Before we begin let me address something.
Thank you for those who have commented, it brings happiness to me since you enjoy this enough to leave a comment.
- GoldStar77
About Salem, yes I am indeed going with that, and it worked pretty well for the kingdoms because they actually have enough firepower, in the form of E.G.O. users, to fight back. And yes, with the background that I made, there are some E.G.O. users who operate outside the kingdoms keeping watch over the Grimmland. But I don't think I will be touching that in the story.
About Ruby... well, how do I put it? Her original self is too happy, too black and white. And while that could be an interesting point to explore in this kind of setting, I am not confident I could write that.
About Jaune, that would be spoiler if I reveal more.
About Ozpin, yes he is more powerful than his canon self. How much? That would spoil the end of the story.
Ok. That is all I want to address here, there's more I would like to talk at the end however, which you can just skip if you want.
Again, thank you for reading and commenting.
Enjoy the story.
They dropped off three kilometers away from Old Glenn. The reason for that could be chalked up to unknown security level of the enemy, thus dropping off with this relatively close distance to the city was a reasonable gamble they were willing to take.
Johnathan Amsel won't lie that he felt somewhat disappointed with the missing sensation of flight that he so enjoyed, but a mission was a mission, and he got one to do. Making sure that no harm was done to himself after his landing, Johnathan stood up with Crocea Mors drawn and took point together with his trusty sword and shield combo.
Now, from an outside perspective, he may look unremarkable compared to his three companions. Senior Ermessia had her big sword that she could swing casually with a single hand and probably snapped anyone's body in half while still being chill about it. Big Steel, while not having a visible weapon out, was big and intimidating even with the goofy looking bucket head. Ruby, their smallest member, had a blood red spear with some kind of intimidating aura to it. Compared to them, Johnathan only had his plain white shield and his equally plain looking sword.
Appearance could be deceiving however. In this team, Johnathan was arguably the one with the highest defense. His weapons of choice, while looking plain for today standard, came from the glorious age of the Emerald King when the greatest blacksmith in all of Remnant applied his trade. Crocea Mors, weapon of Jason D'Arc The Golden, was made by Andre The Living Dead. It was thus completely logical that his weapons were the sturdiest in the team.
And so, he was at the very front of the formation. Big Steel a bit to his left, Senior Ermessia on his right and bit behind, and Ruby was directly behind him.
How about vision? Big Steel was the only one possessing night vision due to his robotic nature, but the others were not granted such luxury. Solution for that was quite simple actually. Just pour Aura to your eyes. Your vision will be better, not perfect like some faunus with night vision, but good enough to not stumble into something.
Formation secured and they began marching towards Old Glenn. Three kilometers... that meant they would be walking for about 40 minutes when factoring their speed and the occasional Grimm. Evading the Grimm wasn't even a suggestion in their circumstances, it was mandatory that they kept a straight line and dealt with any Grimm they encounter. "This place is abandoned for years. It would be alarming if there's no Grimm here." Thought Jonathan.
They walked silently. Nobody even bother making small talk or just cracking harmless jokes. They preferred to be vigilant, fulfilling their respective roles as intended. Johnathan honestly prefer this kind of companions, "Yeah, having a team like this is honestly the best scenario someone can have in the Frontier. Not that boisterous people are bad, but something like this is better. Then there's Nora... Nora is, well, Nora. Don't have a word to describe her besides loud but sometimes can be serious when the situation demands it."
"Beowulfs. Two o'clock," informed Big Steel. Johnathan glanced to his right and saw a pack of Beowulfs running straight at them. They kept walking straight, not even caring with the angry looking Grimms who were running towards them. Only when they got close enough did the team react.
Senior Ermessia broke off formation and approached the Grimm. With a single wide swing of her blade, three Beowulfs were cleaved in half. Seeing that Senior Ermessia was in her post swing motion, the Alpha saw an opening and hurried to strike her. That was where Johnathan came in with his shield and parried the big claw, leaving the Alpha unbalance and a perfect target for Ermessia to finish with another swing. The two remaining Beowulfs just rushed in on them intending to avenge their Alpha, which then became easy targets for the duo Index.
They heard gunshots behind them after the death of the Beowulfs. Turned out, Big Steel with his gun and Ruby were dealing with some Grimms who had the funny idea to attack their rear. Big Steel and Ruby quickly took away their rights to breath very quickly.
