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Chapter 46: Maiden-Gate
To say that the life of Nickel Polendina had been interesting thus far would be an understatement of almost cosmic proportions.
The existence of the android, intended by upper echelons of Atlas Military at the time of her creation to be a successor to Penny Polendina had been complicated in ways that bordered on cartoonish absurdity and she knew that outside of a handful of people with access to information kept hidden from the public nobody would ever believe her if she tried to discuss it.
Firstly was the fact that she was not a human and that important detail was highly classified, leaving the people of Remnant to continue believing that both she and her more famous sister were simply heavily augmented with cybernetics. Following this was the fact that Nickel Polendina had, after being kept dormant and in storage for several years been awoken by a corrupted iteration of the Wizard acting as a vessel for Salem herself who had enlisted Nickel and turned her, in her fury at a world that had forgotten her against Penny Polendina in an effort to also eliminate Ruby; the attempt had failed however and in the wake of a devastating battle which had cost her the use of her original body Nickel had been all-but adopted by those she had sought to destroy, spending years following Salem's ultimate defeat living alongside Ruby, Penny and their twin children trying to make a place for herself in a world more peaceful than she was intended for.
And then she had become the Spring Maiden.
The android with a soul, the second of her kind had found the mystical powers bestowed on her following the demise of the previous Spring Maiden, a kind young woman content to simply use her abilities for good and ill-suited for violence during a Grimm attack wherein Nickel, along with Cardin Winchester had failed to save her. From there Nickel's reality had only become stranger still as she had been introduced to Jade Rangifer, someone whose existence managed what the android had once thought impossible by being stranger than her own; a Spring Maiden from another timeline and version of Remnant whose own powers had left her when she had journeyed between realities. Under Jade's tutelage Nickel had steadily learned to control her powers, regained the gift of flight which had been lost with her original body and found a sense peace and belonging travelling the wastelands of Menagerie with Jade in order to set up new farming settlements like the one the pair currently resided in, a place called Maiden-Gate.
That Nickel Polendina and Jade Rangifer had fallen in love had seemed inevitable.
Nickel herself largely resembled Penny Polendina, though the living skin grafted over her mechanical frame was perhaps a shade paler which rendered her freckles more prominent and hair features were perhaps a little sharper and more angular, giving her a perpetual look of adolescence or late teens whilst her mind was more in line with a young woman in her early to mid twenties. From here Nickel's appearance differed more drastically as the younger android had taken pains to forge an identity for herself, most prominently in the form of her coppery hair being tied back and dyed a deep black with vivid green highlights whilst her attire consisted of heavy spiked combat boots and artistically torn black jeans held up by multiple belts, an armoured corset worn over a dark green hoodie and dark make up made her more striking still.
All in all an imposing figure, were she not currently floating lackadaisically in mid-air simply because she could.
Officially Nickel was part of the security team defending the perimeter wall of the burgeoning settlement however construction was continuing on at an acceptable pace, with even the Land-Shark attack which Team MARZ had helped deal with a while ago not causing any lasting damage and the defences were now manned by an admittedly small but capable group of Hunters in addition to recently repaired Atlas Knights; leaving Nickel free to engage in activities she would swear, with an all too innocent expression were her way of increasing her control over her powers.
Nickel found herself smiling with a warmth that would once have seemed entirely alien to her as she noted that there may indeed even be some truth to her excuses, though as she continued to float and drift lazily through the sky, enjoying the heat and sun whilst the erratically crackling green of the Spring Maiden's powers shone and flickered around her, focusing at the points on her back where wings had once protruded the android could at least be honest enough to admit that she had her own motives. For one thing flying was simply enjoyable, a release from all things and had only become more so as her grasp of her powers increased, secondly Nickel was not a qualified Hunter and was well aware of the mutterings the Hunters stationed at Maiden-Gate partook in when they thought she couldn't here and rather than violently confront them as she once might have the android chose instead to simply confuse them; showing off powers those Hunters were not privy to and leaving them baffled about the multiple Semblances she seemed to juggle. The final reason Nickel was slacking off was that from here, high above Maiden-Gate she could see the fields that Jade would be working in and with some effort could even pick her out; something that would no doubt leave her staring wistfully at the Reindeer Faunus whilst trying to conjure roses out of thin air.
Her peace was intruded upon by an incoming communication, the fact that it was delivered to an internal system rather than her scroll speaking volumes.
"Little green do you copy?" a tense voice was filled with static.
"Not my call sign buddy, never gonna be my call sign" Nickel grated out, a chipper voice that nonetheless promised havoc in response to the nickname she had been saddled with by a security and air-traffic control operative who was admittedly only trying to make her feel like a part of something bigger.
"Complain when you touch down, right now we've got blips-"
"Bruh….Is this how I sound to everyone else?" Nickel asked with faux concern, unable to hide her disinterest in the jargon of the military that had made and subsequently disregarded her.
"We've got several incomings heading our way, can't get an exact size and shape but the way they're moving and the fact we're not expecting anyone….Looks like Grimm"
"On it, co-ordinates?"
"Due East, should be pretty easy to spot in a clear sky"
"See, how hard is it to just be sarcastic?….Ass-hole" Nickel snorted before shutting off her own internal comms and focusing her attention on flight, the act of concentrating alone sending her streaking through the cloudless blue like a rocket, spring green contrail in her wake as she increased her velocity yet, before she could reach her full speed and before she could leave Maiden-Gate safely in the distance so that it would be out of the view of the incoming Creatures of Grimm the roiling and shifting black mass which could only be countless nightmarish bodies moving in unison came into view with a similar and perhaps larger mass trailing behind it on the ground below. Nickel quickly surmised that the monsters were closer and more numerous than she would like but also that this was not enough to be of any great concern to her; allowing her power to coalesce into crackling, violently shimmering orbs which encased her first whilst acid-green fire spewed from her eyes the android glanced down at the Grimm sprinting across the barren expanse below and allowed her expression to twist into a smirk.
"Touch grass losers" with the taunt still leaving her lips she gave a simple flick of the wrist which brought jagged spikes of unnatural fauna, wrapped in expanding masses of thorns erupting up from the ground to form an impromptu barricade, far from enough to stem the tide yet still cutting down and ensnaring several of the incoming Grimm and forcing those which remained to redirect themselves around the obstacle which would by those defending Maiden-Gate a few more seconds.
Nickel did not expect to receive return fire.
"Okay no! That aint it chief!" the android yelled, surprise and anger meeting as she was forced to fling her forearms in front of her face and focus her Aura to protect her, which still rippled around her as she was sent hurtling backwards through the air in considerable pain by what appeared to be a solid slug made of sharpened bone engraved with the crimson detailing which adorned the carapaces of all Grimm. Quickly discarding the projectile, her surprise mounting as she saw it explode into hundreds of jagged fragments as it fell, Nickel turned her attention to the direction the attack had come from; namely the flock of winged Grimm which had begun to spread itself thin in a display which appeared more to resemble dramatically standing aside so that the Spring Maiden could see her foe; a beast easily a dozen feet tall with mechanical wings, four arms and tendrils bursting from its' torso, a back mounted cannon, thrashing serpentine tail and a lupine skull in which a singular baleful eye was protected by a visor.
