An: Whelp, sorry for taking so long with this one people. For some reason, as I write further and further, it becomes increasingly harder. Anyway, this chapter became a little longer than I thought it would, so I hope that makes up a little.
Grimm Tunnels and Red Trees
"Urghhhh," Ruby groaned as she got up from the ground, hearing how some tiny debris fell off of her. And then she took a look at where she was... Or rather, what little she could see. You see it was a dark cave with very little in terms of functioning lighting, which made Ruby wonder for a brief moment where she was and how she ended up here. And then it hit her. The mission, the Grimm, the big apes, and then the earthquake. "Guys?! Where are you?!" Ruby called out.
"Right here Rubes," Yang responded from not too far away. Even in the dark, her glorious hair was pretty noticeable. As the blonde tried to get up, she felt Ruby glomping her.
"Yang, are you alright? You're not hurt are you?" Ruby rambled as she was happy that her sister was alive.
"Easy there, little sis. I'm still alive and Yanging," Yang punned, prompting Ruby to detach herself from the blonde and scowl at her.
"I guess she's fine if she can still make jokes." Complained Weiss who was in the middle of wiping dust off her clothes. And right next to the heiress was Dahlia who was in the middle of pouring ice Dust into her mouth. The ice bunny could feel her power returning after what she had to do to down an army of Grimm.
"Nox!" Everyone heard Blake shouting frantically, which prompted the girls and one Blade to run towards where the sound came from in worry.
And what they saw wasn't pretty. Nox was laying on the ground with his chest being impaled by a large metallic debris. They also noticed a patch of red which wasn't Ruby's cloak moving around and finally, a brief illumination of Dragunov restoring his strength with fire Dust.
But none of those compared to Blake who was by Nox's side with a horrified look on her face. "We have to help him somehow!" Blake said in distress, which was now being shared by the other three girls. While Dahlia simply grimaced at the dark Blade's condition.
"Step aside," Dragunov said as he physically picked up Blake before moving her away. Then the fire Blade grabbed the offending piece of debris that impaled the dark Blade just beneath his Core.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what the dragon was trying to do. Which was why Yang quickly covered Ruby's eyes, while Weiss hid her own by hugging Dahlia for comfort.
"Stop it!" Blake shouted as she tried to move in to stop Dragunov, but was grabbed by Roze.
As Blake struggled in the reaper Blade's grip, Dragunov began to count, "One, two, three!" And then he yanked the piece out of Nox's chest who spasmed from the treatment. Team RWBY didn't notice it, but Nox was awake and more importantly, very much alert of what was happening. And when the obstruction was gone, Nox practically jumped into a sitting position with a pained look.
"NOX!" Blake screamed, before breaking free from Roze and getting to her Blade's side to check the hole in his chest. And then to her shock, the hole was glowing, before it proceeded to close, even restoring his ruined clothes in the process.
"My lady, did you truly believe that something like this could kill me?" Was the text shoved into Blake's face by her Blade who was perfectly fine now. "Although I must now recover my strength." With that, Nox detached himself from his driver, before taking out a gravity Dust vial, pulling down the outer mask, and downing the contents in a way that prevented everyone, who had dared to look now, from seeing his mouth where the dark matter was disappearing to.
"But…how?" Blake found herself able to ask.
"Us Blades can't be killed, remember," Roze explained, as he moved to pat Ruby's back comfortingly, with Yang having dared to take her hands off her baby sister's eyes.
However, Ruby had one question, "But didn't it still hurt?"
Nox looked hesitant, before opening his scroll again, "Tremendously." Which earned a wince out of the three humans and one faunus.
"So…you can all still feel pain," Blake asked, not sure how to feel about it.
"Of course," Dragunov replied, "We are unkillable, not unfeeling."
That caused an uncomfortable silence to wash over them.
"Students! Are you okay? Respond!" Thankfully the frantic shouting of Oobleck cut off their thoughts from the morbidity of the current situation.
"We're okay, doctor," Ruby exclaimed into her earpiece.
"Oh, thank goodness! The signal was lost for a moment. For a moment I actually thought…Never mind that! What happened there?" Oobleck motor-mouthed, with the students barely able to understand what he was trying to say.
Ruby gave everyone a questioning look, before motioning towards Nox. The dark Blade shook his head, understanding what Ruby was asking. "An earthquake caused the building to collapse and it opened the ground beneath us," Ruby responded, leaving out what happened to Nox.
"Ahh! I see, is there any way you can get back up from there?"
Blake was the first to look up to the hole which was mostly plugged by the debris from the buildings. Besides, "No. It looks like the hole we fell through is mostly plugged, besides, the exit is too high for us." Indeed, they took quite a fall. Thank the Dust for Aura.
