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Chapter 62: The Crater
The morning sun was growing uncomfortably warm for members of the group clad exclusively in black garments, many of which were ill-equipped and ill-prepared for the task of traversing the wasteland between settlements that made up a noteworthy amount of the island of Menagerie's interior.
The black-clad figures would not be deterred however and only chanted all the more vigorously as they pressed onwards. They referred to themselves as 'The Path of the Apex Being' or simply 'The Path' for short and were a myriad group with members originally hailing from each of the Kingdoms and their outer territories, many of whom were or had at some point been unassuming, rational and productive members of society until they had encountered and joined the ranks of the organisation which had emerged from the remains of a smaller and fractured yet ideologically similar group in the years following the revelations of Salem's true nature and the extent to which the war between Hunters and the Grimm was fought in the shadows and whose true nature could be described as a religion or a philosophy on the rare occasion that the average member of the Kingdoms at large was willing to engage with the Path in discussion.
Each member of the Path was outfitted in in a loose black tunic reaching between the hips and knees and matching pants with heavy boots, they were given some measure of protection from the predations of the local wildlife by armour that was lightweight, yet still clearly more than many of the group were accustomed to carrying; was again casting doubts as to their preparedness whilst any sense of professionalism they may have attempted to convey was further degraded by the odd symbols and flowing scripts painted onto chest and shoulder armour. Much of the figures' forms were hidden from view however as each of them wore a shawl or cloak in a black fabric whose material and looseness went someone to mitigate the heat despite their colouration, though many of them wore trinkets that were visible still in the form jewellery, most of which resembled chains and shackles around wrists and necks, badges and tokens styled to resemble bones and claws, more than one of their number carrying what appeared to be a full-sized skull whilst each and every member of the Path wore a mask which covered their face and was styled to evoke a Creature of Grimm in a far more sincere and deliberate display than those worn by the White Fang in their most violent days; curved beaks and rows of fangs gracing jawlines and cheekbones throughout.
An observant onlooker would notice that the more ornately decorated members of the Path were situated to the front of the group, whilst a truly astute viewer would notice that some of the least adorned members of the group sported bloody injuries and yet treated them with none of the due concern, many going so far as to treat their wounds with a bleak form of reverence and from that information draw conclusions as to what had happened to the vehicles the group had procured for their pilgrimage and what had happened to the rest of the less decorated members of the Path.
The Path carried weapons, yet they sought no quarrel with the Grimm and so when the darkness made flesh had come for them in the night some amongst the groups' number, had volunteered to give themselves to the apex beings they revered.
Many of them willing, up until claws and teeth were turned upon them.
At the head of the group two large and burly men, clad in black robes whose effect was lessened somewhat by the dust and grit clinging to them, along with full facemasks resembling a snarling Ursa in one instance and the roaring skull of the serpentine Sea Feilong in the other moved at a steady and deliberate trudge, the absurd amount of adornment fixed to each of them jangling and rustling with each footstep yet doing little to distract from a sense of quiet strength that was absent in many of their peers as they held their weapons over one shoulder, each carrying a military issue machine-gun whose standard bayonet had been replaced with a more sizeable and ornate axehead in a crude, almost mocking parody of a Hunters' weapon where their less prepared comrades had only knives, readily available tools such as hammers and chisels or in a handful of cases a small pistol in order to protect them from any natives whose attention they might draw.
These two men were less important however than the figure striding between them and who they were clearly serving as a bodyguard or chaperone for, their towering and imposing forms intended to keep any overzealous or inquisitive and bothersome members of the Path at bay from the woman.
This was Aefen Cruor, High Speaker of the Path.
Aefen was a slight and willowy woman whose height would be unassuming were it not for the additional height granted to her by boots which features sizeable platforms, their soles modified to leave prints that were decidedly inhuman wherever she tread whilst her petite build, that of one as unsuited to fighting or physicality as many of her peers was made more striking by an outfit which was unmistakably more deliberately and consciously intended to do so.
She wore black leggings, torn to reveal pale skin beneath whilst a flowing black dress which reached to her calves sported an artistically ragged hem and a slit that ran up the length of her right thigh to almost the point where a heavy black belt, adorned generously with avian skulls and jangling silver trinkets cinched the garment at her waist and left the dress flowing dramatically in the faintest breeze from the opposite side. Her upper body was clad in a crimson leather corset worn over the dress, detailed with lace; over this was a hooded, black and silken cloak which was fastened at her left breast with a jewelled broach and worn off the shoulder, falling over her arm to trail and flap behind her whilst her right arm was left almost bare and visible for all to see save for a sleeve of a near translucent black mesh which reached to a tapering tail beneath her elbow, with an effect not unlike a cobweb or gossamer wing drawn around a limb whose paleness and lack of muscle offset by a mass of beads, bangles and other jewels and even more so by the staff she carried which was made of crude steel and stood as tall as Aefen herself, topped with a replica of the skull of some horned livestock which had been hollowed to allow space for both a Scroll and a megaphone to be incorporated.
The most striking detail of Aefen Cruor however was the mask which covered her narrow and delicate face, the accessory was fastened in place by a thick black binding not dissimilar to a bandage though this was largely hidden from view by the woman's hair which was a deep scarlet and had been worked into long braids which fell across her shoulders and down her back in a wild cascade which reached almost to her waist whilst the mask itself was an ornate work of silver and genuine ivory which resembled no one Creature of Grimm and was instead an amalgamation of several with tusks curving downwards to frame defined and hollowed cheeks, protrusions that were closer to spikes than antlers arcing upward and forwards from her temples whilst a collection of wings, various pairs styled to resemble leather membranes and feathers alike formed a headdress of sorts. The entire look being completed with several pairs of eyeholes being cut into the masks' surface and fitted with blood red lenses to hide Aefen's actual eyes from view, granting the smile currently gracing her dry and cracked lips a truly sinister edge. She rapped her staff against the ground once and her honour guard came to an immediate halt, the rest of her followers joining them in the next instant, the buzz of conversation and excitable whisperings between them falling silent as their High Speaker turned to face the remains of the assembled congregation and brought her staff and its' incorporated microphone to her lips so that she might address them more clearly.
"Lo and behold!" her voice was not loud naturally, rather it was the hoarse and metallic rasping of one not accustomed to speaking often made artificially prominent; carrying through the still, dry air and sending an almost palpable wave of anticipation through the members of the Path.
"If any of you are uncertain….the time for doubts has long since passed" she declared "Devoted followers of the Path fell and were granted their audience with the ascended, the apex beings to whom Remnant truly belongs….We too shall soon have our audience; drink water, prepare yourselves spiritually, those of you entrusted with instruments bring them forth for I know that soon we shall soon stand at the edge of the domain of the fallen Queen…..Soon we shall reach the Crater!"
