New Environment
*Beep beep beep beep beep bee-* "Uggggh..." Peter groaned, "Can someone please get that alarm?" Peter, as well as the rest of the girls, were in their living quarters. Once again, they had made bunkbeds with Peter sleeping on the ground. He WAS offered a bed and Ruby was more than willing to share with any of the girls, but Peter was fine (even if he almost folded under pressure when Yang jokingly offered to share the bed with him).
"It's YOUR scroll, dolt. You get it." Weiss groaned back as she grabbed the pillow she was using and desperately tried to cover her ears.
Peter silently cursed to himself as he got to his knees and grabbed the scroll that was charging on the dresser behind his head, facing the window. To his surprise, it wasn't his alarm, but he was being called by Qrow of all people. "Hello?" he asked with a confused tone.
"Hey, kid. Lots to talk about. Thought I'd give you all a wakeup call." Qrow stated, trying to keep it short because Peter sounded like he wasn't 100% there, "Tell Ruby to meet us down in the briefing room, I already told Oscar to let Jaune know. We'll talk about something later; Winter and I need to brief you on something. Try to stroll in within the hour, please." He said 'please' but to Peter it sounded more like he said 'Or Else'.
"Heard." Peter said with a long sigh before Qrow hung up. "We gotta get up; Ruby, you need to meet Qrow and Jaune down in the briefing room. I'm gonna go find the locker room and change."
"You won't have privacy." Blake mentioned as she started stretching her back by leaning forward (making Peter chuckle as she looked like a cat), "If you thought Beacon's co-ed locker room was weird, you have to remember, this is a school and a military base. You have students AND soldiers here. Some even twice the age as what you'd be used to seeing."
"Oh sure, that's not weird at all." Peter mumbled, "Mind if I use the bathroom first then?"
Yang leaned over her bunk, a mischievous smirk on her face, "Sure you don't want to share—OOUGH!" she was immediately silenced when Blake punched up, hitting the top of Yang's head.
"No PDA." Blake mumbled. Yang fell out of the bed and landed with a thud on the ground. She tried beckoning Peter to help her, but he only gave her a crisp high-five as he walked into the bathroom.
RWBYS as well as JNR met down in waiting area while their leaders met up with Qrow and Clover, the Ace Ops leader, for the mission briefing. "What do you think the mission is going to be?" Nora asked, "We're pretty new to the area, it'd be nice to see some sights, heheh." everyone gave her a silent glare and she immediately blushed in embarrassment, "I mean, OBVIOUSLY we're not here to sight see, but, like...you know?" she shrugged, "We aren't exactly from the area."
"Guess we'll find out when we head out." Ren said with a nod.
Meanwhile, with Ruby, Jaune, and Qrow; Clover was giving them a rundown of the upcoming mission. "Gather round, gather round." Clover called to the three as he pressed a button on a remote control that close the metal blinds over the windows in the briefing room and he turned on the holo screens, "Our mission today is to secure the launch site for the Amity Communications Tower. The designated area is an abandoned Dust mine. Since its closure the Grimm have moved in. Good news: all that untouched Dust is still down there too." he smirked, showing photographs and old footage of the Dust Mine. Science team says they are going to need it for the first phase of their launch." he clicked a remote and switched to a video showing soldiers in winter gear fighting off Grimm with their rifles on the screens for the trio to see, "Atlas Military Huntsman are already hard at work clearing out the surrounding tundra. But Recon has identified a powerful Geist that's managed to evade destruction...and take several lives." he stated solemnly. Clover clicked his remote and showed pictures of the mine in question, "After we had increased our numbers the Geist was smart enough to retreat into the mine itself. Which means it's old, which makes it EXTREMELY dangerous. This is our target." he pressed another button and showed Jaune and Ruby the last form the Geist took, which seemed to be many rocks and boulders of ice merged together to form some sort of golem.
Clover pressed a button, removing the screens and revealing a holographic, 3D map of the mountainside that the mine resided in. "The mine was a labyrinth back in the day. There's all sorts of tunnels and chambers the Geist can move between. So, if we're gonna kill this thing, we'll need to split up and corner it. Thankfully, we have a bit of an advantage. If what our report on you kids is true, then our friend Peter will be our radar."
"You want to use Peter as bait?" Jaune asked with a worried expression.
"Not bait. He'll be point." Clover assured. "Now, General Ironwood says you've all seen your fair share of combat. I trust that man with my life, so tomorrow, I will be trusting you all too. Meeting adjourned."
After the meeting, Ruby and Jaune met up with their teams again, and Qrow motioned for Peter to join him and Clover in the briefing room. Peter started to walk towards them, but stopped when Yang grabbed his wrist. "Don't let them push you around." she smirked before giving Peter a peck on the lips and shoving off towards Qrow.
"BLEGH!" Ruby exclaimed and pointed her index finger towards her throat as they began walking to the R&D department.
"No PDA." Qrow scolded, "Kids, I swear."
"Hey...not my fault." Peter defended. He walked into the briefing room and was met with the rest of the Ace Ops, Deadpool, and Winter. "Woah...full party. I appreciate it guys, really, but my birthday is in August."
"Bit of a talker, ain't he?" Harriet mumbled.
"So?" Peter asked as he approached the group, "What's the big deal? You gonna tell me you want me to go on a separate mission than everyone else?"
"Don't be foolish." Clover replied as he lowered the lights in the room once more and directed everyone's attention to the holoscreens. He hit a button and a video popped up. Surveillance footage, specifically from the other night when Deadpool, Qrow, Winter and Penny were called in for an emergency. The footage was from the inside of the mechanic shop, showing the large Rhino Grimm the group had encountered. "Last night, Deadpool, Qrow, Winter and Penny encountered an unidentified Grimm. We thought that it was a new breed, but based off the comments Deadpool made, we think it could be something more...sinister."
"Look at this thing, Pete." Deadpool mentioned as they zoomed in on the image, "Looks a little familiar, huh?"
Peter looked at the footage with a mixture of intrigue and caution. "I-Is that-?"
"No." Winter interrupted, "We know for certain it isn't Rhino. However, we believe that this creature...we think it has cloned him...somehow. Or based its appearance off him."
"How is that possible?" Peter asked, "Wasn't Rhino taken into Vale police custody? And how could the Grimm 'clone' him."
Winter stared at Peter for some time, biting her lip as she thought carefully about what she'd say next, "Not...exactly." she sighed, "While, yes, it is true that Vale police initially took Rhino into custody, truth is we took him soon after that. Actually, I was in charge of ensuring he made it here without any hiccups." the bombshell of an admittance shocked Peter, of course, but at the same time he wasn't upset. He was...relieved and also felt he gained much more respect for Winter by her telling him something that, realistically, the government could have kept hidden from him for as long as they were there. "The 'cloning' part is harder to explain." Winter continued, "We don't know WHAT this 'Sinister Six' of yours was exposed to while working with Torchwick and Cinder Fall. For all we know, this could have been cultivating these last few months. Or, perhaps Cinder is making a move on us now and is trying to catch us off guard."
"Unlikely." Deadpool mentioned causing Winter and the Ace Ops to look at him with a similar quizzical look, "I have my sources. Believe me, if Cinder was nearby...I'd know."
Peter nods, "Yeah, trust Wade on this one. I know he's usually...much less than reliable, but I have it on good authority to trust him here."
"Noted." Winter replied, "I'm...I'm rather glad at how calmly you took this, Pa—Ahem, Peter." Peter simply waved her off as if it wasn't that big a deal. Winter then cleared her throat again before continuing, "Anyways, we thought it best to inform you of what we encountered the other night. It is very possible that you will encounter creatures similar to this later on, so be on the lookout. Especially if it looks like one of your enemies. We believe we may be able to capture it and find a way back to its nest if it's brought in unharmed."
