Halo, it's time for the next update. Enjoy the reading.
Lance and Ruby only locked eyes with Mercury for a while, who still had no intention of letting go of the two team captains.
- Mercury, - Ruby asked the first question that came to mind, barely understanding. - what are you doing here? You're hurt. How… what's going on here? – Mercury didn't answer, he just smiled evilly and Lance didn't like that. - Fine. If you don't tell me... - She tried to bypass him but the boy kept getting in her way.
- Mercury, would you say something? - Lance asked, more forcefully.
- Show time. – That's all he said before he tried to catch Ruby but Lance went after him and knocked him to the ground.
- Go! – He shouted but Mercury kicked him in the stomach and he easily knocked Lance against the wall.
- I don't recommend it! – Mercury kicked the air, before an air projectile crashed in front of Ruby. Ruby used her Semblance to escape but someone came in from the end of the corridor and kicked her back.
- You… - When Ruby came to, she thought she was hallucinating. - Mandy? – The fox faunus girl pointed her bow at him, into which she inserted and cocked an arrow.
- Just don't move. - That's all she said.
- Mandy… - Lance scrambled to his feet. - what are you doing? Mercury attacked us… why are you pointing a weapon at us?
- You can't understand that. – Mandy continued to keep Ruby in check while Mercury started treating Lance instead.
- You're not so strong without weapons and armor, are you? – Mercury shot the Scroll out of Lance's hand with an air projectile, as Mandy shot out of Ruby's hand with an arrow. - What if this was all just between us?
Lance tried to push Mercury down again but the other boy was smaller than him, he was much more experienced in hand-to-hand combat, so he easily kicked Lance in the face and then sent him to the ground with a spinning kick. Mandy didn't have a particularly hard time disarming the unarmed Ruby either and both captains fell to the ground, Lance on his face and Ruby on her bottom.
They didn't give up and got back on their feet, Ruby facing Mandy and Lance facing Mercury again. Lance nodded to Ruby for a moment, who fully understood what the Red Knight had planned. In the blink of an eye, they were replaced and Lance caught Mandy at that moment, who couldn't teleport, since then she would have had to take Lance with her, and threw her towards Mercury.
Ruby quickly activated her Semblance, picked up Lance and they headed towards the end of the corridor at an amazing speed. Ruby quickly opened the door but as she looked towards the arena, she was shocked and fell to her knees.
- Penny… - She was at a loss for words.
- What happened, Ruby?! Are you injured?! - Lance quickly ran over and knelt down next to her to look for possible injuries but found none. As soon as he noticed that Ruby was looking at something in shock, he also directed his gaze towards the arena and his words also stopped.
- Holy…
- Our work is done. – Mandy said before she and Mercury left the them.
Lance and Ruby ran off somewhere, leaving Mike with a pile of snacks and crackers and 5L of coke. Since he didn't know what was going on in their minds and didn't feel like climbing half the arena, he sat down to watch the next match.
- And the participants of the next fight, - Professor Port announced. – Penny Pollendina from Atlas and Pyrrha Nikos from Vale.
The two red-haired girls wasted no time and entered the arena. Penny was eager and excited but Pyrrha, on the other hand, seemed worried about something.
- Welcome, Pyrrha Nikos. – Penny greeted her and bowed kindly. - It's an honor to finally meet you. - Pyrrha didn't answer, she just lowered her head gloomily. - This seems to be a really fun fight.
- Viewers, are you ready to see an amazing fight?! - Oobleck asked the obvious question, before the audience started clapping wildly, encouraging the two girls in the ring. Penny rubbed her palms together, eager for the fight to finally begin, before Pyrrha brushed the disturbing thought away and focused on the fight as well. – 3! 2! 1! Fight!
Penny wasted no time and summoned all 8 of her swords using the steel hard wires, which she controlled with a built-in chip, elegantly and quickly spinning them around her and directing them straight at her opponent.
Pyrrha quickly and resourcefully dodged them or shielded them with her sword and shield but that wasn't enough to deflect Penny's swords, they changed direction and in unison, as if they were soldiers, headed towards Pyrrha again in perfect formation.
Pyrrha, on the other hand was faster and reached Penny, even before the swords but Penny didn't remain idle, she jumped back and used her swords not for attack but for defense and as they spun in front of her, Pyrrha didn't have a chance to land even a single blow. As soon as Pyrrha let go for a moment, Penny counterattacked and forced Pyrrha to retreat.
