Chapter 21
Team TSKK Room
Having just gotten back from their mission, Team TSKK had decided to call it a day to rest.
Going through her laptop Sonya's scroll suddenly lit up with her ringtone.
On the other side of the room, Kung Lao began to stir to the annoying sound and threw his pillow over his head. "Aaaaaarrrgh…Make it stttoooopp..." He groaned loudly.
Ignoring her Teammate, she picked it up, only to see it was Johnny calling. Raising a brow, she remembered giving him her number during the Ball but wasn't expecting to a call from him so quickly.
Pressing the green button, she brought the device to his ear.
"Hello?" Sonya asked, only to have her eardrums blasted by the sound of loud static before the call quickly cancelled.
"Cage?" Sonya muttered, wondering what could have happened.
Later
Several hours later, Team TSKK walked through the courtyard of the school, heading over to catch a Bullhead that would take them on their next mission.
"Sonya, I'm sure they're fine." Kitana assured her, who was still on edge by the sudden statics from her call
"You think?" Sonya asked her teammate skeptically.
"Probably a butt-dial." Kung Lao said annoyed that his sleep was interrupted
"Team JKHL has always performed exceptionally in the field. I'm confident that they can handle their situation easily. Besides, we should be focusing on our own mission." Smoke added.
Sonya listened to her team's words, but couldn't relax. "I-I just…I dunno…I got this feeling, y'know what I mean?" Sonya said
"You know Sonya, this Johnny issue has got you really worked up. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were in lo-" Kung Lao started but was interrupted by Sonya
"Finish that sentence Lao. I dare you to finish that sentence." Sonya glared at the monk
"Sonya?" Kitana tried to speak but stopped once a loud siren blared around them.
Everybody's eyes widened when they heard the noise. Looking to each other, they confirmed their fears. The city was under attack by Grimm.
"Change of plans! Let's go!" Sonya said loudly to her team, cueing them to climb into the Bullhead as fast as they could.
"Take us into the city!" Sonya told the pilot, who nodded and took off.
Meanwhile
Looking at the city of Vale from a distance, Cinder, Emerald and Mercury could tell from the pillar of smoke rising from the city as well as the blaring siren that something was wrong.
"You don't think…" Emerald began.
"Sure looks like it." Mercury answered for her.
"But that's still weeks away!" Emerald exclaimed.
"So, what do we do?" Mercury asked Cinder.
Cinder's eyes lit up under her ivory locks, before answering with a smile. "We came here as students, and I feel it's time to prove it to them. Get your things ready. We head to city hall as soon as possible."
City Hall, Vale
The entirety of Team RWBY gulped in fear as they held their weapons with shaking hands. Team JKHL on the other hand merely narrowed their eyes.
A gigantic horde of Grimm surrounded them, circling them in the center of the square. All sorts of monsters stood waiting, from small Grimm like Ursai to massive beasts like Deathstalkers and King Taijitu.
Ruby shivered while grasping her scythe, fear filling her body. However, she held her weapon tight, ready to fight back any and all foes in her path.
Weiss breathed slowly, her sword held in a single hand. Her posture was slow and sure, her feet ready to move at the slightest lunge.
Blake's stance was strong, but her eyes were filled with fear. She had never fought this much Grimm before, but nonetheless, she was ready to show she was no pushover.
Yang felt no fear, only a fighting spirit burning within her. Her gauntlets were armed and her fists raised, ready to burn and demolish anything in her way.
Suddenly, the King Taijitu roared, causing every Grimm in the square to charge, filling the air with strong bloodlust as their claws scraped the ground and their jaws drooled wildly.
Narrowing their eyes and raising their weapons, Team RWBY and JKHL prepared for the fight of their lives.
Ruby jumped into the horde with Crescent Rose raised above her head, slamming the massive blade down into the ground and knocking back any and all Grimm around her.
A pack of Beowolves began to surround her, but Ruby smiled and ran, still holding onto her weapon. Raising her legs, she began to kick anything coming close as she spun in a circle, her scythe remaining lodged into the ground
As the Beowolves dropped to the floor, Ruby flicked a switch on her weapon, altering the barrel of her scythe. Firing in all directions, Ruby filled heads with bullets and chopped up Grimm like a pro.
Yang wasted no time and lunged for the nearest Grimm, firing her gauntlets down at the creature, killing it and launching her back into the air.
Using her airtime, Yang unloaded her weapons down at the Grimm below, loud explosions ringing as Yang flew through the air, raining down fire and dust on the horde.
Cocking her gauntlets, she looked behind her to see a flock of Nevermores dive-bombing her. Seeing this too late, Yang was knocked back down to the ground, blowing a large crater into the ground as she crashed.