"Okay….What the fuck are you?" Nickel Polendina demanded, the notion that this Grimm which resembled nothing she had encountered or heard of might be the monstrosity which had caused Ruby and Penny so much trouble coming to mind and being confirmed a moment later when Gestalt-Prime answered her question with a mocking shriek.
"The main event!" and with that the two beings of immense power flew at one another.
Team MARZ were, as to be expected on a weekday morning in class though the atmosphere was different in a subtle yet palpable way; the groggy ambience that usually permeated morning lectures being replaced by a static charge of tension which had lingered in the air since the campus had been placed into lock-down the previous weekend, with the spectre of Fox Scarlatina's unknown attacker hanging over the student body in the form of an unmistakable unease which grated uncomfortably against the new restrictions which had been placed upon the students. The restrictions were, in reality a somewhat curtailed and modified version of the limitations which Team MARZ and Team WULF had already made themselves subject to however and as such the limits of when and for what reasons the students were allowed to leave and the searches and scrutiny which every item brought onto the campus was now subject to was of little consequence as the eight of them were still unable to leave at all without prior permission from a member of senior staff, something which seemed unlikely to be given for anything short of a major emergency.
Not that this silver lining did anything to help the concentration of Team MARZ who were still recovering from their thrashing at the hands of Ruby Rose, who lecture they were making an honest if lacklustre attempt to take in.
Of the four teens Zirconia was faring the best, the sleepless night it had taken to complete the paper she had been ordered to write in lieu of taking part in the training exercise being forgotten in the wake of more pleasant news; namely the parts needed to fully repair her prosthetic leg finally arriving and being cleared to be delivered to her by the campus after being subjected to stringent checks, allowing the Grasshopper Faunus to once again move with her usual fluid grace and take part in classes more fully whilst at the same time making her the subject of playful teasing from friends who noted that it was highly convenient that she had received the parts she needed only after being granted a reprieve from her teams' punishment.
Athena-Jade and Regalia were both putting forth a credible effort to focus on the lesson though were struggling, each of them more absorbed by their partners though for vastly differing reasons. In Athena's case the Bear Faunus was struggling with the early morning lethargy which often made emerging from the pile of blankets she buried herself beneath each night an ordeal, this same bleary-eyed daze, made worse by the comfortable warmth of the lecture hall and the ubiquitous droning of her Aunts' lecture leaving her unable to muster the self-control to keep from stealing glances at Zirconia and marvel at just how pretty her partner was and leave Athena with a vaguely dim smile plastered across her features.
Regalia's studying of Astra was a far more nervous thing, the Racoon Faunus often relied on Astra, whose diligence as a student stood at odds with the way they portrayed and carried themselves for her notes and clarification on certain matters that she did not wish to trouble a teacher with or interrupt a lesson over as her own education with Clan Aiktishaf had been far different to the formal setting of the lecture hall and even after almost a year of being a student Regalia still found studying as the Kingdoms practised it to be an odd and counter-intuitive thing. At that moment however Astra's mind appeared to be somewhere else entirely, Regalia's pale purple eyes darted from watching the Deer Faunus who was currently their elbows on the desk whilst their head was leaning idly against one palm and their pen twirling slowly between the fingers of their free hand, back to the front of the lecture hall where Professor Rose was continuing her discussion of a variety of Grimm which Regalia had not encountered before and, judging by both the intensity of Ruby's rapid back and forth with a questioning member of Team LEMN and the many diagrams that had been produced would likely pose a significant threat if she ever did happen upon it.
Eventually Regalia decided that she could sit idly by no more and simply prodded Astra in the side with her pen.
"Hey, are you okay?" she asked cautiously "Heh, it looked like you'd fallen asleep with your eyes open"
"I'm fine….Just can't concentrate is all" Astra grumbled, the slur of words running together as Team MARZ's leader, Mohawk as much of a departure from uniform as always gave their head a shake that was almost experimental as they seemed to return to their senses and consciously register the room around them and lecture that was taking place as began to take notes in a quick and messy scrawl. Privately the Deer Faunus's thoughts were a disjointed mess, a condition Astra had been struggling with since Ruby had so succinctly humiliated them with one train of thought half-heartedly wondering how Carmesi and Grapeshot or their associates had managed to sneak into the academy and how best to go about apprehending them now that all leads had been destroyed though this was little more than daydreams, with much of Astra's gusto and swagger having been removed by their defeat; the defeat itself leading to another train of thought which consisted largely of stubborn and petulant bitterness towards Professor Rose and left Astra struggling not to visibly scowl or sneer in Ruby's direction whilst she taught.
Largely though Astra's thoughts were occupied by Wolfram or more accurately his absence, Wolfram himself sat only a matter of inches away in the row of seats ahead where he and Team WULF seemed to be studying with far more success than Team MARZ yet the Deer Faunus could not help but feel as though there were a sudden sense of distance between the two that they could not explain and did not care for in the least which had lingered since their time in the wastes, making conversations stilted and awkward in a way which they had never been before.
After finding their eyes roving over broad shoulders as Wolfram let out a sigh and realising that they had once again lost track of what Professor Rose was saying, Astra decided that enough was enough and leaned forward to tap their boyfriend on the shoulder.
"Hey babe, you okay?"
"Yeah" Wolfram answered simply, turning only the slightest amount and not meeting Astra's eyes in a display that was unlike him in how skittish it felt; fighting their swell of annoyance at the response Astra kept their tone conversational as they pressed on.
"You sure? I've barely seen you since we got back from…."Astra trailed off, not wanting to recall their loss any more than they had to and considering for a moment that Wolfram's apparent self-imposed exile might simply be his own method of processing Ruby's lesson. Wolfram himself finally turned to meet Astra's gaze though doing so provided little insight into what thoughts lay behind his unreadable steely grey eyes and, letting out another sigh the teen ran his hands through his tied back mane of smoky blue hair before answering.
"Can we talk about this after class….Just the two of us?"
"I….Yeah sure" Astra nodded slowly, any flirty banter they might have wished to exchange being left unsaid as they noted the strained note to Wolfram's words and found their focus sharpened by them; though with the conversation postponed that focus was instead directed back towards the ongoing lecture and allowed Astra to finally start taking notes which Regalia would undoubtedly borrow later.
Though Astra supposed it was nice to still be able to positively influence something.
Fox Scarlatina, only child of Team CFVY's surviving members was well acquainted with the infirmary of Breaktide Academy; so much so that it took only a few moments of painful and disoriented consciousness to realise that the dull white ceiling above their itching eyes, despite the expected glaring lights and medicinal stench permeating the air belonged to somewhere else entirely. That realisation, followed swiftly by the realisation that he did not know where he was brought Fox lurching into a seated position in a single desperate motion as garbled and disjointed images flashed through his mind, leaving the young Rabbit Faunus reeling and nauseous whilst a nearby beeping informing him of his own drastically accelerated heartbeat went unnoticed.
