Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.
A/N: I'll somewhat apologize on how long it took to get this out. Had friends and family visiting, some bad weather on Sun. and waiting to see if the problems this site has get fixed.
Oh, for those who'll celebrate it, I hope you have a safe and Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Remember to vote if you haven't!
Beta: ANUBIS the god king.
Chapter XLIII.
Last Time.
"We stay mobile," Arthur replies as the sound of multiple stabbings can be heard over the communication device.
"We're walking around a city with a thousand eyes."
Watts changes another traffic signal and crosses the street without pause, causing cars to come screeching to a halt. "(Sigh) While cybersecurity has been stepped up in Atlas, as usual, none of the code was updated in Mantle."
He walks across another street, hacking another system to make a blockade of posts rise from the road, which a car crashes into as it swerves to go around him. "Oh no! Gosh! Are you OK!?" A woman asks running to check on the driver.
"That certainly sounds useful," Tyrian said with a chuckle.
"It should be." Watts pauses and presses his thumb to one of his rings, which glows cyan. All nearby security cameras power down. "I helped write that code, after all."
Down the road, muffled screaming is heard from inside a building, while the camera next to its door powers down. The door opens, and Tyrian steps out, shutting the door behind him with a happy sigh. "Well, I suppose we all have our talents."
Tyrian walks away down an alley, while a pool of blood flows out from under the door. The blood slowly makes its way into the view of the hacked security camera.
Now.
Mine, Just Outside The City.
A strong wind blows snow across the cloudy sky while three Mantas fly together.
Inside one, Naruto looks at the RWBY, and his team all have a change of clothing.
Natsu's wearing a black long-sleeved jacket left open, untucked, and no undershirt with light-colored trimming and the sleeves rolled up to his wrists, black baggy pants held by a leather brown belt with a silver buckle around his waist, and a pair of dark brown, high-calf boots; there are several yellow, skull-like patterns on the jacket and pants.
Shiki's wearing a buttoned-up, short-sleeved, and copper-trimmed black tunic with an open high collar, has two black laces behind the neck of the collar, white round details on the sides, and a zig-zag pattern at the end of the sleeves on either side, a pair of white baggy trousers with a single line going down in the middle, and tucked into black-and-copper boots.
Haru's wearing a long-sleeved all black jacket with long grey cross along the sleeve on each side and a white shirt that's loose and a dark blue denim pants and black boots.
Ruby's hair is spikier and choppier with her bangs swept to the side. She has on 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, as well as a black choker around her neck with Naruto's Uzumaki swirl on it. She has on a red pleated skirt that is split at the side with a small brown belted strap across the gap, and bright red shorts under it.
On her arms, she has black bracers with large brown buckled straps around the wrist as well as black fingerless gloves. Around her waist, she now has a brown belt with several bullets with a buckle of her emblem on it alongside a pouch on the right side with a Zwei-based emblem and she wears black, thigh-high steel-toe boots with red soles and heels.
As well as a single buckled strap, rear seam, and a large brown buckled strap with attached pouches near the top, over a pair of brown mesh tights. In addition, her torn cape is replaced with a new cape that has a hood.
Her sister has on khaki overalls, Naruto's Uzumaki swirl on her back, the gold zipper of which is unzipped just below the breast to reveal a white low-cut cropped 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 the top of the coveralls, she has a baggy, dark brown crop aviator-styled jacket with fur trim around the neck and black-and-orange straps along the sleeves. Around her waist is a black-and-orange belt with black-and-yellow folded fabric on the sides, which runs behind her with a pouch attached to it and a golden buckle of her emblem.
She also has dark brown knee-high boots with black laces and top trim. For accessories, she has resumed wearing her orange scarf around her neck and her purple scarf around her right leg. She also has a black/brown strap with golden trim and a pouch wrapped around her left thigh. She is also wearing orange sunglasses.
Weiss' hair is now braided, and she has grown out her bangs and styled them to frame her face more closely.
She has on a pale blue sleeveless dress with deep red lining, a bow detail fixture, and two diamond-shaped pieces hanging from the corners of the hem, over a white diagonal hemmed strapless dress. Above she has a vivid blue shrug with a raised collar, Naruto's Uzumaki swirl on it, 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, is 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. The lowest belt crosses over the middle belt. She is wearing long, pale blue wedge-heel boots with white frill detailing at the top at the front, alongside grayish blue coloring on the toes and navy blue wedged heels.
