A/N: A lot's been going on since the release of the War Within of World of Warcraft in August, even have been making me slow down on my writing. Of course, I'm still having issues with my Fanfiction as well, specifically people showing no respect in them. Even that "Chiyubitch" attacker is still going on, only they're now calling themselves "Marina Whore-yer". It's a wonder why whoever's behind that shit has yet to create an account since they're getting nowhere with making Guest Reviews.
Moving on. Team PASM's going out on their first mission as second years. It's also Aria's first mission with them. How well is this gonna turn out? Let's find out.
Aria belongs to my friend Koyukiy.
Chapter 67: Missing in Action
The Start of Fall has passed.
Aria is starting to adjust to her new life as part of Team PASM of Beacon. During the day, she faces classes and meets new people while trying to overcome her extreme shyness. At night, or rather every other night, has talks to her brother on video chat.
Now, her skills are going to be put to the test.
Teams PASM and SHDW are on their way to their mission. Patrick really disapproves the idea of the Shadow Tread tagging along but it's really something he can't go against.
Mashika drives the Airship over the land. They soar through the forest until they arrived at at an open area with a village.
"The Rin-Su Village." Selena says. "Feels like it's been forever since we were last here."
"This is that village you guys mentioned?" Aria says with excitement. "I can't wait to see the sights and meet new people."
"Assuming your shyness doesn't cause you to freeze, Golden Eyes." Sakuya says.
Aria frowns at hearing that. "Don't worry, Aria. The people here are very friendly." Marlene tells her.
"I wouldn't hold your breath. Last time I checked, they had some punk kid pulling pranks." Patrick says.
"Sounds like a fun place." Sakuya says.
"I'll admit, that little kid was out of control, but he was straightened out in the end, especially when Akira rescued him." Selena says.
"Somehow, I doubt it." Is all Patrick can say.
The ship arrives just outside of the village. Once it lands, everyone gets off and starts heading towards the village. The village has grown in size and fort. The team almost doesn't recognize it. When they arrive, they are greeted by not only Anna but also her cousin Evan.
Anna waves at them while Evan smiles cheerfully. "Welcome back." Anna says.
"Ms. Anna. It's good to see you once more." Mashika says as they both shake hands.
"Likewise." Anna puts a hand on Evan's head. "Evan's pretty excited to see you all here too."
"Let me guess: So we can be victims of his little pranks?" Patrick says, bitterly.
Evan sneers at Patrick, but Anna just nervously laughs. "I understand your concerns, but rest assured, Evan's really changed since you were last here."
"I sure have. I've even been protecting this village!" Evan then pulls out his wooden sword and starts swinging it around wild-like while shouting several battle cries. When he is done, everyone just looks at him with awkward expressions. Patrick just facepalms himself. Sakuya crosses her hands while she lets out a single chuckle.
"Real cute, squirt." Sakuya says.
"He's been like this ever since that whole Grimm Incident." Hearing the words 'Grimm Incident' sends a chill down Patrick's spine. "Once he healed, he was all: 'I wanna be brave and strong just like that Faunus Girl with the Sword.'"
Evan's face turns red hearing that. "I-I never said that!"
Anna laughs. "Sure you were. You wouldn't stop talking about their little fox friend. How strong and awesome and pretty she is." Anna turns her attention to the Huntsmen. "He's even been eagerly waiting for her to come back."
"Aww, that's so cute. Someone's got a little crush on Akira." Selena says.
"I-I do not!" Evan protests. Selena only giggles while Patrick just rolls his eyes. "O-on a completely unrelated note." Evan dashes until he's between Patrick and Mashika, looking around for someone. "Is Akira with you guys?"
Team PASM and Mashika have harden expressions. Seeing this concerns Anna. "See, what happened was..." Mashika explains to Anna what happened, or rather made up a story to censor the fact Patrick went Grimm Berserk and did a death blow onto Akira. Anna looks shocked as she listens to the story. "And when we made it to Atlas, the Doctors did their very best. But even so, she is still knocking on death's door. She's alive as far but is in a deep coma. We don't even know if or when she'll awake."