- We saw an amazing counterattack from Ms. Pollendina! - Port couldn't help praising it.
Penny raised her swords again and launched them at Pyrrha but Pyrrha counterattacked and instead of parrying or dodging the swords, she jumped onto them, surprised that she could support their weight and jumped from one to the other towards Penny, who learned from her previous mistake, she now kept half of the swords with her in case Pyrrha could approach her again and parried Pyrrha's strike, forcing her to retreat again.
Penny attacked, Pyrrha defended, her sword, like Lance's, turned into a spear but Penny's speed and strength were higher than she expected, so she landed a few blows that sent her back. Pyrrha was already taking this fight seriously and picked up her shield again but suddenly she got scared by something and started concentrating hard.
Pyrrha attacked more fiercely and more determinedly towards Penny, who parried all her attacks with her swords and was barely able to land a single blow on her, but this didn't deter her from continuing the fight and she was having more and more fun in the fight. Penny still elegantly controlled her swords like a platoon of fighter jets, this time she started waving four swords around each other and fired two laser cannons at Pyrrha.
Pyrrha was surprised to see what this girl was capable of, she instinctively avoided the beams and the swords aimed at her every now and then, her opponent could rightly feel that she was deprived of any counterattack, she got a little overconfident and because of it Pyrrha was able to deliver another blow to Penny, which pushed her straight back. The crowd rewarded her with an amazing round of applause for her ability to counterattack from such a tight spot but that didn't stop Penny from attacking again, knocking Pyrrha backwards and crashing into the arena like a cannonball.
She knocked the sword and shield out of Pyrrha's hand, but she pulled them back with her magnetic ability but Penny tried to thwart this plan with her swords and was successful. Penny aimed all 8 swords at Pyrrha at the same time, who completely panicked, it's not the adrenaline or excitement during the fight it was the fear of death. She turned pale and started backing away as if she was fighting a beast that could easily kill her without any trouble.
Penny pointed her swords at her again, causing Pyrrha to panic for some unknown reason and shoot a giant magnetic wave at the swords with all her strength, causing them to bounce back with such force as if they had hit a rock. Due to the magnetic radiation, the chips were confused and Penny lost control of them, sending her own swords flying straight at her.
Fortunately, none of them hit her but the wire strands, which were stronger than steel, wrapped around her arms, waist and neck. The magnetic wave was still going and the wires were cutting the girl's whole body into pieces like a knife through butter.
It was over.
Penny laid on the floor, in pieces and dead.
Her swords fell to the ground and didn't move again.
However, instead of blood and guts, black oil flowed out of her and sparking wires hung out of her body, which made it clear that the girl was a robot but even so, Pyrrha was shocked and the spectators stared in shocked and horrified silence.
A lot of popcorn fell out of Mike's mouth from shock, he could hardly believe his eyes, some were crying, some looked away in disgust but some were angry and cursing at Pyrrha for daring to do such a thing but Mike just stared in silence. Even his appetite was gone from what he saw.
Suddenly, all the monitors turned red, making the entire arena and auditorium was in red light. A black chess queen symbol was in the center of the red monitors and a threatening female voice sounded on the loudspeaker.
- This wasn't a tragedy and it wasn't an accident.
"Is this part of the show now?", Mike wondered to himself, trying to find an answer to the current situation.
- This is what happens when you place your trust, your safety and your children in the hands of those who would theoretically be our guardians. But in reality, they're nothing more than people.
Stunned, Lynda listened from the TV in her cell as this woman gave her speech.
- The principals of our schools wield far more power than most armies and one of them was foolish enough to command two at the same time. They say they wield so much power in the name of peace but let's see what happened here. One kingdom sends a robot army, and one of their students got brutally torn to pieces by the other kingdom's star student. Still, what the hell are the Atlas people thinking of disguising their super soldier as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm would be able to tell the difference.
Mandy and Mercury were just waiting for Cinder to finish her speech and the next phase of the plan would begin.
- And I ask, what the hell does Ozpin teach his students? First one student maimed another, now this? Hunters and Huntresses are supposed to take care of each other, gloriously and graciously but I have seen nothing of the sort. Maybe Ozpin thought that if they beat Atlas in the tournament, maybe the people would forget about his colossal fall to protect the Vale when Grimm stormed the streets in broad daylight. Or perhaps, that was the message of the tyrannical occupation that Atlas demonstrated to Vale.