The rest of the march proceeded as such. The front was being taken care by Johnathan and Ermessia while their rear was covered by Big Steel and Ruby, pretty standard circumstance in any mission. By the time they reached the perimeter of Old Glenn, the wandering Grimm has wizened up to not mess with the four man group. Furthermore, they didn't have enough negativity to give the Grimm incentive to attack them.
The team stopped just a few hundred meters from the nearest building and Ermessia whipped out a binocular. "There's one body slumped against that building."
Ruby asked, "Just one?"
"Just one. We need to get closer." The team slowly make their way closer to the building until they reached 50 meters away where Big Steel's sensor were finally in ranged with it.
"Multiple signs of life detected.
"Number?"
"Seventeen. Counting the slumped body. The rest are inside."
"Hm. John, approach it. The two of you flank him."
Johnathan put his shield in front of him and slowly advance. From his peripheral, he could see Ruby switching to a pistol with silencer attached and Big Steel ruffling his cloak, probably switching to a silent weapon.
The slumped body was unmistakably of a man. He wore a black suit and a red coat. Propped on his hands was a rifle. He seemed to be sleeping, but appearance can be deceiving, so Johnathan approached with the utmost caution as if dealing with a potentially high class Grimm.
Shield protecting his body, he lunged until the tip of Crocea Mors was just centimeter from the man's throat, "Drop your weapon." No response came from the man so Johnathan tried again with a bit of force, "Drop your weapon!" Still no response. Johnathan pricked the man on the cheek. Predictably, it bled, yet the man gave no outward response.
Johnathan glanced at Big Steel to his left, giving him a questioning look. The big robot just gestured at the man. Crocea Mors was then put on a reverse grip while Johnathan slowly shook the man. He fell. The man just fell. No reaction no resistance, he just fell like a corpse.
"What is wrong with him? And why the hell the Thumb is here?"
"Well Ruby, that's what I want to know." He opened the man's eyes, and while they are still healthy and alive, they looked completely soulless. It was like looking at someone who lost every ounce of their will.
"Big Steel, are you sure there's no Grimm nearby?" asked Senior Ermessia behind him.
"Positive."
"All right. Leave him be. John, breach the door."
He obeyed the order and went to the nearby door. He noticed Ruby switched into assault rifle and Big Steel switched to his big gun. With his shield up he kicked the door open and they rushed in.
Ruby went to the right, "Clear."
Big Steel to the left, "Clear."
Johnathan went further in and kicked down another door. He found a big room, "I found the bodies!"
Sixteen bodies with different uniform and race were strewn in the room. There were those with the same uniform as the man outside, all humans he noted. The rest had armored vest on top of black hoodie and mask not so dissimilar from the Grimm, some of them were faunus he noted. One of the faunus was a dog, and he couldn't help but grimaced at that.
"First time seeing something like this?"
"No Senior, just lamenting the loss of that dog faunus."
"You're a dog person?"
"Well, in my experience, faunus are the best traveling companions you could have in the Frontier, especially the dog one. They're vigilant, pleasant for a conversation, and wouldn't backstab you... most of the time."
Then, Ruby asked something that made him reevaluate his perception of the racial tension within the city, "Faunus? Is that how you address the Demi-humans of the Frontier?"
"...what?" Johnathan turned to Senior Ermessia, asking the obvious question.
"Well... about that. John, Ruby, when you address a faunus as, well, faunus, that means you at least respect them enough to address them with the name of their race, implying that you both are equal. The Councils—the Aristocrats of all kingdoms—don't like that. As such, they forbade the usage of the word 'faunus' within the cities' perimeter. They still have rights thankfully, but not that much. And in light of that circumstance, we usually call them as either Demi-humans, Non-humans, or outright Sub-humans depending on which faction you served. Honestly, Vale is still generous to them. Atlas on the other hand, outright encourages slavery."
That was... not that dissimilar from the Frontier—the attitude, not the racism. Out there, everyone fought tooth and nail for their survival. Ailing villages, aimless wanderers, opportunistic merchants... the Frontier didn't care what's your race, it only cared if you could survive or not. Sure there were Hunters out there, but most of their business revolved around making sure the reclaimed lands do not fall back to the Grimm and border conflict between kingdoms, not ensuring the populace to not kill each other. It was like how the city operates together with its Backstreet.
People of the Frontier thought the City would be organized and full of opportunities to fulfill their dream. Hunters for example, if you could get that powerful and have nice gears, then city life must be good. Johnathan had that same thought process: get to the city, become a Hunter, become worthy of Crocea, life's good. Now he was deep within Old Glenn doing some task for the Boss while slowly understanding the city; becoming a Hunter not within his sight anymore.