In addition, she has on a pair of ruby earrings that match her icicle-shaped tiara with a diamond-shaped ruby in the center.
And Blake has cut her hair to a shoulder-length bob. She changed her attire to a purple sleeveless leather catsuit with attached boots that have light purple soles and trim. The catsuit has a high neck with a single short silver zipper alongside matching zippers that run from her thighs to her ankles on the front of the legs. A pair of knee pads, matching color to the catsuit with silver studs on them are attached to the knees of the catsuit with Naruto's Uzumaki swirl on the knees.
Her long, white tailcoat has desaturated purple detailing on the chest, sleeves, sides, and collar alongside dark purple detailing on the back. It has a narrow belt around the collar and a wide white belt loosely secured around her waist through the coat's belt loops. The belt has two pouches attached to the back. The coattails end in a point and the inside lining is vivid purple.
The front zipper of the coat is upside down and extends to the very bottom of the coat, and there are additional zippers along the lower half of the sleeves with a single purple line running between the zipper and her shoulders. Around each wrist is a dark purple belted wristband, and has a desaturated purple magnetic backpack on her back.
(Flashback.)
"All right, gather 'round."
Shiki, along with Jaune and Ruby, looks at Clover as the leaders are in a room looking at a map with Qrow crossing his arms. "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 has moved in."
The screen displays a mission overview, a photograph of Huntsmen battling a Geist, a menu, a map of an area in the Kingdom of Atlas, a list of Active Huntsmen, and a list of Ace Operatives.
Reported Petra Gigas near Huntsman Post North. Huntsmen secured the area but were unable to eliminate Petra Gigas. The Grimm was seen retreating to abandoned SDC Mines No. 2 located in Zone 3. No casualties were reported, and three Huntsmen suffered minor injuries.
"The good news is all that untouched Dust is still down there, too. The science team says they'll need it for the first phase of their launch. Atlas military Huntsmen 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."
"After we increased our numbers, the Geist was smart enough to retreat into the mine itself, meaning it's old and extremely dangerous. This is our target." Clover withdraws a compact Scroll and presses a button, causing the photograph of Huntsmen battling the Petra Gigas to take up the entirety of each screen.
The hologram screens above Ironwood's table have been replaced with a 3D hologram map displaying the SDC mine. "The mine was a labyrinth back in the day. There are all sorts of tunnels and chambers the Geist can move between, so if we're gonna kill this thing, we'll have to split up and corner it. General Ironwood says you've seen your fair share of combat. I trust that man with my life, so tomorrow, I'll be trusting you all, too."
Later, the team walks with Pietro into another room. "Apologies for the mess and for holding onto your weapons for so long. The upgrades you requested were, uh… well, they were more than I anticipated. "Your new weapons and armor should be as requested, but I also took the liberty of reviewing your combat footage from the Vytal Festival Tournament."
Teams RWBY, SHNN, and JNPR stand in front of a series of narrow shelves, each of which has cases on them. Nora shifts eagerly on her feet, letting out an excited giggle as she snatches up her case as everyone else calmly picks up their cases.
"There are some additional enhancements I'd like to suggest. Oh, but for now, these should serve you well enough."
(Flashback End.)
"Let's make it happen, people."
Naruto stood with his team as Team RWBY looked at each other, smiling. Yang chuckles, and Ruby nods. The teams leap from the Manta, with Ruby immediately using her Semblance, laughing as she falls. She draws Crescent Rose, changes it to scythe form, stands on it, and begins firing it, using the recoil to slow her fall.
Weiss makes her way downward while leaping back and forth between glyphs, having Naruto and his team follow before launching herself toward the mine and summoning her Arma Gigas' arm and sword. She then uses a glyph to send herself onto the sword and slides down the blade.
Blake draws her newly repaired katana, shifts it into sickle form, and throws it, hooking it onto one of the metal structures outside the mine entrance. She then uses it to swing from building to building. Yang free-falls, laughing as she does so, before firing at the ground and flipping to land on her feet. She slides across the snow between two mine cart tracks and is joined by Ruby, Weiss, and Blake when she comes to a stop.
