Chapter 3: Putting in the Work
Mantle Crater, Remnant
Josuke and the others followed Jaune to a large tent nearby to the Happy Huntresses' little command center. More and more civilians were entering the crater and filling up the available space. The handful of huntresses and hunters assisting the Happy Huntresses occasionally entered and left the tent before heading back out into Mantle.
Jaune lifted the flap to the tent and the four Stand users filed in. All around them tables and shelves were lined with weapons and boxes of ammunition. The teens and manga artist had never seen anything like it before. At least in real life. Guns were illegal in Japan. Sure if you were desperate enough or had the connections you could make your own or get one illegally. But generally, most of them had never seen a gun in real life except maybe once. To have a tent full of hardware was both exciting and nerve wracking.
"Ok," Jaune began. "None of this stuff is really huntsman-grade, but if the Atlas military can use it to take down grimm so can you. Look around and take what you'd like. Nothing too heavy or burdensome though! You're gonna have to lug it around for most of the day probably."
Josuke headed over to what looked like a pistol. Looking down at the weapon, it was both similar and different to the one that had nearly blown his face off. More futuristic much like everything else here.
Jaune walked up next to him. "You wanna use this one? It doesn't seem to have that much power behind it, but it should hopefully be good enough in a pinch. I dunno, Ruby is much more into this stuff than I'll ever be."
Josuke wondered who this Ruby person was as he picked up the gun, it felt lighter in his hand than it should've been. Maybe it was made of some super futuristic materials, or maybe it was because of his aura. Regardless, he pocketed some ammo for it and grabbed a nearby belt and holster that looked like it would fit his new gun.
After adjusting the belt he turned around and struck a pose. With the gun on his hip he felt like one of those cowboys from the American movies! Koichi, Okuyasu, and Rohan had also geared up. Only taking a few things, pistols again. Rohan had also picked up what looked like grenades too.
"I suppose if this battlefield is a more traditional one, having a bit more punch will be better for me especially. As useful as Heaven's Door can be against enemy Stands, for fighting hordes of monsters I think I'll need these."
The others started to strike poses too with their new weaponry. Jaune was amazed at just how many, bizarre, poses a person could make. Even more so as each pose was either really cool or a little bit erotic. Eventually he snapped out of his pose-induced trance and clapped his hands together.
"Ok guys if you're all set, we gotta roll out," Jaune put his hand to his earpiece to contact Fiona. "Ok Fiona we're good to go, where's our first stop?"
The earpiece crackled for a moment before the sheep faunus's voice came through. "Ok Jaune, we've cleared out the suburbs, but the downtown area needs more attention. You and Team JOKR should head to the Smoky Marble retirement home, the staff is already evacuating people there but they need protection from the grimm."
"Copy we're on our way," Jaune finished and then turned to the group. That's when he noticed Okuyasu twirling his gun and pointing it in every which way, including at him!
"Hey!" Jaune yelled as he grabbed the gun from the teen. "This isn't a toy, look I'm not sure how things work where you come from but even I know a few things about firearm safety. Don't point it at anything unless you're absolutely sure you want to shoot it. And try to see beyond what you're aiming at. You never know what might happen, got it?"
"G-got it," Okuyasu mumbled, the teen sufficiently embarrassed as Jaune gave him back the gun. He quickly stuffed it back in its holster. Jaune then opted to give a brief explanation as to how their new guns actually worked. How to reload them, the safety, etc. Afterwards, he noticed that Okuyasu was still avoiding his gaze a bit.
"I'm sorry, that was rude. I just don't want you hurting yourself is all."
The scarred teen nodded before they all began to file out of the tent. As they all stepped outside however, Koichi spoke up. "Hey, so what are we doing now anyways."
Jaune's eyes widened for a moment before he let out a big sigh, he had almost forgotten! "Oh right."
After a brief explanation the group finally set off to the retirement home. They soon encountered a problem however when they approached Jaune's hoverbike. There was still just the one bike.
