The next few days felt so very surreal to Evan. Each moment seemed to stretch on and began to blur together to the point where it was hard to remember even what day it was. The only things that he recalled vividly were the orders constantly yelled out by Cordovin, his single minded drive to keep going, and his palpable exhaustion.
Not even sleep was able to give him a brief respite from the chaos. Either his time to rest was gone in the blink of an eye, or he would merely just lie in his bed while his mind buzzed with a million disconnected thoughts and feelings.
At the sound of a nearby trumpet, Evan left the room, and began walking down the corridor. His body moving almost on pure instinct, Evan's eyelids dropped down as he continued forward. Barely able to put the effort in to shake this blanket of drowsiness that had fallen on him, Evan almost nodded off until he heard the sound of a familiar little bell ring out. Looking around, the teen found himself within Joe's coffee shop, with said owner staring back at him with a look of confusion on his face.
"Is…everything alright?" Joe asked.
"Wha…Oh. Yeah…Yeah, I'm fine." Evan replied back, his voice low and barely audible as he stumbled toward the countertop.
"Your usual, I imagine?" Joe inquired.
"At this point…give me the toughest drink you have." Evan stated as he removed his helmet.
"Are you…" Joe began to say.
"Yes. Just…please…I need it." Evan interjected with a desperate look in his eyes.
As the machines rumbled to life, Joe quickly got to work. The air filled with the strong smell of coffee beans as Joe reached for a plastic cup.
Passing Evan a small cup of coffee, the teen quickly snatched the drink up and chugged it down in one go. The drink was horrendous, almost reminding him of the taste of bile. Forcing himself not to spit the concoction back out, Evan swallowed it down. After doing so, he felt the energy given by the drink immediately begin to recede and diminish, almost as if it was never there to begin with.
Upon finishing it, Evan looked back up to the man, hoping for more, only for Joe to stare back with an almost sorrowful look and silently turn the machine off.
Letting out a sigh, Evan stood up and walked toward the door, tossing the cup in the trash. Right as he began to open the door though, Joe's voice ringed out.
"You're not alone, you know." Joe said aloud.
"What are you talking about?" Evan questioned.
"You act as though you're on this one man crusade, but you're not. No matter how hard you try, you can't be in two places at once." Joe argued.
"I would never let it come to that." Evan stated bluntly.
"Humor me. Just like everyone else, you are limited in what you can and can't do. Try as I might, I can't learn to breathe underwater. Now, we can either self-destruct and let that aspect of life tear us apart, or we can choose to accept a helping hand, even if we don't think we need it." Joe continued.
"Why are you telling me this?" Evan asked with confusion.
"Because I can't bear to keep watching someone self-destruct, especially not the way you are." Joe said with sadness in his voice.
"I've decided that I'm cutting you off. If there's a way through this conflict of yours, it won't be because of me. You are welcome to come by and talk anytime, but I'm not going to serve you anymore." Joe explained as Evan took in the news.
"That's fine..." Evan replied back as he opened the door.
"I wasn't planning on coming back anyway." Evan thought to himself, as he could already feel the extra energy he just received vanish from his body.
"Hey Joe." Evan said as he turned back around toward the shop owner.
"Thanks…for everything." Evan finished with a melancholic look on his face as he put his helmet on and let the door close behind him.
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As the motorcycle rattled along the dirt paved pathway, Blake held her arms around Yang's waist as the duo sped down the road.
Amidst the thick tree line, Blake could now just spot a metal spire, standing tall and proud.
"Ok, you can turn it off." Blake ordered out, causing Yang to stop the vehicle and switch the engine off.
"You really think you can pull this off?" Yang asked with concern on her face.
"So long as I'm careful. It's been a while since I've had to dust off some of my old White Fang tactics, but I should be fine." Blake replied back as she got off the motorcycle, showing off an all black ensemble.
"I'll be in and out before any guards realize I've destroyed the radar box. Once Weiss and Maria are able to grab the ship, we'll need to rush over quickly to the pickup spot before Cordovin realizes what we've done and retaliates." Blake added as she wrapped a black cloth around her face and hair, leaving her eyes as the only things left uncovered.
"What about Ruby though? I get that this is pretty much our only option, but I don't know how she's going to handle all of this." Yang said with a unsure look on her face as she crossed her arms.