"Well, that's an issue. Hmm…According to the maps there should be another exit." Oobleck said from his end.
"Makes sense," Weiss said as she looked deeper into the caverns. There were a few functioning lights and one or two natural Dust deposits. "It's going to be dark in there though."
"I don't think I can be your eyes in absolute darkness," Blake added in. Contrary to popular belief, faunus night vision doesn't mean that they can see in the dark as well as during daytime. All it means is that they can distinguish shapes and such in the dark so they don't accidentally hit anything. That's not even counting the fact that in absolute darkness, they're just as blind as any human…Except the few bat-faunus that can use echo-location, but that's another matter.
Any response that would've come out of Ruby was interrupted, by a sudden illumination of the immediate area.
"Did someone ask for a light?" Dragunov asked with a cheeky grin, while holding a large flame in his palm. Giving the necessary light to see more clearly.
"Thanks Drag," Yang said as she patted his back.
"Okay, team! Let's go!" With that declaration, Ruby begun to move forward with everyone else following.
After walking for some time with Dragunov's flame illuminating their path, the team of Drivers and Blades came accross what must be an old Dust mine. By some miracle, more lighting equipment seems functional here, meaning that Dragunov could put away his flame for now.
"According to my maps, you should soon reach a large gate that leads into an exit." Oobleck explained through his earpiece.
"Good, because I want out of here as soon as possible," Weiss said getting already tired of these tunnels.
"The sooner the better," Dahlia said, sounding oddly nervous.
Blake gave the ice Blade a sympathetic look, "Look, we'll get out of here soon enough, there's no need to be nervous."
"That's not it," Dahlia said as she looked around as if searching for something, "I feel something…disturbing."
At that moment Roze glanced at the female Blade, "You too? I've been sensing something that makes me uneasy for a while now as well."
"That feeling," Dragunov also piped up as he looked around in high alert, "Has it grown stronger for you two?" Earning not two, but three nods, from all three Blades.
"Guys, what's wrong with you?" Ruby asked, getting worried, before her eyes widened, "Are you sensing more ether!?"
Nox revealed his scroll again, "No, something else." Then Nox's visible eye widened before pointing forward, not that he needed to, because they all heard something coming out of the ground.
It was Creeps, but something was different about them. You see, Grimm, in general, have black bodies, white bone spikes or armor and red lines eyes and sometimes lines across their bone armor. However, these things had glowing green spikes coming out of their bodies, and the parts that are normally red are green.
"What kind of Creeps are those?" Weiss exclaimed as she drew Myrtenaster.
"Don't get close to those things," Roze said as he fired a shot on one of them. Which made it explode, taking all the other Creeps with it.
"What the heck? They explode!?" Yang exclaimed at the sight of these Grimm exploding, leaving some kind of green substance behind.
"What did you say?" Came the worried voice of Oobleck, who now had the channel constantly open. "Can you describe those exploding Creeps to me?"
"Sure," Ruby said, "They're green, icky and leave some kind of green sludge behind when they explode."
"Hmm…Could you perhaps retrieve a sample?" Oobleck asked with intrigue in his voice.
"Sure," Ruby said as she moved to scraped some of the green stuff off the ground. Only to be intercepted, by Roze who physically moved her away from it.
"Ruby, don't go near it," Roze said as he held Ruby. All the while glaring at the substance, like it would come to life and pounce on them.
"Roze, it can't be that bad," Ruby complained as she struggled.
"I agree with Roze," Dragunov said as he used his flames to burn the substance before anyone could even question what he was doing. "Whatever that stuff is, it feels too wrong," the draconic Blade said, finally relaxing.
"Aren't you just overreacting," Weiss asked, while eyeing all the Blades.
"No, we are not." Nox showed on his scroll with a glare in his visible eye.
"I agree with those three," Dahlia also piped up, "That substance feels far too wrong for it not to be a threat."
Team RWBY let out a collective sigh at their Blades' behavior.
"Let's just move on," Ruby said, and with that the team moved on.
It was another few minutes later when they found a massive door that was partially opened. "Partially" meaning that there was a noticeable gap beneath it, too small for any of them to enter.
"Could you lift this, Dragunov," Ruby asked as she pointed towards the door. There was a switch too, but it seems busted.
"We shall see," Dragunov said as he cracked his knuckles. Then the draconic Blade grabbed the door and started lifting. It took him some effort, but the heavy metal door was rising to the point Dragunov was able to move under to act as a pillar. "Okay everyone, move it!" With that command, everyone moved through the doorway. After making sure that everyone was through, Dragunov moved away from the door, causing it to slam back down.
"When can I get that strong?" Yang grumbled in jealousy.
