Chapter 17: Operation: SUPPLY RUN
As dawn broke, I became aware of light flooding into my eyes, and something sharp prodding me in the back from below. Groaning, I tried to swat away at the sensation, but it continued to jab me in the back.
"Alright, alright, I'm getting up." I grumbled sleepily, swinging my left leg over my bed. Unfortunately, the fact that my bed was actually a hammock hung from the rafters hadn't quite sunk in as a waking instinct yet, as gravity took hold of me, and sent me plummeting to the floor. But before I struck the prickly carpet, a glyph appeared beneath me, bone white in colour, and dazzling me to the point where looking directly at the sun would produce a similar reaction. Landing on the surface of the glyph, I looked up to see Weiss dressed in her combat gear, holding her index and middle fingers aloft, coated in a white glow. Ruby stood beside her, her iconic scythe unfolded, and holding it like a polearm. Clearly, she had been using her 'sweetheart' to wake me up.
"Morning, girls." I grinned sheepishly. Weiss just shot me a frown.
"You really need to work on your sleeping schedule, Darrel. We've been trying to wake you for nearly half an hour." Weiss lectured, though it was less a spoilt brat giving orders, and more of a motherly figure offering advice. Regardless, I nodded. Weiss lowered her hand, and the glyph disappeared, causing me to fall all of two feet to the ground. Landing with a grunt, I was on my feet in a second. Ruby nodded to the showers.
"Yang and Blake are already at breakfast, so you should be okay this time, Darrel." She said, smiling. I nodded, and quickly dashed to the bathroom, undressing quickly. Splashing some water on my face, I grabbed my combat gear, laid out neatly on an airer, cleanly pressed and ironed. I smiled: Beacon definitely had good launderers. Slipping on my clothing, I felt a prickling in one of the pockets of my jacket. Rummaging around, I grabbed a scrap of paper, scrunched into a tiny roll. Unfolding it, I saw a message in neat handwriting, with two little crystal vials taped to it, complete with rubber stoppers. I couldn't tell whose handwriting it was, but the message itself was burned into the back of my brain.
'I know your mission. Check Scroll for further instructions. CF.'
CF? Who the hell is CF? But I didn't have time to question further, as I heard the door open. Shoving the note and vial back into my pocket, I went to the door and opened it a crack. Standing on the other side was Ruby, with my weapons in her hands.
"Come on, Darrel. I'll try and save you some toast, but Yang's still a little peeved about last night, and Nora's eaten half the food on offer already. So make it quick." She said. I stepped out of the bathroom, fastening the Iridescent Basilisks to my wrists. Ruby prepared to dash off, but I had an idea. I grabbed her by the arm, feeling the tingle of my Semblance draw in Ruby's incredible speed. She grinned, knowing what I was about to do.
"Wanna race?" I smirked. Ruby gave me a wink.
"Last one there's a rotten egg!" She cried, dashing out the door in a flurry of petals. I chuckled, and took off in a flash, chasing her down.
"Look out, coming through, 'scuse me, sorry, pardon me!"
Racing against Ruby was no easy feat: every time I drew level with her, she seemed to pull away. But where she was fast, I was cunning: where everyone else saw obstacles, I saw paths. Playing a lot of Assassin's Creed and Mirror's Edge did that for me, to the point where whenever I looked at one of these prospective paths, it would turn a shade of red for a little while.
Sprinting through the courtyard, Ruby had some headway on me, but one of the trees, twisting through the garden had knotted and led up to another tree, which diverged into two. Leaping onto the bark, I quickly went up the tree, and leapt into the second's branches. Looking forward, another tree, this one providing a branch for me to run along. Doing so, I gripped onto the trunk with my weapon, wrapping the pincer around the solid wood, and landing goofy-footed onto the branch behind. Looking down, I saw a blur of red approaching the fountain. Looking ahead, a column provided an excellent perch for a way down. Leaping onto it, I used it as a springboard, flying through the air, and landing in a shrubbery. Diving out, I looked back to see Ruby was behind me, a look of awe on her face. I chuckled, then looked back. As it turned out, looking back at Ruby was not the smartest move, as my left shin struck the edge of the fountain, causing me to flip ass over kite into the freezing water. Ruby stopped, and glanced me over, as I sat in the ankle deep fountain, drops falling from my hair, nose and chin.
