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"Look for ruins, he said." Jaune muttered darkly as they circled what was left of Mountain Glenn and he leaned over Fiona's seat, looking at the view screen projecting a view from along the Ascalade's belly. "It's nothing but ruins as far as I can see. Thanks, Gnarl, you're as useful as always…"
"I mean, I feel like what we're looking for will be more…" Fiona shot Jaune an unsure look over her shoulder and grimaced, bobbing her head to the side in her nervous way. "I dunno, Overlord-y?"
"Overlord-y?"
"You have a better name?"
"Not really…"
"Then Overlord-y." She chuckled, swatting his armored hand gently. "Help me find a landing spot."
"Which would be…?"
"Somewhere near anything that looks reinforced. That's probably one of the old depots, and our best bet for refuelling without a trip to Vale." Fiona answered, humming and pushing the engines a bit for a few seconds after a look at the screen. "We're smack dab in the middle of a top-side residential looking area. See the blown out walls on the buildings?"
"Small rooms and next to no big ones." Jaune hummed, "Apartments?"
"Smart man." She chuckled, "And a good eye. I'm swinging around the edge, looking for- Ah."
"Ah?"
Fion answered by pointing at a blocky bottom third of a wide, rectangular building with an old, battered Valean flag hanging on a pole, kept in place by a fallen lightpole leaning on it more than anything else. The top two thirds had collapsed down and to the side, into what was otherwise a wider, more open area with obliterated raised platforms lining a walkway, enclosed by what was left of a metal fence. Even from here, he could see old barricades, broken and crumbled, and armored vehicles with weapons left to trust. And oh so many shapes scattered in little groups that he chose to believe were battle droids for his own admittedly constantly taxed sanity.
Grimacing, he muttered, "I… Think the landing pads are full."
"Yeah, I, uh, caught that, babe." Fiona muttered quietly, sounding… Distant as she turned and sighed, angling for the area in front of the old complex and sighing, "Gonna land on the slope out front. Not great, but there's, like, the tiniest angle so we shouldn't slide."
"And if we do…?"
"We hope not to flip and get stuck out here, stranded with Grimm in every direction." She answered airily, shooting a smile over a shoulder. "You trust me, yeah?"
"Of course." He smirked, "Babe."
"Oh, I didn't mean to say that and I'm going to suffer now, aren't I…?"
"Only as long as it's funny." He promised, "Only as long as it's funny."
"Ugh…"
Jaune knelt as the Ascalade turned and pivoted sharply, making his stomach churn deeply. Fiona flicked him a worried look, but didn't - and couldn't - pay him any real mind, too focused on flying. Which she turned out to be pretty good at, landing gently and leaning to the side as the entire shift shifted at an angle, slid a few inches down the slope and came to a stop, its landing gear groaning under the strain of the awkward angle. Something Jaune was sure the ship did not enjoy, even if it tolerated it for now.
"There we go!" Fiona chirped, spinning her seat up and hopping up, stumbling a couple steps before she caught her balance, leaning on Jaune as he stood. Chuckling awkwardly, she said, "We should, uh, hop out, though."
"Why…?"
"Because I don't wanna chance any extra wiggling sending us sliding any more." She answered, "Seen that happen more than once… Never fun. And you never live that down."
"Fair…"
Outside, Jaune had expected crisp, cool Valean air. It was cloudy, so he'd expected to smell rain, maybe even hear it out in the distance, in the forests around the lost settlement or even pattering off the stone and concrete like Vale itself. Both would have been nice. Familiar and nostalgic and, frankly, he'd have been lying if he said he hadn't been looking forward to it.
Instead…
The world around them was dead. Not just quiet, or subdued - dead. Nothing made noise except for the wind whistling through broken windows, pipes, and whatever else that gave it a ghastly, wailing sort of sound behind what little else was there. In the distance, he heard stone fall and clatter, and a piece of glass shatter. But that was all. No animals, or birds, or anything else apart from a distant, quiet roll of thunder. As if the lightning itself was afraid to break the sheer, oppressive silence. Even compared to the Tower, it was…
Dark and heavy, and it all weighed on him…
He smelled the smoke of Lua, wafting through the broken buildings and rolling over him in a mix of icy winter air and hot smoke. He raised his sword and rested it, heavy and painted the brightest crimson, across his shoulders as he sighed and waved his Horde forward for the pillage. Minions and men rushed through and, mere moments later, he heard-
"Jaune?" He spun, glaring down at Fiona as she backed away, holding his helmet under an arm and raising the hand she'd used to touch him in a gesture of peace. "I-I'm sorry, you just… Weren't answering."
"I'm sorry?"
"You were just… Standing there, eyes all distant." She answered quietly, "I kept trying to get your attention, but all you did was… Raise your axe."