"On your own, never," Dragunov said as he wiped his hands on a job well done.
"And why is that?" Yang asked in suspicion and hints of anger.
"Because you're a human," the draconic Blade replied simply.
Yang still glowered at her Blade, but accepted the explanation.
"What's that over there?" Ruby asked, pointing towards a cart with some kind of contraption on it.
"I hate to say it, but it looks like a bomb," Roze commented with a little too straight face for anyone's comfort.
"Did you say a bomb!?" Oobleck's voice echoed in the team's earpieces, "Is it active?"
As one, everyone moved to check on the supposed bomb. "It's not," Weiss said, letting out a sigh of relief. And then the screen lit up, displaying countdown. "Of course." Sad thing is, Weiss didn't even sound surprised. "Doctor, the bomb activated, it must have been triggered by proximity," Weiss spoke up into her earpiece.
"It what? Can you get me a quick visual on the bomb?" Oobleck asked.
With that command, Blake was the first to open her scroll and link it with the earpiece to amplify its signal so that they could use the video to show the bomb.
After few moments of Blake showing the bomb from multiple angles, Oobleck spoke up, "Oh dear. Tampering with the bomb itself makes it explode immediately. Luckily, there's a deep chasm at the end of these tracks, so if you can move the cart into it. It should dampen the explosion." Oobleck quickly explained.
"Why waste time moving the cart," Dragunov asked, having gotten near Yang's ear to hear the conversation, much to the blonde's mild discomfort. "I could just pick up the bomb and-" "Picking it up might classify as 'tampering'." Nox shoved his scroll into Dragunov's face, effectively interrupting the fire Blade.
This annoyed, the dragon, "Then I'll push the cart."
"Forcibly moving it might make it go off too," Roze pointed out, earning a growl from the annoyed Dragunov.
"Hey, Weiss," Ruby called to the white-haired girl, "Doesn't this look like a Dust engine?" The question was accompanied by pointing at the said engine looking contraption on the cart.
"Yeah," Weiss said, "It does look like one. I think this model was designed for raw crystals for easy use."
"And we are in an abandoned Dust mine," Dahlia spoke up, earning looks of realizations from everyone.
"Scatter and look for Dust crystals!" Ruby shouted before everyone scattered to find what crystals they could to power that cart and get the bomb into a bottomless pit.
Unfortunately, things are never easy, because more Grimm started showing up. Beowolves, Creeps, Ursi, even Boarbatusks. Not to mention those weird green Creeps that explode.
Which the team took advantage of by shooting them first, destroying any of the Grimm nearby when they exploded, sometimes causing a chain reaction when there was more than one in one place.
"I found some!" Ruby shouted as she used her semblance to zip past several confused Grimm. Right back to the cart and deposited the Crystals she managed to find. And with that, the engine whirred to life, before moving the cart.
"That won't be enough," Roze, who had stayed to guard the bomb so that the Grimm wouldn't accidentally "tamper" with it. "We must find more-Duck!" Ruby did just that just in time to get under Roze's scythe swing that was aimed for two beowolves coming from behind.
"Okay, let's find some more," Ruby said quickly as she moved to find more Crystals. Although Roze wasn't happy about letting Ruby go on her own, he decided to stay only because Nox and Dragunov were too stubborn to not stand guard. Okay, the standing guard was Dragunov's gripe, Nox's was being separated from Blake. As for Dahlia, Roze decided they didn't have the time for arguments.
Speaking of which, Weiss was using Myrtenaster to stab through Grimm that got in her way, while Dahlia was right behind her providing ranged back up.
"There!" Weiss exclaimed at the sight of an old Dust Processor that still had some workable crystals in it. Target in sight, Weiss made a beeline towards the processor and snatched the working crystals.
"Weiss, can you use your glyphs to get over this horde," Dahlia asked as she had also reached her Driver, before turning back around to fend off more Grimm.
"Yes, but I can't take you with me," Weiss responded, ready to fight their way out again.
"You don't have to," Dahlia said as she kept throwing her bitball, "Just get those crystals into the cart. I'll meet you at the tracks."
"Dahlia! Are you serious?" Weiss asked as she stabbed a regular Creep.
"Don't argue with me and go!" the ice bunny said, fully confident in her abilities.
With reluctance, Weiss created several platforms with her glyphs to jump over the horde. Giving one last glance towards her Blade who took another way, while using her bitball to slow them down.
With Yang, she was at another processor gathering what little crystals she found. All the while Dragunov made sure that the entrance to the side cavern the processor was in remained open for the blonde. "This should do it," Yang said as she ran back to the entrance to see Dragunov busy powering through any Grimm dumb enough to try and overpower him. Sure, their numbers occasionally overwhelmed him for about two seconds, but all he had to do was step up.