"How would you do that?" Peter asked, genuinely curious. Based off everything he's experienced here on Remnant, they didn't have any sort of technology similar to that here.
Marrow stepped forward, "That's classified—OW!" he was quickly silenced as Elm pulled him back by his tail.
"Mimosas." Winter replied with a smirk, leading Peter to cringe, "Don't look so upset. She's quite resourceful, you know?"
"She also comes on stronger than a durian." Peter mumbled.
The lights turned on and holoscreens disappeared as Clover came and pat Peter on the shoulder, "Ms. Vermillion is...excentric, but she does good work for R&D. Besides, these could lead to your...um..." the man blinked a few times looking as if he was trying to find the right term to describe Peter's enemies, "Universe-kin?"
"Good enough." Peter smirked as he pat Clover on the hand in return.
RWBY and JNR were lead to the R&D department by Pietro. Once inside the they saw several large rooms made for testing new weapons, support items, even some kind of new armor for those that had weaker aura. On the other side was Mimosas who was working on some sort of android. It didn't look like the typical Atlesian Knights, it seemed different...much sleeker, less clunky; she looked up at the group with a gleam in her eye and then immediately frowned when she realized Peter wasn't with them. "This way now, don't dally." Pietro laughed, "Sorry we had to hold onto your weapons for so long, the upgrades y'all requested were...welllll...a little more than I anticipated." he chuckled.
"Yeah, old man here practically forced me to help out." Mimosas huffed, "And I couldn't even help my future hubby because he chose to switch to organic on me!" she gave a pout and slammed her fist into the knee of the robot she was working on which caused her to recoil in pain. "Anyway...your things should be packed up and situated over there." she pointed behind herself with her thumb towards a set of shelves with briefcases resting on them.
The group looked downright giddy as they imagined their updated weapons (and some fresh clothes), Nora being the first to essentially dive to her case that was on a lower shelf and nearly break it open in excitement. "Your weapons should be as requested." Pietro stated with glee, "I also took the liberty of reviewing your combat footage from the Vytal Festival Tournament. There is some...additional enhancements I'd like to suggest, but for now, these should serve you well enough." The group began to open their cases, their new and improved weapons practically gleaming from the light as they did so. Everything was perfect. Top of the line school means top of the line equipment. Maybe it wasn't so bad to run with Atlas?
"Oh, Blake..." Yang stated as she looked at the clothes that were in the suitcase, "Do NOT let Sun see you in that. You may give that poor monkey man a headrush." she snickered.
Weiss cocked an eyebrow and gave a sly smile to her teammate, "Just WHAT kind of clothes did you request, Ms. Belladonna?"
"NORMAL CLOTHES!" Blake defended, her face flush from the embarrassment of Yang suggesting they were something skimpy, as well as embarrassment from letting light teasing getting to her so quickly. "What about Ruby? Her combat skirt is...suggestive." the girls all looked at Blake before sharing a laugh.
"C'mon. Ruby?" Yang laughed, "She's worn practically the same outfit with slight variation since school started. Hell, I'd say this new outfit is actually less revealing than the old one."
"Nylon can be inappropriate too." Blake mumbled.
The Next Day...
Peter sat on the bay door to a Bullhead in a large hanger, already fully dressed down in his costume. He was earliest of everyone else because Mimosas INSISTED he wake up early so she could make a single modification to his costume. He didn't want to, but even Ironwood seemed to think it was a good idea. To his shock (and horror) the modification was to attach a tacky patch to his left shoulder. The patch being the insignia of Atlas Acadamy. Well...at least they won't think you're a Grimm. Ero chuckled.
"Not funny." Peter groaned, "I think I would rather them paint a large target on my back than force me to wear this ugly thing. Knowing Mimosas—No, knowing Ironwood, this thing probably has a tracking device or some sort of audio recording hardware sewn into it."
Hmmm...I think you're just upset because you didn't get to have any true intimacy with our girlfriend. Ero teased.
"MY girlfriend."
I am you, and you are I. We are one and the same. Just because I have a consciousness and am the spiritual embodiment of your totem doesn't make that any less of a fact.
"You sure are getting much more talkative lately...and annoying."
Hmm, I thought I wasn't any less annoying than you or those...false avatars. Ero stated, as they made themself manifest in their ethereal form next to Peter and tap their chin.
"False avatars?" Peter asked, cocking an eyebrow under his mask.
The ones that call themselves 'Ben Reilly' and 'Kaine Parker'. Ero let out a voice that almost sounded almost like a gaudy laugh, Completely absurd. They aren't even real people; it would be foolish to even consider them avatars.
"Shut up." Peter growled, "I don't care what you think. But Ben...and Kaine too. They're brothers. MY brothers. They may have been cloned from me, but that doesn't make them any less of a person. They have thoughts, feelings, they have their own experiences. Maybe they aren't 'avatars' to you, but don't look down on them and say they aren't people."
You're a strange one. They tried to kill you, you realize that right?
"People try to kill me every day, sometimes it's a good way to break the ice. Deadpool and I weren't exactly buddy-buddy until recently either." Suddenly, Peter's Spider Sense went off and Ero disappeared back into his body
"Yo, kid!" Marrow's voice called out, causing Peter to squint, Strange...why would my Spider Sense go off around them? he thought. "Make yourself useful and carry some of this stuff, will 'ya?" Peter looked at Marrow to see him dragging a pallet that had many large cases on it. "It's supplies for our men that are down there, we're gonna drop them off food."
Peter looked at the pallet and saw how the cases on it were stacked almost comically high as it was about the height of him and Marrow combined...and then some. "THAT is all food?" Peter asked.
Marrow rubbed his neck, "Well...no. It's food, water, first aid, extra equipment for the mines."
"You're going to re-open the mines?"
"Well duh!" Marrow laughed, "We're going to clear it out and then start work on the ACT using materials from the mines. This is flying in with the eggheads who will begin putting the damn thing together."
Peter nodded in understanding and pat Marrow on his shoulder before walking away from him and towards his team which he saw just enter the hanger. "Do it yourself."
"Wha-?"
As Peter walked over to his friends, he was in awe at their new outfits. The very first person he noticed was Blake. Her hair was now gone. Not literally, but she went from a long, full hairstyle that reached her lower back to a bob cut. She wore a sleeveless dark purple catsuit (heheh) that had attached boots with large zippers that ran from her mid thighs to her ankles, as well as a collar that was form fitting and going halfway up her neck. Attached to her catsuit were kneepads that were similar in color. Over the catsuit was a white tailcoat that had violet detailing on the inside, while at the chest of the jacket it was a diluted purple. It had a reverse zipper that was zipped down to just below her chest while the mid-section of the coat was connected via a belt that was sewn into the coat itself.
Jaune was the next person he noticed. He...also cut his hair, but it was um...it was very Jaune. Short, messy, also spikey somehow? It looked as if Jaune was trying to copy Sun's haircut but ended up somehow fumbling and making an entirely different thing. Peter DESPERATELY tried to hold in a laugh, but he may have let out a snicker or two. The rest of Jaune's outfit looked like a natural upgrade to his previous outfit. His sweater no more (or perhaps repurposed) he now had a black high-collar shirt, his chest plate now covered more of his chest, and more of his abdomen region, he has a newly modified bracers and pauldrons. His gloves, sash and belt remain the same, but he now wore darker jeans.