Blake gritted her teeth, holding Gambol Shroud in both hands and ducked to dodge a swipe from a Beowolf. She then swung the sheath into the Beowolf's snout, nicking away a piece of bone from its face plate, stunning the creature before running her katana through its chine, piercing the head and killing the Beowolf.
Hearing more enemies approaching her from behind, she compacted her katana into a pistol, spinning around and shooting down several Grimm.
Weiss fought hard, her hands and feet moving quicker than her mind could follow. She swiped forward, hitting a couple of Grimm in front of her before turning around to stab a Beowolf in the chest.
Summoning a glyph under her, she spun Myrtenaster's barrel to ice dust. Turning around to see the large pack running towards her, she yelled out a battle cry and formed a large sword construct from the ice dust, sweeping away everything nearby.
Ruby leapt out of the way when Yang sent a car barreling down the street into the pack, only for her to come face-to-face with a massive King Taijitu.
Her eyes widened in fear as the giant snake opened its jaws ready to swallow her whole in single snap, but in an instant a blade Hat shot from the sky decapitating the Grimm. Ruby then turned her head towards the source
As Ruby squinted her eyes, she could catch glimpses of two figures approaching them
"For where there's Smoke, there is Fire." Smoke said as he landed with Kung Lao
"That has got to be the cheesiest one liner I've heard." Kung Lao said catching his Hat
"Hey, at least I'm trying. I would like to see you come up with one." Smoke said folding his hand
"Guys!" Ruby called happy to see help. Just then a pink blur flew past her
"NORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SMASH!" Nora sailed through the air on her hammer, and locking onto a Grimm, her ever-mischievous grin grew as wide as could be as she gripped Magnhild with both hands and slammed down onto the King Taijitu's head with the force of an earthquake, shattering the beast's skull and killing it in a flash.
Landing on her feet, Nora held her hammer in both hands as Ren, Pyrrha, Kitana and Jaune arrived onto the battlefield, holding their weapons with a ready battle stance.
Sonya then landed while raising her gauntlets. "Let's move!" She said to her team, cueing everyone to roll out into battle
"SMACK!" Nora said swatting Grimm away like they were flies and blowing limbs and body parts everywhere with her grenades.
The whole time, she was laughing and prancing around like a child at a birthday party, demolishing the monsters in her path with a carefree glee.
Ren was a longtime friend of Nora's, but personality-wise, he was her opposite. His face was stone cold as he eliminated his enemies with quick and deadly efficiency.
His knife blades slit the throats of Grimm left and right and peppering bodies with Stormflower's bullets. Suddenly, an Ursa tried to swing a paw at Ren, only for him to swing his pistol into the limb, slicing into the Grimm's flesh and staggering the bearlike creature for a second.
Ren used this opportunity to vault over the Ursa and dig his blades into the Grimm's back and to release a barrage of bullets into its body, killing the Ursa.
Jaune wandered about in the square, looking around him at his friends fighting back the massive herds of Grimm and held his sword and shield in his hand, ready to fight.
"Alright…who's first?" Jaune asked, only to hear a loud thud behind him, as if on cue.
Turning behind him, Jaune's eyes widened in fear to find an Ursa roaring in his face. "O-okay, you're first, huh? N-n-no, t-that's great!" Jaune stammered in fear as his sword shook in his hand.
Pyrrha, on the other hand was slicing up Grimm like a professional, moving her spear like an instrument playing a symphony of death as the blade cut into one Grimm after another.
After finishing off a Grimm with Miló, Pyrrha turned to witness Jaune's current predicament as he backed away slowly from the Ursa.
"O-okay, done this before… done this before…" Jaune muttered to himself as he drew a long breath.
"Aaaaahhhhhhhh-"
Raising his sword, Jaune let out a loud battle cry, swinging his blade wildly in the general direction of the Grimm, unable to tell if his even connected or not.
Jaune then stopped and looked in front of him. He saw the Ursa standing there, not moving at all. Jaune did the same, not knowing what do to or how to react.
But then, blood began to seep from slits cut open in the Ursa's body, and the Grimm fell over on its back, dead. Seeing Jaune finally able to fight on his own, Pyrrha smiled with pride. She and Sub Zero's hard work was worth it after all.
"Nobody move! Junior detectives!"
Sun and Neptune entered the square, holding out their badges and striking dramatic poses.
"We have badges, so you know it's official!" Neptune added, fist-bumping his partner.
