Author's note: Back to Vale.
Glynda went over the report Yang had given her, together with Ruby and Jaune, to try and find out what the issue was and why all the soldiers were so irritable all of a sudden. All three looked at the report, along with previous reports of similar issues, where soldiers got unreasonably worked up over small issues, or even over issues that didn't exist yet, though none could find an explanation. Suddenly, Jaune gasped.
"Wait, I think I've got it," Jaune said, "I'm sure it has something to do with the soldiers. After all, it only seems to affect them."
"Sounds plausible," Ruby said, "Maybe it's a side effect of James' new semblance, or the stress from us changing their entire doctrine so much in such a short time."
"But I felt it, too," Yang said, "I don't know why, but I felt a lot more angry than I should have been, and my semblance acted up, too."
"So it can't be the soldiers," Glynda said thoughtfully.
"Wait a second," Yang said as a realization dawned on her, "Ruby, get your hands on some of the dust they use and analyze it with your alchemy. I think I got it."
"The dust?" Ruby asked.
"Yes," Yang answered, "When we tried to subdue Eira for messing up Mantle, my semblance didn't activate at all, due to her Light Ice semblance keeping my temper too cool."
"I see," Ruby said, "Alright, I'll get to it." Glynda pulled out her tablet and checked her schedule.
"The next supply shipment will arrive in three hours," Glynda said, "I'll help them unload everything, and then we can intercept the dust crates to confirm or deny our suspicions."
"Alright," Ruby said, "Now we just need to make sure that there are no more incidents before then. Yang, use Deathzone on any earth-dust we have. Jaune, help with her aura. I'll handle the delivery." Glynda got up and brought a crate of dust crystals to them, all in different sizes, while Ruby used Puppeteer on her scroll to map out any and all Grimm in the city and surrounding area. After a few seconds, Yang handed her a small earth-dust crystal, and she used Wolfpack to send two wolves after a Deathstalker deep in the industrial district, which led a mixed pack of smaller Grimm.
~o~
Dove impaled a Beowolf through the chest and pulled his sword back, killing another Grimm with a diagonal strike as it attacked him from behind. Suddenly, a wolf made from earthen brown mist jumped off a nearby building and tackled one of the Grimm, killing it and creating a small boulder. The Grimm began taking damage, emitting white orbs due to Spectral Assault, and died almost immediately. When the first Beowolf died, it exploded in golden flames that ignited the surrounding Grimm, and disintegrated them.
"Now look at that," Dove said and looked around. The few remaining orbs were coated in the golden flames, as was Dove's Hallshott. A pack of Creeps came around a corner, and the Assault Orbs homed in on the Grimm, igniting them in golden flames and harming them, while they also took damage once they got close to the boulder. Dove prepared to fight, but stayed close to the boulder, luring the Grimm to where he had the advantage.
~o~
Penny and Ilia used their maiden powers to fly over the ocean, heading towards the supply ship and meet it halfway, just in case. Every once in a while, Ilia used Guardian's Gambit through her whip, shooting a bolt of green energy into the water to create a minion. As they got close to the ship, Penny picked up a distress signal and put it on speaker.
"Hello, can anyone hear us?" A woman called out over the sound of explosions and gunfire, "This is the supply ship Kelpie II of the Atlas military, headed towards Vale to deliver crucial supplies. We are under attack by an unidentified enemy and need backup." The signal looped, clearly a recording, and the two women looked at each other, then took the other's hand and hugged, and after a brief moment of focusing on each other, their auras flared up and merged into a muddy green one.
~o~
Aboard the Kelpie II, Arcene hid from the giant robotic monsters that had boarded the ship, holding her pistol close to her chest and listening for the heavy footsteps. Her orange eyes reflected in the gun's shiny metal casing, and the ground shook as one of the monsters came close. She jumped out from under the steel bridge and shot three bullets at the monster, restraining its coral-encrusted body with a mass of durable ivy vines.
"Alright, that worked," Arcene said and let out a sigh of relief, then checked the digital display on her gun and saw that she only had three more rounds left. Suddenly, the monster summoned a horde of spectral minions resembling fish, although they flew around it. Arcene kept her gun trained on the minions for a moment, but when she saw that they didn't attack, she slowly moved backwards to see if they would follow her, then turned around and ran when she saw that they wouldn't. When she ran around a corner, she saw several robotic monsters digging through the cargo hold, but also new types of monsters.
