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I am making no money from this.
Chapter 122: Suspense And Skulduggery
Weeks had passed since it had first been revealed to Team MARS that the settlement of Pikesreach had been attacked, conquered and invaded by forces in the service of Damascus Nero, including several Cyber-Grimm and led by none other than the traitorous former friend and team-mate Zirconia Shadowmoon; weeks since Astra, Regalia, Stygian and arguably most importantly of all Athena-Jade had been informed by Professor Coco Adel that there was to be a reconnaissance mission, a precursor to an all out counter attack on Nero's forces and that Team MARS would play a part in it.
Those weeks had been spent training relentlessly, almost to the point of obsession to such a degree that even their fellow Third Year students who were in the midst of preparing for their own upcoming missions had begun to take note of the dedication Team MARS were showing. A situation that now, on the Friday before the students were due to depart for their respective assignments came to a head; though the catalyst came from without rather than any fracturing of the team itself.
"Heh, Wolfram is on his way over and he looks….Well he always looks a little bit mean and angry doesn't he?" Regalia noted, leaving Astra unable to hide a faintly bemused smirk as it seemed that whilst there was no sense of awkwardness or immature animosity between the Deer Faunus's current and previous romantic partners something of the poor first impression the two had made on one another prior to their initiation as students still lingered; Regalia didn't dislike Wolfram and was certainly not scared of him, but the Racoon Faunus could easily imagine him in the role of a bully, as unkind as it might be to the young man who had grown so much.
Stygian's reaction was less cheerful.
"Shit" the Mouse Faunus muttered, having seen enough of the leader of Team WULF to know that antagonising him was not a sensible idea no matter how much his control of his temper had supposedly improved whilst at the same time knowing exactly what it was he had done to warrant the burly and hawk-featured young man's attention.
Currently the Third Year students were in the midst of a dedicated weapon maintenance session wherein they had total use of the campus workshops and fabrication facilities, something which each of them was eager to make full use of to ensure that they would be departing with their weapons and equipment freshly serviced and operating at their full capacity; previously however had been a combat class with Professor Altan wherein the fierce and stern combat instructor had urged caution and restraint from her students Stygian had nonetheless managed to break Ursinia Red's Aura with a punch which continued its' path unhindered and split the towering Scorpion Faunus's lip.
Ursinia herself had been unbothered, slapping Stygian on the shoulder and assuring him that she had taken harder tumbles learning to ride horses; her partner however was another matter.
"You wanna tell me that the fuck that was earlier?" Wolfram snarled as drew close enough to reach out and grab Stygian, using the same movement to both spin the Mouse Faunus around by the shoulder and then slam him back against the workbench he had been using. What followed was a chaotic skirmish as everyone present seemed determined to both keep their friends from doing something stupid whilst at the same time being determined to do something stupid themselves; Stygian tried to kick Wolfram away but was halted by Athena-Jade who used the motion of stepping between them to throw a sucker punch at Wolfram's mouth which was in turn blocked by Regalia who was also trying to seize the leader of Team WULF by the torso so that she might lift him into the air and slam him bodily onto the ground.
It was Astra who brought things to a halt.
"That's enough! Everyone drop everyone!" the Deer Faunus barked, sounding every bit the commander they needed to be in that moment instead of a friend; hearing the steel in their voice caused everyone to come to their senses, with Wolfram realising that his own team-mates had been ready to follow his reckless charge with such ferocity that Laser had instinctively clutched a screwdriver to use as a makeshift knife whilst all of Team MARS realised that whilst no Professors were currently present the Chief Engineer responsible for the workshops in Professor Scarlatina's absence was close enough to intervene at any moment.
"Everyone cool?" Astra sighed, sea-green eyes roving across sheepish and shamed faces "Good, now everyone fucking apologise….We don't need this"
"Hey, sorry for hitting your partner in class man" Stygian shrugged, holding out a hand for Wolfram to shake "Totally an accident, we already spoke about it"
"Yeah, I'm sorry Stitch I'm acting a dick….I know you and Ursinia are cool, I don't know what the hell I was thinking" Wolfram shrugged, looking visibly uncomfortable under the withering glare that Athena was giving him and even more uncomfortable at expressing discomfort and apologising verbally "Y'know how it is though right, partners….And she's my girl, come on I've gotta say something"
"Gonna have to disagree with you there" Athena noted icily, still maintaining a cold, hard stare.
"Easy AJ, he said sorry" Stitch chuckled, though he subtly placed an arm out across his partners' midsection to keep her from tackling Wolfram if the situation worsened.
"It's fine, we're all still cool, we're all still friends….It's fine" Astra breathed out "We're all just stressed 'cos we've got a mission tomorrow"
"Exactly" Wolfram nodded, pleased that his fellow team leader understood that much and that he wouldn't be forced to divulge his own sudden insecurities without prompting "I mean people have seen those Grimm robots out in the wastelands and I haven't fought them like you guys who were in Neo Vale have; all I know is that they're tougher than anything I've faced before"
"Heh they are, but they still go down" Regalia noted.
"And then Third Year missions are supposed to be so much harder" Wolfram continued on "I'm working blind here, all I know is that I've gotta lead my team into something crazy but I've got no idea what any of it is….I trust 'em all to handle themselves but I don't wanna see anyone get hurt"
"I get that" Astra nodded, quickly glancing around and seeing that none of Team MARS were able to maintain their anger at Wolfram any longer "We're all stressed….We're kinda in the opposite situation though"
"Yeah?" Wolfram cocked his head, clearly intrigued.
"We know who our mission is gonna be with….Were working with the Headmistress tomorrow" Astra answered, watching the way Wolfram's eyes widened in shock.
"Shit" he breathed out "I'm gonna head back over there, you guys definitely need to be ready and someone has gotta keep Laser from stealing the tools….And look I don't like saying sorry you guys know that, but sorry for acting like that"
A moment later Team MARS were collectively watching the leader of Team WULF, with whom they were still close but not in the way that they had once been before so much had changed as he returned to his own workbench, where both Ursinia Red and Diabla Fuego were ready and waiting to admonish him for his behaviour. In short order Team MARS were once again working, though as Stygian polished and rechecked the blade of Sharp Cheese he felt the silence that had fallen over the team heavy and oppressive.
As if she had read his mind Athena spoke up, breaking the silence before it could stretch for too long.
"You and Ursinia are cool?" she asked, reaching over to borrow an adaptor for one of her countless tools "I didn't know you hung out?"
"Being raised in the country and being raised in Pikesreach are actually kinda similar in a couple ways….Besides, we can actually look after each others' hair" Stygian gestured to his cornrows and the pair of braids which framed his face before turning his attention to the opened shell of Heartbreaker "What does that bit do?"
The interior of Athena's weapon was a ludicrously complex thing, especially in comparison to the simplicity of Stygian's own sword which did not transform; the segment that the Mouse Faunus had indicated was a particularly perplexing thing however as it featured several pieces that looked as though they should move but did not seem to align with any part of the transformation from sword to laser cannon. Athena regarded her own weapon oddly sheepishly for a moment before answering.
"Oh...I haven't actually used that part yet, I was kinda saving it for something special"
"You mean we fought that Grimm with swords and you were holding back?" Stygian exclaimed and from there the typical back and forth between Team MARS resumed, with Astra and Regalia joining in swiftly to once again establish a sense of equilibrium between them.
Their upcoming mission was looming on the horizon, but for now it could wait.