"Oh dear, that sounds awful." Anna says. "I do hope she'll be all right."
"Yeah, we all do." Mashika says. Hearing all that only hardens Patrick into his guilt. He even tightens his fist. Aria takes notice of that action and shows a mild concern. "Now, with all pleasantries aside, we're here responding to your distress."
"Ah, yes. Of course." Anna says.
Anna takes everyone to the center bonfire of the village and explains the whole situation: Citizens have been going out gathering food in the woods. It was going well until about a week ago when they started disappearing. Search parties have been sent to search for them but none have come back.
"We are running low on food, and if we don't do something about it soon, we'll all starve."
"That probably would have been a good thing to know before we decided to spend the weekend here." Wallace says.
Mashika and Patrick work their brains on this one. "It's possible that there's a Grimm Nest somewhere out there in the woods."
"I hope it's not another Shadowstalker." Marlene says, her body shaking with jeebies. "I get the heebie-jeebies thinking about them."
Aria leans to Selena and whispers: "I-I-Is Marlene okay?"
"Yeah, just that at our first mission last year, she got abducted by a Shadowstalker. Was almost food for it and its spawn too." Selena whispers.
"We'll head out and investigate. And hopefully, we'll find any survivors of the missing villagers." Mashika says.
"I don't like where this going." Patrick comments.
Everyone divides into two teams: Mashika takes Patrick, Aria, Wallace, and Donnie out to search for the missing villagers while everyone else goes with Anna to the nearest town to restock what they can for supplies. Mashika's team heads out into the woods. Patrick and Wallace were able to collect some personal belongings of the missing villagers for Wallace to use as their scent.
Mashika comes to a halt when they are in the middle of the woods. "This should be far enough." Patrick says. "Wallace, can you pick up their scents?"
Wallace takes a deep sniff in the air for each scent he sniffs. But so far: "Nothing. I'm not picking up anything." Wallace keeps trying different scents. With each failed scent, everyone else either grows impatient or worried. Until he finally picks up something. "Wait! ..." Wallace takes a deep inhale into the air. "The scent is faint...but I can smell it..." Wallace faces different directions, trying to pick up the trail until he faces off in one direction. "This way."
Everyone follows Wallace through the woods. While they do, they keep their guard up for any incoming Grimm. As they follow Wallace, they notice some signs as has broken trees, parts of materials such as torn clothes or dropped weapons or accessories, and of course, broken Atlesian Droids.
As they move deeper, Wallace can feel the scent becoming strong. "We're getting close. I can smell it." Wallace then turns to his hearing, and he doesn't looks too pleased. "...But whoever we're tracking...They're not alone." On the other side of the woods, they have arrived at their destination. At the edge of a cliff, they see a large field of the forest burnt to the ground, crawling with countless Grimm. Based on their shock noises, Wallace has a bad feeling about it. "Talk to me: How bad is it?"
"Very. There's Grimm everywhere." Donnie says.
"It's almost as if it's mating season." Mashika says. "What could have lured this many Grimm into one location?"
"Doesn't matter. Let's get the job done." Patrick says. Patrick uses his Scope Vision to look around. So far he sees nothing but destroyed nature and corpses. few humans, but mostly wildlife. He then spots nearly half a dozen of people in one corner, with Grimm surrounding them. "I see the survivor's. Over there!"
"O-o-okay. S-so we're up against a ma-ma-massive horde of Grimm while rescuing survivors. H-how are we gonna pull that?"
Patrick then sets his Dust Bracers to be loaded with Lightning Dust, then he loads his wrist flamethrowers with both fire and water dust. "I'll create a diversion to distract them. Get them out once it's clear."
Just before Mashika can even protest, Patrick has already dashed off.
The Grimm are wandering around the destroyed forest. The villagers are doing their best to keep calm to avoid attracting their attention, but their fear still escapes. Some of the Grimm grows closer to the fearful villagers and eventually picks up their scent of fear. Two Beowolves turn their attention to them, softly growling as they get ready to pounce.
