Note: The penultimate chapter of Part 1 is here! Feel free to let me know what you think, both of this finale arc and Part 1 as a whole!
Three parallel strips of light above and the soft blue of the control panel were the only lights within the cargo ship's control room. The sounds from outside were muffled in the cabin's stuffy air, and the glint on the windows obscured the Grimm shadowing the flashing lights of the city. Of those in the cabin apart from Caspian and his friends, only Midas's team and two haggard-looking skippers were human. An Organd crew sat in the far corner, staring eerily ahead. Still, lifeless.
Caspian's focus settled back on Team MDLN. Bruises marred the side of Lavender's face, the beginnings of a black eye setting in. Desmond's uniform was shredded in several places. Were it not for his aura, he probably would have been bleeding as well. Midas walked up to his reinforcements with a slight limp, just enough to draw Caspian's unease. This was Sentinel's top team, with the possible exception of Team LSLI. The four of them had been roughed up badly, and Caspian could only imagine what would happen to three little-known first-years.
"Welcome aboard," Midas introduced. His signature grin looked pained, and he kept his weight off his right leg. His eyes flicked between the three. "Lazula's not coming?"
Caspian shook his head. "Something happened. I'm not sure what, but it sounds like she's done for today."
"That's a shame, hope she's alright," Midas replied. "But thanks for coming, all of you." He turned to the ship's control panel, then flipped a couple of switches. A holographic scale model of the ship, about six feet from bow to stern, bathed the room in its soft blue glow. With a flick of Midas's wrist, the outer shell and all of its simulated cargo dimmed, and the ship's snaking halls and deep holds illuminated.
"We fought Python and a few other Red Claw above deck for a bit, but she retreated below with them and isn't coming out anytime soon. This is a huge shipment of Organd parts, enough to fill the first four holds," Midas narrated, blocks toward the front of the holographic ship glowing red. "...Which means she's probably right here, underneath us. If the shipping data is correct, it's only about half-full. There would be more than enough space to fit a few faunus."
"This is that one woman you talked about before, right?" Moka chimed in. "Bald lady, with a snake tail?"
Caspian's eyes widened. He looked to Rowan, who apparently hadn't pieced it together yet. A bald woman with a snake's tail. Ski jump nose, black lipstick, heavy eyeliner. Happened to be a fan of Pit Viper.
"That's her," Midas affirmed with a quick nod. "She goes by the alias 'Python,' though her real name is unknown. She uses what I assume is her semblance in combat, some kind of telekinesis that she uses to manipulate three giant bladed disks. They're big. Heavy. Don't feel good when they smash into your hip."
"Alright," Caspian replied, nodding through his mounting anxiety. "How do we get to her?"
"The areas below deck have a gas-based fire suppression system to prevent water damage to whatever's in transit. It floods the hold with carbon dioxide within a minute," Midas continued. "One possibility is to start a fire somewhere below deck to activate it and force them out of there."
Caspian was taken aback. "...And if they don't get out in time?"
"We'll drag her out."
"Alive?"
"Do not start a fire on board," Headmaster Skye's voice interrupted through Caspian's Holoband, his sudden appearance and stern voice causing Caspian to flinch. "It's needlessly risky, and we want Python alive for questioning."
Caspian nodded. "It might be easier to fight her below deck anyway." He looked out the window. "The Grimm seem tied to the Red Claw somehow, but I'm willing to bet there are more outside than there are in the ship." He looked to Midas, then to the projection of his father. "...I-I think. I might be wrong..."
Midas turned the holographic ship in his hand. "If that's what we're doing..." he analyzed, looking over the dozens of simulated staircases and hallways. Even looking at the model, Caspian could tell they were narrow. "Looks like there's a staircase to the underdeck passageway toward the back of the ship," he announced. He stood, but winced and leaned on the edge of the command table. "Alright, let's do this!"
"A-Are you sure you'll be okay?" Caspian asked.
"I'm fine. My aura's still holding," Midas assured. "I let Python get away the first time we fought. I'm winning this rematch."
