39
"What was that!" Adam Taurus snarled, looking up from the map he was pouring over. The sounds started filtering out to them, shouts and the sound of gunfire.
Roman had been expecting and dreading the sounds of chaos. Even since Cinder had arrived with Adam in tow, he had been stepping lightly, trying to make himself as unobtrusive as possible. Oh, the plan had no changed but Adam had taken control of the faunus with ruthless efficiency, speeding up the preparations he'd been dragging his feet on.
"Huntsman!" Came the shout as a faunus with glasses came running in, panting. He was visibly panicked, "A huntsman showed up out of nowhere!"
"A single one?" Cinder stepped up to ask.
"No. We've been seeing attacks by some kind of white Grimm as well."
"Schnee." Adam growled, gripping his sword tighter, "Make preparations to get the train moving! Banesaw, make sure the explosives are ready!"
"What?!" Roman nearly shouted as the large faunus ran off to do Adam's bidding, "We aren't ready to launch, it's too early."
In a flash, Adam drew his sword, the tip hoving just inches from Roman's throat. Cinder stood there, regarding him coolly, her eyes glowing a bright golden color. It appeared he was outvoted. Roman's throat bobbed as he swallowed, apologizing to the professor in his head.
"Alright. I'll get on the train. I'm assuming we're starting the party early?"
"You assume correctly." Cinder said darkly as Adam moved into the train with a curt nod to her. He disappeared into the car, moving up towards the engine, "I shall deal with Atlas. Where there is one, there are many. Atlas has somehow found us, we must strike before we lose this chance."
The sounds of gunfire was getting closer, it was obvious the White Fang was failing to stop the intruders.
"But won't it be dangerous if you stay here stuck between Atlas and the Grimm?" Roman asked, feeling a bit uncertain.
"Oh, Roman." Cinder smiled, "The Grimm are no threat to me. If anything they are allies. Now go."
That wasn't good. He could only nod and comply, anything less would have them throwing his corpse to the Grimm. He caught Neo's eye and she looked at him curiously and he motioned with his chin to the train, "Let's go Neo. We've got a job to do."
The train whistled, the wheels beginning to turn slowly as the train began to move. It was sluggish, the old technology struggling to life. Neapolitan leapt onto the open car and Roman followed suit, hooking the crook of Melodic Cudgel into the handle and pulling himself up to stand beside his young protege.
He started moving towards the front of the train as it slowly picked up speed, Neo following right behind him. As he did so he began to think at a mile a minute, searching for a way out of the situation. This was the moment, the situation in choice where he had to make his choice and stick with it. Carmine had told him she would deal with Cinder and yet had failed to do so. From the sounds of it, Cinder had slipped out of their grasp, though judging from the way Cinder told it the professor would be coming for blood.
Cinder had killed one of the brats, which meant that he could either side with Cinder or Carmine but there was no way to play for a third side. Either one would hunt him down if they lived and he sided against them. If he was going to make his choice, he needed to stack his deck and make sure he was on the winning side.
"Neo." Roman spun around to her, pulling the cigar out of his mouth and giving her a serious look. The faunus were busy making their preparations and making their way up the train cars and away from the explosives, "I've got a job that only you can do. Think you're up for it?"
Roman was grateful for the feral smile that spread across her face. They both froze as they heard a loud banging sound coming from above them, something sounded like it had landed on the train car.
-SY-
Ruby Rose ran at a dead sprint through the hallway, her cloak flapping behind her. She wasn't the only person who was hurrying around and as she burst out into the courtyard and made it to the bullhead docks she could see it was a flurry of activity. They had only just gotten the notifications over the scrolls to report to the docks for emergency deployment and it looked like every student in the school had gotten the same message. The rest of her team was already waiting for her there, the three of them already having been dressed from their training earlier.
"Guys!" She stopped suddenly in front of her sister, "Do you know what's going on?"
"No." Weiss shook her head, "The teachers have started organizing teams to board bullheads for the city. Something big is going on."
True to her words, Doctor Oobleck was speaking to a dozen students and as her silver gaze spotted the familiar figure of Carmine who was accompanied by Jaune, she tapped her sister's shoulder, "Let's ask her."
The pair ducked into a bullhead that was spooling up, it was one of the only ones with their engines already active. She stepped up onto the ramp and saw the way Jaune's helmeted head snapped to her. Carmine stood with her back to the entrance, talking to their pilot, "... to redline it, Foehammer."
"Carmine? What's going on?" She asked and the professor whirled around.
"Team RWBY?!" She stalked forward, a frown on her face, "What are you doing here?"
"We were told to report to the bullheads." Yang held up and shook her scroll, "Didn't know we had a reservation with a particular one."
Her mouth opened and closed as she gave a deathly serious look to her sister, "Well you do. Jaune and I are going somewhere else. The students will be reporting to Vale."
"Vale?" Blake asked, "What's going on in the city? Is it the White Fang?"
