Author's note: Like I said, we'll be switching back and forth every week now.
Well, starting next week, since there's still one thing I want to finish.
After showing Ruby where she fought Mercury, Nora wandered into Vale's industrial district to kill some more Grimm. Once she reached the massive metal pipes running through the district, she set up an Electric Terrain and touched a pipe, using it as relay for her aura-based electroreception. As soon as she found a pack of Grimm, she created a sphere of purple and yellow energy in her right hand, summoned a wolf made from crackling electricity, and sent it after the Bomber Deer and the Beowolves it was leading.
"Take that," Nora said to herself, "Wait, did I have Spectral Assault or Spectral Healing active?" She followed the spectral wolf with her electroreception, to see what would happen, but as soon as the Bomber Deer saw it, it fired a salvo of explosive energy blasts from its antlers and killed the wolf before it could reach the Grimm.
"And, how's it going?" Qrow asked as he walked up to Nora.
"Not good," Nora answered, "That Bomber Deer just killed my wolf."
"So, what do you do now?" Qrow asked, and Nora started to think.
"I'll try again," Nora answered and sent another wolf, though with the same results as before.
"Still no luck?" Qrow asked when he saw Nora's expression.
"Nope, but I'm not giving up," Nora answered and began sending wolves one after the other, effectively forcing the Bomber Deer to stand still while it killed all of them. Eventually, some parts of the pipes broke off the walls due to the shockwaves from the explosions, blocking the path and forcing the wolves to go another way.
"That sounded heavy," Qrow said and asked, "What's happening?"
"Some old pipes broke off," Nora answered, "Now my wolves have to go another way and attack the Grimm from behind. Wait, that's it."
"Looks like you have a plan," Qrow said. Nora stopped sending wolves for a moment and focused on the layout of the area, taking note of every path the wolves could fit through. Once she found one the Bomber Deer couldn't mess with, she waited for the perfect time to send her wolf. The wolf ran through the streets, taking shortcuts, and attacked the pack from the side.
"And that's how you do it," Nora said as the electric attack jumped between Grimm, killing all the Beowolves and triggering Spectral Assault with every hit. When the Bomber Deer had just about recovered from the initial attack, and looked behind itself, it saw its pack missing, and dozens of white orbs homing in on it with extreme prejudice.
~o~
Sirena sat in the teacher's lounge with her feet in a bath of ice water to cool off, when she sensed fear in the students that went with Argent. She initially assumed it was due to his acquaintance's semblance, but realized that she had already felt that fear a few minutes ago. She jumped out of her foot bath and pulled out her scroll.
"There's trouble, help Argent's students," Sirena wrote and sent the message, without looking to whom, then put her scroll away and hurried to reach the students in time. As she ran, Niob and several of his students flew overhead, and some of hers joined her, too. On the way to the training ground, she ran into Hinata, who was completely exhausted, and low on aura.
"Don't worry, I'm on my way," Sirena said, "You get some rest." She set up a Healing Circle and continued running to the training ground, while Hinata sat down on a rock to catch her breath. As soon as the fly monsters came into view, she drew her trident and fired a short icicle burst at the monsters.
"Sirena, you're here," Argent said and shot down another monster, and asked, "Did Hinata call you?"
"No, I sensed everyone's fear," Sirena answered, and engaged the monsters in melee combat. However, due to the aerial faunus flying above, the monsters rose up higher to fight them, too. Sakura summoned a katana in her left hand, with a cherry blossom for a guard, whose leafs folded slightly towards the blade.
"Leave them to me," Sakura said and swooped into the monsters, damaging their wings as she passed and forcing them to land. Suddenly, Preflexes told Sirena that Plum was in imminent danger, so she entered her alpha state and used Aura Amp to recharge his aura. Using Shadow Clones, augmented with air-goo, she dodged an attack and retreated to the sidelines to continue recharging people's auras as necessary. When the clone exploded into a powerful gust of wind, it struck three nearby monsters, triggering Cutting Winds each time.
"That's it," Sirena thought, put her trident away and drew Cinder's swords in their bow form. She manifested an arrow from the ice-goo in her black sleeves, and fired it into one of the monsters. While it did little damage, the ice recharged the nearest student's aura a bit.
"There's too many of them!" Plum called out, his fists and feet practically solid orange by now, while the rest of his body glowed light yellow from Aura Amp. He kept swinging, and every time he so much as touched something, it exploded into a splatter of green gunk, fungal spores and chitin shrapnel. Eva hurried over to where parts of a monster's head had landed and touched them, turning the chitin into ammunition for her dart rifle.