"This is really getting annoying," Dragunov growled angrily before grabbing a Boarbatusk by its tusk and used it as a makeshift blunt weapon.
Yang soon following up with her fists on Grimm that got into the draconic Blade's blind spots. "Can you make a path for me, Drag?" Yang found the time to ask.
"Not without using fire…Except." Dragunov mumbled as he grabbed Yang by her jacket and threw her towards the cart that was now halfway through to the tracks that led into the pit. Speaking of which, the said pathway was a bridge, which served to negate the Grimm numbers. Especially when Dahlia made an ice barrier leading to the only other way across from which she came from.
If Yang had time to look, she would've noticed Blake depositing several crystals she and Nox had found. But she was too busy correcting her erratic flight to land safely. All the while Dragunov decided to just power through the remaining Grimm towards them. Although he still did his best to stay away from the few green ones that were among them.
As this was happening. The rest of team RWBY were keeping the Grimm away using ranged attacks. Roze and Dahlia helping to the best of their abilities.
"You think the crystals we gathered will be enough?" Blake asked the others as she switched a clip into Gambol before resuming firing.
"Yes, or at least into the ravine," Weiss said as she fired a Dust shot on an exploding Creep just as Dragunov got through with a few beowolves biting into him. Although he quickly either shook them off or smashed their skulls.
Soon enough, the team was not only close to the ravine, but Yang and Weiss fired on the doorway to prevent anymore Grimm from following.
"Team! How are you holding up!" Oobleck's voice sounded out from the ear pieces.
"We're almost out," Ruby replied.
"With time to spare," Blake added, seeing as the bomb still had over a minute left and it was already at the edge of the ravine. And then half of it got over the edge before the engine shut down.
"Oh, come on!" Yang complained loudly.
Thankfully, Dragunov quickly moved in and gave the final push, making the bomb drop into the ravine. "We should still get out of here," the draconic Blade said.
"There's a door over there," Ruby said while pointing towards the said door.
"Good, I don't know about you but I miss the sunshine," Dragunov said with a small smile, before giving Yang a look, "You don't count!".
"Ouch." Yang mock gasped, while placing her hand on her heart, "You wound me."
"Let's just get out of here," Weiss groaned.
With that, the team moved through the door and a long set of stairs that led them to...
"Forever Fall." Roze said at the sight of the red leafed trees.
"That tunnel brought us pretty far," Dahlia commented as she looked back to the staircase that moments ago strained to hold Dragunov's weight.
"I prefer this over a stinking cave," Dragunov said as he looked towards the sun, enjoying the warmth.
"Sheesh, you never look at me like that," Yang mock complained.
"You don't bring light or warmth," Dragunov shot back with a grin.
"Hey!" Yang did not like that statement.
Ruby decided to ignore the fiery duo and decided to report to Oobleck. "Doctor Oobleck, are you still there?"
"Yes, students. I take it you successfully got away from the bomb?" the doctor answered from his end of the line.
"We did," Weiss replied from her earpiece, "But we're at Forever Fall now."
"...I see. But questions still remain, who would booby trap that tunnel? And where did the mutated Grimm come from? "Oobleck then said to the team, "I think you students should investigate any clues to the area. If whoever is responsible for these things went through the trouble of booby trapping that particular tunnel, it would be safe to assume that they didn't want anyone to investigate."
"Makes sense," Blake agreed as Nox surveyed the immediate area.
"My lady, there are two stone doors leading out of this area." Nox showed on his scroll while pointing towards two large stone doors with a square indention on each.
"How do we open them?" Weiss said as she walked closer to one of them.
"I'll smash it in a-" "NO!" two voices shouted from the earpieces of the four girls so loudly that even the Blades heard them. Which of course, made the girls pull them out of their ears and rub their poor ears that probably suffered damage. "You can't destroy valuable relics of history!" A familiar female voice shouted through the earpieces. Actually, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Adenine is right." Oobleck said, earning several sighs. Of course, the book lady would be near her Driver. "If you destroy these priceless relics, you will be committing a serious crime to history."
"What!?" Ruby cried out in alarm.
"That's not a real crime Ruby," Yang said quickly, before Dragunov took Yang's earpiece.
"Well how else are we planning to get through this, smartypants," Dragunov said rudely, earning a disapproving look from Weiss.
"Would this help?" Roze spoke up from behind a nearby rock, with Dahlia holding a square shaped tablet.
"We found this," Dahlia spoke up as she brought the stone closer for everyone to examine.
"It is square shaped," Blake pointed out.
"And the symbol matches the one on the doors," Weiss added in, as she looked between the tablet and the two doors.
"But which one's the right one," Ruby wondered while taking a thinking pose.
