of the window Jaune had to shake the nerves off of himself meanwhile Blake turned and said in a deadpan. "Another happy landing."

"We can still fly the ship afterwards right?" Jaune asked tearing his eyes from how far up they are and then to where several troops were running over to them.

"We can probably fly half of it." Ren chimed in as he undid his seatbelts and then grabbed his bow and stretched out his shoulders. "Let Blake fly you said."

"I got us past the fighters." Blake responded standing up and following Jaune and Ren to the Bullhead door.

"Because I was shooting them down." Ren quickly says back as he nocks an arrow ready and tests the bow string quickly.

"And what about the redhead, you miss her?" Blake then pulls out some objects from her waist and they give off a low hum as a purple light flows through them.

"You didn't avoid her." Ren then raises an appraising eyebrow at the weapons.

"Look alive, we got troops incoming on the right." Jaune interrupts, maybe anyone else might have told them to get their heads in the game but he knew that it was simply soldier talk and neither of them meant anything they were saying to each other.

"Bet I can take more than you." Blake offered with a sure tone and crossing her arms in an X in-front of her and then dropping them down to her side, like a pre battle sign.

"Challenge accepted." Ren replied as the 2 of them leaped out the door the moment Jaune opened it and began shooting and throwing energy ninja star things, honestly Jaune had no idea what they were. He also didn't have time to as he quickly blocked a laser blast and rolled behind cover to assess the situation and aid his teammates as best he could.

They might have only been standard troops with advanced weaponry, but they had shown to be physiologically more durable and stronger than the normal people, but as Jaune socked one across the jaw he watched the man take the punch and then come back for a second, but that one dropped him, so they could still go down.

The fight went quickly with Jaune mostly trying to attract as much blaster fire so that the others wouldn't get shot at, meanwhile Ren and Blake dropped the rest of them with efficiency, however not so much teamwork as one would expect 2 professionals to have when fighting together.

"How many did you get?" Blake asked smugly scratching her claws on the armour of the trooper she was currently perched upon.

"19." Ren said evenly, taking measured breathes in an almost meditative stand, he even had his eyes closed.

"19? Well I am sitting pretty on 20 myself." Jaune remained silent so as not to bring up that he had only taken down 5, but he was the shield guy so he stuck to that job expertly. Ren's eyes then shot open and he let the arrow he had been fiddling with strike the guard Blake was perched on in the head.

"20 for me now as well." He respond to her tone with his own smug voice.

"I already knocked him out!" Blake cried as she stood up.

"He was groaning." Ren stated as though they were discussing the weather.

"Because I am stood on his back!" Jaune turned and observed the rest of the area while Blake and Ren argued about whether that point counted or not, personally Jaune was just glad that they hadn't asked him to officiate or to join the competition. But spotting a doorway that seemed to lead to a hallway made for better cover and possibly they could find the command centre? Jaune had no idea what you would call it on a UFO, the top deck possibly as surely it was to be treated like a ship.

"This way." And then Jaune takes off in a run and the others quickly follow him without a moment's hesitation and as they run through the bends and twist of the hallways they then come face to face with 2 more troopers, one who is short and very skinny but has an absolutely massive sword in his hands and the other has so many guns on him it put the armoury back at his old military camp to shame.

"This could be problematic." Ren says as a blur then joins them and a large man is suddenly right next to the 2 and then he blurs right behind the 3 heroes causing Jaune to turn and slip his shield off in his direction.

"Quite problematic indeed." Blake agreed and even with the impending doom, Jaune sighed at this was the first thing they had managed to agree on today.

---

As Yang tumbled down to Remnant with Pyrrha wrapped around her she ironically thought that this was actually quite romantic… if it didn't involve a lot of elbows, punches, knee kicks and the trying to choke each other – okay that last one was a maybe, but consent was certainly needed, this wasn't to say that Pyrrha was not attractive, because she most certainly was, but if Yang had not seen her giving Cap the eyes back when they first met, she probably would have tried her own luck.

Anyway, Yang began to throw some elbows and some knee kicks into the mix and trying to get through as much damage as she possible could while they fell to the ground. She could feel her wanting to pull away and fly off, but Yang was not going to give her that level of satisfaction, so she socked her around the face a few times and as the ground grew closer, she twisted their bodies so that she could make sure that she lands on top.

They smashed into the ground at break neck speeds and a large plume of smoke erupted around them and they found themselves in a new hole they had made outside B.E.A.C.O.N. "You know." Yang began as she pushed a piece of rubble off her and shook her head to get the dust out of her hair, or as much as she could while she staggered to her feet. "Any other time and I might have enjoyed that, but I don't think I'm the blond for you."

Pyrrha in the meantime did not respond as she was even more buried under the stones and tiles from the courtyard, now Yang was not so naïve as to think that the fight would be over, the girl was tough that much she knew, so in preparation she bounced from foot to foot and raised her fists ready for a retaliation at any moment.

A bolt of black energy blasted out the debris and narrowly missed Yang as she boobed and weaved under the blast and then tensed ready to lunge forward to strike when she saw Pyrrha fly up and backwards and then break into the main office at the base of the tower, where many agents were gathered and preparing to head out and help.

She can hear the unmistakable sound of many bullets being fired at once and leaps quickly after Pyrrha to minimalize the damage she might do to the … agents?

She was just floating there, all be it menacingly, but she was not striking back, she was just taking all of the fire power and slightly shaking. Yang had seen her take a few hits from her fists head on and she powered through them but she never looked in pain, she was always careful to mask that, but right now with a few harmless bullets hitting her she looked in pain.

Goodwitch spots Yang standing near the shattered window and then yells across the sound of gunfire to get her attention. "GET HER OUT OF HERE! WE HAVE WOUNDED!"