The assembled mass of the Path of Apex Being descended into a chorus of chants, frantic and chaotic activity interspersed with cheers and celebrations that any sane mind would see as wholly inappropriate for the situation at hand, a group with casualties, wounded and limited water trudging their way slowly towards arguably one of the most feared places on all of Remnant. Despite all of the danger and perverse joy that surrounded her Aefen Cruor merely widened her cracked and unsettling smile to reveal teeth whose pearly whiteness seemed at odds with everything else about her.
It was mildly amusing after all that her congregation saw her announcement as something divine, rather than the product of her mask having features to compensate for the limited scroll reception in the wastelands or that the path she had taken in order to avoid detection was less the work of some pre-ordained fate and simply that an anonymous note from someone claiming to be sympathetic to her cause had been left on the seat of the bus she had rented.
Which was a matter she would thoroughly investigate at a more opportune moment.
Two transports which were not part of Hammerfall Observation Outposts' small but well maintained fleet had arrived at the floating aerial platform at an hour that might ordinarily have been considered unsociable or even outright unacceptable given that it was a Sunday morning and that many of those aboard the craft had been teenagers. Despite the hour the sun had fully crested the horizon, as was often the case on the island Kingdom of Menagerie and its' light now reflected from the gleaming hulls of freshly maintained and cleaned transports of a slightly older model than those afforded to the outpost, whose wings bore the emblem of Breaktide Academy and whose thrusters idled and rippled air around them which was already verging on unpleasantly warm despite the platforms' altitude, prompting the students who had been aboard them to stand a little further away from the landing pads as they waited for further news or instructions.
"Well, at least they put the safety rail back after the last time I was here" Wolfram's low and gruff voice managed to sound jovial as he leaned against the railing in question, noting that it had been visibly reinforced during the repairs that the platform had undergone though an underlying sense of tension caused him to grasp the railing a little tighter as he recalled Team WULF's fight against Gestalt-Prime, how close to death he and his friends has truly come and how little he had been able to help them once the monster had thrown him onto one of the armatures housing the stabilisers for the platforms' massive anti-gravity system.
"If they didn't have 'em you would have probably jumped from the wrong place back in our initiation" Astra snorted, seeing the sudden and quickly masked discomfort on the face of the ex-boyfriend with whom they were trying to make amends and offering a small distraction in the form of a happier memory of the outpost; Wolfram seemed to appreciate this as he gave a slight smile before offering Astra a small nod and turning his focus towards the other members of Team WULF, prompting the Deer Faunus to likewise turn their attention to their own team-mates. Regalia was rechecking her weapon and the mechanism of the mask which could be deployed from her the new goggles she had been gifted by a fellow member of her clan, the Racoon Faunus showing little sign of suffering from the effects of the previous days' drinking despite the lack of her customary large breakfast to offset such things which Astra could not help be a little jealous of as bright morning sun forced them to squint and wince at a slight throb from within their skull; pushing the minor inconvenience aside they noted that Athena-Jade and Zirconia were not merely stood close together and had come to be expected but were in fact holding hands and casting one another looks which left them both smiling and blushing faintly whenever one caught sight of the other, the two had been close the previous evening however Astra had little chance to properly examine the situation as they had been forced to explain that they had been assigned a mission of sorts with little information or time to prepare and so in that moment the leader of Team MARZ merely shot the burly Bear Faunus a thumbs up and a knowing smile, privately happy for their friends but also hoping that they would not continue to be insufferable for the entire outing.
The attention of all eight students present was quickly redirected however as booted footsteps on the metallic floor announced the return of Deputy Headmistress Velvet Scarlatina and Penny Rose, prompting each of them to stand a little straighter and more ready; fully appreciating that they were in the presence of greatness.
"At ease" Velvet shook her head faintly as she saw the gesture "I didn't plan to keep you all waiting this long, this is an unofficial assignment and some things are being kept….off the books so to speak, which means we came to get information and coordinates from the outpost directly; that was made a little tricky by the fact that our targets aren't where we expected them to be"
"What are we hunting?" Astra asked, cautious and eager in equal parts.
"Grimm most likely" Laser snorted, earning himself a swift elbow in the ribs from Diabla and cuff around the back of the head from Wolfram for his trouble
"The target is a who rather than a what" Penny informed them "And hunt might be the wrong word….Though it would be wise to remain combat ready in case of emergency"
"What we're aiming to do is….convince some people to make better choices" Velvet paused, frowning as she realised just how close to a rationalisation she might have uttered during her brief period as a member of the White Fang her words sounded and quickly clarified
"A group of individuals are heading towards the crater; the former site of Salem's fortress….This is not illegal, largely because the crater falls outside of the territory of each of Menagerie's settlements and several research teams have investigated the site with Hunter escorts over the years, Doctor Oobleck with whom you are familiar is one of those Hunters-"
"But you think this group have other intentions?" Diabla surmised, her time with the Atlesian military offering her an insight to certain kinds of deployment that were outside of what many would consider the norm for a Hunter even she had never personally been a part of those exercises.
"Precisely….Though we're not sure exactly what this group is planning, we do have reason to be suspicious-"
"Professor" Regalia raised her hand, a habit that had taken some time to instil in her given that she had never attended formal schooling "I have to ask if this group is one of the Nomad clans, and tell you that if it is then I can't come on this mission….I know some of the clans have some odd practices, but Clan Aiktishaf doesn't do business with them; my interfering with them could be seen as an act of aggression on my peoples' part, it could also be seen as a breaking of truces and treaties between the clans and the Kingdom of Menagerie"
"We understand your concerns and thank you for speaking honestly" Penny assured her "But this is a group from within the Kingdoms, they arrived in Menagerie from Neo Vale last night and immediately left Port Alistair in vehicles which have since been abandoned"
"They call themselves the 'Path of the Apex Being'" Velvet fought the urge to visibly sneer at the name "And from what we understand they're a religious sect originally founded in the outer Vaccuan territories who worship Grimm….They believe that neither humans or Faunus are the dominant species on Remnant and that the Grimm, given that they can propagate endlessly, feel no fear, can adapt to any environment they're spawned in and have a hive-mind which allows them to cooperate on a greater scale than the Kingdoms ever have are in fact not only the rightful rulers of Remnant, but are also sacred-"
"That is the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard in my life. Y'all city folk are twelve eggs short of a dozen sometimes" Ursinia drawled, the lunacy she was hearing managing to overwhelm the manners that had been instilled into her until she saw the looks being cast her way and she looked aside and muttered "My apologies Ma'am didn't meant to interrupt"
"No, I think we agree on this" Velvet found herself laughing at her students' assessment of the group, though her eyes roamed over the charges and she saw that Laser Greenback, whose signature visor was raised currently wore and expression of utmost venom and so the Rabbit Faunus with a sheared away ear nodded silently in his direction, prompting him to speak.