Zirconia moved through Pikesreach with a sense of purpose which made her already imposing appearance more intimidating, a sense of quiet but intractable power and authority rippling outwards from her and causing those in her path to stand aside; many of them either standing straighter or taking care to appear busy and none daring to speak more than a few polite words in passing for fear that they might delay the Grasshopper Faunus from something of obvious importance. It was a confidence that Zirconia herself felt none of but still attempted to project outwardly, adjusting her bearing as she walked into something that took cues which would be easily recognised by anyone who cared to look for them from both Athena-Jade and Astra, whose ability to mask and bury their own insecurities was something that Zirconia had always been quietly impressed by.
The only people within Pikesreach with the experience to make such an observation were Team NUGT and at present there were far more important questions to be had between them.
In recent weeks the leader of Team NUGT had been as good as his word, eager as ever to please anyone whose power and position he might be able to use as a means to bolster his own; using his own influence and those of his peers to continue positioning the subordinates assigned to Zirconia so that they might be better able to both intercept any efforts by Aefen Cruor's followers to do harm and also to limit the spread of their cults' ideology, all whilst the Chicken Faunus himself and his team-mates had made efforts to approach Aefen herself and make overtures, positioning themselves as potential allies who had seen the obvious winning side in the ongoing power-plays and scheming within the captured settlement and chosen to support the party they deemed most likely to be the winner.
That such a cover story was believable was a large part of the reason Zirconia had chosen Nugget to be her agent; yet it was also a large part of the reason her mismatched eyes narrowed and she felt a small amount of bile rising in her throat and that her eyes narrowed at the sight of him leaning against the wall of the latest of their pre-determined meeting points.
Another reason for the reaction was Nugget's repellent personality.
"We have got to keep meeting like this….Actually no, let's carry on" the Chicken Faunus gave a salacious wink as he adjusted his hair, jewellery and sleeveless jacket before peeling away from the stone wall he had leant against and drawing close to Zirconia who refused to give him the satisfaction of being outwardly irked; instead simply pointing to the nearest doorway, one which led to the latest building Zirconia had been using as a temporary accommodation as her paranoid but justifiable habit of relocating herself at random intervals with no discernable pattern continued, the building the door belonged to being yet another that was not intended to be a living space, reducing Zirconia to subsisting in terrible conditions that left her barely capable of doing the minimum to take care of herself.
"We should keep meetings to a minimum unless you have something urgent to report" Zirconia noted dully as she ushered Nugget inside "We don't need to create complications"
"Nothing complicated about it" the Chicken Faunus snorted "Two of us keeping meeting up while everyone else is busy and slipping off to wherever you're staying at the time….People just think we're fu-"
"If you finish that sentence it will be with a higher pitched voice" Zirconia warned, keeping her quiet and rasping tone entirely even and devoid of emotion in a way which only made the threat more menacing.
"Fine" Nugget shrugged, immediately seeming less like the capable defender and brother-in-arms to the people of Pikesreach he portrayed himself to in front of more gullible crowds and more like a petulant teenager as he skulked into the small, dimly lit room with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his sleeveless jacket.
"Do you have anything to report?" Zirconia demanded without preamble the moment she had closed and locked the door behind her, her free hand resting where Sunriser Cain was concealed as a precaution that Nugget did nothing to warrant, the Chicken Faunus simply letting out a faint sigh before speaking.
"Maybe….Not sure if it's anything serious" he shrugged, waiting until he was certain that he had what he deemed to be a suitable amount of attention focused on him before continuing
"Aefen hasn't taken any more of the prisoners-"
"I know that much, I have someone keeping watch" Zirconia interjected, hoping that Nugget had something more useful but also relishing the way he deflated slightly in response.
"Right, but did you know that a few of her people are unaccounted for?" the Chicken Faunus asked, seeing Zirconia's confusion and pressing on proudly "It's hard to tell 'cos a lot of 'em wear masks or robes and don't use their real names and those tend to be the same people that don't really socialise unless they're trying to get people to come to church or whatever it is they do….But yeah, Aefen's missing a few people and the weird thing is that I know that we didn't authorise any of our people leaving; but the people I spoke to seem to figure that's what was happening, that people were rotated out and that your new people freed some of Aefen's up to go back to Jidhir Town"
Zirconia was stunned into silence, pieces falling into place in her mind like dominoes, the pace increasing until it reached a blinding crescendo with a single; terrifying revelation sweeping away all other thoughts.
"She's using her own people as test subjects"
"Holy shit" Nugget muttered "So what do we do? Call Nero and have him cut her funding or whatever? Go and rush her now?"
"This is what I've been waiting for" Zirconia murmured, voice wavering faintly even as she clenched her fists to steady her hands "Damascus told me that there was a point where her behaviour would change, that it would give us a brief window where she has the ability to do something dangerous but she hasn't actually done it yet….That he knows, at least to an extent what she's working on and wants to take her ideas and co-opt the into something that can help people instead of whatever it is that Aefen's doing"
"So what the fuck is she doing?" Nugget demanded "'cos this is sounding like a lot more than I signed up for-"
"You signed up to make a better world with us and you signed to protect Remnant with the Hunters. It's time to do both, show some spine" Zirconia answered brusquely, her firmness being undercut almost entirely by the admission that followed "I….I don't know the specifics of what she's working on yet-"
"You don't know-"
"No and now there's no more time to wait if we want to find out" Zirconia answered, pink and orange eyes growing hard beneath the mask she now wore "Not unless we take action….Nugget, I might be better at breaking into secure locations than you but Aefen already knows that I'm looking for her; with all four of you involved Team NUGT should be able to-"
"To get ripped apart by Gestalt-Prime or the other Cyber-Grimm, are you nuts?" the Chicken Faunus demanded.
"Leave Gestalt-Prime to me" Zirconia answered, already beginning to formulate an idea of how best to distract the Alpha Cyber-Grimm "You don't need to do anything or reveal yourselves. Get inside, take pictures and videos of everything that Aefen is working on and then bring them to me….I'll decide how to proceed from there"
In truth Zirconia had meant to say that she would ask for Nero's advice on how to proceed but had been unable to maintain that particular ruse; she would find out what it was Aefen was doing, what exactly it was that her father figure was willing to sacrifice lives for and be a willing party to and then she would use that information to decide if she could stomach being a part of it any longer.
Though she was unsure of what she would do or where she would go if she could not.
"Okay, fuck it we'll do it….But this is risky" Nugget muttered "You better put in a good word with the boss after this"
"It is risky….But it's a risk we have to take" Zirconia found herself thinking back to Neo Vale and Breaktide Academy before that, of every failed attempt, every missed opportunity to tell Athena-Jade and her other team-mates the truth and how things might have transpired differently if she had mustered the courage to do more than passively wait for the right moment.
She would make things right this time.
It was a mark of how truly dedicated to their studies Team MARS had become that despite the fact that classes had ended several hours ago and that it was not only a Friday, but also their last chance to unwind and join their class-mates in relaxing to clear their heads before they departed for a mission which, no matter what happened promised to be challenging the four of them were still training.
It was also an indicator of the level at which Team MARS functioned, each of them undisputedly highly capable with skills and experience beyond their years but also a cohesive unit who interacted fluidly as though they could read one another's thoughts despite having so recently received a new member that their training session had gathered a small crowd.
With the sun passing its' zenith and the air steadily beginning to cool as it slipped towards the peaks of Port Alistair's cluttered skyline Team MARS found themselves surrounded on all sides by younger students eager to see what a team of upper class-men were capable of without the restraints placed on them in regular classes and a small smattering of both Final Year students and members of the faculty, ranging from administration staff to professors who had stayed late to grade assignments and prepare lessons as they took to the campus's outdoor training area and proceeded to face off against some of the most difficult pre-programmed mission simulations that the monumental work of shifting and three dimensional components, hard-light and nanotechnology could produce; taking on each challenge in rapid succession with little if any breaks between them.
The current simulation providing a suitable sense of spectacle in the form of a towering Grimm resembling a dinosaur or some fantastical monster from a science fiction movie.