"Hey, easy, easy….You're okay" the voice was familiar and instantly soothing; bringing Fox almost to tears as he turned and saw the speaker.
"Mum" his voice cracked as he regarded Coco, her usual impeccable style dishevelled and diminished somewhat in a way that suggested she had not changed and slept little, if at all for several days. The room Fox had awoken to find himself in was, upon a little more inspection obviously a private room within the local hospital, one side of the uncomfortable bed being host to several machines bleeping at regular intervals whilst the other side sported a simple bedside table which he noted had been adorned with flowers picked from Yatsuhashi's beds and the single spindly and undoubtedly unpleasant chair which Coco remained perched in; her weapon unfurled and laid across her lap from where it could easily be aimed at the door or window should the need arise.
That Coco saw such a need was a chilling thought.
"What happened?" Fox mumbled, becoming more aware of the source of his discomfort with each passing moment as his senses returned to him and the vague, pulsing pain which had engulfed him began to coalesce at a point along the left side of his skull close to his eye, which the boy noticed with some panic was also rendered slightly cloudy, leaving his vision softly blurred around one edge.
"You've been unconscious for a couple of days" Coco's voice wavered slightly as she fought back a myriad of emotions at that "Velvet and Yatsu were here and they'll be here again tonight if you're not discharged, someone needed to be at the academy and Velvet is searching our security systems trying to….How're you feeling Fox?"
"A couple days" the black-haired Rabbit Faunus whispered in disbelief, ears drooping as his body seemed to sag and subtract from the impressive height he had inherited from his father; after a moment of struggling to process he swallowed, throat uncomfortably dry and answered Coco's question.
"Head hurts" he noted, touching it gingerly before the movement of his limbs brought something else to his attention; a sense of power and fluidity which had not been present before "I feel different….Not bad, honestly it's kinda….I feel stronger"
"Yeah, I thought you might" Coco nodded slowly, removing her sunglasses and meeting the teens' gaze with open love, concern and pride "Nurse Kintsugi put you into a controlled coma before you were transferred here; the doctors found a small bleed on your brain….I know you've never wanted to be a Hunter and I know it's something that we should have discussed but I unlocked your Aura while you were comatose; it was the safest and fastest way to make sure you woke up-"
"Mum it's….I'm not blaming you, I'm not mad" Fox managed to croak out, flexing his fingers and moving his hands slowly in front of his face and noting, with senses made hyper-aware by suddenly panicked alertness that the faint blurring of his vision seemed to recede ever so slightly with each successive blink.
"You'll have to learn to control your new strength" Coco intoned "For your own good and the people around you….I can help you before you leave for college, so can Velv and Yatsu; or if you'd rather learn from one of the other professors I can have Ruby, or Penny or Ars-"
"You, I want it to be you" Fox croaked, emotion threatening to crack his voice as he assured his mother, if not by blood with those few words that what might have been perceived by some as a breach of trust or autonomy was nothing of the sort in this case; that Coco had touched his soul with her own only strengthened their bond. Quickly pushing the lump in his throat down and mustering all of the machismo his teenage years could produce he locked eyes with Coco and asked seriously "Did you get 'em?"
"No" Coco ground the word out as though it physically hurt her and in truth the feeling that came with the admission of defeat, as though she had failed her son in some unforgivable way pained her greatly.
"I don't know how much you've picked up" Coco sighed, weighing up the advantages of telling Fox as much as she intended to before deciding that she frankly did not care; his blood had been spilled in this fight and he had a right to know why "There's a Grimm smuggling ring in operation between Menagerie and New Vale that I've been trying to bring down, they were moving Grimm for use in fight clubs and now they've been co-opted by someone else with bigger plans….We were on our way to cracking the case, we had leads. Someone broke into my office and destroyed the evidence that we had, they managed to scramble all of the academies' security for just long enough to get in and out; it looks like you walked in on them before they could plant bugs and wiretaps in my office as well….I don't want to drag you into this, but I've got to ask you if you can remember anything"
Fox fought the urge to violently retch as he suddenly understood why Coco even now kept her weapon drawn, his mother despite all of her experience, connections and political power felt that someone might try to silence him right here in his hospital bed and nothing other than her own eyes and hands could prevent it.
"No" the young Faunus shook his head remorsefully, frowning and screwing his eyes shut as he tried to force himself to replay the disjointed and chaotic memories of his last few moments of consciousness before adjusting his statement "Nothing that can help….It was one person but I didn't see them. They covered their face"
"I didn't expect them to make it easy at the last minute" Coco muttered, unable to hide a not of bitterness which Fox, in his fraught state promptly misinterpreted.
"I'm sorry….I'm sorry Mum, if I'd been able to fight them like you then-"
"Then they would have made sure to kill you like they've killed every other Hunter who's tried to get in their way" Coco interjected firmly, finally moving her weapon from her lap and slowly, with stiff joints moving from the chair to the edge of Fox's bed "I never for a moment expected you to do anything more than pull through….All I'm worried about right now is that you're okay"
"It doesn't bother you that I'm not….Like all three of you, that I'm not strong-"
"Kid my folks wanted me to join the family business; they got over it pretty quickly when they started seeing me on TV" Coco noted with a soft smile, wrapping an arm around Fox's slender shoulders "There's nothing for me to get over, so what if you're not going into 'the family business' you've got your own life, your dreams and I've never been anything other than proud of you"
"Even when I try and sneak beers onto the campus?" Fox laughed shakily.
"Oh who hasn't done that?" Coco demanded with a barking laugh "Has Yatsu ever told you about how he had to carry me, near blackout drunk off of Beacon Academies' roof in Second Year?….The point is that we love you as you are and I'm sorry if you've ever felt you've had to compete or measure up to the students and the things they can do; just promise me that you won't go forgetting about the three of us when you're away at college"
"I won't Mum" Fox sniffled before burying his face in Coco's shoulder, all attempts at pride and maintaining an image shattered and rendered irrelevant as he cried "I love you"
"I love you too son" Coco gently stroked the fur of one his rabbit ears "And I promise you I'll find the bastards that did this and that they will wish they had never been born when I'm through with them"
The air howled and thundered with the concussive force of impacts that resonated through it and visibly warped the sky above Maiden-Gate as Nickel Polendina and Gestalt-Prime continued to do battle.
The latest explosive collision came with a resounding clang as Nickel hurled herself at the Grimm which had proven itself to be far more dangerous than expected owing to its' cunning and resilience as much as its' brute strength; the Spring Maiden using her smaller stature to fly close on upwardly sloping path, avoiding the claws of Gestalt-Prime and driving her armoured knee directly into their ribs only to draw back and look down in surprise at the spiked knee-pad she wore over her jeans to see that its' sharpened studs had been flattened on contact with bones which she now realised were laced with metallic ores and glistening mineral deposits.