Donning an Atlas white and blue officer uniform, Neo changed her hair to short and brown, which she wore in a cute little ponytail, then blended in with the other soldiers in what would be a routine change. They boarded a plane and waited for it to take them up to the flagship.
- Honestly, I don't have the faintest idea who is right and who is wrong. But I know that the supposed peace has always been fragile and our nation's leaders have clung to it with an iron hand. As a resident of Mistral, I can assure you that the situation there is similarly undesirable.
Adam and the White Fang soldiers, the moment they heard Cinder's speech, immediately set off for Beacon with their troop carriers. Both he and Derrick had been waiting for this moment for a long time to finally make people pay for all the wrongs they had done.
- Our kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet we, their citizens, have been completely deceived. I ask the crucial question, as soon as they launch the first strike, who do you think you can trust?
The dark red light and the black queen symbol disappeared from the monitors but the shocked silence didn't stop.
- What the… - Mike had barely recovered when suddenly the siren sounded, signaling the attack on the city. "Now I know, it's not part of the show."
- Warning, - Another mechanical female voice spoke. - Grimm attack detected. Threat level, 9. Please leave the arena in calm and orderly lines.
The exit of the spectators was anything but calm and the least orderly. They panicked and did everything to save their lives.
- Ladies and gentlemen, - Ironwood spoke over the loudspeaker. - there is no reason to panic...
Unfortunately, this didn't achieve anything, because the fear of the large crowd only lured the Grimm and a Nevermore, a large, winged bird Grimm, attacked the energy shield on the top of the arena.
- Can we panic now? – Mike finally gathered the strength to get through the fleeing crowd to the members of JNPR and the other teams.
- A Nevermore?! - Sun could hardly believe his eyes.
- How did he get past the city's defenders?! - Neither does Coco.
- It wasn't alone. – Ren understood, Grimm attacked the city. A whole army.
Chad knew as soon as he returned to the Monroe family mansion that Ozpin wouldn't be able to protect the city, which would be his job. He knew he had to take matters into his own hands. He made many calls to the police and the army to be on high alert. However, what happened now would have been impossible to prepare for. The town's alarm went off and Grimm flooded the town.
He immediately picked up his Scroll and started angrily dialing Ozpin. He didn't have to wait long to pick up the other side.
- Ozpin, listen to me... - It wasn't an expression of how angry Chad was at the headmaster but he immediately interjected.
- Chad! I was a fool! – Ozpin began, clenching his fists as if he had just realized how wrong he was. - I don't know if I wanted to convince myself or people that I know what I'm doing but that's not the point now. The point is that the city is in danger. Please do everything you can to protect them.
- Oz... - Chad had never heard the headmaster speak so contritely.
- You were right and when this is over, you can brag about and call me whatever you want but the most important thing right now is to protect people. You get complete freedom how you manage it.
With that he put the Scroll down and Chad just stared at the burning city skyline for a moment. He sent a dozen messages from his Scroll to the police and army people who obeyed him, that they had been given permission to use all their forces.
However, he felt that he too had to do something. There was a tiny button at the bottom of the desk in the office, which he pressed and a secret door opened on the wall on the other side of the office, through which an armor stand came in, with black and silver metal armor on it, next to it was a weapon holder, on it was a two-handed cross iron sword with a black blade, the hilt of which depicted a dark gray pawn.
Before donning the armor, he took a dose of his heart medicine.
"It seems, I must die as a pawn. It's a bloody family curse."
The White Fang's transports arrived at Beacon, and out came dozens of armed Faunus man and women who didn't hesitate to advance and attack the Atlas soldiers.
- Break them! – Adam also got out of one of the transporters.
- Fast and clean, - Derrick turned on his chainsaw. - the way I like it.
Some of the transports stopped above the Atlas lines and the human soldiers were convinced that more armed faunus would jump out of them, so they hid behind cover in preparation. Unfortunately, they were hugely disappointed when Grimms jumped out of the transporters and jumped behind the covers and immediately started biting, clawing and tearing.
The tension was also felt on the Atlas flagships and they received several reports of the Grimm invasion, but they could not do anything without the general's approval. Suddenly, they received an unusual signal from one of the planes, which brought about the change.
- Damn, what happened to the shift? – The captain of the ship asked.
