Reeling from that last attack, the human-Grimm monster curled in on itself, a loud screech emanating from its maw as it writhed around in, presumably, pain. A black mass slowly crawled itself out of the monster's eye, consuming the being from the head down, fully absorbing the monster, "No- NO!" the monster gasped out in a distorted voice, "I won't…! I'll- Get out… GET OUT!" it clawed the ground, ripping chunks of as the body twitched and convulsed, "I see it… Just- just one more glimpse! ONE MORE! The- the… spring-" The monster's torso bursts open, releasing a mass of pitch black flesh free, the texture like tar, it moved erratically, and quickly...
The Courier looked down at her golden Pip-Boy, a gift from Mick and Ralph's as thanks for helping them with their little problem regarding the Omertas and their illicit weaponry. Tuning into her new favorite radio station ever since she came to Remnant, before grumbling as she realized that nothing was coming through except for static. The Courier sighed, looks like the coverage here was a bit spotty, considering the time and status of her radio tower back in Vacuo. She lounged around on the ceiling, almost forgetting the abominable shadow monster beneath her. The Courier glanced down, holding back a snort as she watched Cinder get grabbed and flung around the room a bit, a wave of heat brushed past her cheek as Cinder shot out flames indiscriminately. The woman flew her way up to the Courier's little perch earlier and asked about her 'master plan' a few moments ago, the Courier just shrugged and shot off some ideas, then Cinder snarled and spat some real vitriolic things at her. Rude.
As a reward for her untoward behavior, the Courier kicked the terrorist off of her perch and down at the Grimm-monster-human-thing. Cinder cursed the Courier as she fell, shooting some small fireballs at the woman while she spun around and tried to stick the landing. She did, though that didn't last long.
Raven was scrambling around the monster, both dodging Cinder's flames and the monster's whip-like appendages, with each lash cracking the tiles of the floor and tearing out chunks from the walls. "Do something!" Raven rasped out as she was batted away into a column, knocking out all of the air in her lungs as she doubled over and wheezed, she glared up at the ceiling, at the lounging Courier staring impassively back down at her, "I thought- hurk…! You had a plan!" Raven spat out some blood before grabbing her sword and pushing herself upright. The Courier watched as she transformed into her bird form and flew up to her, transforming back into her human form and landing next to her spot on the ceiling, "Alright, spill it genius," Raven spat, holding onto her sword until her knuckles turned white, "What 'plan' do you have?" She glanced down at Cinder, still being used as a human flail by the Grimm monster.
...Ooh that's quite violent, the Courier winced as Cinder's body was bounced off the column, eh… She'll be fine, Aura and all that.
"Give me a moment," the Courier reached into her pockets, which she have plenty of hidden ones, to pull out a container of Buffout, popping out a few pills, the Courier grinned before swallowing them in one gulp, "Don't worry, they're fast-acting," she breathed, feeling the rush of stimulants all hitting the happy and pleasure centers of her brain, "Now that's what I'm talking about…" This rush, the Courier liked. Taking out the Old Glory, the Courier jumped down, staff drawn back, and counting the seconds in her head to make sure the timing was right. The monster flung Cinder towards the Headmaster's chair and table, shattering both as she skidded across the ground. The Courier grinned widely as she swung, the Old Glory came crashing down on top of the monster, a resounding CRACK echoed through the office as the monster cried out, hopefully, in pain.
It stumbled, disoriented, the Courier swung again, this time hitting Aura instead of soft flesh. The monster paused for a second, watching as hairline fractures began forming on its Aura, the force of the Buffout-enhanced blow enough to shatter its defenses. It lashed out, Aura whips and actual Grimm-flesh shooting out towards the Courier. She quickly jumped out of the way of the attack, though some did come dangerously close. Ducking under a lash, the Courier swung again, this time fully shattering the monster's Aura and knocking away, embedding the thing into a wall. Raven flew towards the monster before transforming back, using the momentum of her flight to deliver a quick blow with her sword, freezing and tearing off a good chunk off of the beast. Cinder brought her hands together and grunted, the Courier, feeling the ambient temperature inside the room rising, grabbed Raven and jumped back, landing next to Cinder as she grits her teeth in concentration.
"I really must thank you for holding that thing in place," Cinder grinned, her eyes burning with bloodlust that even surprised the Courier, she glanced at Cinder's hands, her fingertips were charred, singed, with embers flying off of the burned surface, a ball of heat and death coalesced around her palms as Cinder's arm shook with power, the monster struggled to break free from the ice, it looked like it was panicking, Cinder laughed, "Watch this." The Fall Maiden's Aura covered Cinder completely, the Courier raised an eyebrow as she watched Cinder's scars light up orange. And while the Courier was impressed, Raven had… other reactions. The color completely dropped from the bandit's face as she tried to act calm, something about Cinder's little show of power must've made Raven a bit nervous.