The fraction of a second in which her focus lapsed was enough for Gestalt-Prime to retaliate, the hybrid Alpha lashing out not with its' four arms but instead the writhing tendrils which hung from its' body like rags; their shuddering claws and leech like mouths biting and grasping at Nickel as she was ensnared. Gestalt-Prime gave the briefest moment of hesitation of their own, letting out a grating, metallic shriek that was deafening at such close proximity upon realising that they would not be able to position their back-mounted cannon to fire at their captured prey without releasing at least some of their grip on the still struggling girl; this provided Nickel with the single instant she needed in order to focus herself and react, Gestalt-Prime opened its' gaping maw wide to reveal a pair of snakelike fangs which dripped with some foul substance which sizzled and left trails of steam as it evaporated what little moisture could be found in the air yet before the Grimm could clamp its' jaws down on her skull Nickel harnessed as much of the power of the Spring Maiden as she could master into a single motion and surged upwards, flying with speed that tore her free of Gestalt-Prime's grasp and allowed her to headbutt the monster directly in the snout and send them reeling back though before Nickel could press her brief advantage her monstrous opponent lashed out with their serpentine tail and sent her hurtling back through the air.
Panting for breath both combatants warily regarded one another again.
Gestalt-Prime let out guttural, animal sounds of discontent whilst their metal wings, laced with the corrupting influence of their obsidian flesh and veins continued to spew flames and smog behind them and Nickel saw, with some satisfaction that she had managed to injure the monster; her attack having left a long fissure of fractured bone running along the right side of its' skeletal skull from its snout to the visor covering its' single blazing eye, the visor itself visibly cracked whilst several of the twitching tendrils hanging about its' form had been torn loose and dangled limply though even now the flesh was beginning to knit itself together again with a sickening display. Nickel herself was perhaps faring a little better but was by no means unscathed, her hoodie now sporting several ragged gashes where she had torn free of the monsters' hold and, carefully bringing a hand to her cheek she felt cold metal brush against her fingers and realised that Gestalt-Prime's acid coated fangs had cut through the living tissue of her cheekbone.
"Okay buddy, let's throw hands!" the Spring Maiden yelled, incensed by her injury before flying at full speed towards Gestalt-Prime who responded in kind and erupted forward with a burst of flames; for Nickel time seemed to slow for a few crucial moments as her mind put instinct into action at a pace few could hope to match, drawing close to the Grimm and at the last possible moment throwing herself into an aerial back-flip which saw her spiked and armoured boot collide with the monsters' neck and jaw before she used her inverted position to hurtle downwards and avoid thrashing limbs and tendrils, seizing Gestalt-Prime by the tail with one hand and dragging them downwards whilst rearing back her empty hand, balled into a fist with glowed with the same vivid green light which still burst from her eyes in fiery contrails and deliver a devastating haymaker to the unprotected flank of her adversary.
With Gestalt-Prime reduced to hacking, retching sounds as a sizeable chunk of flesh was torn from the space between hip and rib Nickel continued her assault, reaching into one of the many pockets of her outfit and drawing a pack of seeds which the Spring Maidens' powers allowed her to accelerate, mutate and contort into an impossibly dense mass of thorns and vines which pinned all four of Gestalt-Prime's arms to their sides and held their tendrils fast which in turn allowed Nickel to grab the Grimm and surge downwards towards the ground for a finishing blow; the battle in the air had seen her be pushed back towards Maiden-Gate and now their were farmers' fields below her rather than empty wasteland yet to Nickel it made little different in that moment and the light from eyes shone more fiercely as she prepared to summon forth another skewer of controlled biomass to impale the Grimm.
Only for Gestalt-Prime to break free at the last second.
The hybrid Alpha, realising that they were being dragged down so that their opponent could use their unexpected abilities more effectively forced their opponent out of their planned trajectory with a single, whirling motion in mid-air which put strain on their wings to the point that their workings audibly groaned beneath it and then, with Nickel still trying to reorient herself and their own arms still bound Gestalt-Prime retaliated; flying around the android at blinding speed and wrapping their scaled tail around her midsection and grasping her skull in a clawed hindlimb before hurtling downwards and slamming her face-first into the ground with an impact which flung soil and debris high into the air and then, seeing the folly of leaving her so close to the ground using their tail to hurl her back into the air.
Directly into the path of their back mounted cannon as they fired.
Nickel's world exploded into pain as she was blasted upwards and back a tremendous distance, her body smashing stone from Maiden-Gate's perimeter wall as ricocheted over it before managing to correct her path and soar upwards. She was certain that her internal superstructure had suffered under the force of the anti aircraft round forged from exploding bone and she knew without seeing that her living tissue had been compromised however slightly in several more places yet, as Gestalt-Prime rose into the air beyond the settlements' walls and burst free of the vines she had trapped them in Nickel noted that their were far more important matters than her own injuries at stake.
Being flung back into the settlement itself allowed her to see how her allies were faring.
The land-based Grimm had mostly, thankfully been kept at bay by trained and experienced Hunters and a steadily thinning detachment of machines which mounted the walls, though those same walls did little to prevent airborne monsters which Nickel noted with a start each seemed to be a miniature or lesser version of the Alpha which commanded them with more prowess than should have been possible. Seeing one of the Winged Beowolves weave between a pair of robots in a way which forced them cease firing lest they shoot one another, then tear both machines apart before making a beeline for Maiden-Gate's CCT uplink which had not yet been upgraded to a full scale tower, only to be shot down by a Hunter who was in turn being overrun by more of the Winged Beowolves painted a stark picture in Nickel's mind and forced her re-evaluate the situation and adjust her strategy accordingly.
Beating the Alpha was not enough, it was not her objective. Protecting Maiden-Gate was her objective.
Swiftly and with an unbidden, sickening worry about whether Jade had made it back inside Maiden-Gate's walls the Spring Maiden surged upwards until she was several dozen feet above the settlements' highest point; her eyes never leaving Gestalt-Prime's monstrous form as the Alpha continued to regard her with keen intelligence and wary hesitation as its' body slowly recovered from the injuries she had inflicted upon it. Certain that the Grimm would not attack her and more importantly that it would be too late for Gestalt-Prime to prevent her even if they did Nickel gathered all of her power to herself, the fire-contrails erupting from her eyes taking on a fresh intensity as her entire body glowed with the same erratically crackling Aura, threatening to run wild at any moment.
Then Nickel acted and the ground erupted.
Gestalt-Prime's shrieks filled the air, echoed by the Winged Beowolves yet it was too late as impossibly vast tree trunks wider around than a house burst forth from the ground in a circle around Maiden-Gate, growing at an exponential rate and dwarfing even the arch of plant matter for which the settlement had been named by orders of magnitude as each of trees began to curve inwards, enormous vines and masses of creeping ivy spreading out from each branch to create a solid dome of biomass which sealed of Maiden-Gate completely, casting the settlement into a darkness which was for a few moments illuminated only by Nickel's ethereal glow until floodlights were brought into life; allowing the Hunters below to begin picking of the Creatures of Grimm which had not managed to escape the trap the Spring Maiden had caught them in.
"Blocked, blocked. None of you are free from sin" Nickel almost giggled with a faintly dazed hysteria, her limp form listing to the side as she dangled in the air with a weariness that threatened her collapse at any moment.