Leaping to her side and grabbing her floating legs Yang, twists her body and does a full rotation as she throws Pyrrha as far and as hard as she can through another window. "SORRY ABOUT THE PAPER WORK!" Yang yells as she launches herself after Pyrrha to get the fight away from the wounded.

---

Ruby strafe's to the left and then activates air flaps to slow down and then does a double hand blast to destroy another alien war craft. She was glad that they were all un-maned machines, made it easier for them to focus without having to worry about saving the pilots as well as stopping them.

Her shoulder rocket shot off automatically as she didn't turn in time to strike down the next machine in time and then a bubble of gold covered her to protect her from another blast from a different direction.

"Ruby! Focus up, 3 in coming!" Weiss yelled as she made a glyph with a swing of her sword, this time it was black and Ruby smiled the black ones were her favourite as she blasted a sliver shot through it and it split into 3 separate beams all with equal power and destroyed the 3 ships in a row. Wiess liked to think of it as 'magic' but all she was doing is distorting light to make it have the same effect as a prism so that the waves would distort through it and come out the other side fractured, that part was simple, but the how? That part was taking a little longer but she would get it.

Oh now an orange one, she blasted through it with another silver shot and she saw her beam come out of a different blue one and strike down another high above her.

The 3 of them were holding the line firmly in the sky, not a ship had managed to land except for the ones from before they had arrived, but now they were solid in their defence. Ruby figured they were working like an RPG part; Weiss was the support role, Nora the tank and she was focused on the damage dealing.

Actually speaking of their tank; Nora was out away from the 2 of them and was throwing her hammer and other ships at each other wherever she could managed, destroying a large amount of them with simple easy, the laser fire only serving to irritate her and not to damage her in anyway. She recently grabbed a ship and then summoned her hammer through it and then blasted a bolt of lightning from the weapon to arc between 5 other ships, safe to say she was making short work of the alien attack. Although Ruby did wonder what the invading forces end game was, it seemed they would run out of ships before they managed to run out of Nora.

Weiss flew past and a gold string stretched from her hands and wrapped around a ship to split it into tiny pieces, she then froze them and used them as hail to destroy a pack of fighters that had tried to sneak down to the surface, and then she turned smugly to Ruby. "It would seem that my Magic, is far more efficient than your technology."

"Not Magic." Ruby rolled her eyes and then her body as she avoided a laser blast.

"Aha! You finally used a capital letter like me!" Weiss was triumphant at long last and she celebrated by causing a blinding light to pause all the ships for a second so Nora's hammer could fly through them all in a circle of explosion.

"How can you tell?" Ruby was honestly curious, how on Remnant could Weiss tell that she was using a capital letter, it just didn't make sense at all, maybe she was crazy… oh no her best friend was now crazy.

Right then at that moment a bright beam of brilliant white light descended from the mother ship and coming down on a floating platform was a large figure, not like building sized but he was like 2 body builders stacked on top of each other at the very least. All of the smaller fighter quickly flew and huddled around the rear of the figure, making for a fairly intimidating image.

"We gonna let them do their little routine or are we going to attack?" Ruby asked as she hovered next to her teammates, both who shrugged.

"I say let them finish because they look like they put a lot of effort into all of this." Nora offered as she leaned on her hammer, which leaned on nothing.

Weiss facepalmed.

As the figure gets closer and the light behind him fades away you can see that he is holding an enormous axe the back of the blade split into the shape of a war hammer, easily the size of a Ren or 2, it glows slightly and he holds it simply in one hand, showing that to him the weight of the weapon is no big deal.

"I know that weapon." Nora says softly as her eyes widen upon recognition, Ruby and Weiss both looked between her and the figure who made the platform float closer to them.

"My great grandfather used it nearly 400 years ago to conquer this pathetic back water rock." His gravelly deep voice spat out, it was like nails on the world's worst chalkboard and the nails were all rusty. "Until you showed up with the mighty army of Valkyrie, keen to follow the king and queens blood thirsty child."

"That was a different time for a different person, back then life-"

"You speak of life yet you had no care for the many that you ended that day, the people, MY people, that you ripped limb from limb, murdered just to sate your bloodlust. Life is something a 'god' like you has no concept of, but enough pleasantries; I shall do what my family has wished for, what I was breed for, for I am the Godhunter and I am your end."

"I accept your cha-" The axe smashed straight into Nora and sent her flying down to the streets below, pancaking a few parked cars that made Ruby wince, just as she turned back to blast the Godhunter he had disappeared and then she heard a clang as the 2 of them had now locked weapons down in the street.

"Come on!" she yelled at Weiss and dove straight down to the battle to aid her teammate, and with speed she knocked right into the back of him and set Weiss up perfectly to throw a disc of dark energy right at him to topple him over. "We got your back Nora."

"Then let's take him."

"Do you really think you can fight on 2 fronts?" And the Godhunter gestured up to where his ships were primed and ready to exact their masters orders. "I only want the Valkyrie, if the rest of you interfere then I burn your planet to ash, starting right here."

"An all tomato." Ruby mutters.

"Ultimatum." Weiss immediately says at the same time as Nora.

"Nora you got this?"

"Oh… yeah, yeah I got this boss." She hefted her hammer and got and evil glint in her eye as she fixed him with a grin.

"Weiss, we're going to get Yang."

"And where do you reckon she will be?"

BOOOOOOOM

"Found her." And the Ruby rocketed off to the sound of the explosion taking place just outside of the city as Weiss took a deep breath.

"I'm going to need a spar day after this." And she quickly flies right after Ruby without a moment more to lose or to complain about… right now, surely there will be something else for her to complain about if they are heading over to Yang, no doubt the brute had managed to sneak in her uncouth puns and innuendos.