"Don't you ever underestimate me again." Cinder snarled.
Raven shielded her eyes as Cinder let loose her blast, a beam of concentrated fire and heat compressed down to a singular point. Tearing through the air as it ignited the atmosphere around its small radius, melting the tiles beneath it as it shot forward with great speed. The monster wailed, breaking out of its ice prison, but alas, it was too late, as the beam slammed into it. If it was blinding before it was deafening now, as the explosive force that came from the blast was enough to blow all three of them away. Sending the Courier through a window and Cinder into the ground. Raven was quick enough to slam her sword down and use it as an anchor, preventing her from being flung away like a rag by the force of the explosion. The office was completely destroyed, and so was the monster, the Courier grunted as she pushed herself up and back into the office, after quickly grabbing a ledge when she was blown out of the window. The monster seemed to be completely disintegrated along with one of the office's walls.
Impressive firepower, the Courier whistled, noticing that the beam also tore through the Academy buildings as well, the walls and ceilings melted and a large scorched crater at the end of its trajectory. Casualties be damned, that was pretty damn cool. Raven was barely holding onto consciousness as she heaved while holding onto her sword. The Courier quickly dashed over to her position and delivered a quick chop to the back of her neck, knocking the woman out completely. The Courier then turned to Cinder, fully ready to do the same thing to her. Unfortunately, Cinder already made her quick getaway by jumping through one of the broken windows, the Courier sighed, she's missed her chance again. Turning to the sound of rustling behind her, the Courier saw Bluebell pushing himself up from the rubble. She felt the Buffout leaving her system and remembered the whole silver eyes thing.
Bluebell raised his weapon at her, "Y- You!" He stuttered, looking very clearly fatigued and exhausted, he took a step back, "Did… you did this?"
The Courier rubbed her chin, "Nah." Before punching him in the throat.
Courrier seemed to be in a foul mood as of late, both Johan and Mint can tell that something was off about the guy, or gal since he's one now. Lavs noticed it first, something about the woman's eyes were different, they seemed lighter, not the same shade of dark as before. Both Mint and Johan joined up with Courrier mainly because they thought she was some kind of heroic, legendary White Fang faunus, but after following the woman around for a while, they seemed to fall deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. The enigma that was Courrier, someone who could just transplant themselves into another body and assume a completely new identity at a drop of a hat. The two former White Fang soldiers have found themselves in deep shit as of late, world-ending threats, Grimm-human hybrids – if Courrier's words are true – and a whole bunch of other crazy shenanigans that their dear old leader seemed to get up to. But Courrier went through all of that with an air of casualness not usually seen in anybody sane or well of mind.
Something's different though, the Courrier's changed, she's more cold now, more irritable, a lot more violent than usual too, "We have some requests from Atlas," Mint dropped a stack of paper onto Courrier's makeshift office desk, "Something about complete coverage regarding scroll networks, pretty reasonable demands too, I might say," Courrier grabbed the files and shuffled through the pages, Mint leaned over to look at the pages, "Though with the CCT in Vale being repaired… Vacuo might lose what little leverage it has currently." Courrier's grip tightened.
"You tell those snow white fucks to stay out of the NVR's official business," she spat, pushing the files to Mint roughly, "I don't have time to deal with this shit," Mint grimaced, opening his mouth to say something but stopped when he saw Courrier glaring back at him, "Call Eryth here," she scoffed, watching as Mint avert his eyes, "Make sure Pyrrha doesn't do anything stupid."
Mint nodded, walking out of the makeshift office with Johan in tow. Something's off.
These eyes are useless, the Courier rubbed the bridge of her nose, this world was ass. Other than the unintentional side-effect of giving her very annoying optical strain, the Silver-Eyes does nothing that would benefit the Courier and her ambitions in any way. Who cares about neutralizing Grimm? She already does that with ease, these things would be advantageous for the average Huntsman, sure, but for her? They might as well be an elaborate fashion accessory. Still, these things do get in the way of her master plan, especially when she saw the kiddies and their filth-ridden chaperone run around the world for their little fantasy adventures. The Courier leaned back on her chair, kicking her feet up upon the table, and grinned, if there's one thing that the Courier likes more than anything, it's fucking with people, and hindering that little band of adventurers on their great journey to save the world just tickled her pink for some strange reason.
First thing on the agenda, the kiddies' most reliable and experienced member is still in Vacuo with her deadbeat father, if the Courier could find some way to urge the kid into leaving Vacuo in order to join up with the kiddies all the while removing herself of these useless eyes, then she'd be a very happy woman indeed. Eryth pushed the door open to the Courier's office and sat down quietly, the Courier smirked when she saw the nervous look on his face. "Put this on," the Courier threw Eryth a small silver pin, Eryth thumbed over the detailed pin before hesitantly attaching it to his clothes, Courrier noticed the pause when Eryth held the pin, well, the people here would probably call it a crest, "You'll do anything for the Republic right?" Eryth nodded, "Undying loyalty and all that?"