"It will take us too long to get over there whether on the bike or on foot," Josuke thought. Jaune seemed to be thinking over their situation. Then his head snapped to Okuyasu.
"Hey Okuyasu, you said your Stand The Hand can erase stuff? Does that include empty space?"
When the teen nodded in the affirmative Jaune turned back to the group.
"Ok guys I got an idea!"
Smoky Marble Retirement Home, Mantle
The trip still took longer than Jaune would have liked, but thanks to The Hand they had arrived before any issues arose.
Okuyasu had been seated at the front end of the bike with The Hand out in front of him, constantly erasing the space in front of the bike. The ride was very bumpy, but faster than it would have been without it. Once again they had run into very few grimm on the way there. All of them were easily dispatched before things could get too rough.
Josuke and the others had the chance to try out their new guns, but that's where things started to go wrong. For starters, they were lousy shots. While Josuke seemed to have a slightly better understanding of it all, it was hardly adequate for even the lousiest of huntsmen. Even fakers like Jaune. The recoil of the gun threw him off a bit, as did his seeming reluctance of it all. While he understood the gun's value, he'd seemed to rather have Crazy Diamond be the solution instead.
Rohan was the one who saw the most success however. While he started off rough, and was still rough by the time they arrived at the retirement home. He was taking it more seriously and putting in more effort to try and hit his shots than either Koichi or Josuke. Jaune knew they would have a long way to go before they would even be close to being considered "proper" hunters though.
Eventually Josuke and the others ended up at the retirement home. True to its name the building seemed to be made of this deep gray marble flecked with white. A pair of buses were sitting outside the main entrance, people in staff uniforms helping the residents out and onto the buses. With some having to use the wheelchair loading bay.
The huntsman and Stand users got off their bike and headed into the building. Waiting inside the lobby was a man with what Josuke could see were shrunk elephant ears sticking out where his human ears should have been. This was the second time now he's seen someone with weird animal parts. The rest of the Morioh crew was equally shocked.
Beyond his ears the man seemed fairly normal. With pale skin and a smaller than average build, he seemed to be in charge. Directing people in and out of the building as he checked things off a list on a clipboard he was holding. He looked up for a moment and noticed them.
"Ah good you're here! I'm Mark Grys. I'm the director of Smoky Marble. Listen, the grimm are closing in! We've barred all other exits but I doubt they'll be discouraged by that. You need to help us load the buses and defend them on the way to the crater!"
At this Jaune and the others went into serious mode. He spun around and addressed the others.
"Alright guys, here's the plan," he began. "Okuyasu and Koichi, your powers are a bit too dangerous to be used around civilians. So you guys are gonna hang out at the perimeter of the buses. If you guys see any grimm you take them out. Josuke, Rohan and I will assist Grys and the staff with getting the residents ready to go. Once they're all loaded up Rohan and Josuke will ride with them while we cover things from the outside on the bike. Got it?"
The group nodded as Koichi and Okuyasu spread out, each one of them covering a bus. Jaune, Josuke, and Rohan ran up the stairs and entered the retirement home once more. After a little convincing the trio began to help with the evacuation. Thankfully, there weren't many people left to evacuate. It was mostly the most at-risk residents left.
Josuke ended up having to help wheel out a very old woman on dialysis. But just because her kidneys weren't working didn't mean her eyes were bad. As he helped her move out and down the wheelchair ramp to the bus, she looked up at him for a moment.
"Oh. that hair," the woman started. Josuke looked down at her, bracing for a not so nice comment. He just didn't understand how people could hate his hair, it was the epitome of cool! But from jerks to geezers it seems everyone had it out for him and his precious pompadour.
"Such wonderful hair! When my husband was younger he used to style his hair much like yours! The amount of product he and I went through ate quite a bit into our pocketbooks! Ah, but we could never separate ourselves from our precious heads of hair."
The woman continued to ramble on as Josuke noticed she still had her hair. The scowl that had been developing on his face had disappeared and in its place was a happy-go-lucky smile.
"Say," he began. "What kind of products did your husband use?"