"Watch out!" Sirena called out and jumped in front of her, blocking a monster's attack with an ice shield and reflecting the damage with Retaliation, killing the monster.
"Thanks," Eva said and fired a chitin dart at another monster. The dart exploded into sticky fibers on impact, which stuck to the monster, solidified and immobilized the target. Taimi swooped down and sunk his sniper rifle naginata into the monster, killing it. When his weapon stabbed into the ground, it sent out a wave of green energy, and a ring made of music notes surrounded each monster in a five meter radius.
"Plum, hit them!" Taimi called out, and Plum rushed to punch one of the monsters. As soon as the hit connected, all the monsters died. Taimi pulled his weapon from the ground, ran towards a rock and used his naginata as a vaulting pole, gliding past some enemies before using his semblance again.
"Sirena!" Niob called out, and when she looked over, he nodded towards Ochre, who had slowed down her attack to give her aura time to recover. Sirena fired several ice arrows in rapid succession, hitting enemies near the ocelot faunus and downing some of them. Ochre rushed to the dead enemies and crouched down behind some of them, using them as cover while the ice recharged her aura.
"Ochre, use the chitin," Eva called over to her friend and fired another chitin dart to immobilize a monster. Ochre filled the chambers of her revolvers with chitin bullets and started shooting the monsters, immobilizing one with each hit. Looking around, Sirena had a plan.
"Everyone, round them up!" Sirena called out and started crippling monsters in one part of the battlefield, while ignoring the rest. Argent and Niob quickly caught on to her plan and followed suit. Taimi jumped off a boulder and took to the sky again, firing regular sniper bullets at the monsters, breaking their wings and forcing them to land.
"Melee fighters, draw their attention and dodge," Argent ordered, "Make them fly into the center." Fihr swung his scythe at one of the monsters, which backed away and then tried ramming him. He jumped aside at the last moment and cut off its wings on one side. Sakura drew the attention of several monsters and flew a barrel roll as she passed over the designated area, cutting off their wings when she was above them.
"Taimi, now," Niob ordered, and Taimi swooped down into the center of the area, affecting dozens of monsters with his semblance. Sirena exhaled, forming several air-goo pockets, and flung them into the monsters, triggering Cutting Winds and killing most of the monsters, while the rest fled. Taimi climbed out of the cracked exoskeletons and brushed off some of the gunk and spores sticking to him. Sirena took a few samples of the spores to have Talia analyze them later, while Ochre and Eva collected some small pieces of chitin to turn into bullets and darts as necessary.
~o~
On the way back to the school, the group came across Hinata sitting on a rock, with several aquatic faunus standing or sitting nearby. Viridi, an archerfish faunus with green eyes and short, black hair, held a bow that looked like it was made from fins, and all the students stood up straight when they noticed the teachers approach.
"Hello," Viridi said and asked, "Is it safe now?"
"It is, yes," Sirena answered and asked, "What are you doing here?" The aquatic faunus looked at each other, and Viridi pulled out his scroll.
"We got your message," Viridi answered, "We were kind of following you, but you were too fast. And when we found Hinata sitting here, we decided to stay here, in case whatever caused the trouble comes here."
"You had our students run into a situation like that?" Argent asked, noticeably upset.
"I must've sent the message to the school group chat on accident," Sirena answered, "I was in a hurry, and I shared the fear of your students."
"Well, I guess we all make mistakes, and it's not like anyone died," Argent said, "In any case, let's get back to the school and hit the showers. I really need to get this gunk off of me."
"I think I can help, actually," Hinata said and held out her hands. She produced two streams of bubbles from her hands, aiming at her fellow students and the teachers. Every time one of the bubbles made contact, it picked up some of the gunk and floated upwards, eventually removing most of it from them. Once the group was mostly clean, they headed back to the school for a proper shower.
~o~
Ren and Russel were on the way to the catacombs, to clear out the monsters there. On the way to their destination, Ren kept looking around to see if there are any good spots to ambush his enemies. As the duo walked past a building, and a large street came into view, his ambush sense suddenly responded, and he stopped.
"What is it?" Russel asked when he noticed Ren focus on the crossing down the road. Instead of answering, Ren unfolded his disk launcher and fired a special disk into the middle of the crossing, making it attract Grimm.
"That should do it," Ren said, folded his disk launcher again and explained, "That place makes for a good ambush, so I'm luring Grimm there."
"You know, I've been meaning to ask where you got that thing," Russel said, "It looks pretty useful."