Huh, in hindsight, that made the Southern rebellion much more sense to him. The people probably wanted the Council out of the picture and made a new governing system that prioritizes the will of the people and not just the Council. Maybe make the structure similar but the people in charge would be chosen by the people and not by bloodline. "Hm. Food for thoughts—Ow."
Senior Ermessia flicked his head, "Get your head on the mission John, you can learn history once we return. Big Steel, how are those people?"
"Report. Sixteen subjects share the same conditions as the first man we encounter. They show no outward response towards any kind of action."
They were lost causes then, a pity. Johnathan truly did love dog faunus—
"UNKNOWN. Five o'clock."
That shifted his gear into overdrive. Big Steel was a robot with a sensor. He talked monotone like an actual robot. But his voice was noticeably higher on that last one. Something spooked him. Something spooked a robot with a sensor. That meant something slipped past his sensor and only made itself known just now.
And the scary part was, no one, not even Senior Ermessia, realized there was something drawing closer to them.
With his shield up, he made sure to stand at the very front like what he did after landing. He could hear Senior Ermessia drawing her blade followed by Ruby and Big Steel readying their gun. What could have been sneaking up on them he wondered? The answer was rather ambiguous, and it scratched every danger sense he developed years on the Frontier.
That thing was shrouded in the natural darkness of the ruined building, 10 meters from them, peeking from behind a wall. If the twin glowing red eyes were to be believed, the creature's height was around three and a half meters. It honestly unnerved Johnathan a bit, he preferred something that straight up pounced at him rather than something that hides in the safety of a non-lit area thank you very much.
"Big Steel, are you sure we're not looking at an Apathy?"
"Positive, Leader. My sensor only receives static. If that thing is an Apathy, it's ability should already showing effect on all of you."
The creature, which Johnathan was pretty sure to be another breed of Grimm he hadn't met yet, blinked and focused it's attention at Big Steel. The thing was intelligent, Johnathan concluded.
"Ruby, light it up—" and as soon as Senior commanded Ruby, the Grimm backed away and blended completely with the darkness. "Alright, that thing clearly understands language. Lets add smart Grimm to the list of bullshit the world has to offer. Does that mean the Grimm Queen also understands us? It is a Queen, does Grimm actually has gender, or the Queen just look like a lady? Fuck, my view of the world is getting weirder and weirder each day."
"The static is moving away. No sign of enemy detected."
That wasn't so reassuring after that Grimm.
"Senior, should we pursue?" asked Ruby, still pointing her gun at where the Grimm used to stand.
"No. Our objective is Matchlight and the White Fang. We will circle around the ruins, try finding a way to the underground tunnel network, and hopefully gather something worth noting. I'm starting to think that even our enemy is in deep shit after seeing that creature and how silent the city is."
She had a point there. These people may be intact, but their souls are clearly nowhere included with that intactness. Plus that Grimm made Big Steel's sensor not working properly.
"Alright team. We're moving north to the town hall since that would be our best bet of finding an entrance. John, take point. Same formation as before—"
[Hello Hello! Team 9 you copy!?] And Senior Ermessia was interrupted again, now from a communication device from one of the White Fang's body. John recognized it; it was basically a portable radio of the Frontier, reliable for communication and if you're in range of a settlement you could tune in on whatever they were doing for entertainment. He used to have one too.
The team formed a perimeter around her as she picked the radio, [Team 9! Team 9!? Any survivor!? Hello!?]
Senior Ermessia coughed a few times before answering, "Y-yeah? YEAH! What the fuck is going on!? What the fuck was that thing!?"
Johnathan had to hold the urge to whistle at how convincing Senior Ermessia's performance was. Seriously, when you heard the tone of her voice, how the confusion and desperation bled into her subdued voice, you couldn't helped but be fooled by that.
[OH! Thank the Brothers! Are you the only one!? Do the others—]
"Dead! They're dead—or I think they should! And it's not just us, the Thumb is here! And I think I saw Fixers fighting those things!"
[Forget about them! Return to the train ASAP! Don't use the big hole in the middle of the city, those bastards are crowding the place! Use the entrance in the town hall or the one near the bank! Wish you luck sister and you better survive.]
"You too brother!" after that she crushed the device in her hand. "Alright, we have a lead now. Same plan, make a beeline to the town hall and find a way to the train."
He couldn't help himself but ask, "But... a train? Is there a railway that connects this place to Vale City?"