Nora, thankfully, looked much more natural, cutting her hair just a little shorter than it was. She wore a long, pink and white sleeveless coat with light blue lapels and white-collar belted closed by a black belt with a pouch on the left side, over a black short dress. Her coat also has two heart-shaped cutouts near the bottom, she had two detached white sleeves with black fingerless gloves, and finally she had a metal magnetic plate sewn into the back of her coat to hold her hammer.
Ren, again, looks not as different, giving Peter some relief. He still wore a dark green vested top, but now had white long sleeves underneath, black half of a jacket/arm guard combination on his right arm with his father's dagger attached it, a single detached long black fingerless glove on his left arm, and black leather boots. His biggest change was his braided hair, which, based off Nora's expression, it seemed likely that it was her idea.
Ruby messed with her hair a bit, looking more tomboyish than before; it was a little spikey and her bangs were swept to the side. Her outfit, while similar, changed a bit as well. She now wore a black and red lined lace-up corset with four buckles hanging loose over a mesh sleeveless top over a white low-cut long- sleeved blouse and a black choker around her neck. On her lower half, she wore a red pleated skirt split at the side with a small brown belted strap across the gap, and bright red shorts under it, with nylon tights underneath that. On her arms, she wears black bracers with large brown buckled straps around the wrist and black fingerless gloves.
Yang surprised Peter by also going for a more tomboy look, wearing khaki overalls that had a large zipper in the center that went from her chest down to her groin, which she had unzipped just below her breast to show off a lowcut white tube top. Around the thighs of the overalls is a gold zipper and buckled strap that allows for the pants leg to be detached. The right leg is unzipped but still strapped to the overalls but the lower part is partially folded over. Over top of the coveralls, she wears a baggy, dark brown crop aviator styled jacket with fur trim around the neck and black-and-orange straps along the sleeves.
Finally, was Weiss, who Peter may have stared at the longest in astonishment. The main feature that was messing with Peter's mind was Weiss' hair. She still had a ponytail, but now it was in a thick braid, the braid was probably as large as one of Ruby's thighs. In addition to the ponytail, she had grown out her bangs and styled them so they were closer to her face. Her outfit also felt...overly complicated to him, but maybe this was her natural...rich look? She wore a pale blue sleeveless dress with deep red lining, bow detail fixture, and two diamond-shaped pieces hanging from the corners of the hem, over a white diagonal hemmed strapless dress. Above which she wears a vivid blue shrug with a raised collar, puffy sleeves and the Schnee emblem on the left sleeve, fastened by a blue, silver outlined strap. On her arms are a pair of long navy-blue gloves with silver top trim surrounding a red gem at the top. Over her dress, she wears a light blue, corset styled belt. Around her waist are three white belts with a medium-sized pouch attached to the lowest belt and another pouch attached to the middle belt. Finally, she wore ruby earrings to match her tiara.
"What?" Weiss asked, in almost a frustrated tone, "Finally coming to your senses, realizing what got away?" she asked as she acted as if she were looking at her nails before letting out a snort, "Sorry, I couldn't resist."
"Did you put in extensions?" Peter asked. The question immediately lead to Yang bursting out in laughter while Blake tried to use her hand to cover her face so Weiss didn't see the smirk on her face.
"I'M NOT CRAZY!" Nora shouted out, "I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE, HAIR WITCH!" she accused maniacally as she pointed at Weiss.
"This is my REAL hair. Why do you think they're extensions?" Weiss defended.
"Your braid is as larger than my arm! To have that much hair in the braid it would have to be, like, touching the floor or something."
Weiss' eye twitched and she opened her mouth as if to say something, but instead she took a deep breath and pulled out Myrtenaster. She waved her saber around, with the Ice Dust active, she then formed a giant hand giving Peter the finger. "Hehehe." Peter chuckled, which was followed by Weiss and then the others as they all broke out into a fit of laughter.
"Don't dilly dally." Harriet ordered as she walked past the group, "We have a mission to do. Let's go."
Yang clicked her tongue and put on a pair of orange tinted shades, "She's right. No sense standing around. Let's bring communication back to all of Remnant, huh?"
The teams walked towards the two Bullheads and were stopped by Clover, "Hold on." he said as he held a hand up, "We're gonna need to keep good contact with each other and those old scrolls of yours are...old. Some I'm surprised they even function." he didn't say any names, but immediately everyone looked to Jaune, "So, we've taken the liberty of assigning you new and improved scrolls. State of the art tech, nowhere else in the world has these yet."
"Yeah, that's probably because of the embargo." Peter chimed in receiving a smack on the shoulder from Weiss.
Marrow growled, "You know, I'm already getting sick of your attitude. You don't follow orders, you punched our General, now you're disrespecting our General's orders...which is even worse than not following orders I gave you."
Peter cocked an eyebrow underneath his mask, "'Now'?" he repeated, "I've BEEN criticizing that embargo decision since I first heard it. I'm not a moron. Sorry I don't think that hurting your people and the people of the outside world is that smart of an idea."
"What would you know?!"
"Enough!" Clover ordered with a stern tone, "Marrow, shut it down. Parker, maybe be a team player, huh? We need soldiers we can trust out here."
"I'm not a soldier." Peter replied with a soft, yet firm, tone, "I don't take orders from the likes of you guys. You want help? Backup? You got it. You expect me to follow your orders? Not happening. Simple as that. I follow my code of ethics, if I feel that what you are asking of me goes against those ethics then I won't do it." Peter then glanced over to Marrow, "And the reason I didn't follow your 'order' is because you were trying to get me to do your own dirty work."
Clover glanced over to Marrow and gave him a stern look, causing the dog faunus to gulp and his tail slink between his legs. "We'd appreciate it if you helped out from time to time." he said again looking into the sleek silver lenses of Peter's costume.
"I'll think about it."
Clover gave a smirk, Peter couldn't tell if the guy respected him, or if he was just as frustrated with Peter as Marrow already was. "Let's move out. Parker, you're with me and Qrow."
Fantastic. Ero mentioned sarcastically, Do you think he'll respect your wishes?
Not likely… Peter replied.
The Bullheads flew over a large tundra, down below the three teams (and Qrow) could see Atlesian Soldiers fending off any stragglers on the surface as the groups approached the cave. The two Bullheads then split off from each other. The first contained Harriet and Marrow of the Ace Ops, and team RWBY the 'S' of the team being absent as he was on the other Bullhead with JNR, Qrow, and the other half of the Ace Ops. As they flew closer to the site, the side doors for the Bullheads opened up the harsh cold flowing through and making some of the Huntsman shiver, mostly Peter who tensed up and began rubbing his arms. "Let's make this happen, people." Clover announced over the comms, giving the cue for the huntsmen to make their descent.
"Jaune, your landing strategy has improved since Beacon, right?" Peter asked sarcastically receiving a 'Ha-Ha' response from his blonde friend.
The first group to make their descent was RWBY, each with their new outfits and upgraded weapons, they jumped out of the Bullhead as a unit. Ruby performed a corkscrew as she dove headfirst towards the ground before flipping her body around and opening up Crescent Rose in its Scythe form, standing on the blade and firing down towards the ground, the recoil of the weapon slowing her descent; Weiss formed multiple glyphs and jumped between them before summoning just the arm of the armored knight and using its sword as a rail before she jumped off and slid to a hault on the ground; Blake, now with a reformed Gambul Shroud, placed it in its hook-scythe form, throwing it to a pipe and swinging from it before doing it again just before she landed on the ground with a somersault and a smirk; Yang let herself fall as close to the surface as possible before slowing her momentum by firing a shell from Ember Celica, flipping in the air and grinding on a mine cart/train rail before hopping off and sliding to a stop next to her teammates. Following close behind them were Harriet and Marrow, the latter showing off his weapon, some sort of large boomerang that can turn into a rifle.