"Ouch. You okay?" Ruby asked, trying and failing to keep a grin off of her face. I looked up.
"Well, I'm glad I skipped the shower." I joked. Ruby snickered, then offered the end of Crescent Rose to me. I grabbed it, and as she pulled, I pulled back. Ruby splashed into the fountain with a squeal, giving me a grumpy look as she emerged from the water. I just shrugged, choking back a laugh.
"You know what they say: if it's funny once, it's hilarious twice." I guffawed. Ruby just slapped her hand into the water, sending some splashing into my face. I covered my face, then returned fire. She just laughed, and continued swiping at the water. Our water fight lasted for a few moments, until a cough distracted us. Turning to who had seen us, I was mortified to find the rest of Team RWBY standing there. Weiss had her arms folded, and was tapping her foot angrily. Yang gave a small smile at our antics. Blake was pinching the bridge of her nose in mock irritation.
"Care to explain or do we need to piece it together?" Blake asked. Ruby and I hoisted ourselves out of the fountain, dripping wet, and feeling flushed with embarrassment.
"Long story. " I said, twiddling my thumbs nervously. Yang just extended her arm, and I grabbed hold, feeling the heat of her semblance transfer into my chest. Curling up, I let the borrowed power loose, surrounding the two of us in a miniature tornado of fire, which dissipated after a few seconds. As the flames cleared, Ruby and I were dry as a bone.
"Your semblance is fire? Isn't that Yang's power?" Blake asked, curious. I looked at Yang strangely: why had she not told everyone else about my Semblance? She just shot me a sly wink, then turned back to her partner.
"Not exactly. You'll see in due course, though, Blake. It's a doozy." She grinned.
"Although, should their hair be smoldering like that?" Weiss asked. I looked at Ruby, only to discover that her reddish black hair was indeed emitting thin wisps of smoke. Judging by the surprised look on her face, I assumed the same thing happened to me. I immediately began patting my head, trying to smother the embers, but all I felt was the crackling flames of a tiny inferno, with my hair as the fuel. Panicking, I gripped the edge of the fountain, and stuck my head in the water, drowning the flames, and cracking my skull on the bottom of the fountain.
As I pulled my wet aching head out of the fountain. I looked at Ruby, who had filched Myrtenaster from her partner, and had turned it against herself, smothering the flames, but encasing her skull in ice in the process. Weiss just strode up and took her weapon back, sheathing it, and walking away, muttering to herself.
"How did I get stuck with these two idiots?"
Boarding the Bullhead, which was docked on a helipad, I took a seat, and thought about a few things. First off, the mission Ozpin had sent us on. Retrieving ingredients from the Blossom Forest? Couldn't we just buy the stuff at a pharmacist? And that note. What the hell was a Wahtani? I remembered Nora rattling it off when we first interacted, asking if I had any intention of punting it. Hopefully that meant it would be a smaller Grimm.
"Morning, Darrel. Did you get enough rest last night?" Jaune asked, as his team strode into the blood tray, taking their seats. I nodded.
"Actually, he and I were up most of the night doing some stuff together, Vomit Boy. You don't wanna know any more than that." Yang, Blake, Weiss and Ruby, whose lips had a pale bluish hue to them, walked up the ramp and took their seats, Ruby and Yang giggling. Jaune looked at me with a look of horror, and I just shook my head. No way was I going to explain: they'd probably think of something worse going on. I read one story of Blake's in my spare time where this guy was giving massages to his female friends, but it sounded as if he was bedding every girl he knew. Of course, I only got a few chapters in, before I had to put the book back, as Blake would have castrated me if she caught me reading her stash. Shaking my head, I feel back to reality.
"Yang, must you be so lewd? Some of us have just eaten, you know." Weiss chided. Yang just looked at her and shrugged.
"I am what I am, Snowflake. You know that." She said, grabbing a seat. At that moment, the jet engines roared to life, and ground left us far behind as our transport rose into the sky. The landing hatch closed, and our ride to the Blossom Woods began.
