After the fall… In the skies

BANG!

It was the worst possible timing. Everything had gone to hell in an instant, that much was for certain. But, as the saying goes whenever it rains, it pours. Moments after Stovetop had speared his long time friend out the back of the airship, an explosion from within the belly of the ship sent debris flying after them. The first volley separated the two in midair. The second volley went straight at Esther’s face and head, immediately knocking her unconscious. To be out cold, unable to deploy a parachute in an emergency or to utilize a Hunter’s protective Aura while on a free fall trip to meet the ground, was certainly lethal. Stovetop, his real name being Antonio, knew all of this. Breathing heavily from his ever rising heartbeat thanks to the wonderful effects of adrenaline coursing through him. ‘Tony’ as Esther called him, struggled to correct himself as the two of them free fell. Quickly reorienting himself, he knew he had to relink with his friend and get her to wake up and fast. If worst came to worst, he would have to deploy their chutes on his own.

Streamlining his body as best he could to cut through the howling winds, it wasn’t hard for him to regain his hold on her. Aligning themselves so that they were face to helmet, Tony started off with lightly smacking against her cheek to possibly wake her. For whatever reason, he didn’t know. What, like he could hurt her? No, it was more so he was afraid she would later find out and he would have to deal with the…’fall out’. Which mattered little if either of them were to die.

”Vanessa! Hey! Vanessa, wake the hell up!”
He looked her over quickly.
No bruises, cuts, or blood.
He would make jokes about her thick skull later.
”Fuck! Damn it! Vanessa! Wake up!
He smacked her across the face harder, but it didn’t work.
She was out.

Looking around as the ground grew closer and closer, an alert on his HUD from within his sealed helmet warned him that they were approaching the critical altitude and needed to deploy their parachutes NOW. If he deployed his own chute now, would it fail after being thrown off balance from having to support their combined weight? If he deployed her’s first, would their chutes possibly entangle and just doom them anyways? Damn it all, he should’ve paid more attention during flight training exercises. His mind drawing blanks on the proper course of action to take, eating more precious seconds that neither of them could afford to waste.

”Think! Think! AGH!
Action was better than no action, right?
Something had to be done.

Grabbing her red emergency ripcord, he simultaneously pushed her away as he yanked down hard to deploy her chute. The wind immediately took hold of Esther’s unconscious body and pulled her away from Tony, to which he then deployed his own chute. For the first few seconds, their descent slowed. But when their fall started to re-accelerate, Tony looked up and cursed again to see that there were tears in the canvas. Must’ve been damaged in the earlier explosions. Shrapnel had peppered them after all, after they jumped. He had hoped that they would be fine, but nothing about today seemed to be going alright.

Well, together they would go.
Or maybe…
Maybe just one of them would have to go?

Unsheathing the knife at his hip, Tony sliced through his harness and removed the faulty parachutes altogether. Diving towards Esther and relinking with her, he did the same to her torn chute. Sheathing his knife, he held Esther as tightly as he could. Seeing the rooftops of the nearby town, Tony figured that with all of his armor and tech that he could act as some sort of weird cushion for Esther. Soften the blow for her and increase her chances of surviving, even if it meant his own demise. He couldn’t know, he never did well with physics and all that. All he knew was to grab a weapon and go fight things. He was a soldier, nothing more, nothing less. Esther on the other hand was an instructor. She helped to mold the future for generations of powerful Huntsmen to come. In his eyes, her life was worth more than his own life. He was expendable, he knew that. Esther would revive him and kill him a second time if she knew that was how he felt. But, it didn’t matter. He came to accept his inevitable death years ago. They all did.

Shutting his eyes tight from within his helmet, he waited for the coming hard impact to his back that would probably flatten him and pancake him over the shingles of some poor farmer’s house. Ruptured organs, internal bleeding, et cetera. Not that he feared pain or death, he just prayed it would be over quickly. Maybe extreme blunt trauma to his brain will cut his lights out, at least so he hoped.

CRASH!