The other Bullhead flew over the group to the other side of the mountain. Qrow, Clover and Peter were the first to jump out near the top of the mountain to enter through a higher entrance to the mine. Qrow and clover both made use of the mountainside and the rocks to slow their descent and get them to the right spot. Meanwhile, Peter opted to making a web parachute.
The Bullhead continued to fly over to a back entrance where Elm and Vine would jump out with JNR. "This is my favorite part!" Elm exclaimed as she jumped out the right side of the Bullhead with Vine following close after her. This was followed by JNR jumping out the left side of the Bullhead. Jaune, utilizing his upgraded Crocea Mors, he placed the shield above his head and pressed a button allowing hardlight to extend from the sides of the shield, making it larger, but also working as if it were a glider; Nora used her hammer to hit the side of the mountain and redirect her fall as well as slow her descent. She slowed herself more by swinging her hammer at the ground shortly before landing, having her hammer absorb the recoil; Ren took a safer approach and used his newly upgraded Stormflower to slow his descent by using its new grappling ability. He hooked one of the blades into the mountains and began to repel down until he landed next to his team. This group landed next to what looked to be a natural opening in the side of the mountain with ice surrounding the area.
"Ha-ha!" Elm laughed as she punched a fist into her palm, "Maybe you kids won't get yourselves killed after all." she turned with a smile and went in first while Nora and Jaune folded their arms and pouted at being called 'kids'.
"She uh...meant that as a compliment?" Vine said, not so reassuringly, with a shrug.
Clover looked at Qrow and Peter and gave a nod, "Peter head on ahead. That Danger Sense semblance of yours will be beneficial for us."
"Not a semblance, but alright." Peter mumbled as he walked into the cave first, being sure to keep alert in case the Geist decided to take over a different formation of rocks.
Clover smirked and clicked an earpiece he had on and began making an announcement to everyone who was selected for the comms, "This is Alpa Squad, LZ is clear. Proceeding on foot." he announced, "Remember, you have fancy new scrolls, so don't forget to use them. Keep your eyes and ears open. I want an update if you run into the target. Clover, out."
Down with RWBY the group began making their way to the cave entrance. Blake looked over to Yang who was staring directly at her faunus teammate with a mixture of confusion but also analysis. "What?" Blake asked.
"Yep." Yang nodded, "I dig it. Bob cut is a good look for you Blakey." she said giving Blake a thumbs up.
"Hey, question." Peter said over comms, "Why did you say, 'Proceeding on foot' and then stay right there for like five minutes while I was the only person who entered this dark, smelly, cave." he complained, "And I mean SMELLY. PHEW! I don't know if Grimm leave scat or anything, but it definitely smells like an animal or two died in here."
"Gross, shut up." Weiss scolded, "We do NOT need to hear about animal droppings or entrails or anything sick like that."
Marrow rolled his eyes and let out a loud groan, "I did not sign up to babysit."
"Hey, we babysit you all the time." Harriet chided in with a smirk, causing her teammate to stop in his tracks for a moment before continuing.
As they approached the large entrance to the cave, Weiss wiped off a large amount of snow that was covering an SDC sign. Immediately she let her distaste be known as she let out an almost disgusted groan. "Yeah...why expect any less." The group looked around the area before heading into the mine. Everything was abandoned for gods knows how long. Two large buildings filled with offices and housing stood on either side of the mine's entrance. Large sleuths near both of the buildings for cleaning washing off and sorting the Dust crystals between uncut rocks and small shards. Abandoned crates littered the area, along with wrecked vehicles and carts.
Ruby rubbed her arms and shivered, "Gods, it's FREEZING!" she whined.
"Without heating or projected aura, the cold of Solitas can kill someone in a matter of hours." Weiss mentioned, looking seemingly unfazed by the cold herself.
Blake's ears twitched when she heard that and she let out a long sheepish sigh, "Good thing we left Oscar behind then...ugh, and here I was trying to convince Qrow to bring him with us."
Yang gulped and waited for Harriet and Marrow to walk ahead of them before stopping her team, "Should we...talk about that?" she asked, leading Ruby and the others a confused look, "I mean, I went with Ruby at the time, and Peter seemed to do the same. But...is it really a good idea to keep Oscar's identity away from Ironwood? What we learned about Jinn? About Salem?"
"We will!" Ruby said quickly, "Not now but...I talked about it with Peter, last night. But...I mean, you saw the way things were when we got here."
"The General's heart seems to be in the right place." Blake mentions, "At least...it seems that way for now. So that means we have no reason to trust him. I mean, just look at how he's treated not only us, but especially Peter."
Weiss nodded before chiming in, "Blake's right, let's play along for a while before we make any brash decisions. It would be best for everyone to be together if we eventually tell him, you know?"
Yang nodded, "Okay, okay...so how did Oscar feel about that?"
Ruby bit her lip and looked down at her boots.
The other day...
Ruby stood in Oscar's dorm and handed him Jinn's lamp, "I probably shouldn't keep running around with an ancient relic on a keychain." she chuckled. Oscar looked down at the lamp, a mixture of confusion as well as concern. "Don't worry, I know you'll take good care of it here in Atlas." she smiled.
"Ruby..." Oscar sighed, "Hiding things from Ironwood...I mean, doesn't it feel like what Ozpin did to us?" Ruby wasn't sure how to respond. She KNEW he was right. But her gut, her natural instincts, her...metaphorical Spider Sense...it told her something wasn't quite right.
"He had his concerns, just like all of us do." Ruby replied with a serious expression. She thought that Yang would be disappointed by her answer, that she would try prying for more of a response. Instead, her sister simply nodded.
"Okay." Yang said before giving a smile, "Well, at least we're all in on it. Not nearly as bad, right?"
Qrow and Clover walked down a long tunnel, the walls lined with veins of the Dust that could be found inside. Clover wasn't joking when he said all the Dust is still here. Qrow thought. One false move, we could accidentally cave ourselves in...or worse...blow the top off this place. "It's weird working with other huntsman in the field. It's...foreign." Qrow mentioned.
"But you used to be on a team yourself, didn't you?" Clover asked.
Qrow rolled his eyes, "Years ago. Another lifetime ago. Working alone just tends to be for the best for me."
Clover frowned before quickly letting out a chuckle, "I think that's a shame myself." Qrow went to make a rebuttal but before he could say a thing he was interrupted as he slipped on some snow that was hiding a thin layer of ice. Thankfully before he faceplanted and made a fool of himself, Clover was able to reach out and snag the older huntsman just in time. The two looked at each other, Qrow looking irritated as Clover had a 'Told you so' look on his face.
Clover pat Qrow on the shoulder and decided to hop on comms to hear the progress of everyone, "This is Alpha, give me an update. Parker, you're up first."
"Oh yeaaaah it's great. All clear." Peter said sarcastically over comms, "C'mon, be serious. If I sensed anything or even heard anything, I would have called for backup or taken care of it by now." he let out a frustrated breath and watched as the small cloud that came from his mouth rose up towards the ceiling of the large mine, "All I've seen is ice, dust, Dust, a couple dirty mags, what I PRAY was once a functioning toilet and not a portapotty, and some guns...modern ones."
"Those likely belong to our comrades from previous encounters." Clover mentioned.
"Maybe that means we're getting closer." Jaune mentioned.
"Normally I'd agree, buddy...unfortunately, if what the briefing said is true, and this Geist is old...it's probably a lot smarter than we give it credit for. For all we know this thing could be it trying to lure us away."
"Noted." Clover replied, "Vine?"