"If there even is a right one," Dahlia said aloud, earning weirded out looks, "I mean, isn't it possible that both of these might lead somewhere…Or neither." That last one was added as an after-thought.
"Let's just pick one," Roze said with an exasperated sigh.
"Agreed," Dragunov added.
With that, Dahlia picked one of the doors at random and put the tablet into the slot. And it opened.
"Let's go team," Ruby said cheerfully as she walked through the open doorway.
"Dolt," Weiss said, not sure if she was annoyed or amused.
"But she's our loveable dolt," Dahlia said with a giggle.
Weiss didn't feel like dignifying that with an answer. Especially when the other two members of the team were giving her suspiciously happy looks. "Let's just move," Weiss then said with a sigh. With that, the team moved on.
The trek wasn't interesting at all. Except they did face two more green Creeps. But those were easily disposed of with gunshots. But then the team came across something that looked interesting.
"Oh, look! A cleverly disguised jumping puzzle," Yang joked at the sight of several pillars that led from the top of a small cliff they were at, to a small patch of ground some ways away.
"Yang, this isn't the time," Weiss groaned.
Then Roze squinted his eyes, "Is that a chest over there." The rose reaper was of course referring to where the pillars led to.
"Another treasure chest!?" Ruby exclaimed with stars in her eyes before jumping from one pillar top to another.
"Ruby, wait!" Weiss shouted, before face-palming at their leader's antics. "Urrggh. Those pillars might not have even supported her weight."
Yang patted Weiss' back comfortingly, "Lighten up, princess. Now we know that they do." With that, the blonde followed her sister's lead.
"Well, let's check it out," Dragunov said, preparing to jump too.
"Actually!" Roze said loudly before moving in front of the dragon, "I don't think those pillars can handle your weight."
Which earned the wind Blade a frown, "Are you calling me fat?" The warning was evident in that statement.
"Muscle and stone weigh more than fat, last I checked," Roze replied easily as Blake and Nox were also jumping across the pillars.
"He's not wrong, Dragunov," Dahlia said before also jumping to the pillar.
"Not you too, Dahlia," Weiss complained, causing her Blade to stop on one pillar.
"Weiss, aren't you curious about what's out there," Dahlia retorted before continuing.
The sad part is, the ice Bunny was right. So, with a small sigh, Weiss followed. Soon to be joined by Roze.
"Fine," Dragunov grumbled as he kicked a tiny rock off the small cliff in frustration.
*Clang*
"Hmm?" the draconic Blade sounded out as he looked down the edge to see what made the metallic sound. Deciding to take a small pathway down where the bases of the pillars were, Dragunov looked towards the spot where he stood before coming down. "Somewhere around here..." he muttered, before looking at the ground. Soon enough, he spotted something sticking out of the ground. A metallic, rectangular case. Picking it up and looking the thing over, Dragunov noted that it must have been here for a while, considering the amount of dirt covering it.
"I wonder...," the draconic Blade muttered as he opened the case to see some kind of book inside of it. Taking the simple brown, piece of literature, Dragunov opened the book. After reading a couple of lines, he frowned. "Just a journal." the fire Blade thought with a frown at something that uninteresting. That is, until a piece of paper fell out of the book from one of the pages. Picking the paper up, Dragunov looked at it. And his eyes widened, as he realized that he may have stumbled upon something much more important than he previously thought.
Meanwhile, back at the end of the "jumping puzzle", Yang had punched the white and golden chest they found with all her might. "Ow!" Only for the thing to be harder than her fist.
"Okay, if Yang can't break it open, who can," Roze commented. The chest was locked and none of their attacks harmed it. Those that they dared to use anyway.
"Whoever made this chest wanted to make sure no one got their hands on whatever is inside," Blake commented, while Nox moved towards the stubborn chest to inspect it.
"Maybe Dragunov can break it," Ruby suggested.
"And accidentally destroy whatever is inside," Weiss retorted dryly. Earlier she tried to use Myrtenaster as a wedge, but there was no seam to wedge the blade into.
"Guys." Blake said as she glanced at Nox putting his clawed fingers over the lock one at a time as if the dark Blade was trying to measure it somehow.
"Seriously though, what could be so valuable as to put it into that kind of chest," Weiss then said seriously, not hearing Blake.
"Must be something very valuable," Dahlia commented idly.
"Guys." Blake tried again as she saw Nox settling for his ring finger before the claw of that finger extended and thinned.
"Yeah, Blake," Yang asked, still rubbing her sore fist.
Instead of answering, Blake pointed towards Nox who was now rummaging the lock with the extended claw of his ring finger. His ear pressed against the chest.
"You can't be serious," Weiss said, thinking that picking a lock with your claw should be impossible.