"This is actually awesome!" Regalia cheered, the knowledge that neither she nor her friends would come to any real or lasting harm allowing to thoroughly enjoy the sight of a facsimile Grimm which stood at easily four stories in height, with twin rows of diamond-shaped spines running down the length of its' back to its' broad, bludgeoning tail as it rampaged around the arena on two massive, taloned feet and let out a series of deafening, shrieking roars.
"Not the word I'd use to describe a Gojirex!" Athena-Jade called back, words strained by the effort of using a series of glyphs to ensure that her backflip carried her over the projections' tail before she could be struck.
"Focus up people!" it was Astra's voice that pierced through the ongoing chaos that Team MARS's efforts to take down the monster of colossal proportions which fully qualified Hunters often struggled with, or more accurately a scaled down and limited representation of one had become. Athena and Regalia found the Deer Faunus towards the edge of the arena, at a place where parts of the ground had been shifted and contorted to create an uneven and difficult to navigate surface; beside them was Stygian and if Athena had to hazard a guess based simply on the layout of the scene before her the Mouse Faunus was recovering from an aborted attempt to clamber onto the back of hard-light Grimm projection without the use of his teleportation as both Stygian and Regalia found their Semblances somewhat befuddled by the nature of the illusions.
Athena was not the only one to be drawn to the sound Astra's voice, the Gojirex, acting on some predetermined algorithms whipped around as well and began bearing down on the leader of Team MARS with frightful speed, each thundering step shaking the ground.
And yet Astra's composure remained perfect.
"AJ, I can bring it down but I need you to give me an opening!" Athena, hearing this hesitated for only a brief moment as her own calculations came to a slightly different conclusion.
"You hold it for a sec and I can-" Regalia silenced the Bear Faunus with a nudge to the shoulder and as Athena turned she saw that the Racoon Faunus was loading highly explosive shells into Apex Scavenger.
"Just gimme some glyphs and I'll get it to turn around" realising with sudden clarity what it was Regalia planning Athena simply nodded and complied, bringing a seemingly random collection of glyphs into existence in the space around the gaping maw of the Gojirex and various heights and angles; allowing Regalia to aim and fire with dazzling results. Each shot ricocheted countless time from one glyph to the next with the end result being something akin to a firework display tightly packed into the space around the skull of the faux Grimm as one exploding round after another detonated mid-rebound.
Successfully forcing the Grimm to turn around once again and direct its' attention towards its' newest threat.
Only to put plans into disarray by retaliating with a ranged attack.
"AWW NUTS!" Regalia yelled, scrabbling for cover as the Kaiju Grimm reared its' head back and particles of incandescent light began to gather within its' maw with a dull, droning whine that assaulted the senses painfully.
"STAY DOWN, I'VE GOT IT!" Athena yelled, readying Heartbreaker whilst privately hoping that she did not have to use the weapons' laser cannon enough to make its' earlier servicing redundant. The faux Grimm vomited forth a stream or searing light and Athena-Jade braced herself and fired from the hip; twin beams of light lancing towards one another and connecting in a blinding corona near the centre of the arena.
Giving Astra the distraction they needed.
"LET THEM FIGHT!" Regalia cheered enthusiastically as the glowing, fiery red light of Astra' Aura announced that the leader of Team MARS had engaged their Semblance; the towering Semblance-construct rushing the hard-light projection from behind and swiftly putting an end to its' assault by delivering a roundhouse kick strong enough to level houses to where a kidney might have been were it a living thing and then promptly avoiding a swipe of the faux Grimm's tail in order to wrap arm under its' jaw and force its' mouth closed.
Allowing Athena's laser to scorch and blast its' face.
The Gojirex remained for a moment longer, though its' fate was sealed as Stygian Blue made his presence known and felt; Athena nodding with silent approval as he partner climbed up onto the antler of Astra's glowing construct form and promptly leapt, curling in on himself and spinning through the air with his katana in hand as he plummeted towards the skull of the Gojirex; blade wreathed in Lightning as he struck home.
The Gojirex was decapitated in a single devastating strike and the simulation ended, the arena already beginning the process of returning to default settings by the time Astra's Semblance had dispersed and Team MARS had regrouped towards an edge of the arena.
"THAT WAS INCREDIBLE!" Regalia gushed as she threw her arms around Astra, lifting them and spinning them whilst beside the besotted couple Stygian merely snorted, flourishing with Sharp Cheese and performing to the crowd of onlookers before sheathing the weapon.
"It was me that did the important part" he noted, earning an amused laugh from Athena-Jade who merely patted his arm.
"You did alright" she assured him mockingly, sticking her tongue out as she did so; the moment of victory being cut short as Astra took a single deep breath, wiped their brow and then squared their shoulders with a resolute look.
"Okay, which program are we trying next?" they asked "Have we tried the-"
"NOPE" the interruption left all of Team MARS momentarily startled and the four of them whipped around in search of its' source, being mildly baffled when it was revealed to be Wolfram Ironside who was currently sat on one of the railings which separated the arena from the stands beyond it, with Team WULF positioned around him all of whom were wearing clothes that suggested that they were not planning on training.
"You guys have got next?" Astra asked, nodding at the shirt their ex boyfriend was wearing; one which the Deer Faunus was willing to bet was not one that Wolfram had purchased for himself based on appearance alone.
"Nah" Wolfram laughed "I think some of the Fourth Years want it though and you've been here all night….We're stopping by to tell you it's time go"
"We weren't planning on-"
"Darlin' we're being polite but we aint exactly asking" Ursinia chimed in, tilting her signature cowboy hat back with the tip of her stinger as she spoke.
"You're doing that thing again" Wolfram added with a sigh "Where you focus to the point where you turn into a bit of a dick"
"Seriously….Guys was I getting bad again?" Astra asked, suddenly nervous as they turned to their friends, utterly appalled at the idea that they had so easily slipped into destructive habits and that their team had allowed it without question. Stygian merely shrugged and given that he lacked the relevant context Astra supposed that was acceptable.
"You weren't bad, not really" Regalia offered, hands wringing and tail twitching "You might have started if we'd carried on all night though….I would have said something, we all would"
"Yeah" Athena nodded slowly "I think we're all just too stuck on what tomorrow is gonna be like"
"Okay, sounds like we do need a break. It's official then….I'm mandating a night off so we don't do something dumb tomorrow" Astra managed a weak smile before turning to Wolfram "What did you guys have in mind?"
"Diabla's meeting Huck and she's bringing a few friends" Wolfram gestured to his teams' fearsome brawler "Date night at the movies and maybe hit a bar afterwards….Come on somebody needs to babysit Laser"
"Oh come on, the price of candy at the movies is thievery in its' own right, I'm just stealing it back!" the Vaccuan scavenger cried; earning a chorus of laughter and faint cheers of approval from everyone who heard him.
In that moment Team MARS collectively made their minds and hopped out of the training area, sidling over towards Team WULF and indicating that they would meet them somewhere on campus as soon as they had quickly showered and changed; deciding that a trip to the movies was exactly what they all needed to clear their minds for a few hours, hopefully enough to be able to sleep.
Things were not normal, but acting like ordinary students and pretending for a few hours seemed like an indescribably good idea.
Pantheon had intended to make a tactical and temporary retreat from their hostilities against the usurper Grimm Gestalt-Prime and the product of their blasphemous union with humans; the Grimm General and rightful heir to Salem herself planning to leave the Cyber-Grimm and the Kingdoms' Hunters to skirmish and struggle against one another and use the opportunity it afforded them to rebuild and recuperate after receiving several losses, fortifying their remaining positions and forming new Spawning pits whilst producing enough Creatures of Grimm to ensure that when Pantheon returned their focus to the upstart who threatened the natural order it would be with a tide of living nightmares on a war footing rather than disparate packs intended for scouting and picking up straggling travellers.