"The connecting ice tunnels seem clear." Vine replied as he, Elm, and JNR traversed one of the numerous ice tunnels in the mine. The engineering for the tunnel was quite ingenious. It looked as if the tunnel was crudely carved out and as they miners would go further along they would place pipes along the walls and ceilings. It seemed as if the pipes were what allowed the tunnel to keep its shape as it would warm the ice around it so that it did not freeze and block off the path. "We should be approaching the mine any minute now."
"Oh, you mean I won't be the only one in here anymore? And here I thought you Ace Ops dudes were actually expecting me to do all the heavy lifting." Peter mentioned over the comms, again, with a sarcastic tone. "Heeey, here's an idea, next time you want someone to go in alone while you all show up thirty minutes later, send Deadpool he LOOOOOVES doing stupid stuff for money. No joke! One time Blake paid him twenty Lien to do a kickflip off Beacon's rooftop...and he did! It was sick! He also snapped both his ankles and his tibia broke through his skin!"
"Peter...shut up." Qrow scolded.
"The hell is your friend's problem?" Elm asked as she looked over her shoulders to the teens following behind.
"In the time he's known the Atlas Military they accused him of being a terrorist, stole his blood and made a psuedo-clone, attacked him with AKs, didn't search for his body that well after The Fall and he was found by someone who wasn't even at the school and taken by her, he was STILL wanted by the government even well after The Fall and they tried to arrest him in Argus, then you guys arrested us in Mantle. So...call it a hunch...but I don't think he likes you guys all that much." Jaune replied, receiving a smirk from Ren and an enthusiastic nod from Nora.
"Yeah! Like, you can't just hurt our Spider-Boy and think you'll get off scott-free." Nora added with a pout and crossed her arms.
Elm looked like she wanted to reply, but she closed her mouth as quickly as she opened it and turned around, focusing on what was ahead of them.
"Nora..." Ren sighs.
"What? It's true!" Nora huffed before quickly brushing it off with a wave, "Pishaw! Anyways, isn't this exciting? It feels like we're an actual huntsman team!" she squealed she quickly cleared her throat and tapped her index fingers nervously, "I mean...not that we WEREN'T one before, but I mean, like, this feels OFFICIAL."
Ren looked at Nora with a confused expression, "Wait...I thought we were always official? Was that not what the partnering was for at Beacon?"
Nora stopped dead in her tracks, a heavy blush on her face as she briefly misheard what Ren was saying before her brain course corrected. "Ren..." she growled quietly before punching his shoulder.
"OW! W-What was that for?"
"You know what." Nora huffed before crossing her arms and marching further ahead to catch up with Elm and Vine.
"Geez, Ren, what'd you do?" Jaune chuckled while patting his teammate on his shoulder.
Ren only furled his brow in a mixture of confusion and frustration, "Am...Am I the butt of a joke?"
With RWBY, Harriet and Marrow, the group continued walking through the main entrance of the cave until they eventually hit a large wall of crumbled rock and ice. Harriet groaned and immediately got on comms. "Bravo here, we hit a bit of a snag. Seems there's been a cave-in in the main entrance. Unsure if this is recent or caused by the original accident."
"Understood. Let us know if you need anything." Clover replied.
"Hey Marrow, how much wolf and/or dog do you have in you?" Peter started, leading Blake to groan because she already knew where he was going with this, "Because, like, you should probably start digging your way in. Gotta be some instincts in there, right?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Marrow replied with a frustrated tone, "You're a spider, right? Do YOU make large web nests where you eat your prey?"
"Web nests? Yes, kind of. I make hammocks and places where I can easily tie up enemies. 'Eat my prey'? No. Unless you mean cow, because I have been known to enjoy a fat burger or two while sitting on my webs. It's pretty cozy."
Marrow disconnected and began rubbing his temples in frustration, "I hate him, I hate him, I hate him..." he groaned.
While the Ace Ops dealt with that issue, Blake and the others noticed the surroundings. Minecarts, steel beams, fragmented Dust shards, and molten metal were all strewn about the area with ice and snow beginning to cover it up. Blake's ears drooped as she realized where they were. "Are you okay?" Yang asked.
"This Mine...I know this place." Blake replied with a saddened expression, "It was closed down due to an explosion."
"I remember this disaster too." Weiss chimed in, "Or rather...I remember how furious my father was when it happened. I wish...I just wish I could take things back. Everything my family had done. Looking at this place, how my father reacted...it isn't right that he was more furious about the profits lost than the faunus lives lost." Blake smirked at her teammate and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
Suddenly Marrow appeared from nowhere, willing to put in his own two cents, "This society is set up to put faunus at the bottom. And humans are willing participants. The benefit simply from doing nothing to help us, yet there are those who will actively abuse us. But I'm not here to solve systemic issues. Harriet found a gap in the rubble she thinks one of you can fit through."
The girls all turn and look at Weiss he flinches slightly, "Wha-Huh? Me?!" she scoffs, "Just what makes you all think he's talking about me?"
Yang let out a slight snort, "Blake's butt is too big and will get stuck when she's halfway through, I won't even be able to enter, Ruby will get her cape snagged on something. Clearly they mean you. After all you're the most...compressed?" she finished by shrugging her shoulders, hoping Weiss would understand what she meant.
Weiss' whole face lit up in a bright red in a mixture of fury and embarrassment, "WHAT THE HELL DOES 'COMPRESSED' MEAN IN THIS CONTEXT?"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Marrow said quickly trying to prevent what could be a more awkward moment for his end, "We weren't thinking Ms. Schnee at all. See, we were thinking someone who can see naturally in the dark...someone like our fellow faunus, here?" he said gesturing to Blake.
The group walked over the small crevice in the rubble and gestured for Blake to shimmy on through. It looked like it was fine after a couple feet, but the initial entrance looked fairly tight of a fit. "You guys SURE Blake will fit?" Ruby asked receiving a snicker from Yang and a glare from their faunus teammate.
"Don't think we have much of a choice." Blake stated with a sigh. She walked up to the small opening and turned her body sideways so she could attempt to slink through. She managed the first step just fine. However, as she started to slide herself through, she caught a bit of a snag...specifically in the lower region where there was a noticeable amount of pressure on her backside. She groaned and mentally smacked herself, Don't admit Yang is right, don't admit Yang is right, don't admit Yang is-
"You doing alright?" Yang asked, a slight smirk on her face.
"Peachy." Blake replied, giving herself a forceful push and slid herself to freedom on the other side of the rubble where she was met with what looked to be a corridor built into the rubble itself.
"Great choice of words." Yang snickered, "Let us know if you see anything." Blake gave a thumbs up to the group before walking down the corridor.
It's so strange. Blake thought, the crack in the rubble looked natural but this...this looks manmade...or creature made. They did say that the Geist had retreated in here but...what if it had been here for a long time. It's as if it made itself its own entry way.
"Blake, do you see anything? Any Dust in the area near the immediate entrance?"Harriet asked over comms.
"No...everything looks clear on this—AAH!" Blake cut out on comms, but she could still be heard on the other side of the rubble, as well as the sound of gunshots.
Harriet flinched and immediately jumped into action, activating her weapon, Fast Knuckles, a form of exoskeleton that enhances her upper body strength. She cocked back both her fists and sent them forward, when her fists connected with the rubble it seemed to send out a massive shockwave across the rocks and break them into thousands of little pebbles. On the other side of the rubble the group could see Blake standing with her hand covering her mouth and her ears drooped as her other hand pointed forward with Gambul Shroud in its pistol form pointing at Peter with several scorch marks on his spider insignia where the bullets hit.
"Peter...I am...so, SO, sorry." Blake apologized as she slowly put her arm down.