As it turns out none of that was going on, but they were in a bit of a state of undress the 2 of them and Weiss would not be having that and she magically repaired their clothes. "Thanks." Said both Yang and Ruby at the same time.

"Please do not mention it, ever actually."

"Noted, now you guys ready for a containment job?" Weiss made a shield as Pyrrha shot an unending blast from her hands at them.

"Containment? I thought you would just want to knock her out?" Ruby questioned curiously.

"I don't think she is all there, or someone is controlling her, and we need to help her." Yang explained with a little tone of desperation as the shield started to crack.

"Okay, if we can hold her, Weiss can you take care of any tampering in her head?"

"What perform surgery on her? In these conditions?"

"More like she what is going on with her deeper, my scans always get messed up around Pyrrha."

"Fine but I want to hear you say it."

Ruby groaned. "Use your Magic on her."

"Thank you for adding the capital." And then Weiss flew up into the air as Yang ducked a black beam of energy.

"How does she know there is a capital?" And Ruby sighed in response and then rocketed up and sonic blasted Pyrrha which caused her to cease her blasts and smack her hands on her ears to stop the noise. That's when she was hit with golden binds that wrapped around her legs body and arms, Yang then took this as a sign to jump on her and bear hug her to add physical force to the magical stuff that was happening, Ruby then slammed down a large metal beam that wrapped around her legs and then she flew off to grab another one for her arms.

Weiss hovered above the 3 on the floor and sent a pulse through Pyrrha making sure to use her damaged eye to watch as the energy surged through her in weird ways, an invasive force was centred around her brain and was sending alarming shocks through her form so that would need to be dealt with.

"Jaune, you hear me?" Ruby asks into her communicator as she welds the beams together with a laser.

"Uh huh." He grunts back, very unlike Jaune but Ruby moves on.

"Hello, we got Pyrrha, she is down and out and Weiss is sorting her out somehow, and Nora has the leader occupied in some duel so the attack is halted while they battle. How is it going up there?"

"Tell you later."

---

Jaune blocks the hailstorm of laser fire as he spots the big guy blur past him, take out the fast one first would be best for the team, he had been racing around and moving his companions out of harm's way and blocking the hits that they had been throwing at them, he had stuck on the defensive and they were suffering for it.

Throwing his shield in a straight line at him down the centre of the hallway, he watched as the big guy blurred up onto the ceiling, right into one of Ren's trap arrows and he was blown from the ceiling right into Jaune's arms who quickly pinned him down and put him into a choke hold.

Looking at his teammates he noticed that Ren was locked in a fire fight and Blake was in combat with the sword guy, she had her own swords out and they were hacking away at each other. "Dance!" He instinctively called out, then he realised that was too little information to give to people yet Blake and Ren immediately ducked away from their opponents and ran past each other, Ren shooting 3 different arrows and then kicking Jaune's shield at the sword guy, meanwhile Blake's armour absorbed all the blaster fire and she backflipped onto him with her legs around his head and then continued to topple him right into the floor knocking him out instantly, with a swift kick for good measure. She then pounced back across the hallway to Ren where the swordsman was on the defensive and quickly fell beneath their combined assault, the final blow coming from a spinning round house from Ren which kicked a few razor sharp teeth out.

Jaune quickly checked on the big guy and he loosened his grip, when he didn't move other than to slump away Jaune got slightly worried but then he noticed the rising and falling of his chest and breathed a sigh of relief. "Good thinking taking out the fast one Cap, and getting us to switch partners." Ren says offering a hand to help him up.

"Yeah I would have kept going solo on the sword until I won." Blake admitted.

"Pride comes before a fall, not saying we shouldn't be proud but we have a planet to save so if the bad guys want to play dirty, we play smart." Jaune says as they keep on walking.

"Guess that's why you were a brilliant strategist, although it did take me a moment to work out the 'dance' command." Ren said peering around the corner and then signalling it is all clear.

"I will go through some more code words with you all later when we get out of this place." Jaune says, right now the group has arrived outside a large metal door and then it slides open to reveal a bunch of the invaders all at different consoles, a few warriors with weapons along the walls, there is a massive window looking out across Vale where the 3 can see everything that is happening down on the surface.

"Unbelievable, it seems like this place runs on some kind of electricity." Jaune exclaims quietly to himself.

Blake and Ren share a look, specifically the 'Jaune' look as the soldiers in the room all suddenly turn and point their guns at them. "Fun never stops." Ren mutters while Blake hums in agreement.

Again Jaune sighs, why do they always agree with each other in danger?

---

Nora took a punch across her face and grinned from the force, this was a fun battle. Sure it was for the fate of this planet but it was also just a splendid fight and she loved a fight. The punch did bring him within range for her to retaliate with her own moves and blood splattered across her knee as she smashed it into his smug face, making him back away enough for her to swing her hammer sideways to batter him through a brick wall. And as he lay there in the brick work, Nora made to stand over him and pointed the tip of her hammer at his prone form.

"I do not wish to kill a warrior of your calibre; you have many more battles to fight yet, but this one is mine. Now yield and leave this planet." Nora offered.

"Mercy? From you?" The Godhunter spits at her feet and groaning and grunting he stumbles to his feet to fix Nora with a freezing glare. "You who slaughtered my family, my ancestors and countless others all because they played with 'toys' you weren't even using… and you laughed about it, you laughed while committing genocide. The ones that survived were broken, and I have a duty as the last of my line to end the true plague on this universe, and once you are beaten I will keep you alive long enough to watch as I kill your mother, your father and your brother and then I will grant you mercy and finally kill you."

Nora was silent and then she lowered the hammer in thought before raising it back up. "And what would you have done to this planet?"