"Arcene!" Koray, one of her coworkers, called out, just as the monsters noticed her. The man pulled his gun and fired several shots, immobilizing the giant crab-like monsters with ivy rounds. They had four skeletal legs resembling bird legs, with crab armor on the shins and four regular crab legs dangling off the body. Their skeletal arms had pincers on the forearms, and their lower body was protected by an exposed ribcage. Additionally, they had a long tail that ended in a sickle-like blade.
"What are those things?" Arcene asked and hurried over to her coworker. The crab-like monsters cut each other free and began moving towards the duo.
"I don't know!" Koray answered and fired regular bullets at the monsters, "I thought we'd encounter Grimm on the way, but not this." Suddenly, a murky green energy beam hit one of the monsters and knocked it into the others, incapacitating them all. Arcene and Koray looked at where it had come from and saw a woman with a black robotic lower body, with chameleon-like feet, dull green eyes and waist-long brown hair that turned orange towards the tips. She wore an off-white mini skirt and a dark green biker jacket, and hovered above a constant burst of energy below her feet.
"Hello, my name is Pixel, and I came to help," Pixel said and landed between the two humans and the monsters, who had started to get back up. Pixel drew a set of small war scythes and prepared for battle.
"Thank the Gods you're here," Arcene said, and both she and Koray turned to get to safety.
"The Gods have long since abandoned this world," Pixel said, "I am here because I chose to be. Now hurry and get to safety, there still a couple life boats left. I can take you to Vale later."
"O- of course, thanks," Arcene said, and she and Koray ran away as another explosion rocked the ship. Pixel began emitting small, pale green cubes of varying sizes, and charged the monsters. One of the crab-like monsters tried to hit her with its fist, but her shape dispersed in green cubes, and she appeared flying in the air and fired an energy blast through the monster, killing it. The ship tilted and the robotic monsters stumbled, and one of them fired a burst of water at Pixel. The attack pierced her body, and it dispersed into cubes as well. Pixel appeared behind the monster and killed it with a powerful lightning strike. As the monsters ganged up on her, Pixel kept repeating the process, using her Visual Snow semblance to confuse her enemies and buying time to prepare more powerful attacks, then taking out the enemies.
"There has to be something I can do about the ship," Pixel thought, trying to come up with a way to stop the ship from sinking, or at least slow the process down. Another siren sounded, signaling that the tenth life boat had been deployed, and the bridge exploded and flung flaming debris everywhere. Another robotic monster attacked Pixel, and the attack pierced through her illusion again. However, the water blast hit some cargo containers and knocked them off the ship. Pixel fired a blast of ice at the monster, freezing it in place. The monster summoned several dozen ethereal sea creatures, which began circling it. Seeing the ice, Pixel had an idea.
"This isn't working," Ilia thought "We should split up again." The fusion split up again, leaving Ilia somewhat winded, while Penny needed a few seconds to adjust her sensors. Still somewhat catching her breath, Ilia fired a single ice-dust Shooting Star at one of the minions. The ethereal shark died on hit, and the ice chunk exploded into half a dozen blasts of ice blue energy, killing six nearby minions.
"Deploying Safezone," Penny said in a more robotic tone and set up a Safezone, surrounding both women with an energy field that was only visible through the small lines of green energy emanating from the walls and floor at the edge of the field.
"Alright," Ilia said, and finally caught her breath, "You go around and freeze the water surrounding the ship, buying time for everyone to evacuate. I take care of these things. Once I'm finished, I'll come and help you, then we'll fuse again and bring everyone to Vale."
"I am sorry, but I cannot agree to this plan," Penny said, "Your attack plan seems ineffective at neutralizing this enemy, and leaving you here would very likely result in your demise. And since I am tasked with preserving lives, leaving you to carry out such a plan would go against my primary directive."
"So, what do you suggest?" Ilia asked, then drew her whip and swung it, sending a flurry of ice-dust Shooting Stars to take down more of the ethereal minions.
"It appears our enemy can only summon a set amount of minions," Penny said, "They also do not engage us, for reasons I do not yet know. However, for every minion you defeat, another one is summoned, and it appears to not put any strain on the enemy to do so, meaning that the minions are functionally infinite in number. The only solution I can come up with is to take out the monster itself, to prevent the summoning of any more minions."
"Alright then," Ilia said, "But the ice is in the way, so we'll need to get rid of that first. Then I'll use Shooting Star to deal with the minions, while you get rid of the big guy."
"That plan, I can agree to," Penny said and charged up her swords' energy blast, while Ilia used Emphatic Beacon on the ice-dust in her skin to make it attract Grimm, prioritizing duration and reach over intensity. Once Penny broke the ice, the minions attacked her. Ilia swung her whip and sent a flurry of Shooting Stars at the minions in the front and quickly killed them, while the resulting ice took care of the rest, due to Ice Trap. Penny used her thrusters to dash towards the monster, trying to get around the minions, but they followed her relentlessly.