Peter, silent, looked over to RWY and pointed to Blake. His facial expressions hidden by his mask, but it was never more obvious what he looked like as he looked to the girls, "She just freakin shot me!" Peter said in a mixture of astonishment and betrayal, "After everything we've been through, you shot me." he said again while looking at Blake.
"I told you, I'm SO sorry. I didn't see you." Blake defended.
"Didn't see me? How about 'hear' me. Before you got all trigger happy I said: 'Hey, Blake!' and I got BLASTED for it!"
"You were in my peripheral vision! I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GRIMM!" Blake shouted back, this time sounding frustrated.
Peter let out a loud gasp and placed his hand against his chest, "How...dare you. I'll have you know I rocked this fit LONG before I ever knew what a 'Grimm' was and only brought it back because the Bazaar near your home only had purples and blacks." Peter finally crossed his arms and shook his head, "And here I thought we were best friends."
Blake's expression softened and finally she started to crack a smile, "Shut up...ass." she chuckled as she started to put her weapon away.
Peter's eyes widened as he felt his skull tingle, SPIDER SENSE! "GET DOWN!" he shouted out as he tackled Blake just in time to save her from getting attacked by the Geist Grimm which was currently not controlling anything, so it would be weaker than usual, but better safe than letting Blake potentially get possessed.
Blake and the others immediately began to open fire, but the Geist was too quick to escape down the tunnel. "After it, before it escapes!" Yang yelled out, "Peter, you're up!"
Instantly, Peter pointed his right arm forward and fired out a webline, trying to hit the Geist at first, but instead the webline went through a lower part of its body and connected to the ceiling of the mine. Taking the chance, he used his strength to yank himself as hard as he could and zipped across the mine before firing another webline and swinging ever so much closer to the Geist. Look out. Ero warned just as Peter's Spider Sense went off and she covered his body in aura just as he got smacked down to the ground below by some sort of Grimm that looked like a giant centipede with its typical armored plating on their backside and their stomachs exposed. Soon, dozens of these creatures began to pop out of the ground and walls and block off RWBYS, Harriet and Marrow from their target.
"Ugh...gross." Ruby shuddered.
Peter sighed and clicked on comms, "Hey so uh...we have a problem. Good news: We found the Geist. Bad news: We have lost sight of the Geist and big centipede looking Grimm are surrounding us."
"Copy, sounds like Centinels. Parker, chase the Geist into the mine. Don't lose sight of it." Clover ordered. Peter didn't respond and instead began to assist his team before Clover came on the comms again with a sterner tone, "That's an order, Parker. Be a team player."
Peter stopped and grabbed a Centinel by its head with one hand as it lunged at him and let out a loud, frustrated, groan. "Yes...sir." he begrudgingly replied before crushing the head of the Centinel with a single hand. "Heads up, I'm going after the Geist."
"Heard." Yang replied with an angered expression, Peter could already see the red in her eyes, but couldn't tell if it was towards the Grimm or towards Clover.
"We'll cover you!" Ruby yelled out as she started firing up ahead taking out several Centinels.
"I'll slow some down for you too." Peter replied with a nod, "Oh, and Marrow, Harriet...wanna like...NOT let the us kids take down more targets than you? It looks bad on all you Ace Ops types." With that, Peter fired a couple weblines and launched himself forward at rapid speeds.
"I hate that guy." Marrow growled a he started opening fire at more of the Centinels, "'Don't let us kids take down more targets than you' I'll show that cocky sonova-"
"MARROW, focus!" Harriet ordered and pointed ahead to two Centinels coming towards them moving in a corkscrew fashion.
Huffing in determination, Marrow looked towards the Centinels and snapped, "Stay." he commanded as he pointed at the Grimm, causing them to freeze in place thanks to his semblance, 'Freeze'. Harriet followed up with the assist by walking up to the two Grimm with a smirk, grabbing the both of them and slamming them into the ground.
"One left!" Weiss yelled out as she got ready to take it down. However, she wouldn't get the chance as a yellow flash zoomed past her before stopping in front of the Centinel, revealing the form of Harriet. Harriet let out a smirk and sent a right straight to the Centinel while its weak points were exposed.
"Woooooah!" Ruby squealed as she seemed to pop up from nowhere next to Harriet, "Your semblance makes you super fast! Just like me!" she said with a smile, emphasizing her point by using her fingers to trace her large smile.
"Oooh, really now?" Harriet smiled herself, "Buuuut, based on your reaction time I say I'm just a bit faster." she emphasized her point by squeezing her index finger and thumb close together.
Back with Elm, Vine and JNR, they continued their descent into the cave to quickly catch up with the rest of the squad so they could assist with taking down the Grimm. "Pick up the pace, people!" Elm ordered as here and Vine ran forward and slid down an incline that was completely frozen over. Not wanting to be left behind, JNR quickly followed suit, with Jaune taking the lead of his team, weapons ready.
As the group slid down the incline, several Centinels made their way out of the walls and ground at the bottom of the incline. "CONTACT!" Vine yelled out as he used his semblance, 'Aura Vines' which allow him to essentially extend his limbs by making vines of aura from the limb he focused on, in this case, his two arms which allowed him to grab both walls to his left and right and bring him to a halt. Elm, seeing the danger, decided to stop her self on the incline as well by slamming her foot into the ground and using her semblance, 'Aura Roots' which, similar to Vine's, allowed her to use her aura to root herself in by her feet and become more of an immovable object than she already was.
JNR, however, did not stop themselves, and instead went headfirst into the enemies. Jaune, being the leader, extended the hardlight on his shield and stabbed his sword in the ice to slow him down, once he was close to the Centinel group, he slammed his shield down and created a shockwave that knocked the Grimm back. Ren, being close behind his leader, jumped up into the air with his weapons drawn and used his new grappling mechanic to fire both his rope knives at the lead Centinel and yank himself forward and deliver a drop kick. While on the Centinel he began to open fire with both his pistols. One of the other Centinels tried to sneak up on him after it came out of its daze, but it was unfortunately met with a hammer to the head courtesy of Nora who then fired a grenade so that she could quickly swing her hammer in the opposite direction and slam the other Centinel that was just getting up.
Vine and Elm looked at each other as they reached the younger huntsman at the bottom. "A very...headfirst approach." Vine mentioned, almost as if he was displeased. Elm, on the other hand, was quite excited to see the newbies in action and had a large smile the whole time, trying not to gush over how well they worked together.
"Well, you know it's...kinda our style." Jaune said, trying to act cool as he scratched his nose. As the two experienced Huntsman walked past JNR the trio let out a large breath of relief.
Peter swung through the mine, desperately trying to catch up with the Geist, but truthfully, he lost sight of it long ago and was just relying on his Spider Sense, hoping to sense it out before he ever laid eyes on it. "Oh suuuure, 'Come do Huntsman work with the government, it'll be fun, we'll have a few laughs.'" Peter groaned turning his ordeal into a joke, as he does. You seem frustrated. Ero mentioned, Was it from the one called Clover? Did he harm you? Peter scoffed, "He didn't harm me. I just don't like taking orders from them. I'm no soldier, I shouldn't have to take orders from these spec ops types, none of us should. Treating us like we're emerald green. We have experience, I have experience, probably just as much as these Spec Ops guys. But more than that...I don't want them to think I'm complacent with doing their work." Ero seemed to nod internally at Peter's explanation.
As Peter continues to swing through the mine, he notices the area is getting much larger, much more open and he decided to come to a stop while he took in the surroundings of what could have been the main area for the mine. "Hold on, this Geist is supposed to be smart right? Doesn't this place almost feel like a-" Peter's eyes widened as his Spider Sense went off just as a giant collection of boulders with Dust still stuck in them ripped out of a net that was on a pulley and dropped towards him at rapid speeds, "TRAP?!" Peter quickly jumped out of the way just before he was hit and watched as all the rocks crumbled on the ground where he was once standing. "Phew, I was almost turned into ground spiderburger."