The two shot through and into a house like a cannon shot.
Terminal velocity is such a bitch sometimes.
Tony’s final wish, was that the rest of his family made it out okay.

---

As Diamond left the house, she wouldn’t make it very far before very likely halting in her tracks. Standing in the middle of the street, some distance away from her, was a person. But to describe them as a person wouldn’t be completely correct. No, the more accurate descriptor would be…

Humanoid.

At a height somewhere in between five foot and six foot tall, was...a creature. A thing. Something. Whatever it was, it had a bone-white mask on its face that hid its facial features. Or perhaps the mask was indeed its face. It resembled the skull of some oxen creature. With glowing red eyes and red markings on the bone-white face that looked like tears of blood. From its head sprouted antlers, branching out into eight pointed tips. Its body appeared to be all black, in stark contrast to its face and antlers. Either it was feathered or its hide was a sort of cloak, but no arms or legs could really be seen. The most unnerving thing about the creature, was how it simply stood there unmoving. Staring at Diamond with its red eyes. The most peculiar thing, was that at its side were two massive wooden spoked wheels near equal to its own height. Wooden wheels that had serrated metal teeth ringing them. Chains connected to their centers extended and vanished into the creature’s feathered body.

Whatever the feathered, bovine, Grimm-like thing was.
It just waited.
Watching.

FUCK. MY. LIFE. Diamond thought as she turned the corner and saw it - whatever the hell IT was. Prof. Port did not exactly cover the topic of devil’s children of Baels, Harpies and chariots. The monster seemed content on watching her though, and Diamond liked time. Narrowing her eyes to limit the flash, a bit of white appeared in them as she focused on the houses surrounding the monster, setting up the walls to explode in it’s direction. She kept her gaze pointed at the thing in case it decided standing around was boring.

Tilting its head, it continued to stare at Diamond with some sort of sick and disturbing playfulness. Though, hardly anything other than potential malice could be felt. It could smell it. It could taste it. The fear and apprehension coming from the Huntress. Good, it thought. More was needed. More was desired in order to satiate its hunger. To feed it. Turning its head slowly over its shoulder, it looked back at the fast setting sun. The glowing star starting to disappear behind the mountain ranges off in the far distance. Night was coming and soon everything would be ready.

It needed to buy time. And maybe send a message.
Turning its head back round to stare at Diamond, its feathered body undulated and moved slightly.
Emerging from its rustling cloak, was an arm sheathed in black cloth and a metal claw gauntlet.
Wrapping around its wrists were bundles of chains where apparently they terminated at, connected to the wheels. Slowly grabbing at the one of the wooden spokes of the wheel to its right…

With a distorted and garbled voice, it spoke with venom lining its tone.
”Heretic.”

Diamond’s focus faltered for a second. Uncommon grimm she could deal with - the last one she fought was fucking liquid shit made alive. But one that talked? She was glad her headset was recording this, certain it would give her an extra credit or two in Grimm studies if she made a paper on this thing. That didn’t help though. She had no time for it - it needed to be dealt with and quick. Fortunately for her, the sun was setting already. Mere minutes and her semblance would get a boost. She needed to buy that time. Wait… I like to talk too.

“Oh? The Grimm now believe that garbage that one god made everything? My beliefs predate that - who’s the heretic here?”

Tightening its grip on the serrated wooden quasi-saw blade, the modulated voice of the creature offered no direct response to Diamond. Not particularly interested in holding a conversation with her.

”Herald. Harbinger. Heed my words. Pass on our adage. In Death we are One. In Death we are Whole. You shall make us Whole, again. Blood spilled will seal this contract, Heretic.”

With a surge of strength, the creature lifted the heavy wheel with its arm as the teeth that ringed it buzzed and roared. Viciously grinding and sparking as it spun up. With a powerful toss, the creature sent the wheel flying at Diamond to crush and grind her into the nearest wall.

Seeing the Grimm acting, Diamond had no trouble dodging. For how long though? “Well then, allow me to reunite you with your other parts!” She growled back and snapped her fingers. The walls left and right of the monster cracked at ground level and flown outwards to slam shut like a book. Wasting no time, the ex-thief made a beeline for a side alley. She would need help with this.