Harriet lands nearby with a slight bounce, tucking and rolling. Marrow lands on his boomerang rides it across the snow, and leaps off of it, causing it to fly through the air and then return to him. The boomerang shifts into rifle mode when he catches it.
Team JNPR's Manta soars overhead toward the mountain. Inside the ship, Elm and Vine look at JNPR in their new outfits and prepare to jump.
Jaune, also cut his hair short and styles it to be upswept and somewhat spiky in a quiff-like style. He has on a high-collar black shirt under a re-modified pure white chest plate that covers a bit more of his upper abdomen and similarly colored bracers. Both the chest plate and the bracers are trimmed with gold, and he once again wears two shoulder pads. He retains his gloves and sash, except he now wears dark navy jeans and dark brown boots.
Ren braided his hair and he has on a sleeveless turtleneck dark green top, white long sleeves underneath, the black half of a jacket/arm guard combination on his right arm with his father's dagger attached to it, a single detached long black fingerless glove on his left arm, and black leather boots.
Nora trimmed her hair to when they were in school and has on a long, pink and white sleeveless coat with light blue lapels and a white belted closed by a black belt with a pouch on the left side, over a black short dress. The front of the coat has two heart shape cutouts near to the bottom. On the upper back of her coat is a small pair of decorative metal wings with a magnet in the middle that she attached Magnhild to.
She also has long detached white sleeves with black fingerless gloves, white stockings with Naruto's Uzumaki swirl on them, light blue socks, and black boots with silver heels, soles, and toe plates. In addition, she wears matching metal bands on her upper arms with her emblem on them alongside silver metal bands around her thighs.
Pyrrha, still has on her armor, rthough it was upgraded to be lighter and stronger, and on her thigh is Naruto's Uzumaki swirl.
"This is my favorite part!" Elm grins and jumps.
Vine steps out of the ship, while Elm leaps backward. Ren hops out, followed by a laughing Nora. Jaune takes a deep breath, gets a small running start, and leaps out. He dives for a moment, then deploys his shield while activating its new Hard-Light Dust upgrade. The shield begins acting as a hang glider, with the sudden slow in momentum causing Jaune to yelp.
He then drifts over to the cliff, before turning his shield downward and using another Dust upgrade to create an outward burst that cushions his landing. Standing alongside Nora and Ren, Jaune draws his sword. "Ha ha! Perhaps you kids won't get yourselves killed after all!" Elm enters a tunnel, while Jaune looks disappointed, and Nora pouts.
"She meant that as a compliment," Vine says with a shrug.
Qrow and Clover slide down a sheer icy incline, landing on a cliff just outside of a tunnel opening. Clover activates a communication device in his ear while Qrow brushes off his new outfit. "This is Alpha squad. LZ's clear. Proceeding on foot. You've all got fancy new Scrolls, so don't forget to use 'em. Keep your eyes and ears open. I want an update if you encounter the target. Alpha out."
While Clover speaks, Blake brings out her new Scroll, deploying the hologram screen from the small device. She taps on an icon with a mugshot of Yang, which brings up a screen showing her teammates' Aura levels. Weiss has 96% Aura, Yang has 97% and Ruby has 98%. She taps the hologram again, making it recede into the device, which she turns horizontally in her hand. The built-in screen displays four small meters, one on top and three on the bottom.
The top meter is labeled B, while the other three are labeled R, W, and Y. The B meter is full. Once Clover finishes speaking, Blake's left cat ear twitches and she looks ahead of her.
"Huh?"
Blake looked to see Sasuke walking forward as Naruto sighed and looked up. "What the hell did I do to deserve this?"
"Man, I did not sign up to be a babysitter." Marrow sighs out as Harriet looks at him, grins and elbows him.
"Yeah, well, the rest of us babysit you all the time.
Harriet walks away, and Marrow crosses his arms and pouts, following her.
Weiss wipes the snow off of a piece of metal, revealing the Schnee Dust Company logo. She looks down at it with a frown and lets out a small, sad groan. Harriet and Marrow head into the mine entrance, with Team RWBY following at a distance. Ruby comes to a stop, shivering with her arms crossed across her chest.
"It's freezing!" Natsu groaned as he rolled his arms. "Even I can feel it.
Weiss stops, and Blake and Yang soon stop, as well. "I suddenly don't feel as bad about leaving Oscar behind."