"Yes." Carmine answered, each of them standing a little straighter at the answer, "But you all are going to the city just in case Grimm show up.," The woman trailed off thoughtfully.
"Grimm?!" Weiss gasped, "In the city?!"
She didn't get an answer, Carmine had the look on her face like she was deep in rapid thought.
"I thought you said this was urgent!" The pilot yelled back at them even as Carmine took a deep breath.
"Okay, change of plans." Carmine clapped her hands together, turning to the pilot, "Get us into the air. I need to be there five minutes ago!"
"Copy that, huntress." The pilot flicked a few switches, the doors of the bulkhead closing on team RWBY who had been left to stand there in confusion. The engines took on a higher pitch as the took off from the landing pad, the group nearly being thrown to the floor as the airship accelerated far harder than they had expected.
"Carmine, what's going on?!" Blake asked as she quickly found a seat.
"Right." Carmine moved into the cabin, Jaune's hidden gaze following her and impossible to read, "Okay, kiddos before I get into this I want to make one thing crystal clear. We are about to go into a dangerous situation, so if I give you an order, you follow it. No questions. I need you to trust me, understood?"
She stared each of them down to impress upon them the gravity of the situation. They each nodded to her slowly. Gone was the joking manner she usually had, replaced by a deadly seriousness, "Good. Now, currently Qrow and Winter were commencing an operation to shut down the White Fang who were plotting an attack on Vale. They have the backup of Atlas so we weren't too worried about it until we received a report from them that a pair of extremely dangerous individuals was on the scene."
"Who are they? Do we know them?" Blake asked, very clearly invested since the White Fang were involved. It made Ruby touch a hand to her neck and couldn't help but notice the blue eyes of Jaune peering out at her from underneath the mask he wore.
"Ruby." Jaune finally broke the silence, quietly addressing her older self, a hand on her arm, "They need to know."
"I know." Carmine replied with no small amount of irritation, "Look, the two we are going after are Adam Taurus and Cinder Fall."
Ruby didn't recognize the first name but she did the latter, "Wait, isn't she one of the transfer students?"
Her older self nodded rapidly, "And she's also the person from the CCT."
It felt like a bucket of ice water hit her bowels, the feeling flushing through her system. Her eyes went wide and she felt a shudder run rampant through her body before a warm hand grabbed hers and squeezed. Her eyes flicked up to see Jaune holding her hand.
"You knew?!" Yang yelled, "You knew who it was that hurt my sister and you didn't tell us?!"
"And what would you have done if I had told you?" Carmine shot back and Yang glared at her. They all knew the answer to the question, Yang would have looked for the person, "Look I'm telling you this not because I need your help with these two. The short story is that the White Fang have excavated a tunnel into Vale. They plan on using a train filled with dust explosives to blow holes in that tunnel and lead Grimm into the city."
"What?!" Blake took it the hardest, her hand moving to her mouth, "They wouldn't…. They can't!"
"I'm sorry Blake." Carmine didn't look very apologetic, "It's the truth."
"Adam…"
"What do you need from us, then?" Weiss asked, willing to get back to business.
"Right. The emergency signal we got from ?Winter clued us in to the fact that they were discovered before they could get into position. It's probable that they may try to utilize the train earlier than planned. If that happens those tunnels will be crawling with Grimm."
"And tunnels go both directions." Yang cursed, "You're worried the Grimm will show up?"
"Among other things." Carmine confirmed, "I need you all on the same page. I don't know what the situation is going to be like when we get there, but you need to listen to me and stay out of the fight. Deal with Grimm and maybe any White Fang stragglers. But leave Adam and Cinder to us. Blake?"
The faunus girl flinched at the sudden address, "What?"
"Blake." The older woman's voice softened, "I know it's hard but I need you to try and stay away from Adam."
Blake took a moment to think before slowly nodding her head, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before letting it out, "I can do that, Carmine."
"Thanks."
-SY-
Gunfire ripped past the wall, chipping stone and sending dust flying into the air. Qrow leaned away from the corner of the wall he was against. There were a lot of White Fang here, though to be fair they were supposed to wait for backup.
Tai always did say no plan survived contact with his semblance.
"Qrow!" Winter landed on the other side of the alley from him, her back to the wall, "What happened?!"
"I fell through the ground." It was the best he could say as he shrugged. A dust grenade rolled by them and both of their eyes widened. Qrow acted fast, kicking the thing back where it came from a moment before it exploded. Without time to speak further, he saw a white glyph appear under Winter, giving rise to a massive Ursa that had to have once been an alpha. Its white, armored bulk barely fit in the alleyway as it roared and charged the faunus position.
"We need to stop that train!" Winter yelled over the screams.
"I know!" He answered back, rushing into the alley behind the Ursa. The beast was bust tossing around White Fang, its massive paws clipping them and sending them sprawling or smashing into a wall. With a good distraction he shifted into his bird form, trusting that Winter would be able to follow behind him. What was most important was catching the train before it could leave.