The creature had fast reflexes and thankfully was able to raise its arms to defend itself against the walls. Shattering the wall sections and reducing them to rubble as its body glowed with a pinkish-purple Aura. With a jerk of its right arm, the creature pulled its wheel-weapon back like a yo-yo. Hefting both of its wheels, it walked straight ahead at a casual pace. Seeking prey to hunt. Blood to spill.

It did not follow. Crap. She couldn’t leave, not with Emerald being defenseless close by. Maybe if she got to the rooftops and hit it from behind. Taking a couple of breaths to clear her mind, Diamond got climbing. She kept focused, trying to eliminate all emotion radiating from her in case the Grimm could sense her approach. Once up on the rooftops, she located the Grimm and started to move behind it.

Stopping in its tracks, it slowly looked from right to left as it tried to locate Diamond. Obviously, with its casual demeanor the creature had lost her. Moving at the snail’s pace it had been moving at. Truly, it didn’t appear too concerned with Diamond as it didn’t perceive her as a big enough threat yet. Really, it didn’t matter much, as it intended to bring her out of hiding. It would bring the entire town down if need be. Raising the two wheels it held in its hands above its head, it snapped and combined the two to make a massive ‘yo-yo’ weapon. With the teeth from each wheel spinning and grinding in opposite directions and the chains attached to it the ‘string’, the creature then began to spin it round and round. Building up momentum as it intended to use the destructive instrument as a flail to cause wanton and reckless damage to the buildings surrounding it.

As she jumped from roof to roof, Diamond started preparing her attack. Her heart nearly stopped when after one leap, she found herself to be flying at a house with a gaping hole in its roof. She had no time to check inside though - her time was up. With that shot of fright and surprise, she likely lost the advantage. Laying her eyes on the big grimm, she launched the dozen ice spikes she was summoning against it. Immediately afterwards she grabbed her remaining flare gun and fired it off, hoping to everything that was holy someone would notice and not be gutted down on approach again.

Its intentions slightly ruined, the creature instead directed its weapon to swing away at Diamond’s incoming attack. Easily smashing and turning the ice spikes into cold dust but delaying its next attack. With a turn of its body, it moved from deflecting Diamond’s spikes to sending the massive combined wheel straight towards her. The object would be hard not to miss and a bit slow, so Diamond could easily dodge the serrated wood-and-metal wheel/yo-yo weapon. But the creature had something else up its sleeve should she actually choose to evade.

Diamond did, but not without an ulterior motive of her own. As she wheel flown close by, she lashed out with a shadow spike to jam it in one of the links of the chain that bound the wheel to the creature, intending to break it. It would be much more manageable then.

Snap!
The chain link Diamond attacked, broke.
Sending the wheel flying off to embed itself into a neighboring house.
The creature hadn’t anticipated that and for a moment, it stood staring at Diamond.
Angered, the creature’s body again glowed with a pinkish Aura as it buried its hands into the ground.
With a roar, the creature ripped out pieces of the road in two chunks and chucked them at Diamond. Following after its own attack by leaping up at her to slash her with its claws.

Run! screamed her old criminal instincts. In a calm state of mind, Diamond might have tried to reverse the chunks of asphalt and send them against the leaping creature. But when under stress, one fell to what they knew, what they were trained in. And so, Diamond bolted, heading perpendicular to the incoming Grimm, trying to keep one eye on it and one on where she was going.

