Biohazard: The Hunter Chronicles
Chapter 1: Ash and Snow
Screaming. It was the only thing Jaune could hear now; the young, the old, families, soldiers... friends, it was all he could hear. The plan had been risky, they all knew it, but they had hoped it would be worth it when they everyone to safety. Jaune began running over the plan in his head as he tried to shake himself out of his daze. Sending team RWBY into the vault with Penny to retrieve the staff of creation, which was to be used as method of escape for the citizens of Atlas and Mantle. They were also supposed to use a loophole in the staff's rules to save Penny, it seems like they got that done. Making sure team RWBY infiltrated the vault without any resistance was left to Winter, Emerald, and his team. They ambushed Ironwood and subdued him while Qrow, Robin and Marrow dealt with the remaining Ace-Ops. Then his team was supposed to inform the public that the city was falling and that there was a plan in place to get everyone out. That is where things started to go wrong, the broadcast was cut off before he could tell everyone to go through the portals system created by the staff. Communications were also halted so they could not talk with the others. So Jaune produced the best plan he could at the time, and that was to use the portals themselves to inform the public.
He and Nora set about doing just that, going from portal to portal to spread the word, moving in and out of the central location where all the portals were connected to. It worked and civilians started evacuating. That is when everything changed, when Cinder attacked, blowing up families off the platforms to fall to the void beneath the golden network and paths of the portals. He did not see it, but he did hear it. People began screaming in terror followed by an explosion of flames jetting out of the portal he was escorting a small family to. All of them, including himself, were caught in the blast and sent flying through the air to impact against a wall across the street.
That's where Jaune was, currently slumped up against the wall while smoke and burning flesh filled his lungs. The sounds of screams and ringing grew in his ear as he tried to recover and shake out of the stupor that had taken over. He blinked once blinked once, twice, and finally on the third time did his vision stop being fuzzy. The huntsman got up and looked at the family he was escorting, their bodies were severely burned. The father was holding the mother and son in his arms, the woman was still partly on fire and the boy's neck was bent at an unnatural angle. His eyes stared emptily into the distance with a look of shock and terror on the part of his face that was not charred. Jaune bent down and closed the little one's eyes.
"I am so sorry." Jaune said with a heavy heart.
After spending a moment with the fallen family Jaune got up and took in his surroundings. He was outside on the streets of Atlas in a big courtyard that was heavily damaged from the manta bombing run. The military had tried to clear out the grimm that had breached the perimeter because of the enormous flying grimm whale. He could see lots of debris and craters as well as ash from the fires; he could feel icy frigid air that came from the heating grid being damaged from Salem's siege of Atlas. More importantly he heard the screams crying out for help, Jaune started heading towards the sounds mindlessly until something stopped him in his tracks. It was the sound of metal groaning under tremendous stress, he saw rocks on the ground shaking, he looked up to see skyscraper collapsing two blocks away and suddenly all the screams were snuffed out instantly. The ground beneath Jaune began shaking, he saw cracks begin to form in the road, he looked back up to see a wall of ash, dust and debris quickly approaching.
Jaune began huffing and puffing as he booked it for the portal he was originally trying to go through. The cloud overtook him in no time and began coughing and having trouble breathing because of the grey haze that surrounded him. He could still see the glowing gold and blue of the portal shining through like a beacon. He ran towards it; he was almost there when the ground began to crack underneath his stride and finally give way as Jaune fell through the street and into the inner workings of Atlas. Jaune hit some rubble on his way down and felt a crack from somewhere in his upper body, it was either his chest plate or his ribs. He hoped it was his armor. Then Jaune deployed his shield as a glider to slow his fall, thankful he had upgraded Crocea Mors. From this vantage point as his descent began to slow Jaune saw that a subway tunnel had partially collapsed leaving an opening in the ceiling. The knight glided his way to the opening and dropped into the tunnel; when he landed the huntsman took a moment to just decompress while he took deep breaths to try and calm his rapid heart rate, it was pounding in his ears. After a large exhale of breath with hands on his knees Jaune began to feel heartbeat calm down.
The reason he chose the tunnel and did not try to make it back up to the surface? He had been in the subway tunnels not longer than half a day ago after Oscar had blown up the grimm whale. Oscar had said it was to stop Salem from coming after them, that it would take some time for her to reform from that release of energy. Jaune took a moment to reflect on how crazy the past few days have been, hell the past ten minutes alone was nuts Jaune thought.
The party at Schnee manor, the heating grid in Mantle being shut down, aiding the military in evacuating civilians from Mantle to Atlas, being called back to Atlas, looking for Oscar, fighting Neo, losing the lamp to Neo. Running from soldiers because Ironwood declared martial law and decided Jaune, and his friends were fugitives because they did not agree with him. Oscar had run off to try something, fighting through soldiers to meet up with the others in a stolen manta airship, hunkering down in a bar that belonged to a friend of the happy huntresses. Oscar, being found down in the slums after searching, apparently had blown a hole through the bottom of a pit that fell into after being shot by Ironwood. The boy had failed to convince the general to stop this madness.
Being the peacekeeper between the team arguing over what to do. Nora went with RWBY and Penny to try to get a message out to the rest of Remnant while Yang joined him, Ren and Oscar to help where they could down in Mantle. Escorting civilians and clearing out grimm, getting a call for help on the other side of town. Grimm ran away in fear and then a freaking talking hound like grimm shows up and takes Oscar, going on a wild chase through the tundra, losing Oscar again! Hanging off a cliff, an argument breaking out between Ren and Yang, resting up in a shack while Yang fixed the hoverbike. Finding a river of grimm sludge making its way towards Mantle, his group trying to warn anyone about the danger, followed up by getting arrested by Winter and the Ace-ops.