Outside of Smoky Marble
Koichi stood erect and alert for any grimm monsters. The short teen gripped his new gun tightly as he scanned the streets around the entrance of the retirement home. It had already been an exhausting day and it was far from over. To think, he had just been at his school hours ago, planning on hanging out with his friends without a care in the world. Now he was stuck here, far, FAR from his home. Wielding a gun like he was some sort of action hero!
He was beginning to feel homesick, if time moved on Remnant the same way it did back on Earth, his parents were probably beginning to worry. His girlfriend Yukako would probably start tearing up Morioh looking for him when she realized he and the others were missing!
"Now isn't that a terrifying thought. Hopefully she won't do anything horrible!"
Koichi was taken out of his inner monologue when he heard the pitter patter of footfalls. They sounded like paws…
Suddenly around the corner of the building ahead of them to the right came around a half-dozen of those sabertooth tiger-like grimm he had seen before. The beasts sniffed around for a moment before zeroing in on the retirement home. They bolted for the buses and Koichi and Okuyasu.
Thinking quickly, he summoned Echoes Act Three and had the Stand hold one of the grimm down. As one of them leaped at Koichi, Act Three stepped in-between the two. The creature was pummeled into the pavement, the sheer pressure cracking limbs. The others simply ran right past it though, more content to hunt down the humans instead of helping their comrade.
Koichi readied his gun, aimed to where he thought it would be best to hit, and squeezed the trigger. The gun barked as a casing fell to the ground. One of the grimm slowed for a moment as the bullet slammed into their sternum. The grimm simply shook it off however, as it continued to charge with the rest of it's kin.
Okuyasu meanwhile, began to unload the gun's magazine straight into the horde while not really aiming for anything in particular. Bullets slammed into the small group of grimm. With once scoring a lucky hit through an eye, dropping the beast and causing it to begin to dissolve.
By this point Echoes had finished crushing the grimm into a pancake and had spun around to do the same to another one. Three Freeze easily brought one of the grimm to it's knees and began to squish it like a person stomping on an ant. The remaining three grimm then headed straight for Koichi and Okuyasu.
One of them pounced at Koichi, fangs bared. The beast almost took a huge chunk out of the teen. Koichi dodged the bite but not the swipe of one of it's paws. He had almost forgotten to pull up his aura. The shield was flimsy and not evenly spread out, but it did mitigate most of the damage. By now panic had set in as Koichi fired several rounds at the grimm. Most pierced it's body, causing it to limp. Even then it still came after him.
Okuyasu meanwhile was having to deal with two at the same time. He quickly made short work of the first by having The Hand scrape it from existence. The second one held back for a moment, almost trying to figure out how it's brethren was destroyed. It didn't last much longer as the scarred teen closed the gap and brought the power of The Hand down upon it.
Koichi finally brought down the last grimm with a few well placed shots to it's head. With the one under the pressure of Three Freeze reduced to a black smear, the two Stand users checked themselves over for injuries. Okuyasu was fine, however the hit Koichi took from the grimm had torn his clothes and left but the smallest of cuts on his arm. They had already stopped bleeding by the time he noticed it.
"If I was a second slower with my aura I would have lost this arm for sure! We need to get some kind of aura training quickly!"
While the Grimm had been dealt with, the fear and anxiety that had risen as a result were soon to draw more of the monsters in. The two teens from Morioh couldn't kick up their feet yet.
Inside of Smoky Marble
Back near the entrance of the hospital, Josuke saw what had happened and almost ran out to help, Rohan quickly reminded him that he was needed inside and that he needed to stick to the plan.
"Koichi and Okuyasu can handle it themselves, we both know they're more than capable."
Sure enough the grimm had been dealt with and everything seemed fine for the moment. So the pompadour teen went back to work. Thankfully by this time almost all of the retirement home was emptied. Only the staff remained inside, gathering up medicine for transport.
Both Rohan and Josuke summoned their Stands to help carry more medicine out to the buses. Soon enough the vehicles were packed with people and supplies to take to the crater. The Stand users, Jaune, and Grys all met up outside of the building.