Beyond the boundary Gestalt-Prime shrieked and roared in rage.
"HACKS! HACKS!" the hybrid Alpha screamed the word as they unloaded exploding shells of living tissue into the magically grown shield wall only for them to do little, if any damage. From there the monster lunged at the tree-dome and slammed themselves into it in a futile display before tearing and ripping at it until one of their claws was broken by the effort only to immediately begin to regrow.
From there it was clear that they had been bested.
Once again it was obvious that they had acted without proper information and had been overwhelmed by unexpected power and surprise tactics; leaving them forced to consider options made available to them by the knowledge they had stolen and etched into their being. A cursory glance at their remaining forces made it clear that a sustained attack was untenable whilst returning with tunnelling Creatures of Grimm to burrow under the settlement was similarly disregarded as the hybrid Alpha considered the root system of the trees now barring their way; from there they regarded the crops firmly outside of this new protection and considered the possibility of a siege only for this too to be cast aside as it became obvious that the other settlements would soon send aid and Gestalt-Prime's remaining force, bludgeoned as it was would be caught between two enemies.
With a final shrieking howl Gestalt-Prime accepted defeat and retreated, their cowed minions flocking after them.
The tedium of classes had ended for the day and Athena-Jade despite her well-earned reputation as a good student, current disciplinary matters not withstanding, was glad to be free of them.
With the use of her free time so effectively curtailed by the conditions her team had been subject to the Bear Faunus had managed to keep abreast of assignments and required reading with ease, her own genuine interest in the subject matter allowing it to act as a bulwark against boredom and cabin fever meeting with the particular level of studiousness one would expect from a child of Weiss Schnee, this had in turn caused her to run out of work rather more quickly than she had expected and left her floundering for something to occupy herself that afternoon.
Which made her decision to give herself a haircut sound more haphazard than it truly was.
After the debacle that giving herself an undercut for the first time before leaving home had transformed into Athena had learned how to carefully maintain her chosen look and did so regularly, a necessity given that the undercut portion of her mass of downward facing and snowy white spikes grew to irritating lengths within a matter of weeks. With her grooming complete and feeling all the better for it Athena-Jade, clad in a pair of shorts which exposed a generous amount of her thick and powerfully built thighs and a loose fitting tank-top sauntered out of the bathroom and into the dormitory proper where she was bathed in golden light from the setting sun as it streamed through the window; casting her in a glow which made Zirconia, the dormitories' only current occupant stop what she was doing and stare for a moment longer than was probably polite.
Which Athena had not planned but would certainly not complain about.
"Where're the others?" Athena asked conversationally, her enjoyment of Zirconia's eyes on her soon becoming a self-conscious shuffling motion as she found herself worrying that she might blush comically in the attention. Zirconia for her part, likely caught up in thoughts of her own took a moment to answer
"Astra went to meet with Wolfram somewhere" the Grasshopper Faunus answered, rasping voice sounding oddly dry for a moment "Regalia was headed to the library, she wanted to use Astra's notes and study with some other students….Although she might have gone to the canteen first"
"That checks out, the fact she has abs like hers is just unfair" Athena noted with a chuckle, the easy chatter between herself and her once taciturn partner returning; though her black and bearlike nose wrinkled as a particularly uncharitable thought occurred to her "Oh so the other teams are talking to us again now that they're locked down as well? That's nice of them"
"Was cattiness an elective subject at your school in Atlas, or an extracurricular activity?" the delicate yet deadpan way Zirconia delivered the comment left Athena wheezing on air as she burst out laughing, doubled over and clutching the frame of the bunks for several moments before managing to compose herself, face now flushed for reasons less likely to cause embarrassment.
"If it was either of them you would have been the top student….You're funny when you're not busy being the brooding bad-ass who's too cool for everyone" Athena replied with a toothy smile that wavered only slightly upon realising that seemed utterly incapable of talking to her partner without working in some manner of compliment of late.
"Or a dork who marathons entire seasons of anime in one sitting" the taller and darker teen mused, recalling a particular complaint that had been levied regarding her monopolising of the television; Athena merely scoffed at this.
"Some people have no taste"
"Indeed….As for the other teams, there's the usual gatherings in common areas and whilst I haven't been specifically invited I'm sure nobody would be averse to seeing you-"
"And miss hanging out with you?" Athena arched a snowy eyebrow in mock disbelief "Why on Remnant would I do that"
"Some of them do seem to struggling with the latest developments" Zirconia murmured, Athena noting that she turned her head away ever so slightly at the praising banter though the unmistakable contours of her soft smile were there to be seen; filled with warmth at that Athena spoke again though she was unable to fight off a sigh that escaped her at the though of what had transpired at Breaktide Academy in her absence.
"Yeah it sucks that everyone is on lock-down but surely they can't blame Professor Adel for being cautious….this is her home, someone broke into her home; my Uncle Whitley still doesn't like talking about when Schnee Manor was attacked in the war and they hurt Fox….the kid's a pest but he didn't deserve that"
"I forgot that you knew him outside of the academy" Zirconia noted with a touch of sadness.
"I mean we're not close, we've never lived in the same Kingdom so it's not like we hung out" Athena shrugged her muscular shoulders "Team CFVY was in the same Black-Ops unit under my Aunt Winter's command as my parents in the war….Before that my Dad was friends with Professor Scarlatina and my Mum was in the same history class as her at Beacon so our families see each other once every year or so. He dated my cousin, Aunt Ruby's daughter for a while as well and with Hunters all kinda seeing each other as one big family I suppose he's almost like a distant cousin the same way I thought of Astra before we ended up on a team together….He can be an ass-hole sometimes, loves being the centre of attention and can't stay away from drama but he's a good kid really; whoever hurt him is….well they're a bastard"
"He'll be okay" Zirconia murmured soothingly, expression softening at the sight of Athena's obvious concern for the injured Rabbit Faunus.
"Yeah, I know he's getting the best treatment" Athena let out another sigh as she slumped down on her bunk beneath Zirconia, her previous amusement having entirely fizzled away "Still, I don't like thinking that Grapeshot and Carmesi or any other lunatic can just walk in here whenever they want….Especially not when you're here, what if it had been you Hops?"
In response to the question, rather than an immediate verbal reply there was a rustling of sheets followed by the faintest whirring of cybernetic mechanisms, audible only to Faunus ears as Zirconia hopped down from her bunk and took a place beside her partner, the dark haired girl clad in comfortable shorts and the shirt of her school uniform, though her tie had been removed and several buttons unfastened with an effect which left Athena's mind entirely void of all thoughts for a single beat before Zirconia's rasping, gently voice brought her back to the present moment.
"I would have been okay" she gave an assuring smile, concern filling her mismatched eyes "Honestly it all happened with no warning….I was in the dorm all day then I heard an alarm"
"Hops you were missing a leg" Athena noted with a snort "I know you're cool and all but no way would you have been okay"
"Ah, but you're forgetting" Zirconia's expression turned mischievous as she leaned close enough that her fingers brushed against Athena's on the bed "I'm the bad-ass rogue"
"You suck, you suck so bad, you're the suckiest" Athena laughed as she leaned close in return, her fingers lacing through her partners' in a gesture that left both of them filled with a nervous uncertainty which neither dared address or speak out on and instead the two remained silent as they nestled into one another until Athena gave a bemused sigh, still grinning at her partners' playful response.