Right after that Salem had made her move with her ginormous grimm whale, thanks to Ren they were able to convince Winter to let them go aboard the monster to find Oscar. Going through the fleshy and monstrous maze of corridors inside the whale, finding Oscar with Emerald of all people who helped them. Salem finding his group and then Hazel sacrificing himself to hold the witch while Oscar blew up her and the whale to kingdom come with Ozpin's cane. They Regrouped back at Schnee manor by going through the subway tunnels. When the entire team was back together in the mansion Ironwood announced his Ultimatum of blowing up Mantle if Penny did not cooperate with him. He did this by broadcasting the shooting down cargo ships that were going to evacuate citizens from Mantle to Atlas. That had pissed Jaune off. The rest of the team had argued over what to do while he was trying to help Nora recover from her injuries, after that Nora and Ren had a moment that he excused himself from. Ruby had figured out a temporary way to save Penny from the virus that was infecting her using his semblance. After that they all came up with the plan that led Jaune to be in this subway tunnel once it all went to shit.
All these events replayed in Jaune's mind as he ran down the tracks looking for an exit where he needed to go. Jaune knew of two locations of portals that he could get to; one was all the way at the start of the subway system and the other was in the Atlas Military compound which was closer. He chose the latter over the former by going down a maintenance tunnel that he worked in as part of a job he had taken on with Blake to find a missing faunus technician. He knew this tunnel went straight to the compound; Jaune ignored the "Authorized Military Personnel Only" sign and opened the bulkhead. The tunnel was pitch black, so the blond took out his scroll to use its flashlight to guide his down the path. He began to feel an incline as he continued following the signs on the walls until he came across a door that he couldn't open easily. He would need a keycard and Jaune was in too much of a hurry to double back to the subway. With this line of thought he used his semblance of aura amplification to amplify his strength while running at the door with Crocea Mors. He had to ram the reinforced door ten times while using the gravity dust in his shield while grunting with effort before slamming the door off its hinges.
What Jaune saw when he entered the hallway in the complex was concerning. All the lights were out and only the emergency lights were running. Everywhere he looked was flaring red as the lights oscillated between on and off all the while a klaxon siren went off. He saw scorch marks on the walls, blood on the floor alongside bullet casings tinkling as the knight moved past them in search of the communications room where he and his team had been in to try to warn the people about the evacuation.
"I just got to make it back to that portal and hope everyone has been evacuated."
Jaune picked up the pace as he went through the flashing red halls, the sound of his boots on metal echoing all around him. He started seeing bodies of soldiers and other essential personnel, he could not make out the finer details of their bodies. All he saw were shadows slumped against the walls or sprawled over the floor; his boots were beginning to become sticky and make squelching noises from all the blood pooling on the floor. He did his best to ignore the feeling while he trekked onward through the maze of corridors that was the Atlas military compound. He knew from the map that Winter had sent him that he was close to the communications room, he was almost there, he just had to hold on a little longer. The knight had reached an intersection and was about to go left when he heard groaning coming from the right.
He looked down the hallway and saw more of the same carnage he had seen on his way up here. He saw a slew of bodies there, all of them still except for one soldier who was breathing raggedly on the floor. Jaune went to him and check his injuries by first looking over his back, then he flipped the man over to see a few bullets had caught him in the abdomen that Jaune quickly tried to stem the flow of blood from the wounds. He tried using his semblance but found that the soldier had no aura.
"Dammit!" Jaune yelled in frustration.
"Aren't you supposed to be escorting civies?" The soldier spat out between beleaguered coughs.
"I kind of got detoured." Jaune said with a sigh after hanging his head low.
"Detoured! Detoured he says! You hear that, Connie?! The huntsman got detoured! I swear you hunters would wander straight into a grimm nest even if you had a map taped right on to your head. Isn't that right Connie?!" The soldier belted out while his helmeted head turned to the side while looking at another soldier lying against the wall without a helmet on. She had black hair tied up in a bun and brown eyes that did not really see; it looked like her throat had been slashed open as her blood had spilled down the rest of her armor and uniform.
"I was going to propose to her, she's from Argus, I was going to get down on one knee in front of the cineplex downtown after watching the new X-Ray and Vav movie. She loved those comics as a kid." The man went on as Jaune listened while ripping the soldier's uniform to use as cloth to slow the bleeding.
"I did not really get a chance to go through with it because of the embargo and Atlas closing its borders while calling the troops back. Things just seemed to get worse with all the stress and negativity down in Mantle. Then the elections happened and right after that were the riots. I was hoping for things to calm down afterwards that maybe I would get a chance to propose again; I wanted to give her the perfect fairy tale proposal. I think I wasted too much time planning on every little detail...now she's dead and Atlas is falling back to Remnant. I wish I could have another chance." The man said with a sigh of melancholy.
"I know the feeling." Jaune replied.
"Yeah? Who?" the soldier questioned.
"My partner, she died in the battle of Beacon." The soldier was silent for a moment while Jaune finished dressing up the wounds to the best of his ability with what he had on hand. The soldier grunted from the discomfort and then spoke again.
"Was it hard? You know... moving forward afterwards."
Jaune turned to look at the man's helmeted face and nodded. "It took some time as well as my team confronting me about my self-destructive behavior and a talk from a nice lady but yes. I am still standing; I am still here." Jaune said while tying up the makeshift bandages.