"We would have made it better, indoctrinated it into the Collective, for the greater good." He sighed. "It would have been glorious, but you ruined it, because you are only made to destroy, not to create."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry for the pain I caused you. I was wrong back then, not to stop you because the people of this planet deserve freedom, but the way I did it, the violence, the brutality, the pain and the death. But if killing me will ease your suffering… then take your shot."

The Godhunter picks up his axe and then growls. "Gladly."

This time when Nora gets punched she does not smile, but she does bleed.

---

Slamming another trooper up against the wall and then deflecting a blaster bolt and throwing his shield to trip the attacker up, Jaune spared a glance over where Blake and Ren were placing several of the explosives that they had brought with them, where Ren had managed to stash them Jaune did not know; did the man just have an endless quiver? Or did Blakes armour happen to have really concealed pockets?

None of the guards that they had been fighting were completely unconscious, as Jaune made it sure that they would be able to run away and escape from the exploding ship. Grabbing one of them in a choke hold Jaune thought it best to inform his teammates that he was going to be overwhelmed shortly. "How we doing back there?" He yelled out throwing the soldier into another that was about to stand up.

"And done!" Ren called out as Blake dropped down next to him.

"Did you wait until to see if he was going to get frustrated before saying you were done?" Blake asked slyly, a smirk under her mask. The captain was known for his patience but everyone had limits on patience, hers was from when Yang played her music to loud in the shower after the first day.

"Why scared I'm going to win the bet?" The bet was between the 2 of them and Nora, turned out the goddess was extremely good at extracting secrets from the 2 of them, she literal saw right through them straight away.

"Pssh, in your dreams." Blake muttered back to him as they caught up to Jaune who was taking cover behind the doorway.

"How do you let everyone know that the ship is going to blow up? Surely there is an alarm to sound, my old family home had this alarm set up to let us know if there was a fire. It was just a few bells that we would ring if any of us found a fire or saw some smoke, but it got everyone out of the building so all was well." Jaune explained, sometimes it really did feel like listening to your granddad but he had a point, or at least a little bit of a point.

Ren picked up one trooper who was groaning and smacked him to make him focus on what he was saying. "This ship is going to blow, sound the alarm so that everyone can get off safely."

The alien took a moment to look into the hard eyes of Ren, the masked and emotionless face of Blake's armoured suit and then the determined and disciplined look on Jaune's and then once Ren released him, he charged across the deck and slammed his fist into a console before running out of the room.

A sharp ringing sound blasted across the entire space station and the blaster fire from down the hall stops and then there is suddenly a sound of running feet as they retreat to hopefully small air ships that can get them off and to safety. Jaune and Blake take off in a sprint with Ren lagging behind, but when they notice that he is falling behind they slow down and each grab onto his arms and lift him up while running faster with him

"This is a new one!" Ren cries in shock as they race with great speed back through the hallways to the hanger where the Bullhead is located, the hanger is now being emptied quickly of ships as more and more people bundled on to them. "I'm starting the timer now Cap." Ren finishes as he is thrown forward by Blake onto the ship, managing to land perfectly with a roll and shoot her a dirty look at the same time.

"Okay, Blake get the Bullhead ready to fly." She launched into the chair and powered up the engine as Jaune moves to take the seat next to her she holds up a hand to stop him. "If you throw up on my suit I will throw you out of the door, you have no idea how much effort it takes to clean it."

Jaune allows a small smile. "Understood, now let's get down and help out Yang, sooner we can take Pyrrha off her hands the sooner they can end the fight."

"Might have a bit of a problem with that Cap." Ren states from behind him as Jaune then turns around to see one of the members of General Ironwoods hit squad, except this one is completely blue and holding 2 large knifes and has a murderous grin on his face. "Dove."

"Ren."

"Blake?"

"… I'm busy." Said the Queen as she barely turned her head while the other 3 prepared themselves for a hard fight.

---

Ruby has been circling the air and trying her best to keep both an eye on her friends and to also make sure that she is watching the sky where all of the fighters are currently stationary, one thing she does manage to notice is that the large mother ship has many smaller cruisers suddenly flying out of it and joining the other unmanned fighters in the air. She immediately starts a quick scan to make sure that she can tell which have lives on board of them and which do not have any lives on them so that she doesn't hurt anybody to badly.

Her scanners then pick up the Bullhead leaving the mother ship as well, all the indicators say it is undamaged and flying at near optimum levels, which makes it strange when it very suddenly veers off to the left very sharply and then continues in that almost nose dive fashion towards the ground which is very worrying and she rockets off towards it with power diverting to her thrusters and she then opens the side door remotely and very swiftly as she makes a, quite frankly awesome entrance and is staring at one of the guys that came with Ironwood to that meeting, except he is blue now.

So he was an alien the entire time? It would explain why PENNY could not find that extensive record on him and why her scans of him also gave off a higher output of carbon, guess different physiology was correct although when compared to the others that Ruby knew that were also enhanced (Yang, Jaune, Blake, Nora and Weiss) it was not that outside of the wheelhouse, especially now that they were dealing with Aliens and Wizards, all that was left were robots, or was it zombies? Ruby could never quite remember.

Stepping forward and grabbing his arm before he could punch Ren she held strong, her sensors indicated he was using more force than Jaune or Blake could put out, but her armour had a much higher output of strength and that was just her mark II from nearly a year ago, by now she had improved the exoskeleton and the suit was the most advanced she had ever been able to make it so far, so holding him back was no issue. Taking the punch from him also was no issue and her armour was more than tough enough to take the blows, it wasn't as strong as Jaune's shield but Ruby could guarantee he was going to break his hand if he hit her any harder.