Lazula's glassy eyes mirrored the window of the airship lifting her from the bay. She had regained some of her composure purely on account of distance from the bridge, but still sat slumped against the wall, eyes vacantly following the black wings that screamed past. She had a splitting headache. It seemed as though every one of her muscles ached, and her skin was bruised and bloodied. Her chest hurt with only the slight movement of her breaths. She was almost afraid to look at the bruise the Beithyr's tail left across it.
Cars were still stopped across the bridge, but the few Grimm among them were being dealt with by her teammates, and the Organds closing in from each end. Echoes of gunshots and sirens still broke the night. Then, in the middle of it all, the van still smoldered. A glowing reminder of her failure. The one regret Lazula knew would follow her to her own grave.
"What's happening out there?" a man asked from over her shoulder.
Lazula lifted her head, and looked over her shoulder. Odd, she thought. Every screen in the city was interrupted by news of the attack. Plus, she thought the only ones in the ship were the Organd pilot and herself.
She was right.
Each of the seats behind her were empty. A disturbing thought caused her to break down again, lowering head into her hands. Was this the new normal?
A pulse of vibration from her wrist jarred her once more. Lilly was calling. No way she'd answer in her state. Her shaking finger prodded the red X, and she curled against the wall once more.
Lilly tried again. A sudden surge of emotion overtook Lazula- anguish, irritability, rage. With a sudden sharp breath that wracked her chest in pain, she snapped the clasp keeping her Holoband on her wrist, and cast it across the floor.
"LOOK OUT!"
The Red Claw grunt's pipe whipped through Caspian's hair, clanging noisily on the corner the faunus had jumped around. He tried to pull his weapon free, but the matching purple bolts of gravity dust fired from Moka's gloves locked together with decisive force. Caspian hopped aside as Moka rushed past him, landing an uppercut to the thug's stomach and kicking him to the floor.
"Thanks!"
"Stay sharp," Midas advised, pulling Resplendence from his back. The beautiful halberd beamed with static. "It's fair to say they know we're here." He nodded to his giant of a teammate. "Desmond. You take the lead."
"Got it," he affirmed. The gun mounted to his arm flashed with hard-light, forming a riot shield from the steel floor to his shoulder. The dust rippled like a puddle disturbed by rain as the rifle blasts of a second Red Claw thug glanced off the front. Caspian returned the shots with three of his own, which seized the faunus's muscles and dropped him to the floor.
A shriek from above ripped Caspian's mind from the momentary victory. He felt the wind of an immense pair of beating wings, and looked up in time to see talons outstretched. He tumbled out of the way with his teammates, and heard the Nevermore's claws shred the floor. The monster took to the sky yet again, Caspian's few successful shots lodging harmlessly in its feathers.
"I'll take care of that one," Midas offered. Resplendence folded outward as its owner twirled it in his hand, and held up his other to produce a shining arrow the size of a spear. He pulled back to a full draw as he followed the oversized raven, and the arrow fired like a heat-seeking missile, evaporating it in a single shot.
Moka looked less than impressed. Flame flashed across her fists, and she moved onto the pair of Beowolves tearing down the path perpendicular to the group. She moved aside as Rowan's energy beam left a hole in one's chest, and ducked under a swipe to blast the monster's jaw with a flaming uppercut.
More Grimm set upon the group. Desmond pressed onward to the back deck with his shield raised against the claws of Grimm and the Red Claw's gunfire. Midas launched arrow after arrow into the birds and beasts that passed overhead, as Caspian immobilized the faunus that accompanied them. Lavender of Team MDLN skipped around the containers with blinding speed, striking across the necks and backs of the Grimm her teammate Nikole had strung up with silver threads of razor wire.
"That must be the way down," Midas guessed, nodding ahead to a structure at the end of the deck. It looked to be no more than a metal shed, the window on its one steel door hinting at the darkness below. Caspian and the rest stepped out onto the aft deck, between the massive spools of chain and metal drums.
Silhouetted against the neon wall that was downtown, a hulking lion's body lifted up to the edge of the ship on a pair of black wings, letting loose a thunderous burst of a roar. Its claws pinched and crumpled the roof of the shed it perched upon, beady eyes glowing in the night.
Midas stared the beast down, his arm raised to the side in front of his team and Caspian's. Caspian didn't dare move. With a second concussive roar, the black wings of an eagle spread wide, and the beast shot into the air above the group.