"Don't worry, I've got this," Ilia called out and kept using Shooting Star, taking out any minion that got too close to Penny and creating another chunk of ice with each hit.
"Thanks," Penny said and flew in a wide arc around the monster, luring the minions away from it. When she saw an opening, Ilia fired several Shooting Stars at the monster itself. As soon as the attack hit, the minions changed course and came for Ilia instead.
"Wait, that's it," Ilia said to herself and called out, "Penny, hit the monster!" Penny fired a regular energy blast from a single sword at the monster, and the minions immediately turned around to pursue her again.
"It appears this is a defensive technique," Penny said as she flew away again, luring the minions around the monster. Once the horde of minions was in position, Ilia fired several dozen Shooting Stars at the monster, creating a minefield of ice chunks, which immediately began shooting energy blasts at the monster. The minions ignored Penny again and came for Ilia, passing by the minefield and dying to Ice Trap.
"Now we just need to keep going like this," Ilia said, "You lure the minions away, and I attack the monster when the minions are on the other side of it, so they can't reach me." However, the monster didn't summon any new minions, and instead started moving again. It shot a blast of water at Ilia, and Ilia dodged in the last second, leaving a small trail of rose petals in her wake.
"The monster seems to have stopped summoning minions," Penny said and activated her maiden powers to blast the monster with energy beams. Another explosion shook the ship, and it tilted even more, causing the monster to tumble off deck.
"Let's stop fighting monsters," Ilia called over to Penny, "The ship is already doomed, and there are still some people inside. I can track them with my seismic sense and emphatic abilities, so you go and stabilize the ship somewhat." Before Penny could object, Ilia ran off. Penny flew around the ship, scanning the water's surface for disturbances that indicated holes in the hull, and focused her ice beam on those areas, before balancing the ship properly. Once that was done, she met up with Ilia and they fused again, and Pixel met up with the crew to escort them to Vale.
~o~
Ruby, Jaune and Glynda stood at the Vale harbor, waiting for the next supply shipment from Atlas. However, instead of the large cargo ship they expected, they saw a fusion guiding a cluster of life boats, and immediately prepared to take in refugees. Glynda hurried to the edge of the dock to help the people, while Ruby created a cyan Messenger Bird.
"Emergency protocol Delta," Ruby said and let the bird fly away. The fusion landed and split up into Penny and Ilia, and both helped the crew members onto the dock, although Glynda's Telekinesis proved much more efficient. Jaune set up a Fiery Terrain as Ruby focused on as much grief as she could, and when she noticed Grimm approach, she used Wolfpack to kill them, then used Puppeteer to direct Atlesian Knight 130s to the locations, so they could benefit from Fire Power.
"Alright, that seems to be all," Glynda said and asked, "What in the world happened?"
"We'll talk at the train station," Ruby answered, "Weiss, Qrow and Sky are already there, and Grimm are on the way here." She opened a portal and gestured the crew to go through, and when they hesitated, Jaune, Glynda, Penny and Ilia walked ahead, convincing the crew members to follow them. Lastly, Ruby walked through the portal, and it closed behind her.
~o~
Cardin swung his mace, killing another Beowolf with a diagonal upward strike. With the pack dead, he relaxed a little and used Guardian's Gambit. As the green bolt of energy zigzagged across the ground, a nearby ice chunk began recharging his aura. After a few seconds, a Messenger Bird flew up to him, and he held out his right arm to let it land.
"Emergency protocol Delta," the bird said in Ruby's voice, then disappeared. He held out of left hand and summoned three more Messenger Birds.
"Protect the train station," Cardin said, and the birds flew away. Cardin put his mace away and transformed into his bird form, then flew to the train station as well. He was second to arrive, after Qrow, who had already set up both a Grimm Banner and Grimm Ward. Weiss arrived on her Queen Lancer summon and immediately began creating Combat Drones, covering the roads leading to the train station. Lastly, Sky arrived, and set up turrets with Tower Defense to supplement Weiss' Combat Drones. Just when Sky was halfway done, a red portal opened next to Weiss, and Jaune, Glynda, Penny and Ilia came out, followed by several Atlas military members, and finally Ruby.
"So, what happened?" Glynda asked after everyone somewhat calmed down. The crew members shared some awkward looks among one another, unsure who should speak first. Glynda sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose. So, Ruby stepped in and looked at two members.
"You two, what are your names?" Ruby asked, speaking in a softer tone than when she told her friends what to do.