One thing she would need to upgrade in the next issue of her armour would be the hand-to-hand combat system, she had plenty of non-lethal and ranged options, but up close she was lacking, especially in a confined space like this. Fortunately she was a great distraction as Jaune recovered and took the fight off her hands, moving into the next punch and blocking it well, they traded blows much like how she had seen Yang do for a boxing match she once did before the accident. Although he was not as technical as she was, but it still worked and soon the blue Dove was by the door and Ruby held up a hand that lit up with silver repulsor energy and blasted him out of it and then ran and jumped after him as he tumbled down to Remnant.

She swooped in and grabbed him by the leg and then hovered him a few feet from the ground and let go, placing a car on top of him for good measure. "Stay parked? No that's terrible, oh Yang would have a good one." And then she blasted off again while he struggled under the weight, she had to get back to Nora and see how she was doing with her battle.

Just as she hovered over where the battle had started she watched as Nora was blasted out through a brick wall and shattering a glass bus stop out in the street, the warrior goddess had small cuts all across her body, she looked to be covered in bruises and she was weapon less as well. Not wanting to get closer as to interfere and bring the current armada that was in the air down on the city, Ruby was confined to watch as her friend was going to be beaten, she could not fight all those forces on her own without support, and in the distance she could see that the Bullhead was coming in to a landing over where Yang and Weiss were, so it was just up to Nora to hold out for a few more seconds until the massive ship was destroyed.

The Godhunter followed out the building as he dragged his war axe across to where Nora had put herself just upon her knees and was breathing heavily to try to get a rest from being savagely beaten across the town, ever since the revelation of what she had been like in the past and how terrible she had been, how destructive she had been and how many must have seen her as nothing more than a destructive tool that her homeland threw out at problems she had stopped trying to fight back, maybe she deserved this?

It would be justice surely for all the people she had slain, the number was probably in-calculable and she had to pay for that surely, so why not pay with her life and hope that in either Hel or Halo she could try further to repent. Surely her mother and father would make sure she had a good funeral, maybe her brother would be there and realise that all their squabbles and arguments had been for nothing, she did love him after all.

"You know I think I have changed my mind." The Godhunter gripped her hair and turned her face to his and glared down into her eyes with utter disgust. "Killing you right now, right here; that's more worth it for me, means you won't be around to stop what I am going to do next to this planet."

A small crackle goes on in her ear and all the thoughts of death go out the window as hope shines through.

"10 seconds Nora."

Mum bless Renny. "I will always stop those who promise violence." Nora manages to whisper out as she tried to regain her focus without succumbing to the vast pain coursing around her very body.

"Oh and how do yo-"

KABOOOOOOOOOM

The Godhunter turns immediately to the sound as he lets go of her hair and whips his whole body around to watch as his capital ship, the strongest in the collective, was imploding and slowly sinking to the ground, chunks flying off and crashing down into the lush green forests below it, when it first appeared the ship had begun hovering over the real Emerald Forest, not the prison named the Emerald Forest, something that had initially confused Ruby several times and if she was being honest still confused her to this day, luckily Ren and PENNY understood the difference so she could just ask them, but as Ruby watched the ship crash and flatten a large section of the forest she internally winced, that was gonna cost a lot to replant and replenish the area, maybe Blake could offer some Menagerie plants and aid? She was just as rich being the ruler of a kingdom.

That was not the end of all the destruction of the invading force as all the unmanned fighter ships suddenly fell from the air and crashed down into the streets, fortunately they were not that large, but there were a lot of them and the damage they were doing was more than Ruby would have liked, B.E.A.C.O.N. did issue the evacuation order beforehand so hopefully all the civilians were underground in the old great war bunkers, so long as people were not hurt then Ruby could breathe a sigh of relief and then STRQ Industries could handle the rest.

"Heh, maybe it's time I offered you an ultimatum." Nora then Stood from the ground, glass crunching under her feet as the Godhunter still stared in shock and horror at the sight of his forces completely ruined, he had maybe a dozen ships still in the air and they were the ones that evacuated from the capital ship, they would not be enough to win this battle. "Surrender, you are outnumbered and out matched."

The Godhunter turned back to the Goddess and grabs her by the throat choking her while holding her close to his face. "You will still die."

"NOPE!" Came a call from his side and when he looked he saw a strange sight indeed, he was met with the mechanical woman hovering with energy unknown to his people her cape was billowing in the wind, the sorceress was also there standing on one of her spells with her blade gleaming with untold power, the archer had an arrow nocked and aimed, the yellow haired woman held a bound P'yrr'a, meanwhile the one with the shield lifted the land vehicle and the one wearing the unbreakable suit placed bindings on Do've.

His forces were beaten and in chains, but he had their strongest by the throat and just as the metal woman spoke up her eyes and hands glowing with the unusual element that his forces could not understand. "Surrender!"

"Heh, I was about to offer that to you, for it is too late to turn back now!" He roared across at them, they might have proved formidable against his troops but he was a whole different league to them.

"We don't know the meaning of the word!" Called out the yellow haired one, to which everyone looked at her slightly confused, including the Godhunter.

"Which word?" Asked Blake, the question that was on all their minds.

"Take your pick!" Yang yelled confidently back at her, even though it was directed at the dude holding Nora by the throat.

That was when Ruby decided it was time to end this and shot a low level powered shot at the leader, and Jaune threw his shield at his most armoured part while Ren released his arrow, all 3 of the hits landing at the same time and all 3 of them hitting their target, but the Godhunter still stood their looking unfazed and honestly disappointed in them.

"That was pathetic, do you know how hard I am?" He taunted as Yang opened her mouth but Blake got there first.