"Go!" Midas shouted, his arm wrenching forward to beckon the huntsmen to the door.
Claws the size of Caspian's hand whistled past him as he dodged aside, following Midas and the rest to the door. His shadow danced in the vicious orange light that bathed the staircase as he approached, and as soon as the door slammed and locked behind him, it rattled on its hinges and the window shattered. Liquid flame sprayed forth from the slot, hand Caspian felt a hand grapple his coat between his shoulder blades, wrenching him away. Desmond's shield lit up as the flame smeared across it, rolling over itself and dribbling to the floor.
Caspian nodded his thanks, and continued down the stairs.
"MDLN really doesn't need me..." Caspian thought. "All I've done so far is get in the way. Midas expected Lazula, didn't he?"
The rickety metal stairs were steep and narrow. On each step down, the tip of Caspian's size 9.5 boot peeked over the tip. As they descended, the roar of machinery grew louder, and the sharp scents of oil and various chemicals grew stronger.
At the bottom of the stairs, the group moved in unison down the underdeck passageway, a narrow corridor with pipes and wires strung up parallel to the floor, intersected every few dozen feet by another narrow hall to their left.
Caspian jumped.
A tiny head contrasted with the harsh light of the corner it peered around. Perfectly round, and disturbingly far from the floor. A white disk covered the front of its face, three red dots forming a perfect triangle.
Grimm.
As Caspian transformed Undertow and aimed its barrel at the triangle, Midas paused and held his arm up again. Caspian lowered his weapon, but looked to Midas in question.
"Hold on. This one's weird," he advised. "It doesn't look hostile."
"What do you mean it doesn't?" Moka questioned. Her tail flapped from one wall to the other. "It's Grimm, isn't it?"
"It is, but it looks more... curious than anything."
The head stretched out around the corner on a rubbery black neck. Caspian raised his weapon again, finger resting on his trigger as it neared. He heard a strange droning noise, something like the static buzz of the lights overhead. Then, a series of gurgling clicks. The red triangle spun slowly before the head retracted, and Midas relaxed.
The rest of the creature came into view. Vaguely human, impossibly thin and twice the height of Caspian himself. Its gelatinous body hardly held its structure. Its body squelched and arms and legs bent and stretched as it dragged itself down the hall on gummy hands and feet until it was out of view.
The sight of the thing slinking away made Caspian's stomach turn.
"What was that?" Moka asked.
"I don't know," Midas admitted. He nodded ahead. "Let's go after it."
Rowan held Sanguine Storm closer. "I don't wanna be anywhere near that thing."
"I feel like it didn't fight us for a reason," Midas insisted. "Come on, let's go."
The presence of Midas and his team was the only thing to offer Caspian comfort as they continued down the passage. The creature- whatever it was, had disappeared. As far as Caspian knew, it could have been anywhere. And he was far less eager than Midas to trust it.
Midas stopped at an intersection between the main passage and an intersecting hall, pointing to the floor. On the pale white tile, three thick puddles of tar were left in a line, guiding the group around the bend. Thick windows made up most of the wall Caspian could see from where he stood. Far past them he saw a corner. One wall steel grey, and on the other containers were stacked five or six high, each easily ten feet tall.
"That's her, down there," Midas declared, looking out the window. He turned to the group. "Looks like there are stairs at the end of the hall. Get ready, she's a lot stronger than the rest of the Claw."
On the floor of the cargo hold, a dozen or so Red Claw members stood around with guns, bats, pipes, and other crude weapons in hand. In the center of them, and almost to the wall of containers, The Red Claw's 'Python' sat on a stack of steel cylinders about her own height across, and waist high altogether. Her arm was cocked in front of her with a holographic screen dividing her from the rest of her allies. But with a word from one of them, she looked to the door.
"Oh, gotta go," she spoke to the figure on the other end. "We have visitors."
Midas's shoes clanked on the steel floor as he strode forward with chin up, twirling Resplendence until it pointed ahead. "Members of the Red Claw," he addressed. "There's nowhere to run. Surrender peacefully, and we'll take you in without force."