"How much force are we allowed to use to convince these fuckers to go home?" he spat "Cos I remember when they came to Vaccuo….their little sermon brought Grimm into the overspill, got a lot of people killed. Hunters looked the other way when the locals got hold of 'em afterwards….I won't say exactly what we did but it definitely sent a message"
"That's enough Greenback" Penny intoned gently but insistently "We're Hunters, not murderers. We intercept the group, we question and search them and heavily imply that they should turn around before they can put anybody at risk. Unless they do something dangerous or illegal we don't have jurisdiction to stop them-"
"Even if they are idiots" Velvet sighed, studying the eight students before her "Laser I won't pretend that outburst didn't concern me a little….That being said Team WULF, you're with me. Team MARZ, you're with Penny. The Path have a few relatively safe angles of approach available and it seems that they've already had to take detours so we're going to split up in order to track them and keep an eye for any incoming Grimm….They might want to encounter them but we do still have a duty to protect them"
"Let 'em see the Grimm up close….They'll learn" Astra snorted, the Deer Faunus having little sympathy for the apparently demented fanatics that they would be seeking out; a childhood spent fleeing to shelters in the lower regions of New Vale having acquainted them with the horrors of the monsters that stalked Menagerie's wastes long before they had come to the island. Athena merely shushed them which prompted Astra to once again take stock of their team-mates; Regalia was shaking off a look of quiet revulsion which the Deer Faunus could fully understand and Athena was murmuring something in the ear of Zirconia who looked decidedly unsettled, though Astra assumed that it was likely a result of either the mission itself or the outburst from Laser which had been admittedly something of a surprise given that the scavengers' criminality was usually confined to thievery and it had sounded as though he had been an active participant in at least some of what had been done to the cultists in Vaccuo.
They had no chance to linger on the matter however, as Penny began ushering Team MARZ towards the transport they would be taking; the copper-haired android once again grumbling that she was forced to rely on the inferior, standard issue aircraft of the academy rather than her own.
Gestalt-Prime had never truly perished and nor were they, despite the assumptions of the prey who had managed to best and capture them ever truly rendered comatose for that would imply that their consciousness had been in some way subdued or muted, an assessment which could not be further from the truth.
They were simply absent from their body.
Upon receiving a cataclysmic amount of damage which had pushed even their considerable regenerative abilities to their limits, costing them many of the mechanical components that they had integrated into themselves including their wings and cannon the hybrid Alpha Grimm had allowed their mind to retreat into the recesses of the shattered remains of the hive mind which had been under their sway so that they could, at least in spirit, continue to lead and marshal their forces and pursue their goal of reaching a new pinnacle of Grimm evolution.
The Alpha's plans had been waylaid however and the momentum of their initial strike against Port Alistair had petered out. Gestalt-Prime's sporadic and momentary attempts to reach out to their physical form painted a bleak picture in their mind; they have been so grievously wounded that any true restoration would require an amount of attention that they could currently devote to the task for a multitude of reasons, not least of which being the fact that they had been captured and contained by an enemy who had taken precautions to ensure that the machinery within their base of operations could not be seized and used as a basis from which the former Geist could reach out and begin consuming the base as whole and do the Alpha had been forced to largely abandon the ruined husk of their body to the attentions' of the unknown captors, lest the otherwise realise that Gestalt-Prime was not so dormant as they suspected. This lack of a physical body with which to anchor ones' self created another problem; Gestalt-Prime, with their higher intellect and purpose was a singularity within the hive-mind and their efforts to rationalise and plan ahead were drowned out, almost to the point of being lost by the screaming mass of teeming, primal and ravenous minds within the conjoined psyche which formed the interlocking webs of consciousness which the hybrid Alpha had placed themselves at the centre of; every action they compelled the Creatures of Grimm at their command to undertake being a battle of willpower and a struggle to maintain their sanity.
The destruction of the Spawning Pit annexed by Hammerfall Canyon had almost cast them into true oblivion.
In what little private thoughts the monster was capable of having in their current state they suspected that had they been truly inhabiting the Spawning Pit and directly controlling the creations it spawned that they would have been unmade in the attack; instead they had simply been observing and attempting to establish some sense of equilibrium which had, largely inadvertently triggered the Spawning Pit and caused it to continue acting on the last commands it had received; those that Gestalt-Prime had given prior to their defeat. With the pit destroyed the hybrid Alpha had been momentarily thrust back into the confines of their own broken body, screaming and shrieking in rage, frustration and simple mind-shattering agony as they were subjected to the true extent of their wounds before managing to force their mind to traverse the labyrinthine hive-mind once again.
Now Gestalt-Prime wandered, observing their territory like some ephemeral spectre.
They had established secondary and tertiary Spawning Pits across the island prior to their attack on the Kingdoms' Capital; the military knowledge burned into their mind by their consumption of aircraft having compelled them to create supply lines and redundancies though in their current state these pits were unsuitable for the task of raising a new force of Grimm, more troubling still was that Gestalt-Prime had been unable to simply do as Salem had done when she ruled over this domain and produce an entirely new body to replace what had been lost; some quirk of the sense of self that they hybrid Alpha had developed rendering it impossible for them to unmake and remake themselves in such a fashion, with no guarantee that they would remain themselves even if they were capable of the act. To mitigate this Gestalt-Prime had taken to allowing their consciousness to flit from one place to another, overseeing a singular small Spawning Pit at a time until the uproar of so many new minds, filled with fury and hunger entering the web of thoughts threatened to subsume the Alpha at which point they would move on, either to another pit or to directly control and inhabit a lesser Creature if Grimm and see through its' eyes; a painfully brief respite from the lack of a physical form as the simple monsters began to rapidly degrade under the weight of the Alpha's presence.
Currently Gestalt-Prime inhabited the mind of a small, avian monster and soared over the blasted wasteland.
Feathered wings had carried them far from the mass of shifting, roiling blackness which had birthed this particular body and with Gestalt-Prime's control the Grimm had remained silent, flying with a lack of the usual shrieking and cawing which suggested a sense of purpose and determination which the Alpha did not truthfully possess until a pervading sense of something akin to dread began to wash over them and forcing the Alpha Grimm to wrangle the lesser beast they inhabited more forcefully to keep it from wheeling back as it became clear where exactly they had flown close to.
The Grimm were drawn to negativity and were, to a variable degree empathic and psychic in their own twisted way; a fact which any scientist capable of studying them or any Hunter with experience would surely surmise from the simple facts of how the Creatures of Grimm sustained themselves and how they were drawn to the sites of extreme suffering, violence and misery such as battlegrounds or natural disasters; a bizarre counter to this was that there were a few places on Remnant where the nightmares made flesh were genuinely uncomfortable as the shared memory of so many of their own kind being felled lingered in the air like a haze.