"Rock hard?" Getting a dirty look from her friend and a slightly disapproving one from Jaune as he caught his shield effortlessly, after seeing that the plan worked, meanwhile Weiss wished above all else that she was somewhere else right now.

"And you; you missed." He says pointing his axe at Ren while the other continues to hold Nora by the throat.

Ren raises and eyebrow and then smirks as he presses a button on his bow. "I never miss." Then the sound of static fills the air as a shock runs through Nora, the arrow having struck her right on her heart, acting as a massive jolt of adrenaline for Nora, who reaches up and breaks the hand holding her neck with little effort.

"AGGGHHHH!" He swings in a wild attack but the axe is caught by her hand with waves of blue fire coming from it. Next thing he knows is a fist flying at his face and then darkness takes over his vision.

---

The assembled Hunters looked at the enemy forces that they had captured and defeated, currently the leaders were all in heavy chains and either unconscious or being magically assessed to remove any mind control, it was a process that Jaune honestly had no idea about but he hoped that Weiss was able to help Pyrrha be able to finally be rid of whatever was torturing her.

While Weiss and Yang were over by Pyrrha doing that, he was stood with Ruby, Blake, Ren and Nora watching over the gathered and surrendered troops, none of them looked too keen to fight them as they had all watched as their capital ship was blow apart and then as Nora had knocked out their leader with ease, that was when several other Bullheads landed behind the Hunters and Director Ozpin walked out holding a mug of coffee, and Deputy Director Glynda Goodwitch walked beside him, her gaze both managing to be stern and also thankful, Jaune greeted the director with a strong handshake and a respectful nod to Glynda, they were then accompanied by a squad of agents who took up some perimeter points.

"Captain Arc."

"Ozpin." Jaune responded, while the man might have his secrets and mysteries, Jaune couldn't help but like the man, he looked so much like his father.

"I do not believe we have the capacity or the ability to hold this group of individuals, the Emerald Forest is not equipped to hold this many, it was built for powerful individuals and their unique abilities, I also do not believe any prison has the capacity to hold them." Ozpin observed, he had made his way over to the others and was observing them next to Blake and Ruby. "I don't suppose you have the facilities to hold them Queen Belladona?"

"No, and I doubt my people would take kindly to the notion."

"Thought it best to check."

"I could have some people at STRQ start designing something, but it would take ages to make." Ruby offered.

"I don't think it will be long until James tries to take them, Atlas would have the space and it would be difficult to argue with that, but perhaps sending them home would be the best course of action." Ozpin stated.

"Well since we destroyed their ship, they have no transport or supplies; we really should of thought about this more." Ruby admitted while eying the surrendered aliens.

"We were in crisis mode, sometimes you can only think about the moment and only deal with the consequences later, but still, even if we kept them here and let's say Atlas took them, we know nothing about them, what food they need, for all we know they could be allergic to our air – just like I was." Jaune says offhandedly, to which Ren and Blake share a look and Ruby's helmeted head cocks to the side, Weiss and Yang had now moved over to them, Pyrrha was resting on a floating glyph.

"Seriously?" Blake asks with sarcasm dripping from her very being.

"Yeah I had asthma."

"Quite a different thing." Ren points out while Blake then sighs and turns away from the conversation, muttering about the failures of education.

"Meh, sounds cooler the way that you said it." Ruby admits, despite being the smartest person currently on the planet, sometimes she was amazed at the intelligence of her friends.

"As the only doctor here." Weiss begins to say before Yang interrupts her.

"I have 4 PHDs and Ruby has 3."

"As the only medical doctor here." Weiss tries again but this time Blake joins back into the conversation, maybe to cause more chaos or maybe because she enjoys it when people are surprised by her, she really acts a lot like a cat sometimes.

"I have a medical degree as well." To which Blake took great joy in the look or silent fury on Weiss' face, although Yang and Ren offered a bright grin and a slight smirk.

"Either way, please stop."

"Not to stop this but, while James has them under lock and key he will most likely attempt to perform experiments and tests on them and-"

"Not an option." "NO!" "Very dishonourable." Jaune, Yang and Nora interrupt before Ozpin can finish the sentence.

"-I don't think we should let it come to that."

"If we need to I could move them in groups through the Bifrost-"

"-Oh who's frost? She cute?" Yang asks, with a nudge on Blakes side, the Queen then barely reacts as beneath her mask she rolls her eyes.

"-But again that would take some time to do and also some convincing of my parents." Nora adds.

While all the heroes gathered try to think of what they could do with the prisoners Ruby opened up her helmet to let some fresh air in and also to be on equal footing with her friends and allies, she then spotted Jaune looking at her with a strange gaze to which when he realised she was looking back he smiled sadly and seemed a little embarrassed by it, which just made her curious. "Sorry, you look just like your mum when you think like that, you both have a great idea going on in your head that you are just piecing together."

"Well now that you say it I have something; Nora is there an intergalactic police force that you can call to come and collect them, surely the invasion of another planet is an illegal act right? They could come and collect them and take them away."

Nora then jumped at the idea. "Ruby you genius! I will be back in a moment." She then took a step away from them all and raised her hammer to the sky. "RIGR!"

A beautiful rainbow erupted from where she stood and then Nora was gone in a second leaving only a Rune symbol on the ground and a surprised look from everyone else, Weiss was the only one who did not seem surprised at all and instead turns smugly to Ruby. "Use science to explain that, go on I will wait."

"Sssssh, it was my idea, that means I don't need to explain anything to you." Ruby says waving her hands across at Weiss' face who grinned in victory, it was then that the gorgeous rainbow returned and Nora stood their once again with a grand smile on her face.

"Good news, a friend is coming and he is bringing his crew to take the prisoners to make sure they stand trial."