He blinked and turned, lowering his halberd from his shoulders and looking at it for a long moment. Shaking the… Vision? Was that what he'd had? Whatever it was, he shook it off and said, "Sorry, I… Just got lost in thought, for a second there."
"I'll say…" Fiona murmured, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Fi." He sighed, turning and looking around the ruin and rubble with a frown. He couldn't smell the smoke anymore, but…
It left him a bit anxious.
"We should get moving." He said finally, "We need to find a way underground."
"Well, from what I read up about Mountain Glenn, most of the buildings go underground. Those are probably not very stable, though, so…" Fiona turned, looking up and down the road for a moment before she snapped her fingers and pointed up the street. "That way - I see a sign that says 'Subway'."
Jaune turned and looked up the road and, after a moment, spotted it - dull red, with half of it missing - but the half hanging off the pole leaning against the wall did say Subway.
Normally, Jaune's instinct would have been to avoid the heaps of rubble, ruined cars, and barricades along their path. If only to dodge the… Bodies, still stuck in their gnarled wreckage or laid out on the ground around them. Instead, Fiona lead him over the mess instead, explaining that, as dilapidated as everything was, whatever had held weight this long was probably safer, as long as they didn't see any tracks. That or, almost paradoxically, anywhere where there was absolutely nothing, since it would likely be less stressed and thus hold better.
Or so the theory went, as anxious about testing it as Jaune was…
Still, a few minutes later, they were making their way below ground. Jaune took the lead, holding his axe at the ready as they left the sun behind and entered a world lit by flickering lights and the cracks left in the ceilings and walls. If the silence above had been oppressive, down here it was malignant. And the smell - wet and warm and soggy, like a bag of sports socks stuffed into a truck and left there for weeks. The level below was a tram-post with a tram crashed onto the landing, and offices across from it with furniture packed against the windows everywhere except for a hole ripped open in it.
He very pointedly didn't look inside as they passed by and Fiona tugged open a service door.
OUtside, they stood on a grated metal lading, with a ladder that lead down to a walkway beneath it that curved back and in on itself like a mountain path. Before it vanished in the ruined, collapsed mess of a fallen building with 'Fallon's' left sticking out of the rubble at an angle.
"We climb down, and… Find a way through Fallon's… Whatever, I guess." Fiona said as Jaune joined her, standing at the edge of the landing and eyeing the rusted old railing suspiciously before they both decided not to test it. Nodding at the ruin, she said, "Looks like it fell in on itself, weight probably, so… Hopefully we can get all the way down."
"Yeah." Jaune muttered, "Hopefully."
"And if not…"
"If not?"
"We climb up and try another entrance," she sighed, "or I grab some of my emergency charges and come back, and we blast in. But…"
"Not subtle?"
"Like, at all." Fiona nodded, turning to head for the stairs, "Shall we?"
"I hate this." Jaune sighed, "I hate everything about this."
"Everything…?" The Faunus asked, turning to give him a smirk, one eyebrow raised.
"I hate almost everything." He chuckled, rolling his eyes behind his helmet. "But you make it all better."
"Aw, you're sweet."
"And you're fishing for compliments…"
"Hey, what can I say?" She chuckled, "I like 'em, and I'm not shy about it."
He just rolled his eyes again, descending the rough, aged metal stairs nervously.
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"That is a terrible plan…" Ruby looked up from her map to where Weiss was sitting across from her, sitting on a slab of concrete that had blown through the roof when the back half of the building had come down, collapsing in a mountain or rubble a few halls over.
"Yeah." Yang agreed from the doorway, watching the hall on her shift. "Hate agreeing with the princess-"
"Hey!"
"-but splitting up is basically one-oh-one for 'I would like to get eaten by a monster, please and thanks."
"Maybe, but we have a lot of ground to cover." Ruby argued, looking down at the map and frowning. Mountain Glenn's top level was split up into fifty city blocks, a lot of which had been for parks, some gardens, and military stuff. But even with those taking up the whole blocks, they still had a lot to run through, looking for signs of activity. "And this is just the top, too… Who knows what's going on under our feet."
"Even the White Fang couldn't be down there." Weiss argued quietly, turning to watch out the window when a bird shot by. "In the dark… Sure, they could see. But the Grimm that have to be down there…"
"The White Fang sets itself up where it can find a place." Blake argued quietly from beside Ruby, where she was sitting and eyeing the map. As fun as that particular secret had been to get through, after what had happened in Initiation…
Well, she and Weiss kept their space, and everything was fine.
Ish.
For now…
Whatever the case, Blake's input had been useful, and once Weiss saw how invested she was in tracking the Fang down and stopping them from… Whatever they were doing with Roman, Weiss had warmed up to her fairly quickly.