"(Sigh) Can we talk about that again?" Yang asks, hands on her hips.
Ruby glances over at Harriet and Marrow, who have gone ahead to the opening of the mine. "What about it?"
"We're not gonna tell Ironwood about what happened to Oz? What we learned about Jinn? About Salem?"
"We are," Ruby replies before sighing. "We will. But you saw how things looked when we flew into Atlas."
"The General's heart seems to be in the right place, but that doesn't mean we should trust him yet."
"Especially after Haven."
They turned to see Naruto walking up. "Look, we should at least wait and keep an eye on Ironwood. He seems to be making his people mad at him, telling him could make things worse."
"OK. How did Oscar feel about that?" As she asks her question, Yang looks over at Ruby, raising an eyebrow. Ruby lowers her eyes a little, thinking back to her conversation with Oscar.
"Ruby…" Naruto walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a second?" He walks her to the side behind a train car. "How are you holding up?"
"… Fine."
"Come on, I know how tough this leader thing is… I'm with you now, you can have me shoulder some of the burden."
"It's hard, Naruto."
Naruto just pulled her in for a hug and rested his chin on her head. "I know, the burden of a leader isn't easy, but you don't have to shoulder it alone."
Up ahead, Qrow and Clover walk through a long tunnel with different colors of Dust's veins in the walls. "Gotta say I'm still not used to working with other Huntsmen in the field," Qrow says as Clover looks over.
"But you were on a team before, weren't you?"
"(Sigh.) A long time ago. I just found working alone tends to be for the best."
"Well, I think that's a shame." Clover muses as Qrow slips and falls forward, but Clover catches his arm and pulls him back up. Qrow frowns, while Clover walks away, using his communicator. "Alpha here. Give me an update."
In another tunnel, Vine brought a hand to his comms. The connecting ice tunnels seem clear. We should be approaching the actual mine any minute now."
Vine, Elm, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren walk through an ice tunnel, which has metal arches supporting it. While Nora and Jaune are smiling, Ren is frowning. "This is so exciting! It feels like we're an actual Huntsman team!" Nora excitedly said clapping her hands. "Though I wish Whiskers was here."
"He had to talk to Ruby about something.
Over with RWBY and SHNN, Harriet brought a hand to her comms. "Bravo checking in. Hit a bit of a snag." Harriet, Marrow, Team RWBY, and SHNN arrive at a wall of boulders in the main mine tunnel. "There's been a cave-in in the main entrance. Not sure if it's recent or was caused by the original accident." Blake suddenly pauses, her ears perking up and her eyes widening. She looks all around her. "Either way, we'll have to do a little problem-solving."
"Understood. Let us know if you need anything." Clover replies as Yang looks at Blake and uncrosses her arms. "You OK?"
Blake looks away sadly. "I just realized where we are. This mine was closed after an explosion."
"I remember this disaster. Or rather, I remember how furious it made my father." Blake and Yang look at Weiss, who grips her wrist, looking away. She then approaches Blake. "(Sigh) I wish I could take back the years of pain my family has caused the Faunus and all of my complacency in it." She crosses her arms, and Blake rests her hands on Weiss' shoulder, giving a small smile.
Marrow approaches the two. "This society is set up for Faunus to be at the bottom, and humans are willing participants. They benefit from doing nothing to help us." Blake looks past Marrow at a large case labeled SDC. "But there are still those who actively abuse us. Anyway, I didn't come over here looking to solve systemic societal issues. Harriet found a gap in the rubble we think one of you could fit through, ideally someone with a knack for seeing in the dark."
He looks at Blake, who seems lost in thought. She soon snaps back to reality and looks at Marrow. "O-oh. Of course."
Yang looks around and then frowns before walking forward. Blake makes her way through a crevice between boulders, drawing her katana once she has room. "All right, Blake. Take a look around." Marrow says, and she shifts her katana into sickle form, ready to fire her gun. "Is there any Dust in the immediate area?"
"Mine carts… debris… no Dust, though."
"Great, then it should be safe to blast our way through."
"OK. Heading ba-AAH!"
Blake yelps as a Geist suddenly swoops down and reaches for her. She reflexively uses her Semblance and then jumps into a back handspring while the Geist swipes its claws at her clone. Immediately upon landing on her feet, she begins firing at the Geist. Harriet, Marrow, and Blake's teammates look at the boulder pile with widened eyes.