For several weeks things had largely followed the plan that Pantheon had laid out.
After making the decision not to be drawn into a three-way conflict where they would likely be at an extreme disadvantage, even if that choice was anathema to the violent and bloodthirsty core of their being Pantheon had worked tirelessly, with time being an irrelevance within the confines of their seafloor fortress whose only light came from magma which poured through vents and fissures and glowing, scuttling horrors which Pantheon themselves had bred for that single purpose.
The Grimm General had ventured into the vast and incomprehensible web of interlinked consciousnesses under their command, finding the Hive-Mind of the Grimm, or at least that sizeable swathe of it they held sway over to be an increasingly violent, roiling mass of chaotic and bestial energy which Pantheon needed only to focus and direct and whose pulsing, hateful heart was focused squarely over the island of Menagerie.
Pantheon had spent much of the recent weeks attending to this task, ensuring that the amphibious horrors they had sent to the island had successfully made landfall and rendezvoused with monsters already present who had been lying in wait and begun the process of creating new Spawning Pits by feeding on and coalescing the latent psychic echo which permeated Menagerie in the wake of all that had happened to it throughout the years, ensuring that their remaining Spawning Pits scattered across the coastline and wastelands were untouched, protected by packs and swarms of Grimm whilst also ensuring that the freshly made monsters were capable of controlling their base instincts enough to be of some use and did not immediately set about cannibalising their kin the moment they emerged. Pantheon had also spent a great deal of time creating, sculpting and refining better means of destruction; the Grimm General venturing from their throne room to the unique Spawning Pit-like array within their fortress in order to create new templates and concepts to be fed into the primordial minds of Pits across Remnant. Beasts with sharper claws, intended to peel armour away from flesh that it was fused to entirely, acids intended to dissolve complex inner workings and immobilise machinery and ranged weapons, layered armour and the sheer, hulking mass and power required to overcome the Cyber-Grimm all being considered.
And then, after several weeks the sense of peace had been violated.
Pantheon was once more upon their throne, its' surface steadily merging with the membranous surface of their living cape, reducing the digits of their four arms and prehensile tail to faint shuddering twitches and leaving the ominous crimson glow fading from all six of their eyes as their consciousness was slowly allowed to expand outwards from the limitations of a single physical form.
A lone, bobbing Synapse Grimm had floated and meandered its' way to the Grimm General whilst Pantheon had been in the midst of other task to alert them to the fact that whatever the Synapse Grimm had last been used to connect to, some mental connection obviously lingering between the Spawning Pit in question and odd, Squid-like creature had come under attack and this had caused Pantheon to abandon their other engagements and seizing the bloated sac of unspeakable innards by the three-pronged claw of one of their upper limbs and hurtle back towards their throne room, the Synapse Grimm's ephemeral tendrils flailing helplessly behind as they phased in and out of reality.
Once Pantheon entered the mental labyrinth of the Hive-Mind it took little time, to such a degree that time existed in any real way in such a place, for them to seek out the particular Spawning Pit that was being assaulted; using the eyes of the Creatures of Grimm tasked with protecting the roiling and semi-aware mass of darkness.
Pantheon realised almost the moment they peered through the eyes of the lesser Grimm that it was too late.
The first, instantaneous realisation that Pantheon came to was that there simply far too few eyes available for them to see through, although what was left for them was enough to piece together an image which was, despite the frantic an uncoordinated scurrying the Creatures of Grimm had been reduced to coherent enough to understand what had happened.
Gestalt-Prime's forces had attacked them.
Even now the sentient Grimm could see through dozens of pairs of eyes and watch as humans armed with weapons which lacked something which the weapons of Hunters had in abundance and yet that the monster could not find the words for continued to gun down, or hurl explosives towards the Creatures of Grimm tasked with defending the Spawning Pit whilst the Spawning Pit itself steadily faded out of existence; vomiting forth as many horrific beasts as it could in some combination of survival instinct and deeply ingrained spite before the wounds which had seen Pantheon alerted to the attack claimed it.
The Grimm General allowed themselves a hateful, bitter and twisted sense of satisfaction; only to realise a moment later than even the limited catharsis of bloody vengeance they had expected to receive had been stolen from them. The destruction of a Spawning Pit almost always signalled a retaliation of sorts, usually in the form of the pit in question unleashing an enormous and extremely powerful Creature of Grimm capable of unmaking whatever had posed such a deadly threat; such a beast had already been unleashed and yet whatever the thing had once been, it was already in the process of torn apart, the massive Creature of Grimm was already so badly wounded that Pantheon found its' mind too garbled and tumultuous to occupy and could scarcely identify it beyond rubbery flesh, enormous bull-like horns, frog-like rear limbs and a vast cauldron for a belly that had likely been filled some immensely corrosive of flammable liquid before it had been ruptured by countless weapons. Whilst the humans who were less than Hunters held off the lesser Grimm Pantheon saw the final creative gambit being laid low piece by piece by the concerted efforts of both Cyber-Grimm and human machines which gave their pilots a distinct advantage for as long as the fight could be kept at a distance.
The killing blow came from a Cyber-Grimm of a different kind, larger than its' kin and with its' entire back devoted to a single oversized cannon which required its' limbs to be driven and anchored into the ground before it could fire; one whose discharge filled the battlefield with blinding light and the acrid stench of ozone and burning flesh.
At that point Pantheon retreated back into their own body, understanding that the situation was beyond salvaging.
A low, echoing snarl left their fanged muzzle the moment the influence of the greater Hive-Mind receded from them and from there thought immediately began to take shape, each more murderous and calculating than the last until the Grimm General came to a simple understanding of the situation before them. Gestalt-Prime had brought the fight to them, as such remaining of the defensive was no longer a viable strategy which left violent retaliation as the only worthwhile option. It would take some time to organise forces properly but Pantheon would not be cowed, even if they had to make do with Pikesreach and did not know where any of their upstart enemies' other nests and bolt holes were yet.
A war amongst the Grimm was brewing.
It transpired that Wolfram and by extension Team WULF as a whole had been right and that a trip to the movies with friends, wherein they could put aside their troubles and responsibilities for a short while had been exactly what all of Team MARS had needed.
The movie itself had admittedly been nothing special or overly thoughtful and engaging, relying more on sheer spectacle and nostalgia; though seemingly doing both well enough to not be outright insulting to its' audience. Regalia had naturally been amongst those present who had seen the original cult classic that had been remade for a modern audience and had given her mixed reviews of the proceedings in a constant stream of hushed mutterings, much to the amusement of her friends; whilst there had been moments where many of the gathered students, owing to the sheer variety amongst their backgrounds had been able to point out locations that they had visited or at least recognised, with Astra going so far as to swear that they had been able to point out the exact Hive-Tower that their childhood home was housed within; even if those who did not dwell in Neo Vale refused to believe that the Deer Faunus could tell one tower from another.
Overall it had been a pleasant way to spend a few hours and the group had lingered outside of the theatre for a brief whilst debating what to do next before beginning to disperse with Laser having managed to talk a small group of the college students who had clearly not been sufficiently warned about his underhanded behaviour to visit a nearby arcade, with the chemically blonde Vaccuan scavenger uttering something which sounded suspiciously like 'Jackpot' as left. The majority of the remaining college students had also departed, heading either towards the heart of Port Alistair to partake in its' clubs and nightlife or back to the student accommodations for where a house party was waiting for them; Diabla had left with this group, being taken by the hand by her girlfriend and Ursinia's younger cousin Huckleberry who had promised to deliver Diabla back to the team before they departed the following morning.