"You're lucky I like you"
"Indeed I am" Zirconia answered matter-of-factly and this time there was nothing Athena could do to prevent her cheeks from flushing a vibrant shade of red.
As the sun set over Port Alistair, painting streaks of colour across the sky above Breaktide Academy Astra Mars, who meandered into the campus's outdoor training area and upwards through the raised rows of seating with the arena like structure was thankful for their signature red leather jacket; partly because whilst the temperature had yet reached the freezing depths it often dipped to on the island regardless of season the air had still become bracing in its' coolness and partly because popping the collar of the jacket was a familiar, comforting motion which allowed the Deer Faunus a degree of the confidence they tried to convey with such conviction that they even began to believe it themselves.
Presently they spotted Wolfram a short distance away and both wondered at and resolutely pushed aside the sudden lurch of apprehensive nervousness that began to take root in the pit of their stomach, something deeply at odds with the tone the two of them had set for their relationship yet Astra could not help that notice something had indeed been different between them for the last few days. As they drew close they took in the fact that Wolfram had shed their armour, presumably leaving it in Team WULF's dormitory and were currently clad in a sweatshirt bearing the name and emblem of the academy whilst a scarf bearing the colours of his favoured football team was currently draped over his shoulders and the back of his neck, suggesting that Wolfram expected to be outside in the cold night air; reaching him Astra couldn't help but swallow thickly as he took the seat beside their boyfriend, perching awkwardly on its' headrest in a steadfast refusal to sit properly and reaching into their pockets to produce two bottles of an energy drink of which they passed one to Wolfram.
"Cardio day?" they asked conversationally, not certain how to broach the conversation it seemed they needed to have.
"Yeah" Wolfram nodded, opening the bottle and taking a gulp of its' contents before adding with an irritable grunt "Can't even jog around the edge of the campus without getting interrupted right now, extra Hunters on security keep stopping people near the gates and asking questions"
"What, they think you're trying to build up momentum to run away?" Astra snorted derisively, earning themselves a chuckle which trailed off slowly to leave a lingering silence, growing heavier with each passing moment until one of the pair found the words they needed, sea-green and steely grey eyes meeting each other furtively until finally Astra spoke again.
"So you wanted to talk about what's been bothering you" they sated flatly, the underlying question of the words was obvious and Wolfram nodded in silent agreement whilst taking another moment to choose his words with more care and discretion than he would once have found a need for.
"I do but y'know….feelings and stuff, I've never been any good with this and I don't want it to be an argument" his usual gruffness was softened yet still the words set Astra on edge and sent a chill through the Deer Faunus unrelated to the setting sun, seeing this Wolfram pressed on and decided to simply get the matter out in the open "Out in the wastes….the mission; what the fuck was that out there Astra?"
"Oh" Astra mouthed slowly, eyes widening in comprehension as they began to see what Wolfram was driving at, features curling into a sheepish yet mischievous smile that Wolfram found he did not care for in that moment "You mean the whole trying to win thing?"
"I mean that we had a plan, your plan and you changed it….Kinda felt like getting stabbed in the back" Wolfram fought to keep the accusation out of his words but could not do so entirely, Astra grimaced in response and fidgeted uncomfortably in the seat they still perched on.
"Okay so it was a dick move" they admitted, fiddling with the points of their spiked Mohawk as they spoke "But come on, is it any different to what you did to Regalia when we were training with Team FADE that time?" Wolfram cocked his head in confusion, needing to pause and think back to the event of months prior and be genuinely surprised that Astra could so readily recall it as a justification.
"Not the same, I tagged Carcharodon right at the end when the mission was basically over anyway; it's not like me and Regalia had a plan that we were both working on" Wolfram looked away for a moment and huffed wordlessly before adding "Besides….I wouldn't have done that to you"
"Okay, okay….I'll make it up to-"
"You really don't get it?" Wolfram snarled, anger filling his voice for a moment before it was quickly clamped down on yet still it silenced Astra all the same "I trusted you, both of our teams trusted you….Is that gonna be something we all have to worry about now, that you'll let people get hurt to prove a point?"
"I wouldn't have let anybody get hurt!" Astra objected forcefully, quickly reigning in his own fury at the accusation "It was a training mission! We were supposed to be competing against each other….You think I'd have pulled that if we were fighting Grimm or anyone else?"
"I hope not" Wolfram's voice was quiet, yet the lack of certainty in it felt to Astra like a crushing blow and left them floundering.
"I wouldn't" they repeated in a choked whisper "I was just….fuck, it's Ruby Rose Wolfie; where was I gonna find a better chance to try and unlock my Semblance than a one on one fight with her?"
"Of course that's what it was" Wolfram muttered, realising that they should have guessed as much sooner as the Deer Faunus's commitment to their goal had not diminished "You could have said, you think I wouldn't have hung back and let you try?….Fuck Astra, I'm trying to get better at this talking it out crap and it's like you're not hearing me at all; did you even hear me when I said I love you?"
"I…." Astra trailed off as they saw the hurt expression on their boyfriends' face and realised that this was the true core of the issue, the initial grievance from which the others stemmed "It caught me off guard Wolfie, we'd just been told what the mission was and I was in my own head trying to plan things out….Honestly I didn't really process what you'd said until we were already moving"
"Sure, fine….It is what it is" Wolfram gave a resigned sigh and a shrug, realising that this was at least an honest answer and the closest thing that he would receive for the weekends' events.
"Hey, you know I-"
"Don't say it now" he interrupted with a shake of his head "It'll just feel cheap"
"Okay" Astra murmured, remaining silent as their complete loss at what else to do or say took over; after a few moments they dropped down onto the seat and used it in the way it was intended which brought them down to Wolfram's height and allowed them to lace their fingers through his; their boyfriend gave a weak smile and slipped his hand free so that he could instead drape a hand over Astra's shoulders as the Faunus gave him a gentle peck on the cheek.
They remained like that as the sun set, outwardly the same as ever though privately Astra's stomach lurched as they found themselves grappling with the inescapable feeling of their control over their slowly slipping, resolve cracking under countless minute fractures.
By the time night had fallen over Menagerie Fox Scarlatina had finally been discharged from the hospital and returned to Breaktide Academy where he had been received warmly by students who knew of what had befallen him, though few of those students dared approach and offer their commiserations whilst he remained under the stern and hawklike gaze of their fearsome Headmistress whose rage at the situation was an understandable yet terrifying thing as it threatened to explode outward at any moment.
Once within her academy Coco had returned with her son to the apartment which her family resided in atop the tallest tower of the campus, where Fox had been welcomed home with tears of happiness by Velvet and Yatsuhashi. Attempting to put the ordeal of Fox's assault behind them, at least to such a degree that it did not impact on their family lives the four had enjoyed a late dinner after which Coco had been forced to attend to matters which could no longer wait; matters of political importance and reviews of countless matters pertaining to the running of Breaktide Academy and its' newly enhanced security measures, all of which prefaced by well-meaning messages regarding Fox which managed to feel almost offensive in their bureaucratic blandness.