"Believe me, it is," Ren said, "The Atlas military developed it to let even civilians fight Grimm more effectively. And since it uses aura as ammunition, it's much cheaper to use than guns, because it only needs occasional maintenance."
"That sounds awesome," Russel said and asked, "So, what's this about luring Grimm?"
"That's my special disk," Ren answered, "Basically, while anyone can fire regular disks, which deal simple impact damage, those with their aura unlocked can create special disks, which have a unique effect. Yang's create explosions, Jaune's create barriers, and mine attract Grimm, for example."
"I see," Russel said and asked, "Do you think you can get one for me and the boys, too? And what do you think our special disks would be?" Instead of answering, Ren pulled out his scroll.
"We won't know what your disks will do until you try it," Ren answered and asked, "What color would you like your launcher to be, and what form?" Russel took a moment to answer, due to how easy it was to get access to this new weapon system.
"Well, let's see," Russel said, collected his thoughts and answered, "Red for Cardin, dark green for me, dark orange for Dove, and sky blue for Sky, I'd say. Not sure about the form, though."
"Alright," Ren said and took some notes, "I'm sure the Atlas military will appreciate the chance to get more feedback on the system. It's still fairly new after all, and their scientists want to figure out how the special disks work so they can better predict what each person's special disk will do."
"Makes sense," Russel said and asked, "Who developed it, anyway?"
"From what I understand, it was a collaboration," Ren answered, "Members of Sophie's swarm infiltrated the military's weapon development sector, and worked off of Talia's aura theory research." Hearing that Sophie and Talia worked together, Russel shuddered, causing Ren to raise an eyebrow.
"It's nothing, really," Russel said, "I just, well, I imagined something I probably shouldn't have. Anyway, let's keep moving." Just as they were about to get going again, a pack of Beowolves ran onto the crossing and triggered a Landmine, which erupted into burning wooden spikes sticking out into all directions. Many Grimm were impaled on the spikes and died, triggering Power Root, while the few that survived covered their faces with their forelimbs and turned away from the light fire.
"Alright, let's go," Ren said and put his scroll away again, and both got going. As they walked down a road, Sky swooped down in his bird form, flew past an old car and transformed back.
"Hello, need help?" Sky asked, held up a suitcase and said, "I brought dust."
"Sure, thanks," Russel answered.
"Yes, thank you," Ren said and asked, "What type of dust?"
"Mostly light water," Sky answered, "Ruby said we should use it for this mission."
"I see," Ren said, "Alright then, let's go." The trio got going, this time for real, and every once in a while, Ren fired his special disk at some target or another, luring Grimm into another Landmine that Weiss had set up.
"So, this is it," Russel said, gripping his short bow tightly. Ren could tell how nervous he was, and placed several Landmines nearby to cover the roads, since Grimm were sure to be drawn in by the negativity.
"Let's get this over with," Sky said, and the trio headed inside once Ren was done. As they headed into the dark catacombs, they each pulled out small lamps and strapped them to their foreheads. Ren led the group, using Preflexes to augment his existing danger sense.
"Sky, turret," Ren said, dashed into a tunnel and started glowing purple. When he dashed again, he left behind an ethereal sword. Sky created two light-water-dust turrets to cover his back, and Dove manifested an arrow from his right bracer. Shortly after Ren dashed further into the tunnel and created the second sword, a swarm of dark red monsters made from Scavengers flooded into the tunnel, and the swords began slashing at them, while Sky's turrets fired light blue energy blasts that turned into water on impact.
"Ren, watch out!" Russel called out and fired an arrow into a pocket of monsters, creating a small whirlwind that tossed the monsters around like toys. Ren activated Necrotic Bubbles and cut down several of the monsters in the air, creating several columns of bubbles that attacked any nearby monster.
"Good thinking," Ren said and dashed back to the boys, "Sky, give me a crystal." Sky handed him a light-water-dust crystal, and Ren used Petal Burst to get back into the fray, using Necrotic Bubbles while Russel continued to fire air-dust arrows into the monsters. Before long, the monsters were dead, though some had escaped, and the ground was soaking wet.
~o~
After using Tracing to see what exactly had happened between Nora and Mercury, Ruby needed a moment to process the information. She knew that her enemies were planning something, even though they acted like they were just trying to figure out what Ruby was planning. Just as she was about to figure out what Salem was planning, Preflexes warned her of incoming danger. She used Shadow Clone to dodge Mercury's attack and drew Crescent Rose, ready for a fight.