"As a matter of fact, there is. Initially used as a mean to transport construction material and planned to be open for public transportation, then something happened. But lets discuss that for another time."
"Leader," Big Steel interrupt, "I suggest you disclose the conclusion that you have make to our juniors."
John gave the big robot a silent thanks as he himself didn't really understood the situation. There was a railway where the White Fang made a makeshift base and lots of new Grimm were terrorizing the whole city, that was all he got. Ruby was also certainly confused if her knitted eyebrows were any indication.
As Big Steel pointed out, Senior already got her own conclusion that she was confident of, "Haaaah...Alright, imagine this. There is a blocked passage to the heart of the city, and then you have Dust meaning you have bombs, then there's Grimm. You two understand what I'm saying?"
He connected the dots quick enough and realization hit him hard in the face to the point that it must have shown. He would voice his disbelieve if Ruby didn't beat him to it, "They want to release Grimm right into the heart of the city!? Are they staging another rebellion!?"
"It IS a possibility. John, take point, we waste enough time already."
Without further delay, the team made their way to the town hall in a quickened pace. They could move straight, but in doing so they may potentially cross the big hole where the unique Grimm gathered. So, they must took a route around the center, they didn't dare risking the alternative.
Sadly, this team couldn't catch a break even for a moment. Reason? Well, there was a saying that stated 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.'
"Multiple statics closing in. We're surrounded."
"Are you sure about that!?"
"Uh, Johnathan, should we be worried!?"
"Yes Ruby, I think we should!"
"Fuck it. Team, make a circle!"
Their run screeched to a halt in the middle of the road and immediately formed a circle formation. Senior Ermessia wasted no time drawing her sword and settling into a low two handed grip, her sign of going serious from the get go it seemed. Ruby still had her assault rifle out and ready to burst. Big Steel... he whipped out a fucking gatling gun from under his cloak. As for Johnathan...
"Protect us!" Crocea Mors rose above and she shone bright with all the brilliance of the sun before plunging to the earth below. From her radiance, a dome of protective light engulfed them, warm and shooting, just like home.
Someone beside him gasped. It was not from Senior Ermessia, she was used to things like this, it was coming from Ruby, "JOHN! I know this energy flow! This is not from you right? This is from your sword itself! Is that a living weapon!? Where the hell did you get it!?"
"Should you be asking that now?!" he asked bewildered.
The leader of the team snapped at them, "Focus goddammit! Big Steel, enemy number!?"
"All static. Can't confirm."
It was then the enemies decided to make themselves known. Dozens of red eyes shone from the building, making the darkness looked like a collective mass that was alive. From the junctions nearby, Grimm started pouring in, and the team finally got to see their enemies in their full glory.
A body skinnier than a healthy man yet possessing double his height. Lanky arms reaching the street with long fingers and sharp claws twitching rapidly. It's lower jaws, some closed making expression of anger, sadness, or happiness. Some opened and dripping black liquid as if their hunger unsatiated. Finally, from their skulls, red eyes burnt with infinite hatred.
Johnathan recognized them as Apathy if the description he heard were true. But, he didn't feel the debilitating effect of their so called willpower drain. If these were not Apathy, then what were these?
"They look like Apathy, but the lack of their innate ability points out to Imp, but Imp only native to Mistral, and I don't think Imp has this pressuring presence." Senior Ermessia seemed always have answer to their questions.
"John, keep this shield up. I don't want us ending as their victim. Ruby, Big Steel. Open fire on three. One—"
RAAAAAAAAAAHHH
And today, once more, something interrupted the leader of Team Ermessia. That something came in the form of a screech originating from the building in front of Ruby, specifically from the fifth story. Their focus shifted and they witnessed a boulder being hurled at them. Fortunately, the Grimm's aim needed some adjustment, as the boulder won't land on them.
Yet John couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong and it seemed his sentiment was shared with his Senior, "RUN!"
Too late, the boulder landed and the street collapsed below them.
"What the FUCK!?" was probably accurate enough to describe their situation. And as they fell down the newly made hole, the smug grins of the Grimm was forever captured in their eyes.
And that's the chapter.
I actually had a different idea on how the Mountain Glenn raid would go, namely being quite similar with canon RWBY. Fortunately, Max0r's video on YouTube gave me inspiration. I was surprised that I found inspiration from Max0r of all people, but hey, inspiration comes from anywhere.
P.S. Mili released a new version of Iron Lotus, and boy does it hit differently after beating Xiao.