"What should I do?" the soldier asked despondently.
"The way I see it, you have two options. Stay here with her while waiting for the end or you can come back with me to the communications room and head to Vacuo. Where hopefully you can live on in her memory by trying to help people. The choice is yours." Jaune said while finishing the makeshift bandages, it wasn't pretty, but it would keep the soldier from bleeding out.
"What's your name?"
"Jaune Arc."
"Captain Hank Rivers." The soldier said while holding out his hand. Jaune nodded while clasping the outstretched hand and helping Hank to his feet.
"So, you made your decision?"
"Yeah, I'm not staying here but, I cannot leave Connie here. She deserves a proper funeral." The captain said while looking at her forlornly.
"Alright I'll help you carry her, but we need to get going." Jaune said while moving towards Connie's body.
"Don't, I will do it myself and besides, you got another job to do." Hank said while looking at all the death surrounding them. Jaune raised an eyebrow at this.
"And what is that?"
Hank then gestured to the massacre surrounding them.
"Cinder Fall, Arthur Watts and a pipsqueak with a parasol attacked and took over the command center. After that all communications were shut down, including that message about the evacuation that you were trying to get out to the civies." Hank said while looking down the hallway.
"I know Watts is still in there because Fall and the midget came back out. Fall said that they needed to hurry and hide with the civies. I don't know where they are, but I do know that you have a chance to get communications back up. You can warn anybody left of where to go; I know it's not much but at least it's something."
"Thanks for the heads up, I will take care of it." Jaune said while narrowing his eyes down the hallway, he had started moving towards the command center.
"Wait!" Jaune paused at Hank's request and then turned around to see the captain take his helmet off.
"There's a weapons locker in the command center. If you are going up against Fall, then you are going to need some fire power." Hank said while taking out a keycard.
"The locker has a three-step verification process to unlock. You need to be wearing the helmet which has a chip in it, then use the key card and finally input the authorization code. Mine is RT-1105-2013-HR." Hank said while handing over the mentioned items. Jaune, while holding the gear looked at Hank's face. Short brown hair, grey eyes and a bit of stubble on a pale face.
"Thank you." Jaune nodded and then put on the helmet, its heads-up display booting up and giving him all sorts of information.
"One more thing." Hank said as he took out a small black box and put it in Jaune's hand. The huntsman opened it to see a beautiful engagement ring within, and an expensive one at that. Jaune gazed back at the captain with a look of bewilderment while asking the silent question. Hank sighed while looking back at Connie's body.
"I know myself well enough to know that if I keep that... well I would torture myself over the possibility of what could have been... I don't what to do that. I want to honor her memory, not wallow in sorrow, you know?"
Jaune nodded while holding onto Pyrrha's sash wrapped around his waist and then to Crocea Mors.
"Besides maybe you will find more use for it than me." Hank added while moving to pick up Connie's body in a bridal carry.
"Promise me you will make that one-eyed bitch pay for what she's done, Promise me Jaune." Hank said in a low tone.
"I promise you that she will get what's coming to her. You have my word. Arcs don't go back on their word."
"Thank-you Jaune, Thank-you. Good luck huntsman and happy hunting." With that final word Hank turned around and began walking slowly towards the communications room while carrying Connie in his arms.
Jaune waited a moment before pocketing the engagement ring box and then headed towards the command center. Jaune clenched his fists while he passed by the fallen soldiers and other personnel. He wondered what their dreams had been for themselves? What inside jokes had been taken to their graves? What secrets had they kept hidden from the world? What were their names? Who were they? Were they like Hank and Connie? Did they have any families? Jaune would never know nor would anyone else in that matter. Their stories had been cut short and would be buried in the ruins of two cities alone in the cold tundra of Solitas. Someone was indeed going to pay.
Jaune arrived at the doors to the command center, and they opened automatically for him. The man in the chair with his back to him perked up at the noise and began turning around to look.
"I honestly thought you would take longer Cinder, consider me impressed just this once." Watts said in a smug mocking tone. He was about to say something else as he fully turned around to see Jaune but was cut off by gravity dust shield bash straight to the face. Watts tried to recover and get up, but the knight was not having any of it, so he bashed Watts in the face once more using his amplified strength thanks to his semblance. While the mustached man was wheezing Jaune picked up the disgraced scientist and slammed him against the wall.
"You helped destroy an entire kingdom, just because your project wasn't picked?! How petty are you?" Jaune bellowed with rage.
"It was so much more than that! I was never appreciated for all the work I did! I helped make Atlas what it is today and what did I get?! Nothing!" Watts growled out after spitting a globule of blood.
Jaune grimaced and held the man there with his forearm at his neck while repeatedly bashing the arrogant man with the edge of his shield until finally Watts' green aura shattered and disappeared in a shimmering haze while he let the man slump to the ground.
"Why didn't you just take it out on Ironwood, why involve so many innocents?" Jaune demanded.
"I tried to appeal to the council, I tried to a public petition, those sheep didn't care or were too afraid to rock the boat!" Watts spat out.
"And that justified your actions? You could have ruined Ironwood's career, made some scandal to discredit him or hell just shut down his prosthetics and killed him. No, you had to involve innocents in your vendetta, why?!" Jaune said with anger.
Watts chuckled.
"Hmm, tell me why you care so much about them? It's not like I hurt one of your little friends, unless you count Pietro's magical puppet!" The disgraced scientist snarled out the last part.
"This isn't about Penny; no this is about what you did with Tyrian on the election night!" Jaune seethed.