"Well where's the fun in that, though?" Python teased. Her eyes settled on Caspian, and their whites widened between her heavy eyeliner. "You! Haven't we met somewhere before?"
Midas looked to Caspian in suspicion.
"Y-You were at the Pit Viper concert, weren't you?" Caspian questioned. He already knew the answer. She was unmistakable, after all. Leather jacket, now slashed three times at chest and back to reveal the scarlet cloth underneath. Black and white skirts stitched together haphazardly and layered between each other. Black platform boots to her knees, with a plethora of unnecessary buckles and chains. Her thick serpentine tail, scales patterned black and brown.
"Oh, yeah! That's where I saw you. I'm pretty good with faces, y'know."
"The world's biggest stage, huh?" Caspian echoed, recalling her words when the two last met. "That's why you're attacking now."
"That's right!" she recognized. "You did give the lead singer my regards, didn't you?"
"Stop screwing around!" Midas snapped, whipping Resplendence through the air in front of him. "And Caspian! Stop talking to this terrorist! She's trying to drop your guard!" He looked to his teammates. "Looks like she's not coming peacefully, then. You know what to do."
With a grin, Python hopped off the stack. She raised her arms at her sides, and a purple glow began to emanate from her hands. Her cylinders awoke, lifting off each other and the floor as they joined in the light. Blades the length of a dagger and the width of three pivoted out from within until the disks became a trio of massive sawblades.
Midas pulled the beam of energy forming next to his weapon to his chin at a full draw, and the fight broke. His arrow sparked on the steel Python gathered in front of herself like a shield, dissipating into the air with a flash. The shuffle of several bootfalls filled the cabin as the members of the Red Claw set upon the group. Sprinting in at Python, Midas shouted one more command.
"My team will handle her! Keep the others off us!"
Caspian nodded, transforming Undertow into a blade in his hand. Fifteen on three, he estimated. Not promising odds, but the best he'd get. As the group closed in on him and his friends, his training mission in Sunsett came back to mind. Only this time, his enemies weren't actors.
The impact of the first faunus's blade on his own sent a shock down Caspian's arm, but he managed to direct it into the ground and slash across the stag's exposed back with Undertow before ducking away from the tip of a spear wrapped in barbed wire and sparking with electricity. Undertow's tip flipped around and locked backward as Caspian unloaded a few shots into the haft of the attacker's spear, overloading it with energy and allowing Rowan a chance to bring the flat of his blade over the faunus's head.
Caspian returned to his first attacker, clashing blades twice before blocking the third with his armguard. With a quick transformation he fired an electric shot into his enemy's gut, and brought the butt of his gun down over his head.
Caspian heard the buzzing of a saw from behind him, and turned around with a start. A wiry blonde with a wild look in her eye and a monkey's tail ran at him with a buzzsaw, lunging forward with the weight of her weapon and swinging wildly at his neck. Caspian stumbled backward in a clumsy attempt to dodge, raising his gun with a shaky hand and firing another blast. In his panic, he missed. He jumped away from a second swing and began to backtrack, holding the woman and her saw at a distance and glancing to each side.
Over his right shoulder, a bat bore down on his head.
Caspian flinched as it crushed his armguard instead, and he fired another pair of shots into its owner's gut. As he turned back to the saw, Rowan blocked it with the side of his blade. He shoved outward and turned to sweep the faunus's legs out from under her, allowing Moka to secure her with a bolt of gravity dust.
As his friends jumped back into combat, Caspian glanced to Team MDLN's fight against the Red Claw commander. The hard-light of Desmond's shield threatened to crack under the weight of two strikes, and as Midas whipped the third aside with his weapon Desmond retracted his shield and pointed his arm forward, lighting the cargo hold with a volley of dust pellets. Python stepped back and commanded all three disks to rotate in the air in front of her, shielding her. She flinched and the disks dropped for a second as a shot from Lavender's bow met her side, and she turned to fling them at her attacker.
Lavender jumped nimbly from her place on the side of a container, taking down a Red Claw member with a double tonfa strike as she landed. Before she could look up from her prey, she took the full force of one of Python's disks. The attack sent her flying back, slamming into the shipping containers she had just perched upon.