- A hostile individual attacked and killed them! - One of the officers reported.
- Send a team there immediately!
- Yes sir!
A team of 5, led by an officer and 4 armored soldiers, went to check the plane. The bodies of at least 6 soldiers were found in the plane, but one of the officers was still alive.
- Hey, are you feeling all right?! – One of the soldiers knelt down to her. - Did you see the intruder? - He asked the woman but she just fainted in his arms. - We need to get her to the infirmary urgently, sir! - He reported to the platoon leader.
- Take her! We'll find the intruder.
The soldier had already taken the injured female officer to the infirmary while the others began to search the ship. As they rounded the corner, Neo unmasked Hush and stabbed the soldier in the stomach, causing him to collapse stunned and lifeless, unable to cry out. Neo put her index finger to her on her lips to hushing the soldier who bled silently in the hallway, reaching helplessly for his radio and completely blacked out to the world.
Neo wasted no time, donning another disguise, this time looking like an armored soldier, took the dead man's rifle and grenades, and headed towards the comm network.
- What are you doing here? – One of the communications officers was interested and Neo took the machine gun and immediately opened fire, sparing no one.
Reinforcements were clearly coming here for the shooting, so he quickly placed the grenades on the terminals so that no help could be called from this ship and as soon as the patrol arrived, she detonated, killing a dozen soldiers.
Neo slowly and gradually began to take out the patrols he encountered until he reached the bridge. The soldiers immediately opened fire on her but she opened Hush, which acted as a protective shield to protect her from the bullets but some soldiers managed to get behind her and put a bullet into her but she immediately escaped from there using her illusion and appeared in the ranks of the other team. Some she taken out with hand to hand combat, some with Hush's pointed blade and others with looted weapons.
She executed the entire crew of the mother ship in less than half an hour.
- This is Blue-4! – The admiral spoke on the radio and Neo turned around and saw that one of the wounded soldiers was still alive and trying to get to the radio, because he could still warn the other two flagships. - Blue-3 and 2, we got permission from General Ironwood! Everyone ready to fight!
- Got it! - A female voice spoke on another frequency. - Blue-3 on standby!
- Blue-2, what's your situation? - The admiral asked. Neo grabbed Hush, pulling its pointed blade tip across the metal floor, screeching menacingly as she approached the soldier who almost grabbed the radio but at the last moment, Hush's blade pierced his heart, preventing him from doing anything. - Blue-2, answer! Somebody, answer me!
Neo looked around the pile of corpses that was her work with a satisfied smile. She pleasantly opened Hush and headed for the cells but before that she stopped in front of the confiscated items to grab a familiar black hat with a red feather, then Melodic Cludgel, on the tip of which she hung the hat, then started a towards a certain cell.
Recently, she took a card from one of the officers, which she used to easily open the cell door to free Roman. Neo smiled confidently as the door opened and tipped the hat on Melodic Cludgel.
- Aren't you a little short for an Atlasian soldier? – These were Roman's first words after seeing the lady of his heart, who freed him and in an Atlas officer's uniform. He smiled evilly because he knew the plan hadn't changed and it had moved on to the next stage. - It's about time.
He got up from his chair then put on his hat and grabbed Melodic Cludgel.
- Daddy missed you. - He smiled and Neo, pretending to be offended, put her hand on her hip, waiting for recognition. - And of course, you too. - Laughing, he hugged Neo and kissed her. - I missed you even more than my hat. – Neo smiled, she didn't care who or what she had to deal with as long as she could be by Roman's side and both of them could be happy.
- I always wanted to fly with a ship like this. – They started towards the bridge but Roman couldn't take his eyes off the pile of corpses. - Wow, you handled them out well. – Roman was amazed at how well his tiny girlfriend left an entire Atlas garrison in place, while Neo just crossed her arms proudly. - Well, don't get carried away, we still have a lot to do.
He immediately stood up to the control panel and started controlling the huge machine. He turned towards the other two motherships and opened fire on the nearest ship.
- They hit us! We're falling! – The admiral spoke on the radio.
- What's going on... - The captain of the other ship could no longer finish, because the transmission was interrupted after the first ship crashed into the other, pulling them both down into the depths and destroying them. Atlas is ahead in technology and military in the world but there's no technology or training that could be enough protection against surprise and betrayal.
- Woohoo! – Roman was completely excited and laughed that he took down two flagships with one shot. - It feels so good to be back!
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