Just as before they do, Patrick dashes in and does several electric kicks right at them, then dashes off the very moment his attacks come to an end. The Beowolves turn their anger onto the Shadow Hunter and chase after him. Patrick dashes all around the area, running close to any Grimm he can see to have them chase after him. As he runs, Patrick lets out a thick steam from his wrist bracers. At super speed and unleashing a thick smoke, soon enough the whole area is covered in a dense fog.
The Grimm are lost and confused in the fog. The survivors are in a bit of a panic as well, for they do not understand what is going on.
Then, it became clear when Wallace and Aria came in and told the survivors to follow them. The Beowolves sniff the air as they softly growl. In their distraction, Patrick uses the low visibility and superspeed to dash in and slash them with his blades, then disappears into the fog. The Grimm grows irritated by this, and so they decide to follow Patrick into the fog.
Aria and Wallace escort the survivors through the fog. They turn their attention to the action even though they can't see it buy they can hear the sounds of Grimm roaring and Patrick's lightning speed and slashes. Once they reach the cliff, they guide the survivors to the ropes hanging from above. "Climb up, you'll be safe with Donnie and Instructor Mashika." Wallace says.
"Wh-wh-what he said." Aria says.
The survivors start climbing up, one at a time for each rope. Aria stays close to the survivors while Wallace keeps an ear out, readying his weapons for any Grimm. The survivors struggle to climb back up the rope. Once they're close to the top, Mashika and Donnie pull them up.
With the last two survivors climbing, Wallace then lets out a loud bird-call whistle.
Patrick fights the Grimm in the fog, dodging their swipes and sometimes counteracting with slashes from his blades or sweep kicks. He paused for a moment and that's when he hears Wallace's whistle. On that signal, Patrick then loads his Bracers with a mixture of Fire and Gravity Dust. With the Grimm charging at him, Patrick then makes a high jump, with flames burning out from his legs.
Patrick soars high into the air. Once he sees Mashika and the others, he redirects himself toward them and unleashes another blast of gravity and fire to launch himself toward them. All the survivors are up, and Patrick arrives to regroup with everyone.
"Is everyone all right?" Mashika asks. One at a time, the survivors answer her, some saying they're all right, others saying they're shaken or tired. "All right, let's hurry back to the village, there's no telling how long it'll be until the Grimm catches up to us."
Aria looks down at the cliff. "Uh...I-I-I think we're about t-to find out."
Everyone looks down to see the Grimm gathering at the cliff's bottom. Beowolves and Beringels start digging their claws or fists and start climbing. "This doesn't look good." Patrick says.
"Wallace, Donnie, get the survivors back to the village." Mashika says. They both do as ordered. Mashika draws out her lance. "Ready yourselves. We'll have to hold them off."
Patrick has his Leg Bracers set for Earth Dust on one leg and Ice on the other, then draws out his swords. Aria sets her Dust Knuckles to be loaded with Gravity and Combust Dust. She then cracks her neck and takes her stance. One by one, the Grimm starts climbing up. Once they're in sight, Patrick dashes in and attacks the first one. When two Beowolves come on, Mashika takes that, and Aria takes the large Beringel.
With Each Grimm they've slain, two more take their places. Mashika and Patrick show no signs of struggling, and Aria barely breaks a sweat against them. Aria even grabs a Beowolf by the legs and uses her immense strength to spin it and throw it against a group of three Grimm. With all of them piled, Aria then dashes towards them, a fist with a Dust Knuckle loaded with Combust Dust drawn out, and with a single blow of her fist, causes a massive explosion upon the Grimm.
The field is filled with Dozens of Grimm. Patrick even resorts to slamming his Earth Dust Leg to the ground in various locations to form a large barrier of earth, then uses the ice one to freeze the ground behind the barrier. With the Grimm trying to climb over the earth barrier, Mashika and Patrick shift their weapons into a gun and bow and start shooting at them.
"Th-they're too many of them." Aria says.
Soon enough, the Grimm are beginning to make over the barrier. "Miss Stars is right. We've probably bought the others enough time. We must retreat."