"If I do recall correctly, it was Tyrian who committed that massacre, take it up with him." Watts replied while grinning through bloody teeth.
"Don't worry I'm sure he will get what's coming to him, but I got to ask...Was it worth it? All those people you helped kill; the families torn apart; kids orphaned; not to mention the grimm attack that followed in the wake of the panic you caused!" Jaune question in an even tone.
"Yes, I do believe I-" Watts said before Jaune hit him once more with a mean sucker punch.
"If you are going to kill me then get on with it!" Watts said with venom in between pained breaths as his mustached face winced in pain.
Jaune brought his face down while lowering himself until he was able to look Watts in the eye.
"Well, what are you staring at you blithering idiot?! Do it! Bloody Do it!" Watts growled out before throwing a left hook which Jaune caught in his hand, Watts then tried to jab with his right which was caught by the knight's other hand. Watts tried to pull away, but the huntsman's grip was firm as he tried with all his might.
"I suppose congratulations are in order Doctor Watts... you succeeded in your plan. Here let me give you your reward." With that remark Jaune began to squeeze down on the fists in his grip. Watt's eyes widened.
"No don't-" The mustached man spoke before breaking out into a bloodcurdling scream as the huntsman broke and crushed the disgraced scientist's hands. The sounds of bones cracking and breaking were heard alongside muscles and ligaments squelching. Once the deed was done the huntsman stopped and dropped the ruined hands to the ground.
"I knew a lot of the kids that were orphaned that day from when I took them to school. That was for them!" Jaune spoke with conviction. Watts had stopped screaming and started hyperventilating as he began entering the first stages of shock. His eyes wide and staring at his misshapen hands. They had been absolutely mangled with the bone piercing the skin in some places, as well as beginning to turn an unhealthy shade of purple while they started to swell and bloat from the trauma. The pain was excruciating, Watts began shaking from the shock of the grievous injuries.
"I wanted to give you a taste of the pain and suffering you wrought on so many innocents... you can die like this in the kingdom you helped make and unmake. Congradualtions!" Jaune spoke in an even voice.
For Watts it was too much pain to bear, and he passed out from the shock. Jaune sighed and turned to the computer screens, where he saw two major things the mustached man had been working on. The first of which caught Jaune's immediate attention, he saw the camera feed inside of the dropship for the bomb heading straight for Mantle. He saw Qrow and Harriet fighting inside the cockpit as well as an alert that the ship had been set on autopilot. He also saw that the bomb had also been armed and that Watts had begun the countdown for it. In that moment Jaune made a snap decision, he knew he could not stop the bomb from here, Watts had made sure of that but maybe he could change where it blew up. With that in mind Jaune began typing the coordinates for the amity tower launch site, when he was done the computer asked for an authorization code. He only knew Hank's code, so he put it in and waited anxiously to see if it worked.
"Authorization Code accepted Captain Rivers." the computer said in a robotic voice. Jaune sighed with relief. He looked at the cameras inside the ship and saw Qrow jump out onto another airship with Harriet draped over his shoulder. He opened the camera feed for the other ship and saw that it had Robin Hill and the rest of the Ace-Ops. Jaune nodded to himself as he saw the dropship holding the bomb fly over Mantle's wall and out in freezing desolate tundra. Soon after he saw through the camera feed of Robin's ship and saw what that bomb could have done. He saw a massive explosion of light which turned into a menacing mushroom cloud that rose into the air followed by a shockwave that destroyed everything in its path. Finally with a terrifying sound of thunder amplified a thousand times, the cacophony was so loud it hurt Jaune's ears. It was terrifying, Jaune was even more scared by the fact that the bomb almost went off in Mantle.
Jaune shook his head to snap out of it and started to focus on the second thing Watts had done. He had shut down the broadcast system for the entire kingdom.
"I don't think he locked everyone out, it's just a matter of finding the right button or command, damn Atlas for making this interface so complicated!" After a frantic minute of opening and closing various things in the interface panel he came across the help command. He typed in 'communications broadcast system'. The screen showed a box asking him if he was lost and needed help. He entered the request of 'reactivate broadcast system'. The screen asked for confirmation of the request.
"Yes, please!"
The screens all around him lit up with the Atlas Emergency Broadcast System on display and a tone going off in the background. He hit the livestream function. He needed to warn those who remained. He took off Hank's helmet and he was caught off guard by the screen showing what he looked like currently. He was covered in grey soot and ash. He looked tired and his hair was soaked from sweat, his face was covered in drops of blood that had gotten on him from Hank. He brushed his hair back and wiped his face and then set about his task.
"Hello, everyone! I am putting in the coordinates for every evacuation portal out of the cities. You need to leave right now, or you are going to die! Travel light and brace yourselves for heat from Vacuo. This broadcast will be looped until the end. Atlas will fall and Mantle will be destroyed with it. Get out now!" Jaune made sure his message looped, at that moment his scroll vibrated. It was a call from Winter to the group chat that had been sent five minutes earlier, he only got it now because the broadcast system was back on. He listened to it.
"I repeat, is anybody receiving these messages? Can anyone report status on the evacuation?" Winter asked. The message ended after that. He tried to call her, but she didn't pick up; he was concerned. He remembered that Winter had said she would be heading to the vault when she was done with her part in the plan. With that in mind Jaune glanced around the command center looking at the lives lost of those who worked here; taken by Cinder, Neo and Watts. He sees a technician lying next to the weapons locker, they were sprawled out over the ground. Probably tried crawling to get some weapons before they were stabbed in the back. Jaune walks over to the storage unit while placing Hank's helmet back on, he follows the instructions laid out for him by swiping the key card and inputting the authorization code while a scanner looked over the helmet. The glowing blue display flashed green as the sliding doors hissed open and lights inside switched on. Before him was a sight that made Jaune grin. It was not just a weapons locker, it was a 'in case of emergency use this' type of locker. There were more than a few bug-out bags filled to the brim with things one would need to survive in a harsh climate. It was a heavy rucksack designed to be sleek like everything in Atlas.