As Peter was making poor jokes, the rubble formed from the rocks that tried to crush him began to move on their own. Soon the rocks were floating and colliding together, some sparks coming off from the Dust due to the sudden collisions. Soon more rocks would join the growing Golem that the Geist seemed to be creating as mine carts were added for feet, pickaxes added for fingers, and part of the crane with the hooked pulley was added as the other arm. Soon the Geist successfully created a large Golem easily fifteen feet tall. "Fan-TASTIC!" Peter yelled out in frustration. "Hey there, Ben, looking good. Where's the rest of the Four? Hehehe. You finally go solo? How's that working out?" Peter's Spider Sense went off and he dodged a swipe from the Grimm's crane arm, the hook hitting a chunk of Dust that hadn't been mined out of a chunk of rock and caused it to blow up.
"Kid, the hell was that?" Qrow asked over comms.
"Found the Geist. It's kinda big right now!" Peter replied back before cutting out of comms, "Show time."
Understood!" Qrow replied, "Clover, you hear that?"
"I got it." Clover clicked his finger to his ears, "This is Alpha, Peter has chased the Geist towards the heart of the mine, everybody get to him, now!"
As Qrow and Clover continued towards the heart of the mine, they felt a tremor, coming from down below, likely from the Geist hitting another chunk of Dust as Peter confronted it. The tremor caused Clover to lose his balance this time leading to Qrow catching him before he had face planted. "Oh, look at that. You returned the favor. Lucky me." Clover chuckled. Suddenly, as he said that, there was another tremor and the two hear a loud cracking sound. Looking around them the ground began to crack in a circular shape and Qrow looked at Clover with an annoyed look in his eyes.
"Unlucky us." Qrow muttered before the ground collapsed beneath them and they fell to the depths of the mine below, their screams echoing throughout the hole that had been created.
The two continued to scream and yell until they popped up in a large opening. "It's the heart of the mine!" Clover yelled out. He went to grab his weapon, but before he could do anything to save himself and Qrow, the two of them were grabbed in midair by a set of hands in black.
"Oh hey, thanks for dropping in. I appreciate your punctuality." Peter joked, "If you can't tell, that was me being sarcastic. Next time, HUSTLE YOUR ASSES!" Peter landed and dropped the two men to their feet so the three of them could stand against the Golem.
"Oh...shit." Qrow said quietly as he looked all around them and at the Golem itself, "I shouldn't be here."
"Ehhh, your bad luck and my bad luck will cancel each other out...either that or battle for who's worse." Peter replied with a chuckle.
"I don't think you boys will have to worry too much." Clover chuckled, "My semblance generates good luck. I'm confident we'll succeed."
Peter and Qrow glance to each other before looking at Clover again, "I mean, I never said we weren't going to win. I was just implying that we may have a hard time." Peter corrected, "Speaking of hard time, LOOK OUT!" the trio quickly jumped out of the way as the Geist controlled Golem threw a punch at them. While Qrow and Clover jumped away to avoid getting hit, Peter had jumped up before webbing the arm and pulling himself onto the Golem. He then ran up the Golem's arm before getting to the creature's head and sending a flying knee to the creature's face, causing some of the rock to chip off.
Clover scrunched his brow in frustration and got on comms once more, "This is Alpha, where is everyone else?"
As if he had summoned them then and there, Harriet and Marrow appeared from one tunnel with RWBY while Elm and Vine appeared on a tunnel from a higher up vantage point with team JNR.
"This area is dangerous. There's too much Dust energy." Vine warned on comms as he looked down to Peter fighting the Golem, "We'll need to finish this quickly without it causing too many more tremors. "This place is already starting to fall apart we don't need a second cave-in with us IN IT."
"Agreed." Clover replied, "Bravo, Charlie, get to work. And don't blow up the cave."
With Ruby, she and the rest of her team looked up at the large creature as it tried, and failed to grab Peter from off his back. "What are we supposed to do?" Ruby asked, "This place could blow if we take out the body and Peter could get hurt."
Harriet looked at the young huntress and smirked, "Then watch the pros." Harriet then turned to Peter as he jumped off the head of the creature and kicked it in the Geist's mask. "Hey, hotshot, you think you could set us up?"
Set you up? Peter thought to himself as he landed on the ground. "Yeah, I got something!" as he said that, his Spider Sense went off as the Golem tried to swipe at him with its crane arm...but it was stopped, much to the surprise of the Ace Ops. "Good enough?!" Peter yelled out with a grunt as Ero's ethereal form began to emerge and wrap its arms around the crane.
The momentary pause was more than enough reason for the Ace Ops to start acting. First was Vine who used his semblance to reach down and grab the crane-arm, "Elm, go!"
Despite whom Vine called for, Peter saw his chance to help out and he took it. Letting go of the arm, he shot several web balls to at least slow it down, should Vine lose grip of the arm himself. Peter than ran up and grabbed the hook cable that was connected to the pulley and began pulling the cable out as far as he could. He watched as Elm ran past him and grabbed one of the Golem's legs, before using her semblance to dig herself into the ground so the creature couldn't move. "VINE!" Elm yelled out, causing Vine to let go of the crane arm, thankfully it held still due to the webbing.
Peter tried to think quickly of his next plan when he had a sudden 'lightbulb' moment. As Harriet was running around the creature with her semblance, Peter held out the hook. Harriet seemed to understand what he was asking as she grabbed the hook from his hand and began to run around the legs of the creature before connecting the hook to a metal bar on the crane-arm.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Vine was desperately trying to pull the Golem's other arm out as far as it could go using his semblance. "MARROW!" he yelled out, already struggling as his feet began to slide along the slippery surface. Marrow, thankfully was quick to leap into action by getting his weapon ready, a giant boomerang, and throwing it at the arm joint of the Golem and disconnecting it. However, doing this caused a chunk of a Dust crystal to break off.
"Shit, HARRIET!" Marrow yelled out, knowing he wouldn't be able to get to the crystal in time before it hit the ground and lead to a chain reaction that would blow them all up.
Harriet stopped in place and smirked before she got in a sprinter's stance. Yellow electricity seemed to cover her whole body before she took off across the room. She made sure to run around and move rock debris that was going to hit Elm in the face and was going to do the same to Peter, but to her surprise his hand was already moving to grab the rock before his head even turned...actually, it was more like he was looking at her. Yeesh. Kid gives me the creeps. Harriet thought as she continued past Peter and ran along a scaffolding, using it like a ramp as she jumped off it, jumped off a piece of falling debris, and flipped and performed a pirouette in midair before grabbing the crystal and landing with a crouch.
"Hey, not bad!" Peter yelled out as he threw the piece of debris he caught at the mask of the Geist, "Personally, I would have just webbed it, but the flips and tricks are cute. 5/10, I coulda done better."
RWBY and JNR couldn't help but watch in awe, not only were they seeing top of the line pros doing what they do best. They probably could have jumped in at any moment to help, but felt maybe it was best to let the Ace Ops do their thing without distractions. Peter being out there was probably more than enough distraction (but he also seemed to be doing minimal help to not get in their way as well).
Marrow threw his boomerang again, this time hitting the joint of the Golems arm again as it had started to reattach, again, he knocked off another large chunk of Dust. "CRAP!" he yelled out as Vine jumped by him after he had lost his footing while holding the Golem's arm.
"Twice, Marrow?" Peter teased as he jumped up in the air and web zipped towards the Dust crystal, catching it and tossing it behind his back towards Clover who caught it with a smirk. "Hey, I don't mean to alarm you guys, but any way to deal with this thing quickly? It's just reattaching its limbs at this point."