An hour later, the Bullhead was soaring through the skies of Remnant, the engines droning dully in our ears. Jaune had a bucket ready for his motion sickness, though it didn't do much for his constant groaning. Pyrrha stood by him, doing all she could to make him comfortable. Ren and Blake inspected each others weapons, while Ruby and Nora did the same. Weiss was reading her scroll again, something news related. Probably getting some info as to her family's company and recent events. Meanwhile, Yang was fiddling with her right gauntlet, having taken a screwdriver to it, and she was now putting it back together. As I had nothing to do in particular, I decided to pull out my scroll, and see what was on hand to keep me entertained for the next few minutes. After a couple of games of StarSweeper, whilst listening to the pop-rock music of the Achieve Men's album, "Chunk Error", which Yang had given to me, I got bored, and was about to shut it off when it began beeping. An incoming call? Maybe the woman in the crimson dress had decided to call back. And as luck would have it, it was. Even if it was just an audio message, it was still a lead. Pausing the music, I opened the message, and heard the woman's voice.
"Darrel, I know I haven't kept in good contact with you, but I must admit, what I've heard you have accomplished is nothing short of incredible. Riding a Nevermore, punching a Boarbatusk... Even the most insane of Hunters would never even consider such acts. But I'm sure you grow tired of having your accomplishments reiterated to you on a regular basis, so now I need to ask something of you. I require an ingredient that can be found in the area you have been sent to. Namely, the saliva of a Wahtani. It is instrumental to getting you home. Do not fail me."
And with that, the message was over. I was about to close my scroll, when a thought occurred to me: maybe the Internet equivilant would have some information about these two items I was retrieving. I pulled up a browser, called the Cybercloud, and searched for information on the Wahtani.
From what online resources told me, the Wahtani was essentially a monstrous lizard, resembling a gigantic Komodo dragon, covered in bone-white spines, armour plating, and had the ability to spew something known as Grymfire. Possibly a fire breath or something along those lines, but what struck me as odd was the saliva: it was incredibly poisonous, corrosive, and ravaged whatever it touched. Getting that was going to be difficult.
"Here. Pilot says we're gonna need these." Shutting off my scroll and looking up, Ruby's hand was open, with something resembling an earpiece resting flat on her palm. I took it, and hooked around my right lobe, listening to it give a series of beeps.
"Testing, one, two, three." Jaune's voice rang out over the earpiece, as he tested his, while handing some out to his teammates.
"What's with the earpieces? Are we expecting trouble or something?" I asked. Pyrrha looked at me strangely.
"It's standard procedure to use earpieces when more than one team are on a mission like this. Given we're deep in Grimm territory, we need to be able to rush in and help each other out." She explained. It made sense: the Grimm could come from anywhere, and if I wanted to make it home, I'd need to be ready. Suddenly, the pilot's voice rang out over the comms.
"There's not exactly a safe clearing around, so you'll have to dive in. You'll find some flares near the back, just in case someone runs into trouble."
Pyrrha, Blake and Ren stood up, grabbed the flares, and began handing them out. Nora held hers up to her ear, shaking it like it was a container of candy. I snatched it from her, worried she might set it off prematurely. That would be a disaster. After a few moments, we were armed with two flares each: one green, for finding an ingredient, and one red, for when we ran into trouble. The hatch opened, and the howling wind overtook my hearing, if not for the communications earpiece that Ruby had given to me earlier.
"Get ready, we're approaching the drop zone in three... two... on-" I didn't hear anything else, as the Bullhead veered violently to the left, causing Jaune, Ruby and I to fall to the floor, while everyone else struggled to keep their balance.
"What the hell was that?!" Yang screamed, hugging onto a console tightly. Glancing out the hatch, I saw something massive fly by. Not a Nevermore: it looked more insectoid than avian. But it was long, and obviously angry at us. The Bullhead swerved again, causing most of us to hit the deck with a variety of grunts. As I got to my knees, I looked out the still open hatch, to see what appeared to be a dragonfly fly alongside the jet. But it was far larger, about as long as three shipping containers, and it was jet-black, covered in spines, and a bony carapace where it's oversized eyes would normally be. Clearly a new form of Grimm.