He made sure that Crocea Mors was secured to his side. He put the rucksack on while buckling the strap around his waist to ease his burden; next he picked up a few compact gravity bolas and placed next to his shield grenades on his person. He ignored the various rifles as his eyes trailed to a rotary grenade launcher with a plethora of grenades it could use.
"Thank you, Nora, for insisting I learn to use your weapon." He chuckled and then began equipping himself with grenades for the launcher to use. He then took the grenade launcher in his hands; it was a sleek white and black just like everything in Atlas including his new rucksack. Before he left the command center Jaune cuffed Watts' legs to a metal pipe using a gravity bola so he would not escape his fate this time. Jaune then took a deep breath before he quickly moved towards the elevator that would take him to the vault of the winter maiden near the bottom of Atlas. He met a problem once he reached his destination. The way down was locked by an authorization code Jaune did not have access to. He shrugged then took several steps back and used Nora's authorization code. This consisted of just breaking a thing open with either brute force or an explosion... sometimes both. It was truly a tried and tested method that worked. It took more than a few tries using his new grenade launcher but eventually he made an opening in the floor of the elevator.
He at once jumped down the hole and let gravity do the rest, he could not deploy the glider function of his shield because the shaft was so narrow. The HUD of Hank's helmet was giving him a countdown to when he would hit the bottom; as he was bracing himself and his aura to soften the blow, he heard metal screeching on metal. He looked up as the helmet enhanced what he was seeing.
"So that's why you don't blow up an elevator, whoops!"
The flaming wreckage of the elevator was falling fast. He bent his knees while flaring his aura as he hit the bottom and rolled out of the way of impending doom. The crash let out a great explosion which sent him flying backwards further into the vault. The blue, white and gold circuitry running up the walls blurred past him, and his eyes landed on two figures who had stopped their fight due to the crashing elevator. Winter Schnee and General James Ironwood. Jaune reacted quickly and threw a gravity bola at the general's lower legs after which Winter knocked the glowing green cannon out of the man's hands. As soon as the general tries to get out of the gravity bola Winter pushes him back using her glyphs from her semblance. The once great general of Atlas lands near a ledge that has a long fall. At the bottom of this fall is a hole that Oscar had broken through just a couple of days ago after the general had shot him off the ledge. Ironwood snaps the bola apart and stands up; just as he's about to speak he is blindsided by a lightning dust grenade that electrocutes the man and fries all the cybernetic parts of him. He seizes up as Winter summons a small nevermore, the glowing white and blue grimm bird slams into the general sending him flying off the edge and down the hole. His body still locked up as lightning arcs all over him, he cannot scream or yell or do anything as his body falls out of Atlas and down below to Mantle. If he survives the fall, he will live long enough to see Atlas come crashing down on top of him.
Jaune stops his musings as Winter approaches, her white hair and eyebrows slightly singed.
"Jaune?"
"Yeah, it's me."
She then gestures to the way I looked asking for an explanation.
"It's a long story but the short of it is that Cinder and Neo are making a play for the staff. We need to get to the central location for the portals system." Jaune said while walking towards Ironwood's strange glowing green hand cannon.
"Does this thing pack a punch?" Jaune asked.
"It was designed to replicate Penny's lasers so yes it does. The general wanted a heavy upgrade for Due Process, his twin revolvers." Winter explained.
"Can you use it?" Jaune questioned.
"Due Process is still locked in place in the cannon so yes, I can." Winter replied coolly.
"Good, bring it and let's get going." Jaune said while nodding.
The huntsman and specialist then climbed the floating stairs leading to the vault door which was open showing an impossible thing. An endless expansive pasture of green grass and beautiful flowers. Right next to the vault door was one of the glowing blue gold portals meant to help people escape Atlas and Mantle. All thanks to the staff of creation. The two warriors looked at each other and then walked through the doorway together. What greeted them on the other side was pandemonium. Civilians screaming, crying and running down the golden sparkling paths in the black void all leading to a central large platform and larger portal that Jaune knew led to Vacuo. A large crowd of civilians gathered on that platform. He saw that huntsmen and soldiers were doing their best to help guide them down the path.
Jaune zeroed in on one of the connecting platforms for the paths. There standing against Neo and Cinder were Ruby, Weiss, and Blake, with Penny behind them guarding Yang who was lying on the ground. Winter saw this as well.
"I will take Cinder, Arc you take Neo, we shoot from afar and then close the distance. Am I clear?" Winter ordered without taking her eyes off the situation.
"Crystal"
Both then moved to a better vantage point and took aim with their big guns. Jaune waited for Winter and the hand cannon to charge up. Cinder and Neo were slowly taking their time walking towards his friends, enjoying the malice and vengeance. He saw Neo had the relic of knowledge, the golden and blue lamp resting on her waist while Cinder had the staff on her lower back in a compact form.
"Ready, on my mark. Winter said. Jaune nodded beside her and steadied his breathing to line up his shot.
"Fire!" Winter hissed.