On that note, the trio makes a run for it. Once the Grimm make it over the barrier, they now have a struggle with their balance when they land on the ice floor. As they run, Patrick uses his dust to throw in some more obstacles to hold the Grimm back.
Once everything's set, Patrick then runs to catch up to Mashika and Aria.
Back at the Rin-Su Village, Anna and her team return with the supplies, and many of the villagers gather for their portion of rations. While Anna's team is distributing the rations, Mashika and Patrick make their report to Anna.
"I'm so glad you were able to find our missing villagers." Anna says.
"We didn't find all of them, however, we have noticed there were corpses around the area." Patrick says.
"Yeah. It's most likely to assume not all of the missing villagers got lucky." Hearing this saddens Anna. "But there are more pressing matters at hand: The Grimm population in the forest is massive. It's most likely they have formed some sort of nesting ground deep within the woods."
"Oh my, this is very concerning. If the Grimm find us...I'll be a repeat of what happened to our hometown...Mama...Papa." Anna looks down in great depression.
"Don't worry, it's what we're here for." Mashika says. "We'll rest up for the night, then we'll head out in the morning and take care of the imminent threat of the Grimm."
Anna smiles and gives Mashika a respectful bow. "Thank you, mistress."
Once everything is distributed, Teams PASM and SHDW take the moment to rest up and eat. Everyone pretty much talked about how it went during their mission. Sakuya talked about how Marlene was given a crate of rations but it was still too heavy for her and she wound up collapsing. Donnie and Wallace laughed thinking it was funny, but Aria felt bad for Marlene. Patrick just doesn't care.
After eating, Mashika rejoins the group and explains the plan as well as the situation to Sakuya's team. Sakuya's pretty excited to hear about the Grimm. "All right! Finally, some fun." Sakuya says as she's pounding her fist into her hand.
"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but we need to be careful about this." Mashika says.
"I agree. The amount of Grimm was pretty massive. Like a swarm of dozens, maybe over a hundred." Patrick says.
"S-s-so, what do we d-do?" Aria asks.
"Patrick, Marlene, and I will figure out a plan. In the meantime, I suggest the rest of you get plenty of rest. It'll be a rough battle in the morning." Mashika says.
Everyone does as Mashika suggests. Marlene and Patrick go with her to discuss a plan. Selena and Aria went to their rooms of the inn they're staying. Meanwhile, the Shadow Tread meet up somewhere outside of the village.
Sakuya looks back to make sure there's no one around. Once it's clear, they begin their meeting. "All right, we're in the clear. What's the status on Shadow Boy, Brother Donnie?"
"Nothing to report. He hasn't gone berserk with that Grimm nature of his." Donnie says.
"Yeah, even though we were surrounded by hundreds of those beasts." Wallace says.
Sakuya thinks about this. "Hmm...Well, we had to make sure about it. Headmaster Theodore gave us his instructions: If Shadow Boy were once again to go berserk with this Grimm Nature of his, we are to eliminate him."
"I have actually wondered about that, Chief Sakuya." Hikari says. "If we are to carry out our orders, what are we gonna do about his associates? They'll surely try to stop us from killing the boy."
"They'll be an interference, that much is true. Especially the Faunus with the abnormal strength. Nonetheless, we will find our way around them." Sakuya says. "For now, all we can do is sit and wait. Keep a close eye on our Shadow Boy, friend. It's only a matter of time before he once again goes Grimm Berserk."
"Yes, Chief." All three of them say in unison.
Meanwhile, Aria is laying in her bed. She opens the Scroll and starts her video chat with someone on her contacts known as 'Aris'. The Scroll goes through a long loading process. With each passing second, Aria grows worried. She knows it never takes this long for Aris to answer.
Then she becomes horrified at the sight of the message on her Scroll:
"Contact is Outside of Service Range. Please try again later."
"What? ...No! No, no, no." Aria constantly and rapidly tries to contact Aris once again, but every attempt just shows the same error message. "This can't be...happening."
Aria is soon starting to have a breakdown. Her hands trembling and her breathing rapidly rising.
And soon, her panic begins.