"Is that a Strekoza?!" Ren yelled. Looking at the Mothra-sized enemy, it disappeared, flying above us. Before anyone could react, a loud thud resounded on the roof, causing the jet to buck crazily.
"Dammit! That bug's gonna kill us! Get out of here, kids! I'll keep this thing busy!" The pilot yelled over the comms. But before we could react, something tore through the roof, catching our attention and scything through the metal as if it was paper. Frozen in fear, I watched as the panel was torn away to reveal the... thing that had begun to attack us. Letting out a loud screech, it stuck it's head into the blood tray, pinning Blake and Jaune to the floor.
"Darrel, get them out of there!" Ruby yelled. Flicking my blades forward, I lunged, burying it into one of it's compound eyes. The creature screeched in pain, and reared it's head back, freeing Jaune and Blake. Blake flipped back, and leapt out of the open plane into the clear blue sky, sailing away out of sight. Ruby, Weiss, Ren, and Nora also leapt out, with Nora's excited screaming fading into the distance. Jaune tried to get a grip on something so he could get to his feet, but his ankle got caught on a cargo strap, leaving him trapped, sailing in the air like a flag.
"Guys, help! I'm stuck!" He screamed, arms flailing uselessly in the air. Pyrrha dashed forwards, morphing Miló into it's sword format, slicing through the strap, and sending Jaune soaring away. The Spartan signalled Yang and I to follow, and dived out. But before we could move, a massive spike-lined tail tore through the floor, inches away from my nose. It disappeared back into the floor, then reappeared somewhere to my right, knocking me to the ground.
"Darrel, use your Semblance!" Yang yelled out. I nodded, and grabbed on of the spikes on the tail, feeling the power of the Strekoza flow from it's body to mine. Releasing my grip, my throat began to burn, as if I had been screaming for hours without end. Putting my fingers to my throat, I felt my throat vibrate violently; buzzing like a swarm of angry bees.
"We gotta go! NOW!" Feeling Yang grab my free hand, I shook myself out of my stupor, remembering the danger we were in. Yang charged to the entry ramp, but I wrenched myself free of her grip. She turned to me, shocked. "What're you doing?!" Yang screamed. I looked back to the cockpit, thinking about the pilot. Maybe there was still time to help him...
"Darrel, come on, we need to go, now!" Yang bellowed. I turned back to her, and grabbed her hands. Looking deep into her eyes, I whispered two words.
"I'm sorry."
And with that, I shoved her off of the edge. She screamed out something I couldn't decipher, but I didn't care. Turning back to the flaming blood tray, I began to move through the flames and sparks, using Aura to suppress the pain of the burns. One way or another, we would all make it out alive, personal safety be damned. Kicking the door to the cockpit down, I dashed to the pilot, who was doing his best to keep the control yoke from slipping through his fingers.
"Why are you still here?! I told you to jump!" He yelled to me. I flicked my blades forward, slicing through his seatbelt. Grabbing his wrist, I was surprised to find he was resisting.
"Come on! We can still get out of here!" I shouted over the din of the alarm. The pilot shook his head.
"Just leave me! I only needed to get you here safely! If you die, I can't forgive myself!" He shouted back. I placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm a Huntsman. I'm meant to protect those who can't protect themselves." I said. He just reached for his neck, yanked something resembling dog tags off, and slipped them into my hand, giving me a hard look.
"Then you're doing a piss poor job of it! Just go!" He bellowed. As I was about to counter his argument, the Strekoza's tail plunged through the windscreen, piercing the pilot's chest, straight through his heart. He gave a strangled gasp, then slumped forward, dead before I could even scream. At the tail removed itself, the pilot's body, still wedged onto the monster's tail, was dragged out the windscreen, sprouting a torrent of blood into the sky like rain. I couldn't watch anymore, partly because the sight was horrifying enough, now that I had seen how a Grimm could kill someone, but mostly because I saw a flashing alarm. Looking at it, I swore violently when I read it.