The crater where Salem herself had once ruled was one of these rare places.
Grimm were still made and formed here, the roots of the Queen of the Grimm's corruption having sunk so deep that even the most dangerous weapons the Kingdoms could invent were unable to unseat it, yet whatever Spawning Pit was to be found at the former heart of the Hive-Mind was a broken thing, intended only to function under the direct command of a being who no longer existed and now spat out only malformed, deranged and twisted things which fled, howling and shrieking only to be set upon by other Creatures of Grimm in act of cannibalistic frenzy and as Gestalt-Prime swooped through the air they saw one such Grimm scurrying and dragging itself across the cracked and scorched earth.
They also saw something that gave them pause.
A fury far beyond that of the average Creature of Grimm took hold of the Alpha as they saw a group of black-clad figures crossing the open expanse, heading closer towards the Crater and whilst the Creatures of Grimm, even those rare specimens with higher cognitive functions such as Gestalt-Prime themselves had little, if any concept of sacredness or holy ground they did understand more base and animal concepts such as that of territory and, frightening to them as it might be the Crater, the place from which Salem had once ruled and the Hive-Mind had been anchored before its' shattering was the territory of all Grimm.
Gestalt-Prime would not see their territory encroached upon and quickly found themselves settling upon a course of action.
They would not be able to intervene directly yet it would make little difference in the end.
Team MARZ had boarded the small transport craft being piloted by Penny and departed from Hammerfall Observation Outpost and raced over the wasteland, following one the two most direct routes that the members of the Path of the Apex Being would most likely have taken in order to reach their destination from Port Alistair, the craft performing without incident despite Penny's thoroughly unimpressed expression as she tested its' capabilities before performing several cursory sweeps of the area that she intended to use as an in impromptu checkpoint; an area distinguishable from the rest of the Wasteland around it only by several rock formations and a single, rust covered wing of an older and larger aircraft which the android had explained to her students was almost certainly left behind from the day of Salem's defeat, possibly even a transport or gunship attached to the same airship which had rescued Ruby yet still far enough from the Crater itself that Penny felt relatively justified in relaxing enough to have such conversations.
Once on the ground and out of the transport Team MARZ had been allowed to act, the four of them feeling the sense of unmistakable pride that came with being entrusted with something important despite the fact that their assignment had ultimately come to nought; Penny's instructions to spread out and form a perimeter whilst also keeping an eye open for any incoming figures, Grimm or otherwise having been followed without incident or any particularly positive results which had in turn left the four teens and their professor waiting for the convoy of fanatics to arrive with a tension that abated slowly as time passed.
They had been waiting for roughly two hours thus far.
"Any sign of them?" Penny asked as Zirconia returned to the ground, the insectoid Faunus having been the latest person to take watch and doing so by perching atop the hull of the stationary aircraft, she shook her head as she returned to her full height, having landed in a crouch wherein her cybernetic limbs absorbed the shock with only the faintest hiss of hydraulics.
"No Professor" she said simply, prompting Astra to let out a huff of mild annoyance as they kicked a small fragment of rock across the desolate ground
"Think we should take another look from the air?" they offered, in turn prompting Regalia to speak up.
"Or I could use my Semblance?" Penny halted in what would likely have been an offhanded dismissal, pausing to consider the Racoon Faunus's offer before asking a question of her own.
"Do you know this area?"
"No Professor….Heh, my people avoid this place as much as everyone else"
"Except for the idiots we're waiting for….Grimm worshippers, really?" Astra muttered, still not quite willing or able to grasp the idea though Penny paid the grumbling no mind and focused instead on their partner.
"Then no" she offered a smile "It's a useful ability to have but your Semblance doesn't give you enough information….You may point us in the general direction of the group but fail to detect something important between us and them"
"Like a Grimm made sinkhole" Regalia noted with a begrudging sigh as she conceded that such things were a distinct possibility, here more than anywhere else in the wasteland and upon seeing this Penny nodded.
"Exactly. I'll take next watch. The Astra, Regalia relax for a moment….Like Athena and Zirconia are"
"Oh we wouldn't want to intrude on that" Astra smirked, fighting the urge to laugh as they turned their gaze towards where the two girls had sat on a blanket found in the Bull-Head, sequestering themselves in the shade cast by one of the crafts' wings whilst Athena-Jade used Glyphs infused with Ice Dust to keep them both cool; the pair had been holding hands a moment ago although whatever hushed and intimate moment had been underway had been halted upon them hearing Astra's joking comment, Athena glaring daggers at the Deer Faunus in sullen silence until Penny had taken up her position above them at which point she hissed out a response.
"You fucking jerk, you suck!"
"I didn't even do anything" Astra teased, all too aware of what they were doing as they seated themselves close by, with Regalia following suit though she made herself more welcome by producing several extra water bottles from within the folds of her jacket.
"But seriously, when did this happen?" Astra continued, nodding in the direction of their team-mates' joined hands "I approve, it's cute….People have been waiting for-"
"You're a pest" Athena-Jade groaned, visibly fighting the urge to reach over and swat Astra's antlers.
"Nothing is….Official, this is us….Feeling things out" Zirconia gave Astra a stern look which silenced their knowing snort at that particular choice of words before it could begin "So perhaps it would be better if you didn't make it public in front of Athena's Aunt"
"Ah crap, sorry" Astra bowed their head, realising once again that whilst they were related and acquainted to some famous Hunters their two team-mates had spent their lives on an entirely different strata of public life and as such had to protect their privacy far more diligently, whilst it was a certainty that Penny would not divulge any information she heard to the tabloids the knowledge that others might forced the Deer Faunus to reconsider what kinds of teasing could be employed. Regalia for her part merely handed over the water bottles and grinned wickedly, showing a sharpness that was often lost beneath her movie quotes and lack of familiarity with certain norms.
"So, should I get you two straws for one water bottle….are you gonna share spaghetti like that one movie-" she managed to roll aside with ease as Athena summoned a Glyph directly beneath her feet that would have toppled her, albeit gently.
"Alright, alright" Astra raised a hand "They didn't tease me this much when I started dating Wolfram….But AJ what happened, you didn't run off this time?"
"I can't believe you told them about that" the Bear Faunus buried her face in Zirconia's shoulder for a moment before composing herself and answering "I visited Aunt Ruby yesterday, we spoke about some personal stuff….About me taking a step forward on certain things, this and the tournament"
"You're okay with it?" Astra asked carefully, breath bated as they prepared to soften the blow if the answer was not what they hoped for.
"Yeah, yeah I think we should definitely try out" She nodded.
"We're gonna kick so much ass and chew so much bubblegum" Regalia chuckled with a sense of total assurance which did nothing to detract from the bemused looks her friends gave her. Silence, pleasant and welcome fell over the group for a while until it was broken by Astra who turned to Zirconia.