"Damn it. Blake, stand back."
Harriet deploys her weapon onto her arms and blasts through the boulder. As soon as the rock is cleared, SHNN, Ruby, Weiss, and Yang run forward, weapons drawn. The Geist moves back and looks, then flies away down a tunnel while Blake continues to shoot at it. "Don't let it get away!"
Team RWBY runs after the Geist but is soon stopped by a Centinel burrowing its way out of the ground in front of them. The four stare at the Grimm as it makes its way up from the ground and looks at them. Sasuke then slices its head off with his katana before having the grey hilt glow yellow as electricity covers the blade for a second from Dust.
Another Centinel lunges at Yang, who yelps and shoots it directly in the mouth. It throws its head back with a pained squeal, then looks at Yang with a hiss, its wound dripping with green fluid. It was then stabbed by Naruto's trident, Haru then jumped over to slice its head off as Shiki kicked another in the head.
Team RWBY gets into battle-ready positions. Ruby zooms away with her Semblance, while Weiss and Blake charge forward. Ruby slams into a Centinel, while Blake and Weiss slash at more of the Grimm. Harriet punches, and Marrow and Yang shoot. Two Centinels get ready to attack Yang, who readies her weapons and repeatedly punches them each in the head.
Beep-Beep-Beep!
A slight beep-like noise is emitted with each hit, as she attaches small devices to the Grimm. She hops away while firing two more devices at the Grimm and then thrusts her arms backward, causing all of the devices to beep rapidly and then explode.
Weiss uses Myrtenaster to send an ice crystal at a Centinel, while Ruby beheads another with her scythe. However, the Centinel head, which still has a few legs attached, is still alive. Ruby smirks and engages Crescent Rose's upgrade, which makes the scythe head rotate 180 degrees. She fires the rifle component while swinging her weapon, slashing and finally killing the Centinel head.
She then rotates the scythe head again and slams it down to the ground, steadying her weapon to be parallel with the ground, and begins firing the rifle component. Ruby gasps as Marrow jumps ahead of her. Marrow guns down a pair of Centinels then shifts his weapon into boomerang form and throws it. The boomerang bounces off a wall and flies against the back of a Centinel, before returning to Marrow, who has leaped into the air. He slams the boomerang's blade down on the Centinel, cutting it in two and killing it.
Ahead of Marrow, a pair of Centinels twist around each other and head for him. He holds out his hand and snaps his fingers with a smirk. "Stay."
The two Centinels suddenly slow to a stop. Marrow holds his pose, while Harriet speeds over to the Grimm, trailing electricity. She brushes her nose with her thumb and smirks before grabbing the two Grimm and slamming them to the ground. She then straightens up and uses her communicator.
"This is Bravo! We found the target, but it fled deeper into the mine. Engaging Centinels!" Harriet yells into her comms.
In the ice tunnels, Elm, Vine, and Team JNPR listen to Harriet's report. "Let's pick up the pace!"
The group runs over to a decline in the tunnel, and Elm, Vine, and Jaune jump, sliding along the ice. Nora smacks Ren, sending him down the decline with a small shout, and then follows, laughing. Below, the ice tunnel gives way to the Dust mine, and three Centinels begin burrowing out of the rock. "Contact!"
Vine deploys his Semblance to grab onto the walls of the ice tunnel, stopping himself. Elm stomps on the ice, deploying her Semblance to root herself to the spot. Jaune, Nora and Ren continue sliding past the two, Nora laughing with her hands in the air.
As they approach the bottom, Jaune deploys his shield's Hard-Light barrier and stabs the ice with his sword to slow himself. He then slams his shield down, using Dust to send out a blast that knocks the Centinels back. Catching up to Jaune, Ren leaps into the air and activates his weapons upgrade, his guns fire their blades at one of the Centinels, with wires keeping the blades tethered to the guns.
Pyrrha threw her shield having it bounce off several Centinels heads before pulling her rifle up to take shots and caught her should as it bounced back to her. Ren pulls himself to the Centinel slams his feet into it to knock it down and fires his guns at it. Another Centinel rises behind him, only for Nora to slam Magnhild down on its head.