These words were followed by Nox hearing a satisfying click, before the top of the chest slid sideways, before the whole lid slid into different sides of the chest.
"Success." the dark Blade showed on his scroll with pride sparkling in his eye.
"I wanna see!" Ruby exclaimed as she peered into the mystery chest. "What're these?" Ruby asked out loud as she took what looked like a file with writing that none of them recognized.
Weiss picked another one before inspecting the contents. "I have…absolutely no idea what these are supposed to be," the white-haired girl admitted.
"What, we went through all this trouble for weird scribbles?" Yang asked in annoyance. She was hoping for it to be more jewels or something.
"Perhaps Doctor Oobleck could help with these," Blake pointed out as she put her ear piece back on, "Doctor Oobleck are you there?"
"Yes I am. Did you find something?" The eccentric historian replied quickly.
Blake looked hesitantly at Weiss trying to make heads and tails about the content, before replying, "We found some files with unknown language written on them."
"Files? Not a tablet?" Ooblek said with a curious tone, "Can you send me a picture?"
"Of course," Blake replied before taking out her Scroll to send multiple pictures, in case they made more sense together. After taking the pictures and sending them to the doctor, the others dared to put their earpieces back on. All the while Weiss was still unable to make heads or tails of the contents on the files.
Finally, the earpieces came to life, "Curious." Sounded the voice of Adenine, "If I understand correctly, these are research notes from a research facility in Judicium."
"Judicium?" Yang sounded out, "Never heard of it."
"That's not surprising, seeing that Judicium is in Alrest," Adenine said casually.
"What!?" The four girls exclaimed in surprise.
"How can you tell?" Weiss asked in disbelief.
"Because the contents of these files that Blake sent pictures of seem to refer to Blade physiology, biology and something about weaving cells. And since us Blades are new here in Remnant, it's only logical to assume that these notes came from Alrest." Adenine explained, sounding excited at the last part.
"You mean, one of those portals brought this chest here," Ruby wondered aloud.
That made Weiss smack the side of her head in realization, "Of course! If that's the case then who knows what other objects could be here."
"Like that treasure chest we discovered back in Emerald Forest?" Blake then said, realizing that maybe that too was from Alrest.
"That would explain why it was still there, if it came recently," Roze agreed.
"In any case." This time it was Oobleck, "I believe you should take these notes with you. As I recall, Dragunov still has that back-pack."
"Understood, doctor Oobleck," Ruby said enthusiastically.
"I'll get him," Yang said as she jumped down from the patch of ground they were on. Instantly spotting Dragunov who had his back towards her. "Hey Drag, come over here." Yang called her Blade. But he didn't react. "Drag?" Yang then walked towards her Blade. "Dragunov?" Now Yang was right behind him and the draconic Blade still didn't react. "Hey!"
If anyone asked, Dragunov would never admit that he was startled enough to jump. "Whuh-what?" The draconic Blade turned around to see a mildly annoyed Yang.
"What'cha got there that's so much more interesting than me," Yang then asked in mild annoyance.
Realizing that Dragunov was still holding the journal and the paper that fell out of it, he gave the most logical response. "Nothing!" He put the paper back into the book and hid it behind his back.
"...Don't tell me you found a smut book," Yang said while wagging her eyebrows.
"What? No! It's not a smut book!" Dragunov roared into Yang's face loud enough to make her hair flutter a little. "I'm not Blake." That last one was added in a calmer tone.
"Suuure, whatever you say," Yang said teasingly.
"Why, you-" "Yang, what's taking so long," Dahlia called out, interrupting whatever Dragunov wanted to say.
And then Yang remembered what she was supposed to be doing, "Oh, right. Drag, we need you to carry some files." After those casual words, Yang moved beneath where they made their discovery.
With a grumble, Dragunov put the book into the back-pack before moving in to gather whatever it was they found. He would have time to read Thauron's journal later.
After gathering the files into Dragunov's back-pack the team moved on. Although Yang couldn't help teasing Dragunov about having a smut friend in Blake. Which neither the said black haired girl or her dark Blade appreciated. All the while Dragunov himself was cooking up revenge plans. Half of which involved doing horrible things to Yang's hair.
In any case, the team moved on with Dragunov now carrying some very precious baggage. Well, one of those is debatable, but still.
"Sooo," Yang said as they were now passing by a particularly large tree, "Anyone wanna have a sappy moment with me under that tree?"
That earned multiple groans, and a face-palm in Weiss' case.
"You want to gather sap from that tree?" And of course, Roze wouldn't recognize a pun if it bit him in the cape
"This tree would be ideal for that," Dahlia shrugged with an amused smile.