Jaune shot a glowing purple gravity dust grenade at Neo which exploded in a vibrant violet shockwave that halted her from moving. Cinder was hit with an intense neon green laser which must have been painful from the amount of screaming she was doing. Jaune then dove alongside Winter of their vantage point to close the distance. Jaune flying tackled Neo off the platform while Winter dueled with Cinder alongside Ruby, Weiss and Blake. In his fall to another path, he saw Penny with Yang in her arms flying towards the portal to Vacuo. That was good, exceptionally good.
Jaune and Neo fell onto one of the many sprawling golden paths and began grappling while rolling over each other on the pathway. Her pink and brown hair about wildly while her similarly colored eyes stared with murderous intent at Jaune. She was clearly better in hand to hand than Jaune ever would be, so he decided to even the playing field. As Neo was straddling the knight poised to end him with her blade, Jaune shot a point-blank fire dust grenade at her chest. The explosion sent Neo airborne right onto a lower platform while the lamp landed on another pathway far from either of them. Jaune meanwhile was rolling on the ground trying to put out the fire the flames on him from the blast. Once that was done, he looked around in pain and saw Neo struggling to put out the fire on her. Her pink aura broke while she finally snuffed out the blaze; her black, pink and white outfit was charred and smoking. She glared at him while limping towards the Vacuo portal.
He then heard Blake screaming out in pain. He looked above him to see the platform where the fight was going on and could see flashes of light alongside the sounds of Crescent Rose's sniper rifle function going off. He could not make the jump on his own, nor could his shield's glider function help. He looked down at the grenade launcher in his hands.
"Three shots left, two if this works. Well, it's time to make Nora and Ruby proud!" Jaune says and then takes a running leap off his platform's edge while shooting his last fire dust round from his grenade launcher behind him. The explosion propels him just enough that he can barely grab onto the other platform. As he takes a second while dangling to swing his leg to hook the ledge, he then pushes himself up and rolls onto his back. He gets up to see Blake on the ground unconscious with Weiss defending her; Ruby and Winter are tag-teaming against Cinder who is on the back foot in a tremendous display of speed and skill. Ruby using her semblance was a blur of rose petals while landing slashes with Crescent Rose. Winter was closer to him but remained stationary to focus on her beowolf summons that were preventing Ruby from being hit by Cinder who was snarling in frustration.
He looked around and saw it was just them left in the central location, everyone else who have evacuated were in Vacuo now, including Penny, Yang, Neo and the rest of his team. He saw some bodies that were lying still on the paths; they looked like they had been trampled in the panic. He wondered how many fell, he didn't want to think about that. He is brought out of his dark thought from the sound of Cinder screaming, he looks to see her on her knee clutching her grimm arm as it seems to move about unnaturally and sporadically. Ruby and Winter pause to see what it meant. Cinder breaths slowly and then with a hoarse voice speaks.
"She's back!" And with that it was like a switch had turned on in Cinder. She threw up a wall of fire that exploded outward. It pushed Ruby closer to Weiss and Blake while shoving Winter next to him. Out of the inferno stretched Cinder's grimm arm that punched Ruby hard enough to shatter her crimson aura into glittering motes of light. A fireball was then launched towards Ruby that never hit because a glowing blue forcefield had taken the impact generated by Jaune's shield grenade which he had thrown. Cinder then looked to Jaune and narrowed her amber eye.
"You!" she spat out with venom.
"Me." Jaune agreed but then was taken by surprise when her grimm arm slashed his helmeted face. Deep gouges formed as the claws raked their way diagonally through the helmet and across Jaune's face. The knight screamed out through the pain as he felt blood pouring from the wounds. The claws had just barely missed his eyes by a fraction of an inch. Through the new openings made from her claws, Jaune stared at Cinder with contempt, ocean blue met flaming amber as their gazes met. She stared back with glee with then turned to pain as Winter slashed through Cinder's retracting grimm arm. While she was writhing from the intense agony as grimm arm grew back in a haze of smoke, Jaune readied his grenade launcher. Cinder turned towards the specialist; Winter was charging up the laser for Due Process.
Cinder snarled and was about to charge the white-haired woman but was stopped in her tracks by the exploding gravity dust grenade. A deep dark purple haze surrounded the dark-haired woman who dropped to her knees from the extra force of gravity multiplied. Jaune followed up with his last grenade in his launcher, a lightning dust round. The result was Cinder shrieking like a banshee as all he could see through the violet cloud was golden arcs of lightning illuminating her thrashing body. Her wailing intensified when Winter fired from Due Process. The glowing green beam cut through the dark miasma around Cinder which was slowly fading at this point. The mechanisms for Due Process' attachment began to glow orange and melt from the prolonged use aided by Cinder amplifying the process using her semblance. Winter, seeing this stopped the beam and unlocked the twin revolvers from their upgrade. The laser cannon mechanism fell to the ground in a deformed metal lump.
Winter and Jaune both looked to see Cinder slowly rising shakily to her feet, her aura flickering. Jaune was not having any of that and so mecha-shifted his grenade launcher into its compact form then attached it to his waist. At the same time, the huntsman deployed Crocea Mors into its shield form and drew his sword from it. He then charged Cinder before she fully recovered by striking her head with his shield and followed up with three slashes. One across her regular arm, the second across her thigh and the third slash across her chest which broke her orange aura. Without any hesitation Jaune sent a thrust through Cinder's torso. Blood and black sludge poured from Cinder's mouth which turned into an unhinged grin as she pulled herself further upon Crocea Mors' blade. She got close enough that the two of them were eye to eye and could feel each other's breath.
"Tell me Jaune, do you believe in destiny?" She rasped out between globules of dark blood. Jaune frowned and narrowed his eyes.