The hammer emits a blast, allowing her to swing it backward onto the remaining Centinel's head. With all three Centinels dead, Vine and Elm slide down the ice to meet up with Team JNPR. "A very… head-first approach."
Vine and Elm begin walking past Team JNPR, who try to act confident. "Yeah, well, that's just kind of our style."
As soon as the two Ace Operatives pass them, JNPR relaxes their shoulders and sighs with relief.
Team RWBY, Harriet, and Marrow have whittled down the pack of Centinels to one remaining. Weiss raises Myrtenaster and prepares to charge. "One left!"
"I got it!" Ruby yells as Harriet speeds past both of them and plunges her fist straight through the Centinel, killing it. Ruby rises beside her, eyes filled with amazement. "Whoa! Your Semblance makes you super fast, just like me!"
"Very cool. Though, based on your reaction time, I'd say I'm a little faster."
"This is Alpha! We've engaged the target!"
In another tunnel, Qrow fires repeatedly at the Geist, which swerves and spirals around in the tunnel, avoiding the bullets. "All squads head toward our position!"
Clover deploys his fishing rod and sends the hook out at the Geist, just barely missing it. The Geist swoops into a giant chunk of ice with a mine cart embedded in it and rises, gathering more ice, rocks, and metal to form its body. Clover runs forward to combat it, while Qrow stands back and observes. Qrow notices a chunk of ice pressing against a metal support beam, steadily pushing the beam off of the tunnel wall. "Wait, stop!"
Clover turns to look at Qrow, then notices the beam, which falls and lands between Clover and the Geist. The impact creates a large cloud of dust, and when the cloud settles, it is revealed that the ground beneath the Geist collapsed. Clover looks down the hole, frowning, while Qrow runs up beside him. "Darn it." Clover then puts a hand to his ear. "Target escaped, last seen headed east." He then turns to Qrow. "Thanks for the call-out. That could have been bad."
"I wouldn't thank me. My Semblance brings misfortune. Sometimes I can't keep it under control."
"That so?" Qrow looks at Clover, who is looking at him with a slight smile. Clover checks his Scroll, then looks up at a bent support beam next to the hole in the ground. "Well, hey, don't beat yourself up about it." He casts his line to wrap around the beam and jerks it down, and the beam pulls a large amount of rock down with it. He then turns to Qrow with a smile. "My Semblance is good fortune. Lucky you, huh?"
Clover walks on ahead, using his communicator, while Qrow stares at him. "Charlie, Bravo, you should be able to cut off the target at the heart of the mine. Qrow and I won't be far behind."
Qrow looks away, then hurries after Clover.
Up ahead, team JNPR, Elm, and Vine exit their tunnel onto a raised walkway in a giant mine chamber filled with Dust veins and huge Dust crystals. Raised mine cart rails, walkways, and stone arches span across and around the edges of the chamber. As Ren comes to a stop, his foot slides across the ground, and the dust particles he kicks up drift slowly into the air. A bead of sweat drips from Jaune's forehead and evaporates upon hitting the ground.
Team RWBY, SHNN, Harriet, and Marrow arrive in the same chamber at the bottom level. Ruby looks up toward JNPR. "Guys!"
"Everyone uses caution. This room is highly active with Dust energy. Triggering it could ruin the launch site."
"And vaporize us. How is that always second with you?" Marrow asks him as Nora looks around.
"I thought the target was supposed to be in here."
A low rumbling noise from above causes everyone to look up. The Petra Gigas Geist is clinging to a chunk of ice on the ceiling. It turns to look down at everyone, showing purple Dust crystals embedded in its body. It jumps down from the ceiling, crashing through a stone arch on its way to the ground in front of Team RWBY and SHNN.
"It added Dust to its body? How are we supposed to-"
Harriet speeds past Ruby, and Marrow follows suit. Elm jumps down from the cliff and runs toward the Petra Gigas, as well. "Elm!"
Vine reaches out with his Semblance, wrapping an Aura arm around one of the Petra Gigas' legs. With his other Aura arm, he reaches behind him, grabs onto a support beam, and pulls. Elm runs over to the leg, stomps to root herself in place with her Semblance, and grabs onto the leg. "Vine!"
Vine lets go, leaps off the cliff, and uses his Semblance to swing onto a minecart bridge. He then uses his Semblance to grab onto one of the Petra Gigas' arms and pull. "Marrow!"