"What about you….I'm trying to be better as a leader, consider everyone else more but I haven't asked if you want to enter the Vytal Tournament"
"I'm outvoted three to one anyway" she answered quietly, adjusting the bandanna around her head which had previously belonged to her partner as she added "The recognition for something I've achieved myself, rather than the press simply hounding me because of my Guardian being wealthy and largely private would be nice, the recognition could be useful if it adds to the name that Team MARZ is slowly earning with our few appearances in the media but ultimately….The tournament itself isn't that important to me. I want to help people, not get sponsorships"
"We can do both" Astra shrugged offhandedly, before letting out a slow breath and adding "You know you make the rest of us look bad right?"
"Hey!" Athena interjected, only for Astra to raise their hands defensively.
"She does….Super serious and committed, with noble intentions and everything" they sagged a little "I wanted to be a Hunter because I never wanted to get bullied again, because I know what being weak and powerless felt like and I never wanted to feel like that….Honestly, growing up where I did if I didn't meet my brother when I did I might have gotten sucked into something bad"
"Heh, I just want to see Remnant….Maybe find a place where I feel like I really fit" Regalia admitted "My people don't need Hunters to fight the Grimm, but there's just something…..Is romantic the right word?"
"It's the one my Aunt Ruby used once" Athena noted "And okay Astra fine I kinda get what you're saying….My family are Hunters, it's what we do; Dust and killing Grimm and honestly as much as I don't want to rely on the family name I just can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. Me being a Hunter and helping people feels like destiny"
"I wasn't always the ward of a wealthy philanthropist" Zirconia murmured quietly "Astra you flaunt the fact that you're from the New Vale Hives and that you were there for Salem's siege, it's a part of your identity….Did you forget that I was too? I'm not trying to help because the idea randomly occurred to me as I looked out at the city from a penthouse apartment, I have to help because my Guardian and I lost everything and we promised to ourselves that it would never happen again….And then Port Alistair was attacked"
"Hey, you gonna be okay?" Athena murmured in her partners' ear, realising that there so many specifics and details regarding Zirconia's life that she still did not know yet was far less eager to unravel as the pain that came with discussing them became more apparent.
"I will" Zirconia rasped out quietly "Thank you"
"Can you two give us a moment?" the Bear Faunus asked her friends and Astra nodded silently, gesturing for Regalia to follow them as they retreated to the other side of the aircraft; turning back and casting a glance in the direction of Athena-Jade to see that she had pulled her partner, who was apparently prospectively something more into a tender hug that lingered as the two spoke in hushed tones and upon seeing this Astra gave Athena a thumbs up which was briefly returned.
Allowing the Deer Faunus a sigh of relief as they saw that they had not ruined the mood irrevocably; though still they refrained from making any parting comments about the two needing some alone time.
"She's still starin' at the back of your head partner….Thinkin' you best go on and do something now" Ursinia noted calmly as she used the tip of her tails' stinger to angle her signature cowboy hat forward whilst beside her Wolfram merely stuffed his hands in his pocket and fought the urge to visibly slouch as he let out a muffled, wordless groan in a display that was all in all far more juvenile that the leader of Team WULF often allowed himself to be seen.
The four of them, along with Professor Scarlatina had soared over the wastelands that separated the as yet unseen group of religious zealots from their goal, one which Wolfram agreed that they should be kept from reaching lest their recklessness or possible malevolent intentions cause problems for the people of Menagerie as a whole until they had eventually landed, taking up a defensive position and forming an impromptu checkpoint in the midst of the second of two likely routes that the Path of the Apex Being would take towards the Crater, located far enough away from where Team MARZ were positioned that they were out of sight of one another. Their watch had been largely uneventful thus far, with only brief sighting of airborne Grimm in the distance though nothing in their wheeling, squalling behaviour indicated that the monsters had found the members of the Path first and so the four teens had taken to rotating and sharing duties amongst themselves whilst Velvet, whilst overseeing the situation continued to giving meaningful looks in the direction of both Wolfram and Laser with an indication that the leader of Team WULF, whilst stubborn was not obtuse enough to miss.
"I'm not good at this shit….I might set him off more" Wolfram managed to couch his concerns in reason, even as he prepared himself to do what needed to be done regardless, he had no intention at all of appearing to be less than his Professors expected of him, especially when the Deputy Head had shown enough faith in his team to give them this additional training. For her part Ursinia gave a worried glance in the direction of the Vaccuan scavenger who stalked the perimeter of wha had been declared their checkpoint, whilst Diabla was nearby but focused on her own task.
"I'd talk to him my darn self but I get the feeling it's something you're expected to do" the Scorpion Faunus noted, sighing as she added "And darlin' I don't think there is a worse….I get the feelin' Laser might not be so keen to let these folk walk away if he gets close enough to lay hands out"
"Alright I'll talk to him" Wolfram huffed, trudging across the dry and cracked earth and leaving Ursinia behind as he closed the distance between himself and Laser, placing a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder "Come walk with me for a sec"
"You okay?" the nasal tones were light and breezy, yet in a way that was clearly affected and something that Wolfram had long since learned to pay attention for as it would often precede one of Laser's many brash and chaotic ploys to direct which parts of his character onlookers paid attention to.
"You can do better than that" Wolfram snorted, drawing attention to the ploy "Or you can talk to me?"
"You're having deep and meaningful talks now?" Laser lowered his opaque and acid green visor enough to stare over the top of it as though it were a pair of glasses "Wolfie I'm not an idiot"
"Laser you thought asparagus was a Mistrali philosopher" Wolfram pointed out bluntly, thinking back to a particularly entertaining conversation between the two of them over the summer.
"Misinformed, not an idiot" Laser shrugged, rummaging through his various pouches and pockets in an effort to keep his hands busy as he added "You think I, the undisputed master of getting away with shit….Am going to do something here, in the open, with witnesses"
"Y'know when you put it like that you're not helping your case"
"Where I come from there wouldn't be a case to answer" Laser shrugged "It'd be more questionable if we saw who these bastards are and didn't send 'em home missing some pieces to send a message to the rest-"
"Damn….How fucked up was the Overspill?" Wolfram's words were low and cautious as he considered, perhaps for the first time the true scale of what his friend had been raised in the midst of and the gulf between their experiences which would forever make relating to one another difficult in some respects.
"You think I know what rat-meat tastes like 'cos I was curious?" Laser shrugged again, with a burst of his usual cackling laughter only for his voice to lower when the attempt at verbal diversion failed "Plenty of horrible people and horrible things in the Overspill….But people who worship the Grimm? Getting rid of them is just self defence"
"Self defence?" Wolfram repeated, arching an eyebrow and folding his arms across his chest; he considered himself something of an expert on the subject of using an attack as a defence.