"What about Pyrrha?" Jaune asked protectively placing a hand on her shoulder while she lay asleep on the floating glyph, Yang had been stood next to her, whether in protection or anticipation she was not quite so sure.

"That's really up to you Ruby, you are our leader." Nora states, the others all look at her for her verdict, Jaune relaxes and Ruby knows why because they are both thinking the same thing; they can help her.

"She stays with us, we can help her and she can make up for the damage she caused here by helping others in the future." Ozpin sips his coffee to hide the grin and Glynda rubs her eyes behind the glasses.

"Great, more bloody paper work." She mutters, maybe hopeful that someone of Miss Nikos calibre would not cause to much damage, but knowing that the influence of both Xiao-Long and Valkyrie were going to turn her.

"Ruby, scans have picked up another object entering the atmosphere, I believe it is Thunder Thighs friends that she spoke of."

"Thank you PENNY."

A sleek looking ship with what looked like wings appeared to land gracefully and without any issue as the rear of it opened up and a ramp materialised from the rear, first down the ramp was a man with bright blue hair that looked very human but something seemed different about him to Ruby, he was wearing a stylish jacket and had 2 blasters at his side as well as a rifle on his back with cool boots. Next up was a furry little creature with a sword at its side and a pistol at his other side, he had a stylish mohawk and look unimpressed with everything that he was seeing, granted that probably did not compare to his companion he was hanging off the side of.

A tree.

The next one was a massive tree figure with one of the largest swords on his back Ruby had ever seen… that was intimidating to say the least.

The next 2 figure were both female, one of which was a woman that was completely blue, while the other was green. The blue woman had a sword of her own, but Ruby's eyes could easily see the mechanical aspects that would shift it into something else, she was wearing a long coat and one her arms was robotic, perhaps she was going in the style of a pirate as well? The green woman was slightly shorter and had a hat on her head that seemed to act as an eyepatch as well, on her back was a very high tech sniper rifle, the woman's outfit being littered with bullet casings and other ammunition crafting components, Ruby reckoned that she was liable to explode if she sneezed.

The blue haired man stepped forward and looked around before flicking something open on his arm and then speaking into it. "Okay, log AB-1235; This is captain Neptune with the crew of the Hawk, here to bring in the collective that have attempted a take-over of a planet under the Valkyrie jurisdiction."

His eyes swept over the Hunters.

"And there seems to be no signs of intelligent life." The little furry raccoon creature laughed heartedly at this and the blue woman grumbled.

"Because I want you to enjoy yourself sister." Said the green one.

"Ugh."

Ren leaned into Ruby and whispered quietly to her so the newcomers could not hear him. "There is a tree and a raccoon scowling at us, what's the plan boss?"

Said Tree then walked forward and stood in-front of the group. "I am Sage."

Nobody said anything just then, until one brave man stepped forward. "I am Jaune Arc."

"Oh Sage it has been too long my old friend." Nora then swept the massive tree up in a bear hug and set him back down. "Thank you for coming, we need your help taking these collective off our hands and making sure they face justice for their crimes against this planet."

"I am Sage."

"Yes that is all of them."

"You speak Sage?" Said the little raccoon, leaping up to his usual perch on his best friends shoulder.

"Yes it was elective in the Learning Hall." Nora waves it off as something so minor, meanwhile Yang is looking the Tree up and down wondering what it would be like to fight. Ruby and Weiss then share a look as they mouth Sage to each other with a shrug.

"Alrighty then, requesting permission yadayadayada." Neptune says as he brings a few different devices out from his belt and tosses them to the raccoon who fiddles with them at rapid speed, configuring them and piecing them all together.

"I am Sage."

"Yes."

"I am Sage?"

"What do you take me for?"

"I am Sage."

"That was one time!"

"I am Sage."

"Well when you put it like that old friend-"

"We are not getting a translation are we?" Blake said to herself.

"-You can take them."

"Alright then Scarlet, you're up." Neptune says as the raccoon, now known as Scarlet throws the device up into the air and it zooms over to every fallen ship and then scans it, even the big capital ship and then simply sucks it into the device that is no bigger than Jaune's shield, everyone watches in amazement as tons and tons of heavy metal is removed in seconds and then in the minute that it is active all of the troops, including the Godhunter and Dove are all sucked into the same device which then floats back over to Scarlet and Neptune who both place their hands on it and it folds down into a pocket sized device.

Ruby is practically salivating and Yang gets a cold shiver down her spine at the thoughts going through the young genius' head right now. "Micro tech, very temporary, only lasts a cycle or 2, so we should probably get going now if that is everyone."

The blue woman had managed to sneak around to the rear of Yang and was stood over looking down upon Pyrrha. "We forgot the hybrid, must have some Remnant in them like you do Nep."

"Ah good call Nebula, excuse me there buddy." Neptune then tries to move past Jaune who steps even more protectively in-front of Pyrrha.

"Not her, she stays with us."

The green woman then moves Neptune out of the way and stares at Jaune, the height difference is a little off as Jaune is a head taller but the intent in her eye is anything but off, not the attitude of a sniper. "All members of the collective are to be taken, we have a job to do."

"So do we." Yang says as she sizes up the blue woman now known as Nebula.

"May calm down." Neptune warns.

"We have a job to do, need I remind you that mine and Nebulas freedom is only valid so long as we follow the rules."

Sage then steps forward, in-between Jaune and May, he then looks over at Nora. "I am Sage."

Nora nods and allows a small smile. "Just like old times, well it is settled then, she stays with us."

"I am Sage."

"It went unsaid."

"I am Sage."

"You have my word."