His expanded vision let him see Winter as she leapt onto the wall, glyphs letting her run across it and above the heads of the people trying to kill them. While some tried to shoot at her, she rocketed forward, propelled by her semblance. Not for the first time did he feel a pang of jealousy.
They came out of the alleyway to see the entrance of the tunnel, faunus gathered and firing in their direction. Many were hunkered down behind crates but one figure stood out among them. Cinder Fall stood in the open, blazing eyes watching them and he felt a surge of anger at the sight of her. This was the woman who had almost killed his niece. Were it any other situation he would have stopped to deal with her but he had a duty to fulfill.
Cinder, apparently, had something else in mind. A gout of flame erupted in his face and he went tumbling out of the sky, his little bird body slamming into the floor. He felt the hit against his aura, lucky to have it or he would have been roasted on the spot. Shifting back he noted the startled expression of the faunus who suddenly had a very pissed off huntsman in their midst.
"I thought as much." Fall purred, "No normal bird would be flying down here."
Change of plans, then. He thought to himself as he brought Harbinger to bear on her. He couldn't say he wasn't a little happy about getting the chance to pay her back for Ruby. It wasn't likely that she would let him pass, but perhaps he could force an opening. Qrow rushed the woman, dodging to the side as a glass arrow embedded itself in the ruined street by his feet and superheated the ground there, exploding in a shower of flaming hot stone.
Winter flashed to the side, impaling one White Fang agent and literally disarming another with a few quick strokes of her blade. She was gone a split second later as the faunus was riddled with bullets from their allies. Apparently trigger discipline wasn't as important for them or maybe they just recognized that the poor man was doomed regardless. The Schnee was a blur of white leaving a trail of red in her wake and even Qrow had to admit his distaste for the massive amounts of harm they were causing.
Many of these faunus really were just misguided, felt they had no other choice but to resort to this kind of act. Whereas he could forgive it before, when it was attacks on military or equivalent targets, this was a threat to an entire city. He couldn't afford to go easy on these people, no matter how he felt about it.
"Winter!" He grunted out as he was closing the distance with Fall, Harbinger flashing like a weapon half its size as he deflected dust rounds with its enormous blade, "Train, now! I have Fall!"
There was a heartbeat of delay, "Copy that!"
Winter took cover for a moment, her glyph roaring to life as white Nevermore started springing to life around her. Qrow reached his target at the same time, Fall dropping her bow to spin around as it shattered. The shards glowed red hot and reformed into two short swords that she used to block his strike. The glass creaked under the strain but held, reinforced by aura. Her blazing gold eyes bored into his with a hatred that he returned.
White suddenly surrounded them, small winged shapes rushing all around as the faunus cried out. The Nevermore were far too small to do any serious damage but that wasn't the point as Winter shot out of cover. Glyph after glyph formed under her as she was accelerated to superhuman speeds and past the distracted White Fang.
Qrow caught the shift in Cinder's eyes, the flicked of attention. When she suddenly let up on the pressure, pressed the lever on Harbinger, its mechashift whirring to transform it into a scythe. Cinder was forced to stop and jump back as his weapon nearly bisected her, or at least would have taken out a hefty chunk of her aura. The moment was lost as Winter blurred by, reaching the train in moments and leaping atop it as it was slowly getting up to speed. It wasn't long before it disappeared down the dark tunnel, leaving just Qrow, Cinder, and a trio of faunus behind in Mountain Glenn.
He sure hoped that Jimmy was acting on their contingency plan. Sure it would cause a panic but better an evacuation than being caught unawares by a train bursting through into the heart of Vale.
Better safer than sorry and all that.
"It will make no difference!" Cinder snarled at him, "Adam will ensure the train reaches its destination and you, Branwen, will die here!"
"Sounds like someone's coping, to me." He snarked back. He kept half an eye on the faunus who were still aiming their weapons at him. It seemed like they were smarter than to fire on the two of them. Cinder grit her teeth, eyes flashing and he only had a split moment to dodge backwards as the ground beneath him erupted, forcing the two of them apart. That was the chance the White Fang had been waiting for as he felt a round ping off of his aura.
None of the other shots hit him as he blocked, moving towards the closest White Fang, cutting them down mercilessly. He wasn't in a position to think much about it. Another arrow came for his face but he managed to duck to the side, the glass arrow narrowly avoiding him. The follow up shot was blocked by the haft of his scythe, and the third by the blade.
The second faunus folded over the butt of his weapon and he shifted Harbinger back into a sword, weaving it in a silvery pattern to deflect the fire from the last faunus. Qrow spun down onto one knee, squeezing off a quick shot from his built in shotgun, the buckshot hit the faunus like a truck, sending them careening to the ground.
Finally, all that was left was himself and Cinder, who seemed to not care that her allies had been cut down. Not surprising, given the things Carmine had told him about the woman. Fall seemed relaxed, confident as she smirked at him. She was assured of her own superiority and he couldn't deny that the idea of facing even half a maiden was intimidating. He'd met Amber, seen her flex her powers and if Cinder could do half of what she could he might be in trouble.