"Yang…" Blake began to say with a sympathetic look on her face.
"I get that we've straddled the line between what's technically legal or not in the past, but Ruby's always been a bit more…idealistic about things. It's part of why she wanted to be a huntress in the first place. So the fact that we're straight up stealing Atlas property…" Yang explained as she leaned against her motorcycle.
"I'm just worried, that's all." Yang finished as Blake approached her.
Cupping her hand around Yang's left cheek, the two looked at each other's eyes.
"That's why Ruby's going to be the one to give the signal. I know Ozpin wants us to get to Atlas badly, but Ruby is our leader. It's down to her whether we go through with this or not. You said it yourself, whatever she decides, we'll back her up." Blake said softly.
"Thanks Blake." Yang replied back with a smile.
Pulling out her scroll, Yang started up a call.
"Ruby, are you there?" Yang asked.
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Eyeing her scroll, with a time of 1:30 PM displayed on the screen, Ruby fidgeted with the device as she looked toward Weiss.
"They should have called us already. What if they got caught? What if they're in trouble? Do you think we should?"
"It will be fine Ruby. Just relax." Weiss added with a look of assurance as she held onto the handle of a sizable rolling suitcase.
"Are you ok in there?" Weiss questioned, keeping her voice down.
"I'll be right as rain once I'm out of this blasted thing, and behind the wheel of that airship." Maria announced, her voice now muffled from being within the suitcase.
As Ruby and Weiss looked out to the long road leading to the military base's front gate, Ruby felt her scroll start to vibrate. Seeing Yang's portrait come up, Ruby almost dropped the device as she responded to the call.
"Ruby, are you there?" Yang's voice called out from the phone's speakers.
"Y-Yeah, I'm…I'm here, sis." Ruby muttered out as she brought the phone up to her ear.
"Cool. Blake and I are all set to go. What about you and Weiss?" Yang asked.
"We're…good." Ruby said as she wiped sweat accumulating on her brow.
"Ok. Just let us know, and we'll get started on our side." Yang stated.
"Um…I don't…I don't like this, sis." Ruby continued as she forced herself to spit her thoughts out.
"This isn't something we would've liked to do, but Cordovin's not giving us a choice." Yang argued.
"There's always a choice!" Ruby exclaimed.
"If we do this, how are we better than Cinder when infiltrated the CCT Tower, or when the White Fang snuck Grimm into Vale!?" Ruby yelled out.
"Those…those aren't the same. We're trying to help humanity." Yang said, her voice wavering slightly as she did so.
"So we're just doing the wrong thing for the right reasons? I thought as huntresses, we're supposed to help the world, not make it worse. If we do this, where does the line between what's acceptable and what's not end for us?" Ruby pointed out as she the air filled with silence for a brief moment.
"I'm…I'm calling this off. That has to be some other way we can get the lamp to Atlas. I'm sure of it, and I don't care what you'll say, I'm…" Ruby proclaimed.
"We're with you sis." Yang simply stated.
"What?" Ruby questioned with confusion on her face.
"If that's what you want to do, we'll do it. Isn't that right Blake?" Yang added as the sounds of movement could be heard from the scroll's speakers.
"Of course." Blake said aloud.
"But…but I thought you'd said that there was no other way. Ozpin said…" Ruby tried to argue back.
"What does Ozpin know about anything? I care about what you think a thousand times more than his opinion." Yang announced.
"If there is another way to Atlas, we'll figure it out together." Weiss added as she placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder.
"In that case, I suggest you and Blake get back over…" Ruby began to say as suddenly a massive BOOM rang out from the frozen coastline, sending sand everywhere in the process.
"What was that?!" Yang yelled out.
Rushing up to the road's end, Ruby pulled out her scroll's camera feature as she zoomed in on what just impacted with the empty beach.
"Is that?" Ruby questioned only for a guttural roar to fill the ocean air.
As the two huntresses looked toward the sea, their expressions shifted to one of shock and surprise.
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Checking the time on his visor's screen, he noticed the time was about 11:30 PM, or was it 1:30 PM? At this point, the teen was too tired to think about something like that.
Regardless, Evan continued his flight above the ocean.