Sharing a glance, the Tree known as Sage then turned to face down May who relented under his gaze and moved away from the group, not before Neptune stopped her and then nodded back to where Jaune was still stood, she irritably yelled out. "SORRY!" and then stormed onto the ship, cursing stupid blue pretty boys under her breath.

Nebula was still eyeing up Yang until Neptune gave her a pointed look. "Neb."

"Fine." She then followed her sister aboard the ship and Neptune sighed and patted Sage on his massive arm as he walked past with Scarlet hanging from his shoulder who waved at the Hunters.

"Well nice to see you all, good luck with that one and I am sorry for the actions of my teammates, they mean well but you know how reformed assassins are." He shrugged like that was a normal thing to share, but all he got was a nod back from Blake, Yang looked at her in a brief moment of horror as the Hawk then took off and blasted up into the stars.

"Sooooo, know many reformed assassins there Blakey."

"I have weekends off, girl needs to have a hobby."

"Well unless anyone else has any other questions or things to point out I suggest we get on with the clean-up." Ozpin said as he then went to gesture to the gathered agents to begin bringing in the heavy machines to help with structure and then Yang spoke up.

"Yeah just the one; is it BEACON or is it B.E.A.C.O.N? I'm just really confused and not so sure." She said, with a shrug and both hands in the air.

"Its B.E.A.C.O.N." Said Ren the exact same time that Ruby then said. "BEACON." Prompting the 2 to the stare at each other, Ren maintaining the passive face and Ruby looking slightly panicked, although inside even Ren had a doubt taking over the back of his mind.

"Um, well it's really-" Ozpin tried to say.

"How do you not know the proper name? It should be on all your business accounts." Weiss said to Ruby who shrunk under the scrutiny.

"I… don't know!"

"Hey Renny doesn't really know either, I can see it in his beautiful purple eyes." Nora pointed out to Rens shame as he avoided looking at anyone and Blake quickly smirked.

"I think then the bigger shame is that the former top agent doesn't know the name." She then said which got her a death glare from her friend.

"We were always told that it stood for something." Ren admitted.

"That is what I am trying to say-" Ozpin attempted to continue before this time he was cut off as Glynda marched forward and captured everyone's attention.

"We did not have a name when we started out and then one day Ozpin here said that 'our organization was supposed to be a Beacon of light to the world', and that is how we got our name, how the name is said does not matter; whether we are Beacon or B.E.A.C.O.N we get the job done." She explained as the group then went 'oooohhhh' collectively.

"Well with that all cleared up I have no further questions, let's get going." Yang then cheers as she moves over to the nearest building and starts moving the large steels beams out into the street into a nice pile as Weiss, Ruby and Nora quickly fly out to try and make the areas easier for the builders to access while Ren, Blake and Jaune take Pyrrha aboard the Bullhead and transport her back to the manor, to begin the watching over of her so that whenever she managed to wake up she would feel safe.

Meanwhile all the way up in space on the ship Neptune sat in the captain's chair as he smiled to himself, good to see that Remnant was still in one piece, he might not go back there ever again but nice to know the place his mother called home was okay, speaking of being okay. "Hey May you alright?"

The aforementioned green woman, the deadliest shot in the galaxy, seriously she was good… like curving bullets and ricocheting across multiple walls good, the only person Neptune knew that might come close was this guy in his old crew called Church. "We broke the rules Nep, we were meant to get all of them, leaving that girl is against the rules and if the Corp find out about that then Nebula goes back to prison, and they will kill her in there."

"Firstly, you know we would never let that happen, yeah she is irritating, angry, murderous, volitial-"

"-AND USES MY TOOTHBRUSH!" Scarlet yells from the common room on the ship.

"-And that, but she is also part of the crew, she is family and we take care of family. And second about the rules, they can talk to Sage about that, and if that's not good enough for them they can talk to the Goddess that made the decision, or they can talk to me the crown prince of Novelaia and see what happens there."

May gave a small smile.

"Nothing will happen to you or your sister so long as I am here, were are the Protectors of the Planets, we got this."

"You might be an idiot Neptune, but you are a good captain."

"Sounds like a date night is coming."

"And you ruined it, I'm going to bed."

"Damn it, was I close though? Was I?" Nebula chose that moment to walk in and saw her sister leaving with a reassuring smile on her face.

"I wanted to say that you have been a lack lustre leader and when I am returned to prison and have to fight every inmate I will make sure to carve your name onto some of them so they will hunt you after I am dead."

"Love you too Neb, but you are not going back to prison, Sage and I will work out the rules with the Corp and if they don't like the decisions then they can either take it up with the Prince of Novelaia or the Goddess of Valkyrie, or they can take it up with Sage when he is not feeling so inclined to negotiate, I know which option I would choose."

Nebula looks a little shocked, her blue taking on a slight blush as she realises she has misread the situation completely. "Oh."

"Your part of this crew Neb, you are not being taken by anyone, not on my watch."

"Well… good perhaps you have finally managed to do a good job as captain, getting your lazy butt in motion." As she turns to leave Neptune calls out once more.

"Hey Neb, it's no problem."

A burst of emotion hits the former assassin and she wraps him in a hug and then quickly releases him and fixes him with a glare. "My sister collects dolls, perhaps one of those might win you a little favour with her, and that is all the information you get out of me."

"Awww I thought we were really bonding." Neptune laughs as he turns his gaze back to the stars, somethings he really wouldn't change and that view every time is one of them so he couldn't help but admire it for a moment and a large grin over took his face, he had been in love with the stars since he first sat next to Poppins. "Punch it."

And in the flash of a shooting star, the Protectors of the Planets were up, up and away.

---

It has been awhile and a year, like I have been all over the place trying to work on this, work, life some other stories, but I had a good 2022 after April so all is well for me. I hope you all had a good year as well.