"Yeah, that's adorable." Johnny said from behind them as he began to glow with green energy
Johnny sprinted at an Ursa delivering a shadow kick that killed the beast instantly. Pulling out his Nunchucks he began to lay waste to more Ursas before drawing his attention to a flock of Nevermores dive-bombing him.
Jumping up to dodge the first bird, Johnny fired green projectile at the birds, killing and injuring a good number of Grimm.
"Save some for me." Sonya said as she ran past Johnny to face some Grimm. Charging up her gauntlet, Sonya punched a hole into a Beowolf before tossing another one over her shoulder, stomping on it's head killing it.
"What a woman." Johnny whistled
Kitana pulled out her fans and chopped into the throat of an Ursa, spraying blood out of the neck before heaving the blade into a charging Grimm's head, piercing the bone mask and cutting into the skull.
Smoke turned into a cloud of smoke before flying into the nostril of a Nevermore. The Beast stood their trying to process what happened before it's eyes started to pop. The same thing happened to the rest of it's body before it exploded. Sun and Neptune could only stare in shock at the scene
"Remind me never to get on his bad side." Neptune told his friend
Just then more hordes of Grimm started to approach the group but right before they could get close, everyone of said Grimm became frozen in ice courtesy of Sub Zero who merely nod to his allies.
"Yeah, I'm definitely never going to get on his bad side." Sun said
Just then a Bullhead descended from the sky, its doors opening to reveal multiple Atlesian Knights.
All of the carrier ships above then opened their hatches, causing hundreds of shiny new Atlesian Knights to drop from the ships.
The robots stormed the square, shooting down every Grimm in sight as more and more poured into the city. No matter how many Grimm fell, more and more seemed to emerge.
Meanwhile, Cinder and her team had just arrived on the battlefield. Nodding to her subordinates, Cinder walked off to deal with any stray Grimm, as did they.
Mercury ran up to a Boarbatusk, landing a crippling kick to the face, firing off a shotgun shell from his prosthetic leg as he did. This caused the pig-like Grimm to fly backwards, letting Mercury rise and slam down on its vulnerable belly with a dropkick.
Seeing a pack of Beowolves coming toward him, Mercury only smiled as he kicked a Beowolf in the face as it came close, and then another and another with his momentum, spinning himself in a circle as he fired off round after round of wind dust from his legs. As he slammed down his with his boots, the dust he fired off did the same, killing anything that was around him.
Emerald walked calmly through the street, as if it were just another day in the city. A group of Ursai spotted her and began charging her. Emerald simply stared with maroon eyes and pulled out her firearms. Opening fire, the creatures in front of her were reduced to mere corpses riddled with green bullets.
However, her eyes widened to see the large Ursa Major coming toward her, its back brimming with bone quills. Flicking her weapons in her hands, she deployed her blades, landing clean hits along the Grimm's sides. However, the Ursa only seemed to get angrier as it bounded toward Emerald, paws raised. Emerald twisted her blades and revealed her kusarigama chains, extending her reach. Heaving her blades in front of her, Emerald fended off the Ursa with two swipes before jumping up to evade another attempt, using her airtime to rake the back of the bear-like creature and killing it.
However, in the middle of the square, Ruby began to tire as more Grimm kept advancing into the city. "There's too many of them!"
"Keep fighting!" Yang yelled out in response.
However, Blake looked over the next building to see another Bullhead arrive, this time carrying Professor Ports as well as four elder combat students.
"Team CFVY's here." Blake said smiling
Coco jumped from the Bullhead alongside Fox, Yatsuhashi and Velvet.
As Yatsuhashi landed, he rose slowly, looking around him at the large group of Grimm encircling him. The seven-foot tall samurai did not change his stoic expression and only pulled out his broadsword.
Raising the blade, he heaved the weapon down on the ground, blowing away anything around him as the ground beneath him exploded into a crater with debris flying everywhere.
In the square, Fox and Velvet advanced, the lightweights of the team knocking back Grimm with flying kicks. After putting down a Beowolf, the dark-skinned boy known as Fox Alistair looked ahead of him, his milky white eyes widening to see an Ursa Major approaching him.
Narrowing his gaze, Fox sprinted towards the monster and flipped it into the air with a kick before proceeding to juggle it with relentless slashes and strikes from his arm blades. Fox then channeled his aura into his arms and punched the Ursa back with an aura-infused strike, pushing the Ursa back and causing its body to blow up like a balloon before bursting, shooting bone spikes everywhere, killing all nearby Grimm.
Velvet ducked for cover with Yatsuhashi who took those hits like the gigantic flesh wall of a man he was, while their fashionably dressed leader strutted through the square, swatting away any stray bone spikes coming her way.