"May I ask, what's the purpose of this meeting?" Eryth glanced nervously at the Courier's face, never really making eye contact for more than a few seconds at most. The Courier just grinned. She saw how Eryth was worriedly looking around the room, no cameras in sight, a deliberate choice. Right now, no one can hear this conversation but them.
Eryth heard a small click, "Hmm," the Courier hummed, Eryth bounced his leg nervously when he heard a pin drop, "I've been thinking of making a fresh start for myself, I know you feel the same way," Eryth subconsciously wiped some sweat off of his forehead, his palms were damp, "The NVR needs changes, radical ones, ones that I can't achieve right now."
The Courier focused in on Eryth's pin, the same one that she forced him to wear just now, "Vacuo can't stay stagnant forever right? Not like last time," she pushed a small brown package towards Eryth, "Put that in your pocket," he complied, the Courier would've admired his loyalty, would've, "What do you think would be the best course of action right now?"
"I… don't know," Eryth shook his head, "I'm not really anyone important. I still don't know why you asked for me specifically."
"And that's exactly the point," the Courier grinned, Eryth felt something get dropped onto his lap, "Who would've guessed that you'd do something like this?"
"Like what?" Eryth's eyes widened when he looked down at his lap.
Pyrrha sat down next to Lavs as they watched people mingle out and about in the market, their seat situated atop a small home, Lavs' home to be exact, "What are you going to do now?" Lavs asked, wiping some sand off of her pants while Pyrrha twiddled her thumbs in thought. She hated this, what they're doing to this girl, Lavs didn't like it one bit.
"I… guess now that I found what I'm looking for," Pyrrha traced a finger over her scars, the ones she got during the battle in Beacon still looked fresh, "I'll help Ruby and the others," Lavs' eyes widened, "Cinder's still out there, I can't reasonably call myself a Huntress if I'm just sitting here doing nothing," Pyrrha's determined proclamation made Lavs subconsciously clench her fist, the guilt was eating her alive, "Wh- what's wrong?" she noticed it of course, Lavs scooted away from her when Pyrrha reached a hand out, "Is something wrong, Ms. Greenhorn?"
Something was wrong, Courrier entrusted her with this information, not even Johan or Mint knew what was really going on. Lavs swallowed a lump in her throat before giving Pyrrha a shaky smile, "Everything is alright-" Her words were cut off when a large explosion shook the building they were on, a smoke pillar rose up from Courrier's office, the plan was in motion. Pyrrha quickly grabbed her weapon and jumped from the roof, activating her Aura to dampen the fall and sped towards the site of the explosion, Lavs jumped too, but not to investigate, no, she was there to make sure Pyrrha acted how Courrier wanted her to act.
Both Mint and Johan were already there, they didn't know of course, so they were frantically tearing away chunks of rubble to get in, they were panicked, even more so when Johan spotted Pyrrha among the crowd, "Ah shit," Johan muttered, "Lavs! Make sure the kid doesn't get close!" Johan turned back to help Mint clear out the doorway, Lavs doesn't try to stop her. When the two finally got through, the office was a wreck, scorched, completely destroyed. The furniture was all blown away, but the 'main attraction', as Courrier puts it, would be the two corpses laying at two opposite ends of the room.
Johan grimaced at one of them, metallic components spilling out of the charred flesh, "Fuck…" she breathed, Lavs covered her nose, the smell of burned flesh filling her nostrils as she looked back, Pyrrha was stood by the doorway, a horrified expression on her face, "Hey, hey, listen, you're not supposed to be here okay?" Mint quickly moved to block the sight, placing both of his hands on her shoulders, "Kids like you shouldn't see things like this."
He quickly ushered Pyrrha out of the scene, surrounding the destroyed room were a crowd of concerned Vacuans, most of which were loyal Republic citizens, Courrier knew how these people will react, he planned it out specifically with this in mind. Lavs watched as Johan inspected the other body, Eryth Nikos, Lavs never thought of Courrier as a cruel person, just cold, and a bit psychotic, but seeing Eryth Nikos' mangled body laying there shook her conviction. Johan's fingers brushed past a sharp object, the crest, she quickly yanked it out, using her shirt to scrub out the soot and char.
"What the hell?" Johan grits her teeth, nearly biting on her tongue, "It's Atlas."
Hey all, it's your boy.
I know it's been some time, but I've been struggling with some work recently, as well as fighting against my burnout.
Maybe when I have an extended break or something, I'll get back to weekly or even daily (crazy) updates.
And for the people who's still around, thank you.
Thanks for reading!