"Lav!" Midas shouted. He nodded Desmond ahead as Python's disks bore down on his purple-haired teammate. Desmond shielded her from the blow as she gathered the strength to stand again, but had his legs knocked out from under him by another disk. Python leapt and lashed her arm forward, whirling the two weapons around once again to slam into Desmond's side, and crush him against the shipping container beside him. Its side crumpled on impact, and Desmond fell to the floor.
"You know, we really don't have a quarrel with you Sentinel kids!" Python goaded. "You really could just leave us to this, and we won't kill you!"
"Shut up!" Midas snapped. "We've got a quarrel with you, and we'll win it."
"Vytal Tournament champion last year, huh?" she teased with a cock of the head. She casually commanded one of her weapons to block Midas's arrow. "You must fight better with weapons than words."
Midas lowered Resplendence. Its tip folded in and it straightened back into its halberd form as he charged the commander. The blades of one disk tore through the air, but sparks flew as Midas whipped it aside with his weapon and sidestepped the attack, barely losing speed. Another came for his knees, and he leapt to plant a foot on it and bear down on Python from above. He ripped his weapon's axehead through the air with the full extent of his strength, tearing one of three sawblades from his enemy's telekinetic grasp. Her eyes widened as Midas stared her down from beneath his visor. His feet struck ground, and he lunged at her.
Back on the ground, Midas jabbed Python's stomach before pulling back and turning on the balls of his feet to leave several more spinning slashes across her chest, quicker than she could react. She finally regained her composure, closing her arms to pull her weapons toward the golden-haired huntsman.
Midas dodged the first and swatted the second away, then planted the tip of Resplendence in the ground and vaulted nimbly over the third. Python's smirk was the last thing Midas saw before her last weapon careened into a box protruding from the wall behind him, and a choking blackness descended after one final flash.
Caspian held Undertow with both hands to steady his blade, the only protection he had against the enemies in the dark. It was common knowledge that faunus, no matter the species, had the natural gift of night vision.
Caspian saw nothing.
The next seconds of the fight came in a series of flashes, the empty cavern lighting up with pulses of gunfire. The remaining Red Claw surrounded him and Rowan, ready to take full advantage of their blindness. Caspian held Undertow up to the last place he saw a faunus's blade, and heard a clashing of steel. With a flick of his wrist he disengaged his weapon and slashed the darkness. Judging by the resistance and a yelp of pain, he met his mark.
A crushing blow met the back of his head, and the blue of his aura flashed across the wall. His head spun, and he couldn't quite remember from which way the attack came. Behind his ear, his skull throbbed in agony with his heartbeat.
A bolt of electricity flicked wildly through the air in front of him until it tasted the faunus's steel pipe, and flung him to the wall.
"Cheap little trick," Moka grumbled. "Cas, Rowan! Stay near me!"
Caspian kept Undertow in front of him, slowly treading through the murk toward where he last saw Moka.
"Good, good, follow my voice," she instructed. He heard a gasp. "Hey, what-"
In the darkness, Caspian heard the sharp crash of steel on steel. Then, an unnerving rumble from ahead, building into a cacophony of clattering steel.
A vicious force slammed into his back, lifting him from the ground and slamming him back down what must have been a fair distance away. It began to shake as if an earthquake struck. From disturbingly close came the loudest noise he had ever heard. A series of blasts like a cannon going off next to his head, and an indescribable clattering of steel that rocked his core and assaulted his ears until he thought they could take no more. For the few seconds before he came to, he struggled for breath that wouldn't come.
He felt someone halfway on top of him. Their brawny bicep flexed on his side, and a set of abs as hard as the floor lay on his hip. Caspian had never been pinned to the ground by a Beringel, but in that moment he had some idea of what it felt like. He tore himself out from under the attacker, and held his gun up where their head must be.
In the yellow light of its barrel, Moka's eyes went wide.
"Cas! It's me!"
"Oh!" Caspian exclaimed. The two returned to darkness. "What just happened?"
"Python knocked over shipping containers!" Moka explained. "Now... oh no."
"What? What happened?"
"Well, the containers basically split the room in two," she said. "It's us and Rowan on this side, alone with Python."