Leaving Wolfram and Ursinia who intended to visit a nearby bar for a brief visit, but despite their best efforts the pair had not managed to convince Team MARS to join them.
"You guys sure you don't wanna come?" Wolfram asked, leaning against a metal railing and adjusting his shirt in a way which made it patently clear that he was cold but unwilling to say so. Upon their decision to make their way back to the campus Team MARS had made their way to the nearest tram station, part of a public transport network which thankfully ran late into the night and Wolfram and Ursinia had chosen to accompany them that far since the bar they intended to visit was in roughly the same direction.
Hearing the question Astra first looked down to Regalia who was currently nuzzled into her partner whilst Astra draped a shoulder around her, the Racoon Faunus fending off both the cold and her visible tiredness after the extensive training Team MARS had subjected themselves to and then over to Athena-Jade and Stygian who were currently huddled over Athena's scroll, presumably messaging one of the Bear Faunus's siblings. Seeing that there was unlikely to be any dissent Astra shook their head and spoke on the teams' behalf.
"Nah, we're good" they yawned "We can't all down a dozen pints and then be back to work after four hours sleep like you"
"Damn right you can't, nobody is tough like us Stalwart boys" Wolfram gave a gruff, barking laugh.
"Besides" Astra continued, shaking their head at their fellow team leaders' machismo "Can you imagine turning up to a mission with Professor Adel with a hangover….I'm not that brave"
"Darlin' that aint brave that's just darn stupid" Ursinia noted, stinger rattling nervously at the mere thought as it arced up over her head.
"Yeah, true" Wolfram sighed "Alright cool, we'll have to hang out again when we all get back….It's been good to have this, everything felt weird for a while when you guys came back"
"Everything was weird" Astra noted, a solemn silence lasting for a moment before they decided that they would not allow the mood to be lowered whilst they having a good night and instead added "But holy crap, is that Wolfie being honest about feelings and missing hanging out with someone?"
"Yeah, yeah don't spoil a good thing" Wolfram snorted, taking Ursinia by the hand and beginning to walk away with the partner and girlfriend whose relationship Astra had genuinely enjoyed seeing the dynamics of "We'll catch you kids later, we'll bring you juice boxes and candy since you can't hack a night on the town with us"
Astra good naturedly gave their friend and ex-boyfriend the finger in response.
And then team MARS were alone.
Or more accurately the four of them were sharing the platform, to which a late tram would likely arrive in a matter of minutes with a small group of people who, judging by their appearances seemed to be leaving work after a late shift and in all probability lived somewhere on the same route; none of whom had chosen to be vocal about any issues that they might have with Hunters, student or otherwise although Astra could not help but notice the distance between their team and the people around that would once have been closed almost immediately upon their arrival as onlookers tried to involve themselves in conversations with Hunters if only so that they could seem more interesting and well-connected to their peers the following day.
It was a fact Astra refused to dwell on, they had not become a Hunter simply to be idolised and they had very little respect for the few people who had.
"Hey, what're you two gossiping about?" the Deer Faunus called over to Athena and Stygian, causing Regalia to stir slightly and prove that she was in fact awake in the process.
"Wouldn't you like to know" Athena answered, making a half-hearted attempt at seeming mysterious whilst she and her partner made their way over; only for Stygian to utterly snatch the wind from her sails by using his greater height to simply lean on the Bear Faunus; elbow resting on the top of her head.
"Her sister tried to call her while we were training, when she found out that we we've been training all week she demanded that AJ go out and enjoy herself….With pictures to prove it, or she was gonna tell-"
"You absolute pest" Athena hissed, her round and prominent cheeks colouring as she elbowed the Mouse Faunus in his exposed side; refusing to be humbled by the fact that her friends were now openly laughing at her.
"Well your sister was probably right….And it worked right?" Regalia asked, yawning and using the gesture to loop an arm around Astra's neck in a gesture that was cliché and would have been worthy of ridicule had it come from anybody else.
"Yeah I guess so, it was nice" Athena smiled softly "Honestly, after everything I'm still a little anxious about being out in the city when it's so crowded….I never know who's gonna take a photo"
"You poor dear" Astra snorted, teasing out of habit but also more than willing to accept that such a concern was warranted and valid from Athena and had only become more so since Zirconia had betrayed them all "But you're fine….Just hide in Stitch's coat, you'll fit"
"Why am I still suffering these height jokes" Athena demanded, stomping a foot and pouting childishly "I can literally summon wings and fly over all of you"
"Heh, if you were one of Clan Aiktishaf the fact that you're not so tall wouldn't be a bad thing" Regalia nodded sagely, pausing for just long enough for her follow up to be utterly devastating "You don't take up a lot of space, we could keep you in an overhead shelf"
"I trusted you!" Athena gasped, her faux outrage utterly toothless as she struggled not to give in to the same fits of howling laughter that had overcome her friends.
"It's not even true" Stygian countered, coming to his partners' defence without sacrificing his commitment to the joke; instead gesturing to Athena's biceps and shoulders "She's not even small, where would you store all of that"
"Thank you" Athena flexed for a second before swatting her partners' chest playfully "But you still suck"
"So" Astra sighed, their laughter subsiding slowly with a deliberate and deep breath "I don't want to drag the mood down, but I've gotta ask…."
"Tomorrow" Athena nodded, understanding exactly what was now being discussed.
"I just need to know if everyone is ready"
"I think so, I'm as ready as I can be" Regalia nodded, tightening her hold on her partner slightly as she spoke.
"Yeah" Stygian nodded "It's complicated and you guys know that, but Pikesreach is still where I grew up….It's time to go home I guess"
"I…." Athena faltered, sapphire blue eyes becoming distant for a moment before she shook her head to clear it "I think I'll be better afterwards….I think I need this"
"Okay, good-" Astra's vague ideas of a rousing speech were dashed by a ringing chime to announce the arrival of the tram which would take them close to Breaktide Academy, followed by lights rapidly approaching from the distance and the sound of rattling carriages becoming audible to keen Faunus ears.
"Come on" Astra sighed instead, gesturing for their team to follow and keeping hold off Regalia's hand in a way which felt natural as they rose to their feet; the four of them making their way towards the edge of the platform in unison only to come to a halt as their fellow travellers began to do the same, with each of the teens having the manners and common decency to make room so that an older woman, seemingly some manner of Fish Faunus could embark before them. Looking at her for a moment longer Astra noted that the woman, who was at a guess somewhere in her mid-fifties was carrying several bags of groceries and seeming to be struggling with them; at which point they spoke up.
"Excuse me, but would you like some help with those"
"Oh yes thank you dear" the woman answered gratefully, giving a bright and tired smile as the four teenagers helped her with her shopping "I used to be able to rely on my youngest to do the shopping for me but since I don't drive and he's moved away for college I just get it on the way home from work but it's a bit much"
"It's no problem at all" Stygian chimed in, always eager and willing to help his elders after being raised in a place that, for all its' flaws had a focus on community and teamwork.
"I hope you don't mind me asking" the Fish Faunus lowered her voice, becoming something conspiratorial "But you kids wouldn't happen to be Breaktide students would you? I didn't mean to be nosy but I thought I heard something about missions and such"
"We are" Astra answered carefully, bracing themselves and yet not wanting to appear rude; casting their sea-green eyes around and seeing that their team-mates were doing the same.
"Well that's just grand" the older woman, seemingly eager to gossip smiled even brighter as she continued "My oldest wanted to attend Breaktide but didn't quite make the grade; course this was a few years back now….He's a firefighter instead and he told me about some of the things he found in this city after the Grimm got in a couple years ago….To think that it's kids like you going out there to keep the worst of it from us"
"We do it because someone has to" Athena murmured, clearly affected by the praise.