"Arcene, and this is Koray," Arcene answered, and everyone visibly calmed down, knowing that there was now more order, and the group had some form of representatives who could answer most questions.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ruby," Ruby said and asked, "Would you two like to stay and answer some questions, while the rest go and recover from the shock?" Hearing her name, the crew got a lot more excited, and most of their anxiety disappeared.
"Of course," Koray answered and looked over to Arcene, who nodded, then looked back to Ruby and said, "We heard a lot about your accomplishments, and we're very happy to know that you're here to keep us safe."
"Thank you, that's good to hear," Ruby said, "The Atlas military is currently using Hotel de Tiffauges as additional base, because the main base can't house that many people at once. Penny can escort you there. Also, Khione and I will give you something to keep you safe, even in unexpectedly dangerous situations." She gave Weiss and Khione a small nod, and Weiss set up a Healing Circle and Safezone to increase aura regeneration.
"Leave it to me," Penny said and got ready for the mission. Khione stepped forward, visibly more comfortable with this kind of responsibility than when she first got to Vale. The crew members looked somewhat unsure of what was happening, and some definitely didn't like the idea of relying on a faunus for help, but also realized that they couldn't bring themselves to turn down any and all protection they could get. Ruby just stood around for a bit, waiting for her aura to regenerate.
"Alright, here goes," Khione said and released a small, ice blue particle from her left hand, which began circling one of the soldiers. She continued using Frost Shell to protect each soldier individually, and the men and women looked at the small things circling them. Suddenly, Nora unfolded her hammer and hit the end of the handle on the ground, causing electricity to surge through the entire city plaza.
"Ruby, try using Electrical Fuzz now," Nora said, "It's an electric semblance already, so this Electric Terrain should make it stronger." The soldiers looked around the area in awe, with some looking at their hands, as if to see if something happened. Seeing the soldiers like this, Nora felt like she had seen it before, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Good thinking," Ruby said, "I was actually planning to use Electrical Fuzz, but enhancing it with Electric Terrain sounds even better. Also, I would like you to stay here and use your electroreception, and help out with Wolfpack if necessary." Nora smiled and nodded, and Ruby began using Electrical Fuzz, creating spiky balls of electricity, each of which began circling a soldier.
"We appear to be ready," Penny said after all the soldiers got their Frost Shell and Electrical Fuzz, "I have logged in the fastest route to our destination, and taken areas of high Grimm activity into account as well. Likelihood of events that could threaten the mission is below reasonable."
"Alright, stay safe," Ruby said, and Penny flew ahead, slow enough for the crew to easily keep up with her. Arcene and Koray stayed behind to answer some questions, and entered the train station with Ruby, Jaune and Glynda to have a proper discussion about what had happened, while the rest of Ruby's Group went out to kill Grimm, and whatever other monsters their enemies sent after them.
~o~
Salem sat in her throne room, with only Marcus and Tock present, since the others were out on a mission. Suddenly, her Seer made a series of clicking noises, and she scowled a little. Marcus and Tock looked at each other, not sure if they should say anything. However, curiosity ultimately got the better of them.
"What's wrong?" Marcus asked, before Tock could do so.
"It appears that some monsters attacked a cargo ship of the Atlas military," Salem answered, "It had to be abandoned. According to my Grimm, they were monsters like what your Dissonant Elegy semblance makes, as well as Arthur's Ex Machina. Explain."
"Well, I figured you would like it," Marcus answered, trying to remain calm under her cold and uncaring gaze, "Now their resources will run dry, and then we can take advantage of their disorder to topple them again."
"And what made you think I want that?" Salem asked.
"I- pardon?" Marcus answered.
"If I wanted you to do this, I would have ordered it," Salem said, "For now, I just need them to think that I want to sabotage them, so they focus their energy on that, instead of whatever Ozpin is planning. Then, once I know what he is planning, we will act. But until then, you do only what I tell you to do."
"I- understood," Marcus said and finally shrunk into his seat, "However, Arthur has given the cards to a pirate crew, and while I can make Arthur stop doing that, I have no control over the pirates, nor their monsters."
"No matter," Salem said, turned to her Seer and said, "Have aquatic Grimm converge on the wreck of the Kelpie II. One pack of Lurkjaw, three packs of Razorfin, and two Sea Feilong." The Seer made more clicking noises, relaying the orders, and then floated away a bit again. Tock and Marcus shared another look, since neither of them knew what Salem was planning now.
Author's note: It appears that Salem isn't behind the attack after all. Somebody should really tell Ruby, before she does something drastic that makes Salem's life even harder.