"You and your stupid tricks," Mercury said and asked, "Can't you do anything without your semblances?"
"Why don't you come and find out?" Ruby asked and said, "And if I win, you tell me what Salem is planning." Before Mercury could respond, Ruby charged him and took out his legs, flipping him upside-down. She kicked him in the chest and sent him flying with an aura shockwave. Mercury fired two shots from his boots to stop himself from crashing into a wall, then two more to dodge Ruby's gunfire. He jumped off a wall and down into the street, and ran towards Ruby while dodging her attacks.
"What makes you think we have a plan?" Mercury asked, made a front flip over a trash can, and hit Ruby with a downward kick that knocked Crescent Rose out of her hands. He kept up the momentum and followed it up with a spin kick, sending Ruby flying. Ruby slammed against a wall and dropped to the ground, and quickly rolled out of the way when Mercury attacked again.
"Stay!" Ruby called out, immobilizing Mercury, and said, "Salem has been alive for longer than any of us combined. There is no way she hasn't dealt with something like this before. She's made it this far already, and I won't believe for a second that she didn't plan ahead. She is definitely up to something, something big, and I won't sit around and wait for it to happen." She let Mercury go and created four clones of herself, and all five of them activated Venomhand and rushed Mercury. He tried to defend himself, but whenever he dodged one attack, another would connect, and every hit dealt significant damage. Before he knew it, his aura broke and he passed out.
~o~
When Mercury woke up some time later, he noticed that two Ruby clones were carrying him through a forest, while a third led the way. He didn't know where they were bringing him, but before he could really worry about that, Amity teleported Tyrian in front of the procession, and for the first time ever, Mercury was actually somewhat relieved to see the maniac.
"It looks like you've got something that belongs to my Goddess," Tyrian said, and cackled slightly, "I'd like it back, please." The Ruby leading the way stepped aside, and her two clones shoved Mercury forward and disappeared, causing him to fall to the ground.
"There you go," Ruby said coldly, "And for future reference, try not to leave your garbage lying around everywhere."
"Much appreciated," Tyrian said with a devious grin, "And yes, for someone who only uses his feet, he is quite the handful sometimes."
"Can you two stop it now?" Mercury asked, walked over to Tyrian and said, "Let's go already."
"Ever so impatient," Tyrian said and asked, "Didn't anyone tell you that patience is a virtue?" Mercury groaned and shoved past him.
"Listen to your elders, Mercury," Ruby said, "Vale wasn't built in one day, after all." She used Petal Burst and disappeared between two nearby buildings, and Mercury had Amity teleport him and Tyrian into itself. Once she was a few hundred meters away, Ruby stopped and focused on Kindred Link, using the newly-formed bond to spy on Mercury.
~o~
Back in Amity, Mercury sat down on one of the benches the trio had brought onto their flying base of operations and took a break. Tock prepared for the next step of their plan and manifested plant-dust crystals from the dust in her scales.
"You know, I really must commend your father," Tyrian said, "These semblances of his are impressive. Especially this combination thing there." He looked over to a large green tube, made from an Infection crystal and an Ex Machina card.
"I get it, you like him," Mercury said sarcastically.
"Watch yer tone, kid," Tock scolded, then recomposed herself and turned away to hide her blushing.
"It's just that same recognizes same," Tyrian said.
"So you admit to being an absolute garbage person?" Mercury asked.
"Alright, that does it!" Tock called out, formed a crocodile armor out of the hard-light-dust in her scales, and charged Mercury. However, before she could make it even halfway to him, Amity teleported her into the forest below, and she slammed into a bear coming out of hibernation.
"Was that really necessary?" Tyrian asked, and he and Mercury looked at the big screens hanging above the arena.
"Absolutely," the bright orange writing flashed up, "If you conduct yourselves properly when conversing with my master, you will be fine. If not, then not."
"Thanks," Mercury said, looked at Tyrian and said, "See, at least someone knows how to act."
"Whatever," Tyrian said with a groan, "Just be sure bring her back up here before she has to be revived again."
"You heard him," Mercury said, looking at the screens again, "Bring her back before she dies. Not one moment sooner." He walked away and headed over to cages full of hundreds of Infection seeds, then checked his scroll to see if Amity's scanners had detected any new Grimm packs that could be used. A dark red Seer floated over to him, and his father's face appeared in the bulbous body.
Author's note: So, yeah. Nora can send wolves to faraway enemies now, too.
Ruby thinks Salem has a contingency plan, and her talk with Tyrian doesn't really help.