"Thank you, thank you all so much! We would have perished for sure if you hadn't shown up," said Grys. The man with the elephant ears seemed about ready to give them all hugs. When he didn't Jaune simply gave him a handshake and directed Rohan and Josuke to the buses. He then ran over to Okuyasu and Koichi.
Josuke boarded the rear bus, he opted to head for the direct center of it. The vehicle had a roof hatch that he could use in case grimm were attacking. The bus lurched forward before Josuke could grab one of the straps or handlebars. He quickly adjusted before he could fall. But his jerking around already got the attention of one of the riders.
"Careful young man! I don't reckon we could protect you as well as you could protect us if you fell and hurt yourself!" A man joked as he looked up to the teen. He seemed younger than most of the residents, though that really wasn't saying much. Josuke gave a little chuckle as he gripped a strap and looked out the windows.
Outside he could see Jaune's hoverbike with Koichi and Okuyasu aboard. It was still crowded, but the extra space and less weight helped it keep up with the buses all the same. They occasionally pulled back, only to circle around to the other side.
Things were mostly quiet up until they reached one of the larger avenues. The more exposed street seemed to be a perfect place for the grimm to ambush them. From one of the rooftops, what looked to be a small flock of flying grimm came streaming down towards the buses! Josuke saw as they launched their feathers at the buses like knives, puncturing into the metal hulls.
The teen opened the hatch and climbed onto the roof of the bus. From inside there was no way he'd be able to effectively fight off the grimm. While climbing up he summoned Crazy Diamond to repair the damage the bird grimm had caused. Within moments the bus was back to normal.
As he was doing that however, the grimm had turned their attention to him. Diving towards him, a pair of the grimm tried to slash at him with their talons. Before they could reach him though, Crazy Diamond was already there! Slamming face first into the Stand, the grimm had no chance to respond before Crazy Diamond simply picked them up and crushed them into black paste!
Josuke observed the remaining grimm as he fully climbed onto the roof now. Crouching to avoid falling off, he saw his friends on Jaune on the bike taking shots at the grimm. One launched a few feathers at the bike, only for the feathers to be disintegrated by The Hand.
Josuke reached for his gun, he couldn't reach the grimm from here with Crazy Diamond, but he could with his gun. Aiming, he tried to steady himself on the roof as best he could as he fired at the grimm. Most of the bullets missed but one or two found their targets. It wasn't enough to bring them down however. It did attract the attention of the monsters however, who changed direction mid-flight and launched a bunch of feathers at him!
"DORA! DORA! DORA! DORA! DORA! DORA! DORA! DORA! DORA! DORA!" Crazy Diamond blocked as many feathers as it could as they streamed at Josuke. When the barrage ceased Josuke peaked around his stand and fired a few more rounds at the grimm. Once again this did little damage, but the distraction was enough to allow Rohan to finally peek up from the roof hatch on the bus he was one and shoot them uncontested!
Josuke had noticed Rohan peeking his head from the hatch when he first climbed up on the roof. Heaven's Door wasn't as combat oriented as Crazy Diamond, so Josuke opted for the distraction approach to lure the grimm into a position where Rohan could take them out.
More of Rohan's shots found their targets than Josuke's, but it still wasn't enough to bring them all down. One did expire and plummeted to the ground while the rest remained airborne.
The remaining grimm couldn't decide who or what to attack first. So they split up, one heading for Rohan, one towards the bike, and one towards Josuke. Rohan aimed his gun once more and fired several shots at the grimm. The flying monster was brought down after taking so many shots.
Back on the bike as the grimm closed in, Echoes appeared once more to crush the grimm into ground. The bird grimm's bones seemed to act like a normal bird's. Being hollow meant it didn't take much for Act Three to destroy it.
The grimm targeting Josuke didn't even have a chance to reach him. Crazy Diamond had gathered up some of the feathers the monster had previously launched at him. Taking hold of them like a collection of darts, the Stand launched them all at the grimm on one massive burst of power!
"DORA!"