Which was how Coco had come to find herself in her office, looking at the once familiar space with a sour expression.
"It's been checked….Velvet called Eagle in and Penny and I helped the two of them damn near rip this place apart and put it back together. There's no listening devices besides what you put here yourself" the war assurance came from Ruby, Coco's long time friend joining her in the office for an expected video call from Qrow Branwen and catching sight of the older woman's glare at the surrounding furniture over the rim of her sunglasses.
"Fuck it" she ground out, removing the heavily tinted accessories and setting them aside "I'm still gonna have all of this ripped out and replaced over the summer"
"I get that" Ruby murmured
"It's not just about what happened to Fox" Coco sighed, allowing herself to sag with weariness in her seat "I mean it is absolutely about that, I can't stand looking at this room right now but….Look Velvet's better at dealing with students than me, so is Yatsu, hell so are you-"
"Not sure I like the tone of that" Ruby noted with a smirk.
"Be quiet" Coco gave a stern look which quickly gave way to a smile "The point is I've always made myself the tough bad-ass that the students don't want to piss off, everything about this office was supposed to scare the crap out of 'em but I saw it in the halls today….They're terrified of me all the time Ruby, that's not how I want to run a school. You think I tried to be Glynda a little too much?"
"Maybe a little" Ruby admitted honestly, holding up a thumb and forefinger as she spoke, grin widening after a moment "So if you're Glynda….Who's your Barty and Pete?"
"You, both of them" Coco snorted back, leaving Ruby to gasp in faux indignant disgust at the accusation before the moment of rare, genuine peace was interrupted sooner than expected.
"That's not Qrow" Coco noted warily as she looked at the identification of the incoming video call now announcing itself over her computer; Ruby leaned in and gave the screen a quizzical look as recognition met with concern.
"That's Nickel" hearing that only confused Coco further as the Spring Maiden was not, under normal circumstances a regular part of the secretive group Qrow had assembled in the absence of Ozpin to keep Remnant safe; all parties preferring if the android were largely left to her own devices where she could enjoy some semblance of the normal life she had been denied for so long. With nothing to be gained from delaying any further Coco answered the call and waited for the faintly flickering video image to begin.
"Sup chief?" Nickel greeted the moment she came into view, leaving Coco to breathe in slowly through her nose and out of her mouth as she braced herself for the headache that interacting with Nickel Polendina inevitably caused. Whilst Coco did this however Ruby studied the screen and noted that the image was far darker than it should have been, the background of the call being filled with some organic matter she could not readily identify whilst Nickel's face was lit only from below and faintly at that; though even in this light Ruby found herself concerned at the sight of gleaming metal shining through a thin but ragged gash along Nickel's right cheek where Aura had already begun to knit her skin back together
"What's happened Nickel, where are you?"
"Your Mum's house!" Nickel spat acidly and without hesitation, showing just how irate she truly was beneath her jovial tone before she calmed herself at the sight of Ruby's return glare "I'm hovering above Port Alistair, which means you don't have to worry about security risks because I'm pretty sure we're the only two people on the island who can actually fly"
"Well Eagle Arc is here as well" Ruby noted thoughtfully "And Arctus can use his glyphs….Velvet's weapons let's her-"
"What Ruby means" Coco interrupted "Is that it doesn't look like that's where you are"
"Oh this?" Nickel gave a theatrical gasp before turning slowly and allowing Coco and Ruby to take in the interior of a massive dome of plant life enveloping the entirety of Maiden-Gate "I had to put some defences us when the settlement was attacked, I've spent most of the day shoring up and covering for people who got chewed up when the Grimm came over the walls….You gonna prioritise some backup over here so I can drop this thing? Because it could probably suck all the oxygen out of town by sunrise"
"What attacked you?" Coco asked, focusing on that single point of contention.
"You fucking tell me buddy!" Nickel shot back vehemently
"Grimm?" Ruby asked.
"No, the new Pumpkin Pete's mascot" Nickel sneered with a roll of her eyes "Of course it was Grimm! So that super Alpha that you've been trying to find for a while now, the one that those rogue Hunters are after as well….Wouldn't happen to be a big ugly bitch with too many arms, a fuck-ton of robo-bits and be way more talkative than a Grimm should be would it?"
"That sounds like it" Coco noted, unable to keep the corners of her mouth from twitching into a smile despite herself "I'm assuming it got away?"
"How bad was the attack?" Ruby asked, bracing herself for the worst as memories of the carnage at Midpoint came rushing to the forefront of her thoughts
"Its' flying Beowolves ripped through the robots we had, no fixing 'em this time. A few of the Hunters stationed here are gonna need specialist care, the doctors we've got are doing what they can….I don't wanna know what the Grimm did to the farms, that's probably gonna set us back weeks at least, but no civilians though so that's something" Nickel sighed "And yeah, it got away. I didn't know we wanted it alive?"
"We don't" Coco answered bluntly "We want Carmesi and Grapeshot and then we want whoever is pulling their strings….But they want that Grimm alive and without Hammerfall Outpost we don't have a way to track its' movements"
"You think we could use the Grimm as a way to lure them out?" Ruby asked cautiously, seeing the gears turning within Coco's mind as she considered the idea.
"It would be very risky" the older woman acknowledged.
"Just a heads up Chief, I aint touching this one" Nickel interjected "Right now I need to stay here….Word is gonna get out about what happened here, hell if any flights have gone overhead the someone will have already seen it. I need to stay at Maiden-Gate and do my job, I can't go chasing your freaky super-Grimm"
"I understand" Coco nodded grimly, seeing a possible avenue to victory be closed off.
"Do you think we could pull it off?" Ruby asked, a faint glimmer of hope manifesting within her thoughts "Use that Grimm's movements to catch Carmesi and Grapeshot….Without it being a bloodbath?"
"We'd need Hammerfall Outpost and more information than we have right now" Coco admitted, head sinking into her hands as she contemplated the scope of the undertaking and the vast advantage her foes had "Right now we don't have much of anything at all, we know what the Grimm wants but we can't do anything to stop it from attacking, we know what those two bastards want but we can't stop them unless we can track the Grimm, we don't have any leads and we still don't know how the hell they broke into my house and attacked my son!"
"But we've got the bare bones of an idea" Ruby noted, forcing a grim but resolute smile on to her face "We've worked with less before right?….It's something"
"It's something" Coco nodded in agreement.
"Y'all are crazy" Nickel noted and Coco found herself nodding in agreement with that as well, unable to dispute it as Qrow Branwen finally joined the video call; sensing immediately that things were afoot in all quarters.
Author's Notes:
So….I said I was gonna take a week or two off and yet here we are.
I've planned out up to the very end of Vol.03/First Year which will be Chapter 55 and also the beginnings of Vol.04.