"Sorry about the kid, he's a little...he has a lot of experience at this point." Qrow said to Clover.
Clover shrugged, "Sounds like a better soldier then." Qrow nodded but...he didn't like that term. Peter was still a kid, and he definitely wasn't into the military. Clover jumped down to join his team who all began a coordinated assault against the Golem. "Elm!" Clover yelled out and Elm let go of the Golem's leg.
Now that it was free, the Golem tried to stomp at those that were below it, especially Harriet, but seeing as she was too fast it tried to swipe at her with its crane-arm. However, the arm was still stuck in Peter's webbing, so the Golem began to pull as hard as it could until it was finally free. This only activated the trap Peter had left for it, as the Golem lifted its crane-arm up, the cable from its pulley that Harriet wrapped around its legs tightened and caused the creature to lose its balance and fall back. "VINE, ELM, DON'T LET THAT THING FALL!" Clover ordered. The two tried to stop it from falling, Elm gripping its legs and Vine using his semblance to grab ahold of its torso, but it was just too much force.
"I got it." Peter said nonchalantly, sticking to a large stalactite up above. He fired a half dozen weblines with each hand and connected them to the Golem's torso before using his strength to pull back and keep the Grimm from falling on its back and blowing up the site.
Clover chuckled again, flicking his lucky clover pin on his collar with his thumb, "My lucky day." He then pulled out his weapon, 'Kingfisher', a collapsable fishing rod that he uses as both a whip and a grappling hook. He twirled the weapon around before casting it forward at the mask of the Geist controlling the Golem. He flicked it in a perfect way that allowed the hook to go behind the back of the mask and wrap around it a few times before he started yanking on it. Eventually, he forced the Geist out of the body it had created. This gave Harriet the perfect opportunity to rush forward and send a devastating uppercut to the Grimm, destroying it instantly.
The Grimm was destroyed, but there was no room for celebration yet. Nearly a dozen more large Dust crystals broke off due to the Golem breaking apart without the Geist to hold the 'body parts' together. Peter was able to slowly let down a large boulder that the Geist used for a torso, so thankfully they didn't have to worry about that. Vine was able to grab a couple with his semblance, Elm grabbed one that was heading towards her, Harriet was able to grab one that went flying near the teens, Marrow grabbed one that was flying towards the wall on the second level, and Clover was able to fish one out of the air. The only issue came from another crystal that was flying towards the opposite side of the open area. "Harriet!" Clover yelled out, knowing that there was only one person he trusted to catch the crystal.
Harriet's whole body clenched as she dashed forward, running as fast as she could towards the crystal. She was maybe a half arm length away from the crystal before a red blur sped past her and grabbed it for herself as she rolled along the ground and stopped when her back hit the wall. Harriet stopped and crossed her arms in both astonishment, and respect as she saw Ruby was the one who had past her. "I thought you said your semblance was like mine?" Harriet asked with a chuckle.
Ruby cocked an eyebrow in confusion, "It...It is?"
Harriet stopped herself from letting out a laugh as she shook her head, "No, not even close. I've seen others with a speed semblance, they are similar to me. You? You're different. Much different. Good different."
"That doesn't even count her eyes." Yang mentioned to the girls by her, leading to Blake letting out a chuckle
The teens started to congratulate the Ace Ops, Elm seeming to be the one who was most excited to be praised by the younger huntsman. Clover shook his head and smiled as Qrow jumped down to their level, "That kid ain't half bad."
"Yeah, Peter's pretty good at what he does."
"I meant Ruby." Clover replied as he smacked Qrow on the shoulder, "She has good instincts, and reflexes. Hopefully next time we can see all of these kids in action. This time...it was a good learning experience."
"Probably didn't need the kids." Qrow mentioned before letting out a chuckle himself, "Well, at least we didn't bring Deadpool."
Clover couldn't help but cringe slightly at the idea if they had brought Deadpool with them, "You know...I initially thought about bringing him with us. I'm kinda glad that Schnee kept him behind to clean the weapons on the base. I'd hate to imagine his head-on strategy here. With the kid, it works because he doesn't use weapons like us...with him?" he let out a long breath of relief, "This place would have been gone." Smiling at Elm and Marrow celebrating with the teens, Clover hopped on comms to call for their lift, "Atlas Control, this is Clover. Mission accomplished." With that, Clover and the Ace Ops began to walk back up toward the front entrance where Atlesian Soldiers would come in and perform a final sweep before setting up shop.
"Why didn't you take the Geist on yourself?" Qrow asked Peter as he hopped down next to the older huntsman.
"You kidding? Did you see what happened after it was beaten?" Peter scoffed, "I have had nothing but a bad relationship with the Atlas Military since I came to Remnant, you think I want to make it way worse by caving in the mine they need to use for materials on their new satellite? No thank you. If that thing didn't have Dust crystals in it, I probably would have."
As the group was heading back to the surface Nora couldn't help but let out a laugh. "What's got you all giggly? Ren promise you pancakes or something?" Jaune asked.
"No..." Nora replied, trying to contain her laughter, "Hey, Blake. You feeling a little cheeky today?"
Blake cocked her head back with a confused expression, "What?"
Yang, using her Pun Senses (patent pending) leaned herself back to look at Blake's backside. She too couldn't help but let out a loud snort, "Ah, she's just saying you tore it up today, Blakey."
"You have a hole on your butt." Peter said as he covered the exposed area with his webbing.
Blake stopped dead in her tracks, covered her face and crouched down, her whole face becoming flush. Nora, despite the teasing, was quick to cover the eyes of her two male teammates. "I can't believe that I already put a hole in my new pants and a tear in this jacket...and I can't believe Yang was right." she sighed, practically whining as her ears drooped.
"Told 'ya your butt was too big for the crevice." Yang snickered as she helped her partner up to her feet, "Hey, at least Peter came in clutch with the webbing."
By the time the group re-emerged from the mine it was already evening outside. "That wasn't so bad." Ruby said to her team who seemed to agree while Peter looked more indifferent to it.
Not too far off from the mine were a couple of individuals, scoping out the situation. Definitely not Atlas military, but both were armed. However, it didn't seem they were hired muscle either. No, the two individuals, both female, watched as RWBYS, JNR, and the Ace Ops exited the mine as if they were scoping them out. One of them was a human who is a tall, tan skinned woman with masculine features and short dark green partially spiked hair, beige eyes and tattoos on her nose and forehead. The other, a faunus, who had messy white hair and sheep ears, one with a hoop earring, the other a small bell. Both looked through their binoculars, but due to the sound of loud engines, the faunus girl looked up to see a couple of Bullheads escorting Amity Arena to a point just above the mine. "Joanna," the faunus girl mentioned as she quickly tapped her partner, Joanna's, shoulder, "Look, it's Amity Arena."
"Shhh, quiet down, Fiona. We're trying NOT to get spotted here." Joanna scolded as she pulled her partner down closer to the ground and had her put up her binoculars, "Look, see that? That's our target."
"Ummm..."
"Ugh...the one in the black suit, with the big Spider on his chest. That's the one she wants."
"How to we get him? We can't just...run up there and kidnap him." Fiona mentioned.
"Obviously we wait, knucklehead. We just need to find a time when he's alone. Then we make our proposal." Joanna said with an almost devious smirk.
To be continued...
A/N: Oh my Goooooooood…Imagine working on this for the last two months because you couldn't find any free time between working seven days a week and doing summer classes. Jesus Christ. Anyways, here's the next chapter, better late than never. I'm gonna TRY to get another chapter out by the end of August. See you then.