"If someone in Stalwart was caught loosening the hinges and breaking the locks on the main gates, or jamming the perimeter guns, then trying to lure Grimm toward the village what would happen-"
"They'd go to prison" Wolfram answered without hesitation.
"We don't have a prison. Vaccuo has prison labour camps, the Overspill isn't considered part of the Kingdom….Not really, we're just the mouths they couldn't afford to feed-"
"So you what, catch in a dark corner and-"
"Make problems go away, for everyone's benefit" Laser answered simply and Wolfram was left dumbfounded as he tried to process the matter-of-fact way that the answer had been given, itself an easier and smaller task than trying to grapple with the fact that he couldn't quite bring himself to condemn his friend, not when his circumstances had always seemed so bleak and without the protections afforded by living in a proper settlement the threat posed by the Creatures of Grimm was far greater.
"I'm gonna be honest….That might be scarier than anything Diabla has ever said" Wolfram managed a weak smile "But look I get it, I think these guys are crazy; they'd get walked out of Stalwart if they ever tried spreading Grimm cult shit there….I just need to know I can trust you to either handle your shit when we see these guys or take a step back and sit in the Bull-Head, I'll talk it out with Professor Scarlatina-"
"Okay fine" Laser ground the word out, more clearly irritated than Wolfram could recall hearing the boy
"Fine what?" the taller teen asked, bracing himself for some spiteful rebuttal and tensing, hand twitching for his shield as Laser drew Permadeath and shifted the weapon into its' machine gun form.
"Take it" he ejected the weapons' ammunition and handed it over, pressing it carefully into Wolfram's hands in a gesture which silenced the leader of Team WULF for a moment; a Hunter's weapon was an extension of ones' self after all and to hand ones' own weapon off to someone else in such a fashion spoke volumes about the level of trust Laser had for his team-mates, doubly so given that it was by far the most valuable of his meagre possessions and as such Wolfram took the weapon from his with utmost delicacy and in silence, not willing to risk betraying his friendship with his team-mate by pointing out that Laser was also likely carrying at least one knife, several grenades, a wire garrotte and several other tools that could be used as makeshift weapons on his person.
Wolfram never got the chance to say anything at all, any thoughts of moral conundrums and concern for his friends' well-being pushed aside by a yell; Diabla's gruff voice barking two words that changed the leader of Team WULF's entire demeanour in an instant and saw his thrusting Permadeath back into Laser's hands where it was quickly reloaded.
"INCOMING GRIMM!"
They had arrived.
The Path of the Apex Being had finally reached their destination and stood at the precipice of what had once been the domain of Salem and the seat of the Grimm Hive-Mind when it had still been whole and untarnished by what amounted to the thrashing death throes of a doomed species of prey animal.
The fact that they were in fact members of that doomed species seemed unimportant to them.
By the time they had arrived the late morning sun had neared its' zenith and Aefen Cruor allowed herself a private moment of annoyance at the delays and diversions that had waylaid her congregation; if they had departed from Blackwater Cove as initially planned they would have, not only been afforded a more fitting starting point for such a journey but also would have arrived much earlier in the morning, likely as pre-dawn gloom slowly gave way to daybreak and the lingering, biting chill in the air to give the moment its' proper sense of gravitas. As it was the congregation of the Path gathered behind their leader, whose many-eyed and ornate mask concealed various sensors and arrays which gave her a far more in depth and educated view of the scene before her than her sermons and mannerism would lead one to believe and as Aefen strode forward purposefully, her bodyguards parting their crossed weapons her followers slowly allowed themselves to take in the terrible beauty of where they stood, the congregation of devotees steadily morphing from a disorganised rabble of those unused to physical hardship who had pushed their bodies and minds to a degree they were unused to as they caught their breath to first by overtaken by a reverent silence which in turn gave way to chanting as a lone member of the Path was unable to contain their elation and was soon joined by her fellow worshippers of Remnants' true dominant species.
High Speaker Aefen for her part allowed the chanting to continue as she studied the concave indentation which marked where a mountain had once stood.
The Crater was not, as some had feared upon Menagerie's initial resettlement a Spawning Pit of incalculable size and potency, though to disregard the threat posed by the place was lunacy that invited death. The Crater was easily several hundred feet in diameter, enough that several moderately sized houses could fit within in and several dozen feet deep, its' proportions giving it the appearance of being more shallow than it truly was. The ground within the Crater was corrupted in a way which hinted at what truly lay below, it first appeared that the craggy and fractured earth had been blackened as though stained yet Aefen's readings gave her a more accurate idea of her surroundings even before she noted how a tar-like viscous darkness welled up from beneath the cracks in the ground and subsumed any imperfections into itself, or how the sunlight glinted in a decidedly unwelcoming way against any number of deep violent crystals which had speared up through the ground and were now visibly, slowly retracting.
Aefen realised that this was the legacy of Salem's defeat, that there was not a single Spawning Pit present, but many smaller subterranean Pits formed from the remains' of the destroyed fortress; each of them adapting and responding to the threats posed by the others in a cycle of cannibalistic evolution, a silent and unseen war between disjointed fragments of a once unified Hive-Mind wherein each Spawning Pit sought to consume the monsters produced by the others, with one using the spearing crystal points and another creating a faux ground formed from calcified Grimm tissue, scales that resembled sun-baked earth and ensnared anything that dared set foot upon it.
To the High Speaker of the Cult of the Apex Being it was beautiful to behold, it was enlightening in ways that her followers could not begin to suspect or appreciate and yet it was simply mind-boggling on a scale that she would need time to truly overcome, time that she did not have at that present moment as she became keenly aware of the building excitement behind her and realised that she would need to attend to her duties.
"Lo and behold my true and faithful followers, loyal believers in the path….We are here as ordained, in the shadow of the Apex Beings!" her voice was rasping and artificially empowered as ever as she spoke into the skull-headed staff which housed her microphone, an item which like her outfit would appear more gaudy and overwrought if it were used by anyone else yet despite this her tone was commanding, imperious, aloof and pompous in no small amount, a luxury that she felt she had earned.
"Those of you entrusted to carry my sacred instruments step forth; those of you well armed enough to do so ensure that we are not troubled….Rest assured those who presume to hunt the great hunters of people know that we have to come to this place!" she continued, free arm waving theatrically "And behold my followers, see how the Apex Beings flock to us!"
Even as she spoke Aefen noted to herself that things might have become fractionally more complicated.
The Creatures of Grimm that she referred to with her frenzied speech and gesturing was a lone, avian monster of a weak, bedraggled and almost flimsy appearance which, for reasons Aefen could not quite fathom held a large rock in its' taloned claws. The High Speakers' behaviour, crazed as it might seem to an onlooker was calculated and served a vital purpose; namely that of keeping herself and at least some of the people around her alive for long enough for her to achieve her goals, a feat achieved by playing on the existing beliefs and delusions of her congregation and stirring them into a state of something akin to rapture at the sight of the Creatures of Grimm in an effort to deny the monsters any noteworthy amount of the terror which would both sustain and provoke them. Aefen almost allowed herself a sigh of relief as the avian Grimm, whose exact details she could not quite make out soared overhead without reacting to her peoples' presence yet before the exhalation could pass her lips the flying horror showed its' true intentions and in a single action unleashed carnage far greater than if it had merely attacked.