Marrow throws his boomerang at the exposed Geist arm between pieces of ice and rubble, severing it. A Dust crystal flies out from the released rubble, and Marrow's eyes widen. "Sasuke!"
Sasuke started to slice the Geist in various places as Harriet charged her Semblance and then sped after a crystal that got cut off, maneuvering around falling rocks. She runs up a rock, jumps off the side of a raised walkway, and catches the crystal in mid-air, landing on another walkway. Teams JNPR SHNN, and RWBY watch the Ace-Ops in amazement as they continue fighting. Marrow cuts off the Geist's other arm, sending another Dust crystal flying through the air.
"Crap!"
The crystal is caught by Clover, who just arrived with Qrow. "What would you guys do without me?"
He tosses the crystal to Qrow, who looks at him with an eyebrow raised. Clover salutes to Qrow and jumps backward off the cliff. Harriet speeds around Petra Gigas' feet, while Vine swings himself around and punches Petra Gigas in the chest. Harriet speeds to the middle of the room, whistles and waves at the Petra Gigas, then speeds away when it tries to hit her.
Elm takes this opportunity to slam her hammer onto the rock composing part of the Petra Gigas' arm. The rock becomes stuck, and as the Petra Gigas struggles to pull it up, Marrow and Sasuke sever its arm once again. Clover lands on the ground, deploys his fishing rod, and runs over to the Petra Gigas. He jumps off its leg, launching himself into the air.
He bumps his clover pin with his thumb, swings his pole, and pulls on the fishing line, directing it to wrap around the Geist's mask and hook onto it. Team RWBY's eyes widen in amazement, and Clover pulls, forcing the Geist out of the ice block. Harriet runs into position and uses her Semblance to launch straight up into the air, punching the Geist with her weapon, and killing it.
As purple Dust crystals begin raining down, the Ace-Ops catch them. One crystal is sent flying through the air on the other side of the chamber. "Harriet!"
Harriet uses her Semblance to speed across the room, but she has to maneuver around the falling ice and rocks. The crystal comes close to hitting the ground and with Harriet mere feet away. Suddenly, a red blur flies past, taking the crystal with it. Surprised, Harriet tumbles and stops. Ruby deactivates her Semblance and falls to the ground in a sitting position, hugging the large crystal tight.
She opens her eyes and laughs as Harriet walks over and pulls her to her feet. "Thought you said your Semblance was like mine."
"It… is?"
"I've seen other speed Semblances before, but that was different. I think there's more going on than you think."
Yang then walks over. "Wait until she sees what she can do with her eyes.
Qrow jumps down to the ground next to Clover, who puts his weapon away. "Lucky catch, huh?"
"Hm. No. I'd chalk that one up to talent." Clover shrugs as Ruby and Nora begin celebrating on the other side of the chamber, with Elm holding Ruby on her shoulder. "Atlas Control, this is Clover. Mission accomplished."
Mantle.
Down in Mantle, a police airship drops off Forest, the man who was with the teams when arrested, and flies away. "Yeah, thanks for the lift!" He walks into an alley, kicking a rock and muttering angrily to himself, heading toward a door. A sound behind him causes him to stop and turn around. "Huh?" He looks around and backs up toward the door. As he nears the door, Tyrian Callows appears in front of it, smiling menacingly.
Forest turns around, sees Tyrian, and stumbles back against a dumpster, startled. "Whoa! Who are you?"
"Me? Oh, well, I'm… someone just like you." As he speaks, Tyrian approaches Forest. "Someone who… wants to mix things up around here."
Tyrian's eyes turn purple, and he begins laughing darkly as he lowers his tail, its needle coming out. Forest looks down at the tail, then at Tyrian. He screams as Tyrian swings his tail forward to stab him.
To Be Continued.
A/N: Thanks for reading and let me know of any mistakes.
Beta: ANUBIS the god king.
Again sorry for only one episode, but saw the Chs at 6k and trying to stretch this out at least until Volume 10 starts or the official cancellation.
I'll somewhat apologize for how long it took to get this out. Had friends and family visiting, and some bad weather on Sun., and waiting to see if the problems with this site have been fixed.
Oh, for those who'll celebrate it, I hope you have a safe and Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Remember to vote if you haven't!
Next to be updated will be A Fox In Middleton!