Landing on the rooftop where Diamond had been previously, the creature thought to charge after her but it stopped. Looking off to the side where its weapon had landed, it thought to calm down and think instead of acting recklessly. It wasn’t an animal, after all. Jumping from roof to roof, it quickly relinked with its weapon and pulled it apart. Releasing the chains its center was attached to, the feathered/antlered creature tossed them aside and pulled more length of chain from underneath its rustling hide. It had brought extra in case of emergencies just like this. As it fed and connected more chain links to its weapon, it needed to think of something so that Diamond doesn’t think to try the same move again. So when it was done and reattached the two wheel parts together, it tightly grabbed the chain links and growled as its body glowed with its pink Aura once more. Using some special ability, it imbued the length of chain with its own power and reinforced them to withstand any future attacks from Diamond’s shadow. Turning to see her still running away from it, it again lifted its weapon above its head and swung it around and around to build more momentum. Satisfied with the build up, the creature again sent the Wheel-Yoyo weapon flying after Diamond with its teeth ripping and grinding loudly. Only this time, the creature didn’t wait for her to try and dodge it. Instead, the creature forced its arms outward and pulled apart the weapon in mid flight. Creating two smaller but still dangerous saw disks flying at her from now opposite directions.

---

…
A muffled groan.
Tony’s eyes snapped open from within his still-intact helmet. The first thought that ran through his mind was to ask himself if this was it.
”Am I in Hell? Have I died?”
Another muffled groan.
”Well, wait a minute. I didn’t make that noise.”
Blinking his eyes, the HUD within his helmet flickered back to life and he found himself staring into a pile of rubble.
”Fuckin’ A’, I’m alive. I made it.”
According to the readings on his HUD, he was quite well in fact.
A more agitated muffled groan, this time sounding like someone was saying his name.
”...Ony”
Tony frowned, still haven’t moved once he woke.
A more pissed off repetition of his name, still somewhat muffled.
”TONY.”
Sharply inhaled, he remembered how he ended up here and immediately realized whose voice it was that spat out his name. Scrambling backwards onto his ass, debris falling off of him and his armor, he wiped at the front of his helmet to get a clearer look.
Sitting up, a pissed off Esther coughed and cleared aside some of the bullshit that had covered her. Having taken care of the largest piece that suffocated her.
”Ass. You know how much you weigh with all of that shit on, and you want to take your sweet time getting off of me.” Esther fixed her jaw and popped a few tense joints in her neck as she resituated herself.
Antonio felt a wave of relief and he almost wanted to rush forward and embrace his friend in a bear hug, but knew better and decided against it. Laughing, he almost wanted to make an inappropriate remark as to their prior history with one another, but a sharp pointed finger aimed at his face from Esther stopped him.
”Don’t you dare. You’re a married man with a daughter now.” Esther glared at him, knowing exactly what he was thinking.
Antonio just put up his hands in a defensive gesture and shrugged his shoulders.
”I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, lady.”
Esther scoffed, spitting some dirt out of her mouth to the side of her.
”Sure, you don’t. Ugh…”
Esther shut her eyes and held her head, she felt like hell.
Antonio couldn’t help himself, ”What’s with you? You act like you fell from the sky. Ha ha ha!”
Esther grabbed a wooden piece of roofing and chucked it at his face, nailing him and immediately cutting off his laughter. He stopped.
”Yes, ma’am. Received, ma’am.”
Esther sighed, groaning angrily.

Antonio then got to his feet and quickly looked around. Checking himself over, he located his rifle just a few feet away and picked it up. Doing a quick functions check, he slung it over his body and walked over to Esther and offered his hand to help her up. Esther opened an eye and seeing his hand, took it and got to her feet. Dusting herself off, she did the same with her own weapons to make sure they were still in good working order.