"And bless you for doing it….Whatever lies get said on the television be damned; you're good brave people" she nodded emphatically as the tram came to a halt and its' doors began to hiss open "But you be safe now"
"We do try" Stygian beamed.
"We're Team MARS and we're Hunters….This is what we do" Astra breathed out, realising that it was in fact that the first time that they had uttered words that had become something of a mantra to them since their team had been changed in the wake of all that occurred and that, thankfully the words felt no less right than they once had.
With that Team MARS helped their new acquaintance onto the tram and ended their evening with their spirits raised and their own confidence fortified by the faith and reassurance that they had inspired in others.
Whatever tomorrow brought they would be ready for it.
Zirconia was terrified in a way that she could not remember having ever experienced before.
It was a freezing, choking and visceral thing which threatened to undo her at any moment and yet the Grasshopper Faunus pushed on relentlessly, placing one mechanical limb in front of the other and forcing out each nervous and wavering breath one after the other whilst silently hoping that what little of her face was left visible by her mask did not betray her in her efforts to aid Team NUGT.
Once it had become clear to her that Nugget and his team would be willing and able to play their part in what needed to be done Zirconia had spent a considerable amount of time planning out exactly how she would go about aiding her fellow former Breaktide Students and creating an opening, a window in which Gestalt-Prime and the worst of the Cyber-Grimm forces would be distracted and elsewhere so that Team NUGT could more easily infiltrate Aefen Cruor's lair and private laboratories.
Planning had eventually given way to a series of machinations and subtle trickery which had set in motion the course events which left her so fearful; Aefen's own steady purging of some of Pikesreach's citizens and more recently her own acolytes had created inevitable discrepancies which Zirconia had managed to use to her advantage; with the people loyal to the Grasshopper Faunus being tasked with creating several reports of missing individuals within the ranks of various parts of Pikesreach's important workers and defenders to such a degree that it would seem that some conspiracy was afoot and an organised exodus was being planned. From there Zirconia, with the help of those amongst her subordinates she trusted to be able to perform the task silently, including Team NUGT themselves had abducted several members of both Pikesreach's own defensive forces and Nero's faction and disguised them as prisoners; taking only those who had been noted as being sympathetic to the Path of the Apex Being and their agenda in order to, with the same blow, make the idea of multiple people being unaccounted for seem more believable and at the same time deny Aefen and her cultists some potential allies in case the situation deteriorated.
From there Zirconia had been forced to take a leap of faith and rely on a combination of the same unassuming and unquestionable charisma that had allowed her to mingle with other student Hunters without suspicion for two whole years and a brazen, bald-faced audacity that was entirely foreign to her as she implemented a stage of her plans where things became truly dangerous.
She had ordered Gestalt-Prime to bring Cyber-Grimm and help her search for the supposedly missing people.
The possibility of even one person fleeing the captured settlement and managing to survive the harsh realities of the wastelands long enough to reach civilisation was one rightly demanded response, the sheer likeliness of the worst case scenario being the only reason that Zirconia's previous refusal to send search parties after an escapee had not been more thoroughly questioned. An organised escape with upwards of a dozen individuals involved was a different matter entirely, Zirconia had been able, with only a little creativity managed to sell a convincing tale which painted an urgent picture of what might happen if the fictional runaways had managed to steal food, water and other supplies that would allow them to make their way to one or, worse still several settlements across the Kingdom of Menagerie; spreading news of what had happened to Pikesreach faster than Nero's sphere of influence could hope to close in around them.
Gestalt-Prime had agreed in snarling tones and after only a little more prompting from Zirconia had agreed that the best way to track down their quarry would be with aerial support and the means to triangulate and coordinate their efforts in order to hem in the people they were hunting like wolves might do to their prey.
An image Zirconia did not like but one she could live with.
As night fell Gestalt-Prime, along with their lone remaining Shroud Variant and a small assortment of standard model Cyber-Grimm had taken to the air and fanned out to begin a sweep of the area from above whilst beneath them Zirconia herself had been amongst a ground party which had followed; containing both members of the reinforcements that had been sent from Jidhir Town to aid her in her efforts against Aefen and those who had been part of the original force which had taken Pikesreach but whom Zirconia was largely certain were loyal enough to Nero to not try and stab her in the back if it seemed that they could get away with it, all of them riding across the open expanse of wasteland in a motley collection of open-topped vehicles.
For several hours things had gone reasonably well and the illusion that there were indeed several escaped people from Pikesreach roaming the wastelands and waiting to be found had been maintained only for complications to come from an unwelcome but entirely expected source.
The Creatures of Grimm were rife across the wasteland and the fear they fed upon was plentiful wherever Zirconia roamed.
'Fire, lightning!' the darkness was set ablaze and the freezing chill of Menagerie's night pushed back as the rogue Huntress unleashed one of her signature moves; creating an arcing barrier of flame with a single twirling swipe of Sunriser Cain which was followed by arcing, crackling forks of electrical power shooting outwards to scorch and blast any Creature of Grimm caught by the attack.
"Keep them away from the vehicles! Defensive perimeter!" Zirconia yelled, doing everything not to sound frantic despite being surrounded, vastly outnumbered and working alongside people she did not know and whose loyalty and intentions were suspect rather than the team she had come to know and rely on to such an extent that so many of her attacks were timed and spaced in ways intended to allow a follow up that would not be forthcoming.
Zirconia would have given anything to have Athena-Jade with her again but was unable to think about such things in that moment; the pack of Grimm that had found them consisted solely of Beowolves and lacked any Alpha yet their sheer numbers gave them advantage against such lightly armoured prey.
'Ice, lightning!' Zirconia quickly adjusted Sunriser Cain and attacked again. Once it had become clear that the Grimm would be able to surround them she had ordered the people with her to halt and be ready to defend the vehicles, allowing themselves to be stranded in the wastes was simply unacceptable and yet despite the best efforts of her allies the monsters were still managing to push through and force their prey back; a situation rectified at least partly by the Grasshopper Faunus's latest attack which saw jagged towers of ice erupting upwards from the ground, skewering several Grimm at one with freezing spikes which were used to conduct a fresh surge of electricity and reduce a wide swathe of the impromptu battlefield to a sizzling and blackened hell-scape which was rendered impossible to traverse.
'Double gravity!' for this third attack Zirconia shifted her weapon into its' pistol form and leapt backwards, up onto the roll cage of the nearest vehicle so that she had a higher vantage point from which to point the extended barrel of her weapon into the tide of snarling muzzles and gleaming eyes before firing; each shot being so ludicrously overpowered that it pierced the bodies of multiple Grimm and filled the air with the acrid black smog of fading monsters.
And yet there were still too many.
For a single, dreadful moment it seemed inevitable that Zirconia's position would be overrun and that she would be forced to make an impossible choice between fighting to the last person and perishing alongside her allies or else simply starting the lightly armoured buggy she was perching on and grabbing what few people she could as she tried to escape.
It was a choice she was spared from having to make as death rained down from above in the form of a single beam of searing, crimson light.
"IT'S GESTALT PRIME!" one of the soldiers in Zirconia's company cheered, every syllable filled with reverent relief as the Alpha Cyber-Grimm soared over them and allowed several components of their armoured and skeletal chest to to unfurl and reposition themselves, revealing a single internal weapon array with was used to scour the wasteland clean until nothing but smoking earth and rock remained, with what few Beowolves survived the initial assault being mercilessly culled by the standard model Cyber-Grimm accompanying their Alpha which swooped and dived down to impale the broken and scampering Beowolves with their massive carapace horns or else tear them apart with powerful claws.