"The coordinates for the next spot should be right around…" Evan thought to himself as he saw something bursting above and below the water's surface.
Wishing to investigate, Evan approached the beast, only to realize its identity.
"A Sea Feilong? Haven't seen one of these in a while. Of all the days that I had to run into one of these beasts, of course it had to be this one. Can't just let this thing wander free though…" Evan contemplated as he fired a Ki blast off.
Striking the top of its bony head, leaving a black scorch mark, the creature emerged from the water. Its black body was covered in white plates of bone with glowing red gills on its back and chest. Both of its eyes shined a bright yellow light as it roared at him.
Opening its massive maw, electricity began to spark and gather within its mouth. Flying to the left, Evan watched as the monster let loose a massive electric beam which began to gain on him as the creature turned its head. Flying upward, Evan narrowly dodged the attack as the beast began to charge up another blast.
Charging a Ki blast in either hand, Evan flew up and into the sky. Looking down, Evan saw its back open up to reveal twin black and red wings. Flapping them fiercely, Evan was propelled backward, getting sent further up and into the sky. Refusing to back down, Evan channeled more Ki into his hands as they each began to arc and shine even brighter.
Closely examining the beast's mouth, Evan barreled down toward the Grimm. As the monster let out another electric attack, Evan sidestepped the beast's attack. Examining the beam's intensity as it began to slowly dwindle and dissipate, Evan continued to dodge and push himself to channel even more energy into his hands while continuously avoiding the Grimm's attacks.
Seeing the monster's laser finally stop, Evan charged straight toward its mouth. As the beast opened its maw to try and swallow the young Saiyan, Evan launched both Ki blasts directly into its mouth, the force of doing so sent him backwards just enough to avoid the monster's sharp teeth.
In a flash of yellow light, the monster's upper torso was blown clean off as the rest of its body began to fade away in the water.
Panting loudly, Evan stared down at the decaying monster while he checked the coordinates on his visor.
"This is the spot that they wanted me to check. Maybe that Grimm was brought here for a reason, almost like it was summoned by something greater. Please let me be right…" Evan thought to himself.
Lowering himself down to the water's surface, Evan pulled out the radar device as he charged another Ki blast. Firing it into the sea, Evan checked the radar. At first, nothing seemed to change. However, a small dot appeared on the radar, directly below him.
With each passing second, the dot increased in size as a large monstrosity began to emerge from the watery depths. Flying backwards, Evan watched as the creature continued to rise out from the water, with almost no signs of stopping.
The towering creature was bipedal with a dolphin like snout and jaw. Various black spikes with white ends jutted out from its back. Its two arms each was a massive webbed hand with razor sharp claws. The only parts of its body not shown were its knees and feet, which the water was still concealing. Red gills lined its long neck as its numerous orange eyes turned toward him.
"Finally found you, you abomination!" Evan said aloud, a manic grin wide on his face as stated it down.
Raising one its massive right hand, it swiped at the teen. Realizing the massive scale of the beast, Evan had to put everything he had to just barely be able to dodge the attack by moving quickly within the spaces of its hand. However, as he did so, the beast continued the assault and struck Evan hard with the back of the same hand.
Getting sent flying, Evan felt his body careen through the sky at absurd speeds before then colliding into the ground. His helmet cracked and his visor spouted numerous errors and warnings, Evan took the device off his head and looked around. With surprise and pain on his face, he saw that he had been sent into the beach that laid in front of Argus.
Hearing a visceral roar, Evan looked to see the beast, this Leviathan, call out in anger as numerous Nevermore flew in from the nearby coastal forests, and orbited around the gigantic creature. Together, the monsters began their steady march toward the city itself.
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Hey everybody. As most of you probably know at this point, Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, passed away recently. When I heard the news, I was dumbfounded. Toriyama was such an incredible artist and storyteller. His works resonated with me throughout my childhood. As a kid, I remember watching DBZ at my friend's house, listening to Lezbeepic's Dragon Ball AMVs, watching TFS's DBZA videos, playing Xenoverse 2 matches against my friends, and so much more. None of those pieces of media and my memories of it would have existed if it weren't for Akira Toriyama. He was a great man, and he will be deeply missed.
Thank you as always for reading.
The next chapter should be released sometime the weekend of the 29th of March.