I've also got some loose ideas for a Warhammer 40K one-shot and a My Hero Academia one-shot though if/when I turn those plans into something concrete is anyone's guess; one of my New Year's Resolutions was to get at least one thing that isn't MARZ written at some point this year and not focus wholly on one thing.
However another Resolution was to post 50 chapters of this story and that doesn't leave a lot of breathing room, but with me not taking the week off we're still on track….On the subject of goals and resolutions, I wanted to read more this year; well I'm writing this on the 30th of January and I've already finished the Dune Trilogy and started the first book in the Discworld series so goals on goals baby.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we:
I actually originally planned to do more with Nickel at the start of the volume when we were last at Maiden-Gate but there was already so much going on in that fight against the Land-Shark that I didn't get chance, so I gave Nickel a proper reintroduction here.
Also, the particularly astute amongst you might notice a nod to part four of the Spiral-Verse here "Endless Spring" her life 'had been complicated in ways that bordered on cartoonish absurdity and she knew that outside of a handful of people with access to information kept hidden from the public nobody would ever believe her if she tried to discuss it' is a direct quote, but in Endless Spring it was actually about Jade, not Nickel.
Yeah Nickel's Maiden powers manifest a little different visually, I just liked the idea of her eye-fire thing looking more erratic and randomised than two constant streams and when she flies the powers manifest where her wings used to be instead of at her feet like they do for Maidens in canon.
Little Green….No I do not work for Team Four Star.
Ah Nickel's mannerisms….Yes she speaks like what corporate types think Gen Z sound like.
I think considering the ending of the last chapter we all knew we were getting this fight, but still I'd be remiss if I didn't cut the scene off there for dramatic effect.
Also "The Main Event" is a callback to the first time we saw the Grimm that would become Gestalt-Prime.
Yeah Breaktide Academy as a whole got put into lock-down and is gonna be on high alert for a while.
So Zirconia has working legs again and it does seem awfully convenient doesn't it.
Regalia might be amazing in a practical assessment and be able to absorb content and information at an amazing rate, but she does not study.
Oh yeah Astra is absolutely not gonna be happy about that loss for a while, not the loss itself but it's not the first time Ruby has used questionable methods to drive home a lesson she didn't explain beforehand.
So Wolfram is obviously pissed.
'Nice to still be able to positively influence something' is a deeper insight into Astra's mental state than Astra would like.
Every time I have a character wake up in a hospital I think of Evangelion, and the song "Unfamiliar Ceilings" by Fightstar, which was inspired by Evangelion.
If Coco loves you enough to show up in front of you looking less than 10/10 then she loves you….I think in this AU I've ben writing since 2016 the only time it's ever happened before now was when she went looking for Velvet in Vale whilst still in her panamas.
Having your Aura unlocked is a moment, I feel like someone unlocking another persons Aura without permission is something that would definitely be taboo, you're basically prodding someone's soul.
Of course Fox didn't get a look at his attackers' face, that would be too easy.
Aerial fights always feel like DBZ.
Yeah Gestalt-Prime's bones are still mostly metal from eating so many machines.
Oh no young woman and tentacles….I think we all know where this would be going in any other story.
Nickel and Penny are both on their second body in this timeline, using a living skin over a metal frame like the original Terminator, except it can heal due to Aura.
She really went for the stage Fatality.
Yeah there was still a whole other fight going on below this whole time and Gestalt-Prime was still technically winning by forcing Nickel back.
And that is why I don't use Maidens in the Spiral-Verse often; the sheer power they can throw around makes it unfair.
Back to the lair for more plotting and Windows Updates they go.
Someone needs to be on standby to keep Athena occupied and away from hair-cutting implements at all times, she has Astra levels of self control about that….Although she has learned to do it properly.
AJ "Oh it's platonic but do you think I look sexy in these shorts" Slate everybody.
We do not shame women who thoroughly enjoy their food here, but the fact Regalia can eat her own weight in carbs and still have chiselled abs is indeed some bullshit.
Oh they're doing rich kid sniping banter as flirting now….
"I'm sure nobody would be averse to seeing you" Just say you thick she's hot and want those thighs around you for fuck-
Zirconia is a first generation Hunter, not like AJ who is basically connected to anybody who's anybody to some extent.
As cute as the scene was, don't miss one very important line "I was in the dorm all day" no she wasn't.
Oh boy, these two needing a talk was always gonna be bumpy; Astra is tying their best to be dumber than they are and Wolfram is just repressed, and then neither of them have experience.
See Astra kinda has a point, in that Wolfram did do something very similar to Regalia but at the same time what-about-ism really isn't an excuse or justification it's just misdirection.
Yeah Wolfram is rightfully pissed and Astra trying to play it off is not gonna help, it's the principle of the thing and the broken trust regardless of it being a training mission.
Of course Astra's deeper reasoning was about unlocking their Semblance….I mean its' understandable, they've been trying to be Wolfram since they met Wolfram, they were introduced as a walking identity crisis who's reinvented themselves and remade their weapon a dozen times and lives behind a false bravado; of course they want to see the manifestation of their soul to try and figure out who they are.
Did you think the I love you thing wasn't gonna come back? And he's right, it would sound cheap if Astra said it then.
So Fox is home safe, no assassination attempts.
The chat between Coco and Ruby was fun to write and I like that outside of their families and teams they've probably become each others' best friend over the years.
Nickel absolutely gets left to her own devices most of the time, Coco just tells her where Menagerie needs a new farm and lets her terraform it….And yeah I find it really easy to imagine that Coco is fond of Nickel but can only deal with her for a few minutes at a time.
"Your Mum's house!" is a quick way to get punched in the face.
I actually only remembered that plants respire in the dark as I was writing this scene and included that detail.
You know things are getting desperate when Coco is considering almost an opposite to the plan Carmesi keeps suggesting to the benefactor...You can already see that opposing plans are gonna hit each other soon enough.
Word getting out about Maiden-Gate is for two things, a) It keeps Nickel out of the fight until she's needed and b) lets information spread to other parties.
Hammerfall Outpost, currently being repaired by teams in the employ of Damascus Nero; Zirconia's guardian and philanthropist billionaire.
Thank you to Lurkweed and MajorBrony95 for their reviews on the last chapter and also to Funlander for giving this story its' 75th review on FF Net as they catch up.
Laser could have run, but jacking a Semblance burns him out quickly so then it becomes a matter of trying to avoid Ruby….Who would then have her Semblance back and a sniper rifle.
Honestly I don't think Astra being dumb made all that much difference, Ruby would have won either way.
Yeah snitches get stitches….Although you might need the power of flex-tape for this one.
Okay I'm not a cocktail kinda guy so I don't know, is Strawberry Sunrise an actual thing? Or is it just something RT came up with.
Carmesi's Semblance is brutal though I'm not sure Tokoyami's Quirk is the best comparison for it.
Jade isn't a Maiden any more, Nickel is.
Oh what's this...Someone might possibly have picked up on some of the hints I've been leaving around for the last twenty chapters at least?...Well don't got spoiling it for everybody else.
Just know that even if you have figured out what you think you've figured out, you still haven't figured out everything.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.