It took moments for Gestalt-Prime and their limited support to entirely unmake the pack of Beowolves and once the task was complete the sentient monster dove, landing beside Zirconia with a force which shook the vehicle the Grasshopper Faunus was perched on so severely that she was forced to leap down to the ground, where the monster loomed over her.
"Huntress" they snarled and Zirconia forced herself to remain her composure as her current treachery-induced fear was compounded further by the memory of every blow she had landed against Gestalt-Prime in their previous fight in Port Alistair some time ago, or specially how little those blows had mattered.
"Yes" she answered coldly, deliberately keeping her answers brief.
"There are no signs of any fleeing humans" Gestalt-Prime informed her bluntly, evidently peering intently at her from beneath their armoured visor.
"We should keep looking-"
"We should fortify out position in case of sabotage and prepare for an imminent attack against Pikesreach" Zirconia was forced to reckon with the fact that Gestalt-Prime truly was intelligent and had an understanding of strategy etched into their psyche from the time that they had been a lesser Geist; the logic was sound and before she could dispute it they pressed on "If the Grimm were so numerous in the area it is unlikely that any number of escapees survived….We will have better look finding corpses in the daylight. In the meantime we return to Pikesreach"
"Agreed" the word tasted like ash in Zirconia's mouth and yet she felt powerless to dispute the course of action; instead she found herself silent and brooding, mismatched eyes narrow and calculating as her mind began to race once more.
It would take some time for them to return to Pikesreach and that was a small mercy, but Zirconia would find ways to buy more time for Team NUGT even it meant slashing the tires of one of her peoples' vehicles.
Nugget, despite what any of the countless people who had looked down on him and sneered for so long might think was no fool, the Chicken Faunus was well aware that he and by extension the entirety of Team NUGT were likely being duped and that Zirconia Shadowmoon was trying to appeal to both his survival instincts and desire to be on the clear winning side of a conflict as well as his keen eye for opportunities to improve the position of himself and those he considered friends, playing him in a very deliberate and calculating way.
The reality was however that Nugget simply didn't care as he, like any other doomed gambler sincerely believed that he could beat the odds.
It was this belief, flimsy as its' base might be that had seen the Chicken Faunus agree to Zirconia's terms and inform the rest of Team NUGT of what was required of them; that confidence in the abilities of himself and his team which had seen him wait patiently until night had fallen and Zirconia's ruse had been put into motion to slip across Pikesreach, flitting from one shadow to the next until he finally reached the building in which Aefen Cruor had based herself; climbing a section of its' stony exterior which remained untouched by any light sources and slipping in through a window whilst his team-mates followed his lead independently, with each of the three of them making their way inside from a different angle and with none of them knowing exactly where and how the others would attack so that even if one of them were caught the mission could still succeed.
Nugget fought the urge to chuckle to himself as he noted just how overwrought his planning now seemed, though he could not keep the smirk from his face or the confident swagger he found himself adopting as he neared his goal and felt the thrill of victory bubbling up within him.
He had been the first to enter the building, he was the leader of the team and now it seemed that the Chicken Faunus was the first to reach Aefen's innermost sanctum without any resistance to speak of.
He had slunk downwards back towards the ground floor after entering through a window and then ventured carefully through the various workshops and areas of Aefen's base of operations that other members of Nero's faction had at least some access to, being careful not to misplace any tools or make any noise that might give him away before venturing deeper and into the unknown; Nugget had suppressed a shudder at the sight of what looked like a contained and slaved Spawning Pit, the knowledge that it was the means by which Cyber-Grimm were made and repaired doing little to overcome the visceral wrongness of it and then into regions which none save Aefen herself and the people she had taken had seen before. He had approached with a weapon at the ready, fully expecting to have to fight or break his way inside only to be relieved where another Hunter might have been disappointed by the realisation that the doors to this secret place were open and unlocked and the Aefen herself was nowhere to be found.
Even the pair of Cyber-Grimm flanking the door were motionless.
"Anyone home?" Nugget whispered as he wafted the tip of his truncheon, the terribly named Cluck-Stick in front of the face of one of the two hulking monstrosities and waited with a bated breath that betrayed his underlying fears for a moment before it finally became apparent that the two sentries were in fact dormant of deactivated. Knowing too little about the creation and upkeep of the twisted amalgamations of flesh and metal Nugget simply decided that they must have been powered down or something similar in order to conserve power and resources that were scare in Pikesreach and this self-assurance only boosted the young man's bravado further still.
"As you were gents, just get used to calling me boss" he grinned as he slipped between the two Cyber-Grimm and towards what they were guarding. Aefen's deepest laboratory consisted of two parts, the larger on which was completely obscured from view by black sheets affixed to every surface from the inside and a smaller control station, lined with various displays and various computers which some survival instinct told Nugget would be the safer and more intelligent option; giving the door to the lab itself a last lingering look he made his decision and cast his eyes around in search of Aefen once again.
"What, did she go and take a shit?" he chuckled, already thinking of the jokes he would share with his team when they finally joined him as he strode into the control room and approached the nearest of the many computers that at least resembled something he was familiar with. Neither he not Zirconia knew the exact nature of Aefen's work but he planned to correct that oversight by giving the Grasshopper Faunus the information she desired, but also to remind her never to underestimate him again by creating copies of certain critical pieces of information for himself to hold in reserve and parlay into a more favourable position as soon as he had destroyed the originals.
"Let's see" he murmured as he approached the keyboard "If I was a spooky bitch what would my password-"
Petrol was reduced to an incoherent scream of pain the moment his fingers touched the keys as an electrical charge powerful enough to leave his Aura wavering and smoke billowing from his body was delivered from the machine itself and leave the Chicken Faunus collapsing to the ground with his body unwilling to respond to his wishes; a sensation made all the more terrifying by a shadow suddenly looming over him.
"I was almost worried that wouldn't work you know….Not that my little booby trap would be ineffective, but that you might not actually be stupid enough to touch it; but lo and behold" Nugget wheezed and gasped in pain but managed to contort himself to look up from the floor to see Aefen Cruor, masked and twirling her staff whilst the two Cyber-Grimm which had not been dormant at all stood beside her "As an aside, from one person who enjoys talking to themselves to another….There is evidently a time and a place for it"
Aefen let out a sinister, maniacal cackle which only grew in intensity as Nugget made a pained and aborted effort to speak which the mad scientist seemed to interpret as some obvious and cliché question about how she had caught him.
"Oh behave young man, you are not nearly as clever with your little games and school yard social politics as you like to think you are….The problem with trying to be everyone's friend and play everyone against each other Nugget is that other people watch you and start to take notice of who you talk to" Aefen made a clucking sound of disapproval "Trying to be overly friendly with the Chairman's adopted daughter, very naughty….And I thought you had enough friends here?"
Nugget's heart, erratic and spiking as it currently was, leapt into his mouth at those words which were proven a moment later to be exactly as ominous as the demented cult leader had intended for them to sound as she stepped aside and revealed the slinking, slithering form of the Man-eater variant Cyber-Grimm making its' way into view.
It was carrying the rest of Team NUGT.
The ease with which it dragged and carried the trio was unnerving enough but the fact that it held a single limp and unresponsive person on either side of its body, each supported by one of the back-mounted and wholly mechanical limbs which Nugget had already learned contained cutting lasers and a third bound and secured by the monstrous' things powerful prehensile tongue suggested that the Man-eater had, as its' name suggested managed to slip through the building and capture each of his friends in turn before any of them could raise an alarm.
It could have captured Nugget at any time but Aefen had wanted him to make it this far on his own and fall for her trap.
His enemies had toyed with him.
"Don't look so sad my lost and wayward child" Aefen's tone became solemn, the exact cadence that Nugget had heard her address her followers with as she drew close and loomed over his still shuddering form "We are the Path of the Apex Being, we take the lacking and make them more, make them better….You want power, you want some new friends and connections; rest assured you can have them, that's why I allowed you to come here"
With that chilling sentiment Aefen raised her ram-skull topped cane and swung, bringing it down on Nugget's head and knocking him unconscious.