It dropped the rock into the crater, trigging one or more of the warring, malformed Spawning Pits below.
Aefen could not scream or yell, to do so would arouse the ire and suspicions of the dozens of fanatics she had surrounded herself with yet as the mass of stone struck the solidified darkness and was swiftly swallowed into it the masked woman felt an icy tremor of purest dread pass through her entire body; only for that tremor to be reciprocated in the next heartbeat as the ground shook and squelched with the sickeningly wet noise of flesh being sundered, or perhaps worse still forcefully amalgamated together in short order; the sound eliciting a chorus of cheers and deranged hollering from those bone-masked and black-robed devotees who eagerly awaited the coming of an Apex Being. Their wait was soon rewarded as the ground, or the mass that existed where ground should have been gave way with a disturbing, organic slickness to reveal a Creature of Grimm precisely as twisted and fundamentally wrong as anything that had been recorded as originating from the Crater. It had been recorded that during her defence of Menagerie Salem's legions of nightmares made flesh had been directed by her Grimm horsemen, the Nuckelavee which were a monstrous fusion of horse and rider with distended limbs and a terrifying shriek.
What emerged from below was similar and yet undoubtedly worse.
The Grimm sported an equine skull, though the skull alone was the size of a man with teeth far sharper than those of any horse and sported a mane of barbed tendrils which cascaded about it and whipped and snapped with a mind of their own whilst the long, sinewy neck was connected to a body which gave up any pretence of the initial equine influence; rippling flesh being interspersed with jutting bone and gleaming scales all whilst the body had been distended and lengthened to become more lithe serpentine, though it lacked the snakelike tail one might expect and rising from behind its' shoulder blades was a hump which might once have been the rider of a Nuckelavee, consumed or rendered obsolete in some other grotesque fashion as flesh had grown over the space it might occupy and been condensed to a formless hump. Most frightening of all however were the Grimm's eight legs, arranged in four pairs in roughly the correct places for a quadruped; chitinous, segmented and boasting a reach of over a dozen feet the limbs were each tipped with a broad, serrated scythe-like blade which tapered down to an impossibly narrow point upon which the Grimm scuttled at a speed that left Aefen as nauseous as the simple sight of the act itself was. It took only a moment for the Sleipnir to use its' speed and skittering dexterity to launch its' attack and claim its' first kill, scurrying to the lip of the Crater in only a few clattering bounds, the sound of grating chitin filling the air before unfurling one of its' limbs and bringing it down in an inward arc; letting out a baying shriek as it cleaved one of the congregation of the Path roughly in half from shoulder to hip in an explosion of spattering crimson. Aefen felt bile rise in her throat and when she next spoke it was a single word which shattered any illusion or pretension of control, pomp or aloofness she might still have clung to.
"Shit"
Team MARZ were regrouping, the four of them along with Penny Rose still undergoing their mission, such as it was without incident; though that lack of any developments to speak of had begun to leave the teenagers agitated whilst the copper haired android, far more experienced and with a sense of both pragmatism and a healthy paranoia balanced against it whilst in the field was simply concerned.
"Any sign of….well, anything?" Astra enquired hopefully as they returned with Regalia in tow, the Racoon Faunus raising her goggles as the group of four students and their Professor congregated in shade of one of their transports' wings, giving them a momentary respite from the baking heat which had only intensified as the day wore on.
"Nothing" Athena-Jade shook her head, turning to Penny as she added "Hops and I covered a fair bit of ground, due east and checked for any signs of Grimm, the Path of the whatever they call themselves or any sign of recent transit….No sign of anything"
"That's….Unfortunate. Astra, Regalia were you any more successful?" Penny answered, albeit with a limited amount of hope in regards to the matter as she suspected that had Team MARZ's leader found anything of note then the Deer Faunus and their purpose would have arrived with more fanfare even if their findings had not warranted an immediate scroll call, an affair that would likely be a struggle between the tenuous reception of the wastelands and the more capable devices carried by Hunters and students. Penny had for her part manned the various controls of her borrowed Bull-Head, quietly lamenting the sub-standard nature of the machine relative to her own handiwork whilst maintaining periodic contact with Team MARZ whom she had instructed into teams of two, with the natural pairing being between partners and cover more ground.
"Nothing" Astra repeated Athena-Jade's prior answer before gesturing faintly to their own partner "You said not to use Regalia's Semblance so we were working without all of our tools-"
"And as useful as that Semblance is, as we previously discussed I would rather we didn't rely on guesses...Educated as they might be"
"Astra….It's fine Regalia laid a hand on her partners' shoulder and Astra relented with a sigh"
"Yeah….Just, wished we'd found something"
"Likewise" Penny pursed her lips and considered "I would have expected either we or Team WULF and Professor Scarlatina to have encountered the targets by now, that we haven't is suggestive"
"Suggestive of what?" Zirconia breached her customary quiet with a pertinent question that only deepened Penny's frown.
"Either they were intercepted by Grimm, or other parties without either being detected or else they have managed to slip through our perimeter….Most likely taking one of the less intuitive routes, which logically would suggest that they expected us to be here" she let that statement hang in the air for a moment, Athena-Jade being uncharacteristically light-hearted, in an obvious ploy to ease the tension as she commented
"Maybe they saw reason, figured out stupid worshipping Grimm is and went home?"
"It seems unlikely somehow" Zirconia murmured, expression inscrutable though if Penny were asked she would have likely suggested that the stoic young woman was merely attempting to seem professional in front of her whilst also eager to smile of laugh at her partners' comment; Penny was after all privy to the details of Athena-Jade's conversation with Ruby the previous day and could see well enough how the two held hands, seemingly acting on what had been apparent for some time. The brief moment of relaxation could not last however and Penny turned and spoke to Team MARZ collectively over her shoulder.
"Stay hydrated and eat something, take a moment to rest whilst I try and contact the other team and Hammerfall Outpost….An aerial view would be advantageous but I don't want to risk moving our transport and creating an opening" with that she managed a single step towards the waiting hatch of the aircraft only to be halted as a tremor passed through the ground, emanating in the opposite direction to where the Path of the Apex Being were expected to be travelling from which in turn suggested in had come from their destination, namely then Crater.
Without a moments' hesitation Penny dropped into a ready stance, weapons finding their way to her hands as she strained her senses and allowed various subsystems and enhancements to boost her perceptions to equal those of any of the Faunus around her.