"Good one," Dragunov praised Dahlia, before directing a shit-eating grin at Yang.
"Traitor," Yang grumbled as she picked up her pace.
After passing the large tree, the team faced another green Creep. Thankfully one well-placed sniper shot from Ruby was all it took to make it explode. But there was another interesting thing.
"Is that a train?" Weiss questioned at the sight of a bridge with a train passing by. "Doctor Oobleck, are there any old railway systems marked around these parts?"
It didn't take long for the teacher to respond, "No miss Schnee. There shouldn't be any trains in that area."
"That's odd," Blake informed, before adding, "Because we're looking at train tracks, which a train just used to pass by."
"What!? That's preposte- Wait…whoever may have wanted to keep people away from this area might be responsible for these train tracks. Follow those tracks, students. And find out who is working here and why." Oobleck half-rambled.
"Will do, sir," Ruby said with a determined look.
"The path we have does seem to follow the tracks," Blake said as she pointed down the path.
"Then we should go," Roze said, looking to his Driver.
"Yeah." Ruby replied with a determined look. And the team moved on.
As they thought, the path they were on indeed followed the train tracks. At least until the tracks disappeared inside of a mountain, while their path led to the other side. But the team chose to follow the path, hoping that they would end up following the train tracks again.
Soon enough, the gang found themselves looking at a tunnel that led inside the very mountain the train tracks disappeared into. More importantly, they saw the end of said train tracks.
"Guys, we made it," Ruby cheered.
"We sure did," Yang added in.
"We haven't found our culprit yet," Weiss pointed out, but was smiling at them going the right way none the less.
"Guess we're still on the right track," Dragunov decided to joke. It took a moment, but that pun earned the groans it deserved.
Except with the forever pun-oblivious Roze. Speaking of the reaper, Roze became noticeably more stiff as he looked towards the tunnel. "Guys, we have an incoming problem," the red caped Blade said as he took out his weapon.
"I feel it too," Dahlia said with a frown as she prepared her bitball.
"More of the green and ugly Grimm, I presume," Weiss commented as she had her hand on Myrtenaster.
"Yeah, a big one," Yang said while pointing towards the tunnel. From there, a mutated Beowolf came out. It was larger than an Alpha, green where it was supposed to be red, and bone spikes were replaced with green crystalline substance.
"Look at the size of that thing," Ruby exclaimed, training Crescent Rose at it.
Blake gave the Blades a look over to see how they were holding up, seeing as the presence of these things made them nervous. What she saw, made her worry, Dragunov was gritting his teeth with a pained look, Nox's eye had already turned into an X with his claws digging into his bandaged hands as the dark Blade had a very tight grip on his scythes, Roze's breath was irregular and finally Dahlia's hands were shaking. The Blades were afraid of this thing.
"Okay, team. Let's kill it," Ruby shouted, oblivious to how the Blades were reacting to this new enemy.
Regardless, the rest of the team followed. Yang propelled herself ahead, right under the monster's first swipe, before unloading a shot from Ember Celica under its chin as she slid beneath its legs, right behind the beast.
The monster would've turned around if Blake and Weiss hadn't followed up with several slashes from their respective weapons, while it was still reeling.
This was followed by Ruby taking several shots at the mutated Beowolf, right after the monochromic duo cleared away. Although it looked like the beast wasn't really hurt from this combined assault.
"Hey, ugly!" Yang shouted, earning the beast's attention, just as her fist was fast approaching its face. But to Yang's surprise, the Beowolf was able to swipe the incoming appendage away, before delivering a powerful strike, sending the blonde away.
However, before the Grimm could even think about going after her, it felt two things stabbing into its back. Nox had engaged by jumping on the beasts back while stabbing repeatedly with his scythes. The dark Blade's pupil was still in an X shape.
As the beast struggled and clawed in a fruitless effort to reach Nox, Roze and Dahlia opened fire upon the beast. As the mutated Beowolf reeled away at the combined firepower of two Blades and a huntress, Nox suddenly fell off. This gave the beast a momentary opportunity to stomp on the dark Blade. Except, Nox rolled away from the incoming appendage before swiftly bouncing back to his feet. However, the dark Blade had another problem, the dark Ether energy that forms his scythe blades was gone and no matter how much he resupplied, the scythes refuse to reactivate. He didn't notice immediately that there was something green stuck to the slots from where the blades form out of.
As Nox was trying to get his weapons to work, Dragunov had decided to engage the monster. "Take this, ugly!" the draconic Blade roared as he planned to end this monster with one punch. But the beast saw it coming and dodged before clawing at Dragunov's side. Thankfully the claws were unable to pierce through the stone, which confused the beast long enough to get a stony knee driven into its gut. Before the owner of the said knee decided to take a more…gruesome approach and grab the beast by its jaws with both hands.