With Crazy Diamond's superior accuracy, the feathers made contact with the monster's face. The razor sharp points cracked the grimm's bone mask, piercing it's "flesh".
The grimm spiraled downwards, and was soon left behind as the bus moved on. He looked around for any more threats before checking himself and the bus over for any damage. Things seemed to be alright, scanning the skies one last time, he popped open the hatch and slid back into the bus.
Back inside he dusted himself off as he noticed the stares he was getting. Both the residents and staff were looking at him with appreciation and thankfulness. He smiled back before going back to keeping an eye out.
Mantle Crater
The buses came to a complete stop on the edge of the crater. The pathways weren't graded for vehicles like the buses. Besides, they were needed to get other folks from across Mantle to the crater. So Jaune and the Stand users opted to help the staff get the residents down the path and towards the bottom where the camp was situated. It was slow going, but they couldn't rush it. And Josuke could tell Jaune was getting a little antsy.
Eventually, after they got everyone settled the five of them regrouped. Already most of them were low on ammo, something Jaune was quick to point out.
"We're really pressed for time, but I wish we could get you guys some more training. Let's get some more ammunition and then we gotta go. Fiona will give us a new assignment soon enough."
The five of them strolled over to the tent to re-gear, but as they did Jaune stopped and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small metal tube, about the size of a flashlight. It was making a chime noise. Josuke noticed his expression. Excitement, bewilderment, concern.
Jaune grabbed the tube with both of his hands and pulled it apart. What emerged was a pane of blue glass. Josuke wondered how the glass could even fit inside the tube, but before he could ask, the glass changed. It flickered for a moment before showing an image of a young woman, a teenager. She wore a red and black corset over a cream colored shirt, along with a long red cape that matched well with her crimson-tipped hair. Her most striking feature were her silver eyes. Josuke had heard of gray eyes, but not silver ones.
The four Stand users huddled around Jaune as the teen awkwardly began to speak. She introduced herself as Ruby Rose, Josuke's eyes snapped over to Jaune for a moment. It seemed to be a call for help, not to them, but to the whole world. Highlighting the threat Mantle and Atlas were facing, denouncing both Salem and General Ironwood. She continued on, but before she could finish, the feed cut out.
Jaune let out an audible noise of surprise and frustration. He stared down at the device for a moment before turning back towards the Stand users.
"Rohan, back with Fiona and Joanna, you said your Stand can 'write things' in people. What does that mean exactly?"
"Well," Rohan began. "I can quite literally write anything into someone and they'll have to follow it. I can command them to not harm my allies or I. I can cause someone to lose their senses, learn new languages instantly, etc. Almost anything is possible with Heaven's Door."
"Could you get someone to change their minds on something? Like, abandoning Mantle for instance?"
Rohan snorted. "Of course."
Jaune went silent for a second.
"Ok you guys, new plan. The crater is simply a temporary solution. When Salem finally gets here it won't matter if we have a better place to defend from, we'll be overwhelmed. We need to get Ironwood to help, but he won't. Not unless Rohan can use Heaven's Door on him. We need to get up to Atlas and get to Ironwood. Even if we can't get the whole Atlas military to help out, we could at least stop them from being hostile to us here in Mantle."
The five of them looked up to see the colossal floating city, in all its glory.
"But I don't know my way around Atlas well, if we were to try this on our own, we'd probably fail. We need people like Weiss, or Penny. We first need to find Ruby and the others."
"But what about the Happy Huntresses?" Koichi asked. "I don't think they'll like it if we up and disappeared to go on a different mission."
"I think if we could 'convince' General Ironwood to help as opposed to harm they'll understand," explained Rohan. "We could do a whole lot more if we pulled this off."
Josuke nodded along with Okuyasu. It sounded smart and Jaune was right. But if this Atlesian military was as tough as Jaune made it out to be, then they couldn't do it alone. They needed to find this Ruby gal and her friends first.
With silent conviction, Team JOKR and Jaune charted a new course. A new plan to save their friends and this city from Salem and everyone and everything else that was gunning for its destruction.