Which enabled her to hear the screaming.
"Team MARZ! Let's move!" it was Astra who called out and Penny turned just in time to see the four teens assemble in formation and ready themselves with a dramatic flourish what would have been awe-inspiring for any civilians that might have been present in another scenario and managed to showcase in an instant just how far the team had progressed from its' dysfunctional beginnings. Astra deployed the shields, guns and blades of Buckshot Ares as their Aura swirled into life around them with its' fiery red hue like a signal flare, Regalia lowered her goggles once again and the mask integrated into them lowered to protect her mouth and nose as she drew Apex Scavenger and cocked the weapon in its' shotgun form whilst bushy tail stood erect behind her, Athena-Jade planted Mould-Breaker on the ground as Glyphs flickered into existence around her whilst Zirconia braced and shifted her cybernetic limbs whilst drawing Sunriser Cain and allowing the weapon to trail behind her with a swooping motion as her free hand flew to the shawl around her neck and pulled it up to cover her lower face which in turn made her mismatched eyes seem more prominent. The four teens, despite Astra's order gave Penny a brief questioning look which the veteran Hunter answered with a single nod, prompting them to rush into the fray.
It was with a surge of pride that Penny noted that her students were certainly what Ruby would consider the epitome of cool.
Author's Notes:
So, this chapter was different in the planning stage; although what was meant to happen did indeed happen the overall tone feels different in a way to how I envisioned it, things were originally intended to be light-hearted in away that didn't seem to fit right when it came time to write them….Though that could just be the head space I was in on the day.
Regardless, we've got some set up an interesting new character, a freaky Grimm and the beginnings of the first full Team MARZ fight of Vol.04/Second year.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
Oh look it's the idiots from last chapter….The Path of the Apex Being, which was a harder name to come up with than it should have been; I wanted something with connotations that could be ominous but not overtly so.
Also notice that these are not fighters, these are people with regular jobs who spent too much time on the internet and got sucked in.
Well, we're off to a bad start; they've already lost their transport and a few people because they're so devoted to the Grimm that they literally fed some people to them.
Aefen, from the old English word meaning twilight and Cruor, as in bloody.
Aefen's look is a mix of Maria Franz from Heilung and every Goth teenager who's trying just a little bit too hard; which is definitely something that ties into the other inconsistencies between her and the group she leads, there's a shared aesthetic theme but there's clearly more going on with her.
Someone left instructions and directions on the seat of her rented bus….Considering that Nero had her flight redirected I'll give you three guesses who.
No but seriously, early starts on a Sunday are unforgivable; I will do overtime on Saturdays but I outright refuse to be anywhere near work on a Sunday.
It's okay Wolfram, your Semblance is literally a shield; you're allowed to care about safety.
Well at least they're talking.
And the other two dorks are still holding hands after their little conversation the previous evening.
So, a little insight from a third party into who the Path are and what they believe, I wholeheartedly agree with Ursinia's assessment.
The Path was originally founded/based on an existing cult in Vaccuo, Laser is from the poorest and least defended part of the Kingdom; of course he's had some limited experience with them before, the Kingdom is always under siege from Grimm to some extent.
Zirconia being unsettled by Grimm worshippers whilst Damascus has Gestalt-Prime on ice in the basement.
Whole scenes without dialogue are not my favourite things to write.
But hey, Gestalt-Prime is alive and kicking baby; just not in their own body.
Basically it's taken them so long to get active again because they nearly lost their mind after being blown to bits.
Remaking a new body for themselves is off the cards, the downside of having a sense of self.
Well, the Path wanted Grimm; now they're getting Gestalt-Prime's attention.
The Team MARZ scene was originally supposed to be more light-hearted but it just didn't fit.
Little callback to The Downward Spiral.
Keep having to find reasons to keep Regalia from using her Semblance otherwise she pushes things along too quickly for the plot to work.
Astra stop being a dick to the cute dorks challenge 2022.
Zirconia being a little sharper than usual, unsurprisingly enough to get Astra to apologise.
A little cute moment, which then segued into a version of the canon Vol.02 campfire talk; which didn't play out so well here.
Hunters are Romantic, Vol.01, episode 01 Ruby said it.
I have to help because my Guardian and I lost everything and we promised to ourselves that it would never happen again….Now that part is true.
You don't get to be derelict in your duties as a team leader in front of Velvet, she will stare you out until you do it.
"Laser you thought asparagus was a Mistrali philosopher" was low-key inspired by an offhanded line in Worm where Rachel 'Bitch' Lindt had not idea what asparagus was called.
Wolfram 'Attack is the best defence and I literally used a shield as a knife' Ironside being a little on edge about how pre-emptive you're willing to get….Yeah you fucked up; at the same time Laser makes a good point.
Now you' might think that the Grimm were drawn to Laser's attitude problems, but you'd be wrong.
The Path are on a level of anti-natalism you've never seen before.
Gotta have proper aesthetic for your villain moments, Aefen Cruor understands the assignment.
So now we get our first proper look at the Crater and get a sense of why it's so scary and fucked up to the point where even Grimm go running with their tails between their legs; it's an absolute mess.
She has 'Instruments' which is definitely gonna tie into her being notably different to her people and having things like a mask filled with sensors.
That avian Grimm was clearly the one Gestalt-Prime was controlling.
And here, when the chips are down we get a look at the real Aefen….She leads these maniacs but she is absolutely not with them; she's got her own agenda at play.
It took me a while to think of what kind of Grimm I could have here, I thought since we're introducing a villain with a look based on a member of Heilung, then a Norse Grimm would fit...So, Sleipnir, made out of a mutated Nuckelavee.
"Shit" yeah, exactly.
Team MARZ obviously haven't been just standing around doing nothing, although they've achieved about that much.
"Either they were intercepted by Grimm, or other parties without either being detected or else they have managed to slip through our perimeter….Most likely taking one of the less intuitive routes, which logically would suggest that they expected us to be here" Penny get it.
Even Penny ships these two dorks.
The little flourish as Team MARZ got ready to move was purely because it felt cinematic in my head, the kinda shot that would be in the opening if this was a show.
Thank you to Lurkweed and MajorBrony95 for their reviews on the last chapter.
Major, FF has been playing up with reviews again lately so sometimes I know you've left one but I can't actually read it.
Oh the cultists are indeed a bunch of loons, but as you can see they're being directed.
Is Nero insane, or just approaching things from a warped perspective...Things will be revealed.
AJ is every bit as head over heels for Zirconia as Acrtus was for Diamond and Gang and Weiss were for each other...Those Slate kids don't do this by halves.
It's hard for Wolfie to keep up the bad-ass factor when he's shared a dorm with these people for a year and they've met his Mum.
Gotta have some fun scenery, Remnant has some great potential that we've only begun to tap with things like floating islands.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.