The beast seemed to realize what the mighty fire Blade was trying to do because it grabbed both of Dragunov's arms and tried to pry him off. Or it would have, if Ruby and Roze hadn't closed in and cut off the beast's arms from the thinnest points. The mutated Grimm didn't even have time to scream before Dragunov ripped its head open by the jaws with a mighty roar. With that, the mutated Beowolf was ended, but Dragunov still took distance from the creature as it began to disintegrate.
"Wow…talk about a slack jaw," Yang joked with an awkward smile. Which earned equally awkward chuckles from Ruby…Or maybe disturbed would be more appropriate term. Blake on the other hand wasn't sure if she should scowl at the joke, or at the terrible timing.
"Not funny, Yang." And of course, Weiss didn't find it funny.
"I don't know what it is about that thing, but I wanted it dead as fast as I possibly could," Dragunov said, realizing what the three humans and faunus looked so disturbed about.
"I hear you alright," Roze admitted, looking at the disintegrating corpse and the green substance it was leaving behind with apprehension.
Then everyone's attention was earned by Nox clanging his weapons together. "I fear I have an idea as to why we all fear this beast." Nox showed on his scroll.
"Really? What is it," Dahlia asked, wanting to know why this thing scared her so much for seemingly no reason.
Nox moved closer to the leftover green substance that was slowly evaporating. Fighting the instinct to get further from it, as he did. Then he did something that the other Blades found extremely disgusting, Nox scooped some of the green goo on one of his scythe blades which was now working again. Then he raised the weapon for all to see before holding a finger up, as if trying to say, "Wait for it." After several seconds, a portion of the substance fell through the scythe blade. Fell through, as in, ate through the ether energy it was formed out of. Which was further evidenced by the fact that there was indeed a piece of it missing.
"That stuff eats away at ether!" Roze exclaimed in alarm.
"You mean…this thing is…a Grimm that was designed to fight Blades?" Blake said, having some terrifying thoughts about that. As did everyone else for that matter.
"We need to call doctor Oobleck," Ruby said frantically as she made the call for the doctor and gave as quick of an explanation as she could. Although Weiss had to take over for a moment.
"So, you're saying that whatever is mutating these Grimm eats away at ether?" Came the voice of Adenine who was also listening in, "Fascinating…Does it truly eat any ether, or just what we Blades harness? I need a sample!" That last part sounded far too eager for any of the girl's liking.
"But Adenine, there's no telling if that substance could harm Blades if it somehow got into their system." Oobleck retorted, sounding very concerned about the prospect.
"Bartyyyy. If that is the case, then shouldn't we research it for a possible antidote?" Adenine whined
"You have a point. But I still think this is a very bad idea." Oobleck then retorted, "I don't want to lose you."
"Oh, get a room you two." Yang finally decided to open her mouth, just to see how these two would react.
"Miss Xiao Long!" And the team winced at the unhealthily high level of decibels Oobleck produced.
"But Barty and I are already in a room." Adenine spoke up, sounding mildly confused.
Sad thing is, only Yang was surprised by Adenine's lack of response. The poor blonde didn't know this, but she wasn't the first person who tried to imply something about Adenine and Oobleck, with the former of the two present. And every time the innuendos would either go over her aqua colored hair, or she stares at the people like they were talking gibberish.
Meanwhile, Blake let out a sigh, "I'll get the sample." And with that, Blake opened a small evidence collection kit and carefully scooped some of the remaining goop into a reinforced vial. "I mean, Adenine has a point. We might be able to find a cure if this thing is actually deadly for Blades." Blake felt the need to add that part.
"Makes sense to me," Dragunov shrugged. Although whether or not the Blades would be disturbed by that tiny vial remains to be seen.
As this happened, Dahlia had moved closer to the tunnel to see train tracks, "In the meantime, I think we could follow these train tracks here."
"Dahlia, you shouldn't get so close to that tunnel alone," Weiss scolded her Blade for such a reckless act. There could still be regular Grimm in there after all. Not that Weiss really had anything to worry about because Roze had his eyes on the tunnel too.
"Anyway, onward, team." Ruby said cheerfully as she moved towards the tunnel, Crescent Rose at the ready.
A lot of questions are still unanswered. But the team were moving on, following the tracks that led through what had to be some kind of stop
AN: Yup, I went there, the stuff that mutates Grimm is basically anti-ether. But more about that later.
And the team found something interesting. Anyone who's played Xenoblade 2 should know the significance of Judicium. How much will that play out? We shall see.
And in case some of you wonder, Adenine is almost purely intellectual. She would know concepts like "coitus", but some of the "finer things" such as innuendos would elude her.