"Yes." The knight said with gritted teeth.
"Good, because you can't have my life, nobody can!" She spat out before Jaune saw the staff of creation on Cinder's back glow blue.
"What did you do?" Jaune questioned but he never got his answer as the fall maiden just smirked; Jaune's vision went white and then black as he felt a searing pain envelop him.
…
Winter gasped as a massive explosion engulfed Cinder and Jaune just as the platform beneath all of them disappeared into nothingness. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Jaune, Cinder and herself fell into the void. Winter saw the portal network and pathways slowly began to disappear as well starting from where the eruption had occurred. She saw the staff of creation fall from Cinder's flaming corpse, sinking further into the abyss. She saw Jaune's limp body, sword and shield still gripped hard in hand, she dove down faster to catch up to him. She zoomed past bodies of civilians that fell as the network continued disappearing; she saw the relic of knowledge fall beside her and then faster than her. The lamp and staff circled each other as golden and blue flames surrounded the relics. She finally made it to Jaune and clutched him to herself, she felt him breathing which was good even though he had some burns on him. Winter looked up to see Weiss atop a large summoned nevermore, in its claws were Ruby and Blake safely tucked in. Weiss was trying to get to herself and Jaune, but the specialist knew she was too far away. She yelled out with a hoarse voice and tears in her eyes while shaking her head.
"Don't bother, it's too far! Get to the portal now or you won't make it! I love you Weiss, I always will, now go please sister!" Winter finished with a choked sob.
Weiss, with tears in her eyes, nodded and pulled up her summoned creature from its dive. Winter sighed with relief as all three of them made it through the Vacuo portal just before it disappeared into golden sparkles. Still holding onto Jaune's unconscious form she glanced around and felt the weight of her failure. She saw the bodies of trampled civilians and a few soldiers of Atlas. She should have been better; she should have questioned the general more about his actions; she should have expressed her concerns and emotions instead of following orders like a machine; she should have done a lot of things, but she didn't. These were the thoughts running through Winter's head as she and Jaune continued falling through the void. She then sees glowing orbs of light in the darkness as she zooms past some of them. She sees more of them either appearing from or coalescing into a bright shining cloud below. Just as she wonders what is going on, she sees the relics surrounded by a golden and blue blaze sink into whatever this cloud is. Then a wave of light explodes outward from where the relics had sunk. The light reaches her, Jaune and all the bodies in the void, it is blinding. She held on tighter to Jaune and made sure she would not let go.
The light disappears and Winter opens her eyes to see a strange energy or force envelop her and Jaune's bodies. She gazes into the distance to behold the same thing happening to the bodies from the void except they were much farther away and getting farther. They looked like comets streaking across the night sky. She looked below her and was alarmed, snow covered ground was coming up to meet her and Jaune. Realizing what was about to happen, Winter put up multiple glyphs to slow down their descent. Their bodies broke through all of them slowing down their velocity enough that the impact was not life threatening. It still resulted in her white aura breaking as she took the brunt of the impact. For the first time in a while Winter Schnee felt the cold as she lay in a crater of the icy terrain with Jaune. She felt the cool wind upon her face, she stared up into the cloudy night sky, she could not see the stars. The clouds above her were grey with snow beginning to fall as the moon shined brightly while clouds moved past its whole face.
Winter sat straight up at that thought, the moon was shattered into many pieces, it was not whole! But true enough as a gap in the clouds appeared once she saw that the moon was whole. She did not understand why. It did not make sense; she took out her scroll, but it was dead which should not have been possible because she had half her charge left when she was in the vault. She was then reminded of the cold and snow as Jaune began to shiver; she put aside thoughts of the strangeness of her circumstances. She took stock of the situation and both Jaune and herself had.
Her shock returned when she tried to set up a fire using some supplies from Jaune's rucksack. All their dust was inert, Winter knew what that meant, how could she not? When she had been the heir to the SDC she had been given access to the company's records including old projects. Such as 'The Horizon Initiative' which had been a joint venture between the kingdoms and the company to set up a geo-synchronous orbiting system of satellites. The goal was to create a worldwide network that anyone could use that could not be destroyed by the grimm. The project was considered a failure since it was discovered that dust became inert and unusable once it left Remnant's atmosphere. The research also showed that once dust entered back into the atmosphere it would become active again. The dust Winter had before her was still inert and that meant She and Jaune were no longer in Remnant's atmosphere. They were on another world, another planet, one that had its moon intact. Did this planet have life? If it did, would those lifeforms be curious enough to see what had fallen from the sky? Winter suddenly did not feel very safe right at this moment. She moved over to Jaune's shivering body and took off the damaged helmet and saw the deep gashes across his face.
"Jaune, I know you are cold, hurt and tired but I need you to get up. It's not safe here, we need to move." She spoke quietly to him. Winter saw his eyes briefly open as he groaned in pain and shuddered.
"What's going on? Why does everything hurt? Why am I so cold? Where are we?" Were his rapid questions as he slowly got up.
"I don't know where we are, but I do know we need to get going, it's not safe here and our auras have not regenerated." Winter said while looking through the rucksack.
"Why isn't it safe here? Besides the ice and snow, it looks like we are in the tundra of solitas." He said while looking around.
"It's not safe here for a few reasons, one our dust is inert, two look at the moon and three I will explain once you are done with two." The white-haired woman replied.
"Oh... does this mean what I think this means?" The knight questioned.
"Yes." Winter said curtly.
"You think something is out there?" Jaune asked with concern.