Author's Notes:
Let's fucking GO!
Seriously, Vol.07 has been the 'Body Horror Volume' and it's only gonna get wilder from here on out.
A thee part finale and a wrap up chapter to set things up for Vol.08 and trust me it's gonna be packed, it's a fun time from start to finish.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
A small time-skip, just to get us nearer to the action and have the mission to Pikesreach almost upon us.
Of course they've been training like absolute maniacs….they're not the only ones but they're definitely the worst offenders.
Wolfram and Regalia's first impression was them nearly ending up fighting each other because she accidentally nearly hit him with her bike.
The problem with training and pushing yourself to the extent Team MARS currently are is that if someone isn't pushing themselves that hard, for whatever reason they're gonna get hurt and that's gonna complicate things.
Okay look, Wolfram was out of line but still understandable….And that was the catalyst for everyone to be understandably stupid.
Wolfram has grown a lot….I Vol.01-03 it was a rule I had when writing him that he did not say the word sorry under any circumstances.
"Mission with Coco" definitely gets you the sympathy of your classmates at Breaktide because there is absolutely no room for error there.
Stygian ans Ursinia are two black characters who wear their hair naturally in a setting where are only a few people who fit that description, she has definitely braided his hair for him when it needed doing.
I have hinted that Heartbreaker has got a couple of extra tricks hidden up its' sleeve already.
Hops misses her team so much it's painful.
Nugget is as good as his word, he's been doing the job Zirconia gave him….He's gonna wish he hadn't by the end of this.
"If you finish that sentence it will be with a higher pitched voice" entirely warranted.
So the fact that Aefen is using her own people has finally been picked up on, which is evidence enough for Zirconia that Aefen is close to completing whatever she's doing, even if she doesn't know what it is.
Zirconia leads Gestalt-Prime on a wild goose chase somewhere, team NUGT sneak into Aefen's base whilst it's less guarded….It seems so simple that it's obvious something was gonna go wrong.
So, it's pretty clear at this point that Zirconia is not on Nero's team….But she's willing to be convinced either way.
That poor girl, she's so determined to not make the same mistakes that she with Athena-Jade that she's gonna make some whole new mistakes.
In Downward Spiral the Gojirex was my first Big home-brew Grimm and it was an absolute monster that Port and Team CFVY had to fall back from and call in an airstrike for; Team MARS are using one for practice….Granted it's a scaled down simulation but the point stands, these kids are bad-ass.
And of course Regalia is having fun.
Stitch and Regalia both struggle with the hard-light and nanobot projections because their Semblances just take them to the generator rather than give them something that would get a passing grade.
Just combo after combo here, the trick with the glyphs and rebounding explosives was cool.
Anime energy beams hitting each other in the most cliché way ever followed by the Godzilla reference; this is peak entertainment, a cinematic masterpiece.
Stitch got the kill shot just because he had to do something.
To be honest the fight itself wasn't that important at all, I just wanted to have Team MARS do something cool this chapter and it was a way to show how hard they're working whilst also setting up the talk with Wolfram to get them out of the academy.
Team WULF know Astra well enough to when they're getting tunnel vision and they know that the rest of Team MARS will get sucked in and dragged along with it, so they're being good friends and cutting it off early.
They would have said something….Or they would have meant to, but the problem is Pikesreach and Zirconia is personal to all of them.
"Oh come on, the price of candy at the movies is thievery in its' own right, I'm just stealing it back!" he is right and he should say it.
I am looking forward to a point where I don't need to keep doing these scenes without dialogue.
But once again here we are, seeing how Pantheon's assumptions and understandings of what's going on on the surface is informing their decisions and actions.
They've been quiet for a few weeks, building up some forces for a more direct conflict that's going to become steadily more focal through volumes eight and nine.
Synapse Grimm have the potential to be Chibi.
So the problem with Pantheon falling back and castling up is that there was never any guarantee that Gestalt-Prime and Nero were going to do the same and with Nero having to relocate so many of his people and change his plans it was only a matter of time before Cyber-Grimm stumbled on one of Pantheon's Spawning Pits.
What Pantheon is seeing here is actually basically what Nero promised the people of Remnant, Cyber-Grimm, mecha and trained fighter who aren't Hunters working in tandem to bring down the Grimm….The crazy part of his plans is just how well they actually work.
It was a Bull Frog Grimm, in a literal sense and I just couldn't bring myself to write that….So it got taken out by the Bugbear variant that we haven't seen too much of since Neo Vale.
So Pantheon is well and truly pissed now and is even more committed to war with Gestalt-Prime.
Even on Remnant the movies are full of reboots.
Regalia actually in a movie theatre has the potential for unlimited antics.
It was just a nice, pleasant evening to distract them from what's coming.
Okay seriously, life advice….Never drink the night before work, it's never worth it.
The civilians don't have to say anything, you know when someone is avoiding you or feels nervous around you.
Coral-mandated fun.
Stitch could absolutely hide AJ in his coat….But of all the height jokes, the one from Regalia was galling.
Astra had to be the one to get serious, but everyone is ready….or at least they think they are.
Who knows, maybe seeing Hops again will be good for AJ.
Okay but seriously, if you see an older person struggling with bags on public transport and you don't help or offer to give your seat I am giving you the most bombastic side-eye, you weren't raised right.
But yeah, they needed a sign that the people still have some faith in Hunters and hearing it from the family of someone who was a first responder when Port Alistair was breached makes sense.
From "I'm Astra Mars, I'm a Hunter….Kinda" in the very first chapter to here.
So basically Zirconia has used the fact that Aefen has been fiddling the role call and disappearing people to make her own fiddling of the role call look more believable and then used that as a pretext to bring Gestalt-Prime out on a wild goose chase to look for missing people that don't exist….All to give Team NUGT a window of opportunity.
It worked simply because, for all their talk Nero's faction understand that if the Kingdom comes for them in force they are actually fucked.
But obviously taking all that fear and doubt out into the wasteland was gonna have an effect.
Okay so here's the deal, Zirconia was an absolute powerhouse in this fight but she looked weaker because she was forced to play defensively and focus on keeping people safe rather than all out attack, she's also gotten so used to having Team MARZ with her that it's hard for her to learn to fight effectively on her own again….But then there's also just the difference in power between herself and Gestalt-Prime.
That laser is the one that ripped into one of the towers in Neo Vale, those Grimm never had a chance.
Which creates a problem….Hops really isn't gonna be able to distract them for as long as she'd like.
Nugget, smart enough to get himself into problems but not smart enough to get himself out of them.
Okay but seriously, did anyone actually think that he was going to get in and out? Was anyone convinced by the lack of resistance he saw on the way in?
Waving at the seemingly dormant security monsters is a cliché that pretty much always ends up with the person responsible getting mulched.
Aefen put screens up over her labs windows to keep him from seeing what was inside and then conveniently left her control room open; she may as well have left a sign saying "Totally not a trap".
…..And then he got himself electrocuted.
Y'know what Aefen was absolutely right to take the piss out of Nugget here, he deserved that.
I had the Man-eater kept around for a reason.
Of course I ended on a cliffhanger, of course I did.
Thank you to MajorBrony95 for their review on the last chapter.
Yeah Zirconia is in a rough spot...And trust me it's gonna get rougher.
Honestly this story should be an M, but M rated stories don't show up in the default feed...So I'm not changing it and that can be the sites' problem; I'm not gonna lose potential new readers over it.
Oh you think the plans are scary now, wait until you find out what it is Nero wants in Atlas.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.