SELF-DESTRUCT
15 SECONDS
The pilot must have been intending to take out this insect by means of a suicide attack. With little time to waste, I sprinted back the way I came, grabbing my rucksack and diving out the entry ramp. Just at the right time too: the Bullhead detonated in an explosion of lilac fire. I heard a loud screech come from the beast, then all I heard was the howling of the wind in my ears. Tumbling end over end, my view quickly switched between pink and blue as the ground grew closer and closer. Trying to balance out, I got an idea. When I had touched the Strekoza back in the Bullhead, my throat began to itch. If I was right, maybe...
Approximately 30 metres from the trees, I opened my mouth, and let out the loudest scream I had ever heard. The trees quaked at the soundwaves, and I felt myself marginally slowing down. As I hit the trees, I used a pincer to grip a thin branch, halting my descent about 5 metres above the ground. I sighed in relief: not a flawless landing strategy, but I was still alive, so it was perfect to me.
"DARREL!"
Hearing Yang's voice, I tilted my head in her direction, to see her standing at the foot of the tree. She had a relieved look on her face, as she punched the tree, causing it to topple over with a crash, sending me plummeting to the forest floor in a crumpled heap. But before I could move, Yang gripped my tunic, and pinned me to the tree, her relief giving way to anger.
"What in the name of Grimm were you thinking?! Were you trying to die or something?!" She furiously yelled in my face. I could tell she was worried, so I showed her the dog tags, which I had somehow held onto during my descent. She put me down, and took them from me, inspecting them closely.
"Pilot was killed. I tried to save him, but..." I croaked hoarsely. Yang looked at the dog tags for a minute, then pocketed them. She turned back to me, her eyes growing wet.
"Look, it's great you tried to save the pilot. But if I lost you, I... I..." She stuttered. I was confused.
"Yang, why were you so concerned for me?" I asked. She looked into my eyes.
"Because... you're a good guy, and I... I don't want to lose you." She answered hesitantly. I had a feeling that wasn't the reason, but before I could inquire further, the rest of RWBY and JNPR came running up.
"Thank Dust you're okay!" Ruby cried, as she went to hug me. The others voiced their relief that I was still alive, before Ren spoke up.
"Well, we're trapped in this forest with limited rations, and no tents. What do we do now?" He asked. Weiss spoke up.
"For starters, we'll need someplace as a base. That way five of us can hunt for the herbs we were sent to gather, while the rest of us keep watch and build a signal fire."
"Yeah, camping trip!" Ruby squealed, dashing off to find a clearing. Nora and Yang dashed after her. Weiss shook her head, gave an irritable sigh, and resumed speaking.
"Alright, we're going to need some supplies for safety. Ren, Blake, see if..." Weiss ordered, before she was interrupted by a loud thud, as if something heavy had landed nearby. Looking around, a few moments later, the ground resonated again, only this time, it was louder. Hearing some trees creak, a line of trees collapsed to reveal the scaly leg of some kind of reptile. The leg was connected to a massive body, approximately forty feet long by twenty feet tall. Covered in innumerable armoured scales, and a massive mask, the creature resembled a quadrupedal Godzilla. It looked down on us with six blood red eyes, and gave an earsplitting roar.
"Wahtani!" Weiss screamed. She conjured a glyph, and began to ride it away, like a hoverboard. I watched her go, before turning back to the hellish monster before me.
"What do we do?!" I yelled, trying to find a weakness in this behemoth's body, failing to find one.
"RUN!" Blake shouted back, taking off in a streak of shadow, while Pyrrha, Jaune and Ren sprinted for their lives into the trees. I gave a quick glance at the creature behind me, before sprinting after everyone. That mystery woman had asked for the saliva of this monster, but to be honest, the only way she'd probably get it would be out of my munched, mutilated corpse.
No way in hell would I let that happen.
Well, it's not my best, but at this point, I'll take what I can get.
Anyway, for those who want to know about that story Darrel reads from Blake's stash... it's a shoutout to Massages. If you don't know it, you should: one of the most hilarious RWBY fanfics I've ever read.
Anyway, I'm pretty excited for RvB S12. Definitely something to look forward to. I mean, CGI in Halo 4? 'nuff said.