"Yes." Winter sighed aloud.
"What's the plan?" He asked with falter.
"We move as quickly as we can, find a place to lie low, wait for our auras to return to heal us. Then we do some scouting to get a lay of the land, regroup and plan according to the added information we have gathered. Understood?" Winter went over the plan while still searching through the rucksack.
"I understand... did the others make it?" Jaune asked quietly. Winter paused and then looked at the huntsman.
"Yes, they made it to Vacuo; how is that?" Winter asked while gesturing to his face.
"It still stings and burns but at least it stopped bleeding, I'm glad I didn't lose an eye." Jaune said after a quick breath.
"I'm surprised you're still standing much less talking, your aura and armor must have taken the brunt of that explosion."
"It is severely damaged and warped, probably not offering much protection right now. Still, I don't want to toss it away, it means a lot to me." Jaune says while looking over his person.
"You won't have to; you can put the damaged pieces in the rucksack since I'm taking stuff out." Winter said while looking over the items in front of her.
"What stuff?" Jaune asked with curiosity.
"This stuff." Winter said while pointing at two pairs of blankets along with some ration bars.
"We each got an emergency blanket thermal blanket and woolen blanket; it will help us keep warm until our auras come back. The bars will keep us going for a while." Winter added.
"What about water?" Jaune asked while looking at the blankets.
"We got a few bottles but once that rubs out, we can melt snow in the metal canteen once we get a fire going. And yes, I know how to make a fire without dust." Winter said with a huff.
"Good me too!" Jaune said smiling while picking up one of the bars.
"Soldier Fuel! Now comes in peanut butter!" Jaune says sarcastically before taking a bite.
"It's chalky and chewy, I can't believe the military made you guys eat this." Jaune complained.
"It is what it is, at least it will give us a lot of energy." Winter said while eying the bar.
"Yippee!" Jaune whooped.
Once they finished their impromptu meal and packed up the rucksack, they then wrapped themselves in the blankets to stay warm.
"Alright let's move out." Winter said. They then started their trek to find a place to lie low. Their plan was short lived as they came across a paved highway. Winter bent down to inspect the road.
"I guess there is intelligent life on this planet, that's concerning." Winter was cut off from her musings as she saw a freight truck rumbling down the road. She looked at Jaune and before she could say anything the truck's horn blared and started flashing its lights. The truck and its cargo came to a stop in front of them both, tires squealing in slush on the road. Winter and Jaune tensed up as they heard the driver's door open and shut followed by bootsteps on pavement. They were bewildered to see an older man with a great bushy beard bundled up for the cold walk around the truck.
"Good lord, you two look like you've been put through the ringer! Y'all all right?" The bearded man drawled with a heavy accent neither Winter nor Jaune could place. They were still shocked that this other planet they were on had humans and even more shocked that they spoke the same language.
"Damn must've been something fierce, y'all look exhausted and what in the Sam hell clawed up your face boy!" The bearded man said after looking at Jaune. Just as Winter is about to speak the man talks again.
"Ya knows what? It doesn't matter, y'all look miserable and here I am jabbering up a storm! Any who let's get y'all out of this damn cold." With this the bearded man opens the passenger side door and gestures for them to hop in. Winter and Jaune hesitate for a moment which is enough for the man to realize what was wrong. He holds up his gloved hands in a placating gesture.
"Oh, I'm such a dumbass! I know how this might look but I'm not going to hurt you or do anything. My name is Murphy Gallager, most people call me Murph, and I'm a shipment driver for Sysco. I deliver restaurant supplies to some of our clients in the city. I just got back on the road after fueling up the tank at the Mizoil gas station when I saw y'all thanks to those reflective thermal blankets. I promise y'all I just want to help." The now named Murph said with sincerity. Murph then held his hand out. Winter and Jaune look to each other before nodding. Both shook the bearded man's hand and introduced themselves.
"Winter."
"Jaune."
"Well nice to meet you folks, now let's get back on the road, I will drop y'all off in the city!" Murph drawled once more before all three of them got into the cab of the truck. Once the truck got moving again and everyone was settled Murph asked a question.
"Mind me asking what happened to y'all? Jaune there looks like he got mauled by a cougar." Murph gestured with concern.
"We were out on a camping trip; everything was fine until we were attacked by a cougar while on the trail, we managed to get away but uh... we got caught up in the storm." Jaune answered.
"It's been a rough day." Winter said with a sigh.
"I can imagine, well y'all don't need to fret anymore, we are almost there. Not much longer now, look." Murph pointed out the window. On the side of the road was a green and white sign. It said:
Welcome to Raccoon City. Home of Umbrella.
End of Chapter 1: Ash and Snow.
Biohazard: The Hunter Chronicles
Author's notes: This is a RWBY/Resident Evil Crossover with elements of other stories thrown in. I will be using a mix of canon from the Resident Evil franchise with my own twist on it. This story was inspired by "Biohazard: Knight Chronicles" the fanfic by Maurderbarriers. That story has not been updated in a while and well I got tired of waiting, so I made my own. I want to explore the universe of Resident Evil through the eyes of Jaune Arc and Winter Schnee and what impact they can have. I hope to explore a bit of the civilian perspective with this story as well as other perspectives that aren't really shown in the games. This chapter took me a total of almost two months to finish when I was not at work. I am going to pace myself with this story, so I don't get burnt out and you all aren't left with a cliffhanger. I will try to get a chapter out once a month or if not once every two months. Please review and offer feedback as well as your thoughts on where you think this story will go. Thank you and have a lovely day!
Professor-MAD