Enough for Weiss to listen to her, hum, and ask, "Doctor, how much space here is there that they could use?"
"Mountain Glenn had four levels, each subdivided as was believed wide." Professor Oobleck offered from the back of the room, where he was reading and gently scratching at Zwei's ears. "The surface was for the wealthy, and things such as airship landings. Expectable! The floor below, if memory recalls was for shopping and service. Wide, open malls and storage rooms. Below that, a borough of housing. And, at the base, more housing, a well as storage and ground-exits for travel and defense. Not to mention the old freight lines scattered along the mountain's edge."
"More than one…?"
He nodded, "Four, in fact. And all of these would have useful salvage and other items that could be turned to their nefarious use."
"We'll never clear it all out in just a week like this." Ruby sighed, standing and shaking her head, "We have to split up, or we'll fail."
"And we can't fail." Blake growled, voice low and almost… Rumbling. Like, funny enough, an angry cat warning someone they were about to get the claws. She went on the same way, "Whatever they're up to, being here, it can't be good. Not if Roman is involved."
"And if he weren't…?" Weiss asked, fishing, as ever, for… Something Ruby couldn't place.
Understanding, she hoped.
Blake just shrugged, "Faunus need somewhere to live. And… Sometimes, the Kingdoms make it hard for it to be 'there'. At least legally. Getting to Vale from here would be… Hard. But there could be families in Vale that bring food and medicine out here."
"There could be," Oobleck murmured, "not could have been?"
"...Yes, Sir." Blake nodded, stiff and suddenly anxious under the man's gaze. That Ozpin knew who she was hadn't surprised anyone on the team - it was obvious - but that Oobleck did as well had surprised everyone, Blake included.
Not that Oobleck had hidden it - or broached the subject after letting them all know he knew, their first nervous night here, so they 'Wouldn't fret and lure in Grimm'.
"Hmm…" They all waited a pretty awkward few seconds, at least in Ruby's opinion, but Blake just stared at the floor, anxiety written across her shoulders. Finally, Oobleck shrugged and sighed, "Very well, then. As Miss Rose has expressed, time is pressing. Does anyone else have anything to add?"
"This is a terrible idea?"
"Anything new, Miss Schnee." Oobleck chuckled when the heiress just shook her head, and no one else spoke up. Satisfied, he asked, "What sort of search pattern were you considering, Miss Rose?"
"Standard search pattern." She answered, "Yang up front with Zwei-"
"I could-"
"You don't know his commands." Yang grunted, "Rubes and I do, and I'm the bruiser, so…"
"Darn it…"
"Anyway," Ruby smiled, enjoying the payfully pitiful grumbling from her partner while she went on, "We'll have Weiss and Blake off to the sides of center, and me in the back. Doctor, you can have the middle. I'm fast enough to back up the flanks and you're our strongest, so you can back us up wherever we need to if push comes to shove."
"Technically, you aren't supposed to include me in your plans…"
"Technically, we shouldn't be out here totally-not-looking-for-terrorists either." Ruby countered a bit more sharply than she'd meant to, flicking the doctor a look and only relaxing when he smiled concedingly and nodded. Sighing, she said, "I know it's not how it should work, but… Better safe than sorry, right?"
"Indeed, Miss Rose." He nodded, "Indeed."
"Right then!" Ruby clapped her hands together, smiling in spite of the nervousness shooting up her spine. "We're kinda middle-ish of the left half of Mountain Glenn, so we'll head out, get into formation, and circle our tower until nightfall. Check in on Scroll every couple blocks, and if you see anything, and we'll call a cut off… Here, at Vale Street, right down the middle."
"A bit off, actually…" Weiss muttered, "But it'll do."
"Good." Ruby nodded, pumping a fist into the air and smiling as widely as she could, "Then let's get it, team RWBY!"
"Whoo." Blake offered sardonically after a few quiet seconds, waving a little flag she'd made. "Let's go…"
"Thank you, Blake," Ruby smiled, nodding graciously, "your support is appreciated."
Weiss just groaned.
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So, as referenced here, mild plot movements happening in the background. All the canon stuff, unless it's different and I show it - just at different times, spurred on by different attitudes brought on by Jaune's death. Here, as established, Blake got outed a TINY bit sooner, and that all happened in the background.
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JRC1700 :
Lancaster is pretty based… I mean it's not Nuts n' Dolts, sure, but Lancaster on its own? Pretty based.
As for Ruby - I spent time on her early on to establish that she's learning and adapting to things now. Like, seeing people die isn;t new to her - she lost her mom - but seeing a friend and a contemporary die? A bit more, and she's just the tiniest bit different already for it.