"Nice hustle, Fox. Good job." Coco said to her teammate with a smirk, giving him a pat on the rump for good measure.
But beneath her shades, she only had eyes for the massive Beowolf in front of her. Looking to the side of the road at a destroyed block, she frowned and lowered her sunglasses to look at the Grimm in front of her.
"You just destroyed my favorite clothing store. During the sale, no less." She said to the confused Beowolf, before spitting on the ground with a deadly aura enveloping her.
"Prepare to die."
The Beowolf roared and tried to swipe a claw at her, only for Coco to smack it away with her purse before delivering a sharp kick between its legs.
Looking down at the pained creature with a cold stare, Coco then brought her purse up and slammed it down on the Grimm's head with force so hard, it was able to hammer the wolf into the ground.
Looking ahead of her to see a pack of Beowolves accompanied by a Deathstalker, she fipped backwards to evade attacks from the Beowolves before clubbing them away with her purse.
Leaping back to avoid a Deathstalker's stinger, she spotted Velvet with one hand on her bag. "Whoa, what're you doing?"
"You spent all semester building that up! Don't waste it here." Coco said to Velvet, who reluctantly did as she was told as Coco removed her purse, changing it into a massive behemoth of a minigun.
Revving Deadshot up, Coco smirked as she opened fire, the rain of bullets shredding the Deathstalker into chunks of flesh in mere seconds. She then aimed her minigun at the pack charging her, the spray of bullets cutting the Grimm down like weeds.
The fashionista looked above her to see a flock of Nevermores flying ahead and continued to hold down her trigger as she directed the barrel to aim at the birds. Cutting through the Grimm like butter, the Nevermores fell from the sky, but Coco failed to see one with a clipped wing dive-bombing her as a last resort.
However, as Coco turned, she saw a Kunai attach to the Grimm's face.
"GET OVER HERE." Scorpion said pulling the Grimm towards him before ripping it in half
More Grimm began rushing the group as Scorpion raised his hand causing Hell Fire to erupt from the ground killing every single one of the Grimm. With all the Grimm dead Scorpion teleported away to another location
"And you said that guy is suppose to be a first year student?" Coco asked Velvet who merely smiled
Meanwhile, Port had joined up with Oobleck, who had just surfaced from the train crash. Giving a thumbs-up to his colleague, Oobleck signaled that he was fine. Nodding in response, the two of them brought out their weapons and opened fire on the pack of Grimm running toward them.
Caught in the storm of fire and dust shells, the pack was immediately wiped out. However, a Boarbatusk managed to sneak up behind them and nearly jumped on Oobleck, when Liu Kang appeared in a Ball of fire incinerating the Grimm.
"Doctor, Professor. Shall we?" Liu Kang asked
Port and Oobleck smiled as they raised their respective weapons. "Gladly."
Several hours later…
After the long battle, the Grimm had finally been cleared out from the city.
Roman was recovered from the train crash, where he managed to stay obscured from the Grimm only to be promptly arrested by Atlesian Knights, much to his displeasure.
"Oh yes, you've really taught me the error of my ways- H-hey! Watch the hat!" Roman said sarcastically before one of the robots pushed him roughly.
In the square, everybody took a moment to breathe and relax in their victory. Ruby was absolutely exhausted, but overjoyed that the weeks of hard work finally paid off.
Emerald and Mercury shared smiles with the group.
Courtyard, Beacon Academy
After the long day, Teams RWBY and JKHL decided to return to the school to rest.
Sitting on the docking bay where they had first set foot on the campus, both teams gazed at the beautiful sunset over the city skyline.
The academy was based on a cliff overlooking the city, almost adding to its namesake, watching over the city like a lighthouse. This also provided a beautiful view of the sun setting over the city skyline across the bay.
"Well, we did it…" Yang said with a smile.
"We did it." Blake agreed with a content smile.
"If we don't get extra credit for that, I'm gonna be seriously disappointed." Weiss said.
Everybody laughed at her remark before Johnny opened his mouth to respond. "Let's see, we've exposed a terrorist attempt to lead Grimm into the city, captured the most wanted criminal in the city and organized the best school dance of all time. Surely they'd have to give us credit for that."
Sub Zero chuckled lightly to himself, but retained his serious demeanor. "But remember, we didn't solve everything. That couldn't have possibly been all there was to it."
"Yeah, I still don't know who that girl was who attacked me at the CCT that night, and many people still got hurt." Ruby added.
"Well, I'd still call it a day. We've done enough today, so let ourselves rest to end it tomorrow. Let the moments while they can." Liu Kang added with a smile.
"Yeah… besides, if they try something like this again, we'll take them down no sweat." Ruby said happily.
"Yay, teamwork, good job guys…" Yang mumbled as she yawned with her arms stretched out.
"So… what now,?" Johnny asked Ruby.
"Umm… practice for the tournament?" Ruby suggested.
"No, I think we have that covered by now. I mean, look at us!" Yang said, gesturing to the collection of skilled fighters that they were.
"So… then what?" Weiss asked.
"Bed?" Blake suggested, earning sighs of relief and tiredness in agreement as the six of them waddled back to their respective dorms leaving only Weiss and Hanzo alone.
"So, guess I'll see you tomorrow then. You do remember what tomorrow is right?" Weiss asked holding her elbow
"I intend to honour my end of our Bargain." Scorpion answered
"Great. Good night then." Weiss said walking away
Headmaster's Office
"Ozpin? OZPIN?!"
Ozpin turned from his window so that his chair faced his desk, turning his attention to the councilman yelling for him from his built-in comms.
"Yes, Councilor?" Ozpin replied calmly.
"You've left us with no choice! The Vytal Festival cannot be broadcast, let alone held if we are unable to ensure the safety of the citizens!" The councilor barked through the screen.
Ozpin listened solemnly, sipping from his mug with both hands with his eyes locked on the screen.
"Therefore, we have reached out to the Atlas Council, and together have decided that the best option is to appoint General Ironwood as head of security."
"Thank you, Councilman." Ironwood said via the live feed as his screen filled Ozpin's.
"Our kingdom is happy to lend as many troops as it takes to ensure that this event runs as smoothly and safely as possible." Ironwood said to the councilman.
"And we thank you, general." The councilman replied.
"Will that be all?" Ozpin inquired, his expression slightly hardened.
"For now. But after this festival comes to a close, we are going to have a serious discussion regarding your position at Beacon Academy. General Ironwood's reports of these past few weeks have left us somewhat… concerned. I'm sure you understand." The councilman replied to him before hanging up.
Ironwood's feed then filled up Ozpin's screen. "This is the right move, Ozpin. I will keep our people safe, I promise. You have to trust me."
Ozpin gave no answer as he hung up, turning his chair to gaze at the sun setting over the Vale skyline and then at a particular airship, aware that eyes were on him.
General Ironwood's Airship
Ironwood looked out the window of his ship up at Ozpin's office shining atop the CCT.
Sighing to himself, Ironwood solemnly bowed his head. "You brought this on yourself."
However, he had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. Turning to walk down the hallway, he caught sight of Roman's holding cell.
Stopping in front of a particular holding cell, Ironwood entered a code to the door lock, causing it to drop and to reveal a familiar ginger-haired thief.
"Leave us." Ironwood waved off the two guards in front of the cell, allowing him to talk privately with his prisoner.
"I've been informed that so far that you've refused to cooperate with the authorities." Ironwood sternly told Roman, who sat in his cell with an indifferent expression.
"I know this may be hard to believe General, but uh… I'm not the biggest fan of law enforcement." Roman said to him.
"How about the world's strongest military power?" Ironwood rebutted.
"Hmm… first impressions… not great." Roman snarkily replied.
"Now, let's talk business. We'll only give you one chance." Ironwood said as he walked into the cell and pinned Roman against the wall.
"Who's really behind all this?" He questioned him
However, Roman remained calm. He knew they couldn't kill him. "Isn't it obvious? You're looking at him!"
Ironwood sighed and pushed him back down into his seat, leaving the cell and closing the door.
"What's the matter? I thought you wanted to talk!" Roman called out from his cell.
"The council has given us custody over you for as long as I see fit. So make yourself comfortable. I can assure you, we'll have plenty of time to 'talk'." Ironwood replied as he walked out of the room.
"Oh, wonderful." Roman said with a grin. It would only be a matter of time before the real plan began, and he would be waiting, no matter how patient he would need to be.
City Square, Vale
Cinder observed the square that was once torn apart with Grimm running rampant, now quiet and spotless, courtesy of Glynda's telekinetic repairs.
"All in all, I call today a success." She proclaimed to her subordinates with a smirk.
"Those stupid kids really made a mess of things, though." Emerald groaned, tired from the many preparations they were making.
"It doesn't matter. They can't stop what comes next." Kabal added.
"Speaking of which, a lot of faunus never made it out of those tunnels. Still think the White Fang'll listen to us?" Mercury asked.
"No." A foreign voice answered, causing everyone to turn their heads at the newcomer as his eyes glinted with deadly bloodlust under his mask.
"But they'll listen to me." Adam replied.