Antonio shook his head and chuckled, looking over his friend.
”Gods, how the hell did we make it out of that? Falling from the sky and living to tell the tale?”
Esther looked up at his face and just gave him an accusing death glare.
”Well, when your ribs are in danger of all cracking and your lungs are being squeezed of all their air..”
Antonio looked to the side when he realized what she meant.
”Oh.”
Esther pursed her lips.
”Mm-hmm. Not exactly a nice way to wake up when you’re mid-fall about to be splattered across someone’s house, is it? Being bear hugged to death by an augmented PMC.”
Not that he could exactly do it, but he still attempted to scratch at his helmeted head from feeling a bit uneasy.
Esther continued speaking
”Good thing though, I woke up just in time to take the brunt of the fall with my Aura. Saving both of our asses.”
”Yeah...Anyways, so what now lady? Where do you think we touched down at? What’s next?”
Esther sighed.
”Well, common sense would tell us that we’re in some town and the only nearest town is the farming village. So, that would mean we were thrown so far off course when the airship was shot down that we ended up back here.”
Antonio kicked aside a stray piece of roofing.
”That works in our favor, doesn’t it? You and I can scout around and see if we can find anything suspicious. Maybe something related to why our communications have been acting up?”
Esther nodded, walking over to the gaping hole the two of them made into some poor farmer’s home and peering outward at the darkening skies.
”That’s the plan.”
Antonio walked over to her and stood by her side.
After a moment of silence between the two..
”Do you think the others made it out just as well as we did?”
Esther shook her head.
”Let’s not worry about that, right now.”
Off in the distance, the two looked up as a bright flare was shot into the sky.
Antonio placed a hand on Esther’s shoulders to stop her from immediately jumping out to investigate.
”Hey, wait. That could be another trap. Like the first one that got us all shot down.”
Esther shrugged off his hand and turned to face him.
”And? That could also be one of the emergency flares my students are using to seek help.”
Antonio shook his head and sighed, exasperated.
”You never were the brightest bulb in the bunch.”
Esther elbowed him in the ribs.
”Fuck off. I never claimed to be some genius or something I’m not. Besides, if it is a trap, imagine how surprised they be when we purposefully spring it and walk into it?”
Antonio just stood there, staring at her.
”I think when we landed, you hit your head a little too hard.”
Esther smirked and reached up to remove her cover, only to find that she was no longer wearing it. Of course, she had lost it when they were shot down. She would have to get another one when they got back. Sighing, she undid the tight bun she normally kept her hair in and let it down. Quickly pulling it back and binding it into a ponytail. Grabbing at the gold badge she always wore on her chest, rings of light shot out and ran down her body as her clothing changed. Antonio turning his head away to give her a bit of privacy. Though, he knew she didn’t really care and he’d seen it all before.

Altering her normal military-like uniform and coat, Esther donned more archaic clothing with the use of her badge. Tan rugged all-terrain boots. Long camouflage trousers that had knee pads built into them. Thigh holster that carried her sidearm and its magazines. A ‘war belt’ wrapped around her waist that held various pouches for items and a sheath for her ‘knife’. Long-sleeved camouflage blouse with a tan armor-plate carrier that protected her vital organs from the front and back. Shooting gloves that resist heat and puncture/slash attacks with a hardened knuckle built into them. Finishing off her transformation with a cloth face mask that covered the lower half of her face, clear ballistic eyewear to protect her eyes from shrapnel, and a tan ballcap from which her ponytail stuck out of from the back. All in all, she used tech far more archaic and ancient when compared to what most servicemen in the military used nowadays. But, it was what she always used ever since she was a fledgling Huntress herself. Keep it stupid simple, she always thought.

Antonio turned back to look at her once she was done getting into her combat attire and couldn’t help but remark something that caught his eyes while she was ‘changing’.
”Hey, uhh...Not that I was looking but did you get-”
Esther replied instantly.
”Yes.”
Antonio made a hmm noise.
”Can I-”
”No.”
”But-”
”Tony, your wife wouldn’t be too pleased about it.”
”Wul, I mean...What she doesn’t know…”
Esther stomped on his foot.
”You need to change your fucking name to ‘Jody’. Let’s get moving, I’d prefer not to walk up on the corpses of my students if you don’t mind.”
After finishing his little hop around, nursing his smashed toes, he sighed and racked back the charging handle of his rifle to chamber a round. Esther doing the same with her own special rifle.
”Y’know, it’s really not fair that you Huntsmen have all this crazy power. I’m wearin’ a full suit of high-tech armor for Gods sake!”
”Cry more about it.”
With that, the two jumped out of the hole in the side of the house and hit the ground running. Heading straight towards where they saw the origin of the flare shot.

---

Emerald quivered from under the bed she had chosen to hide under. Under normal circumstances she’d never have even dreamed of cowering under a bed like this, but as it was she could barely stand without intense waves of dizziness overwhelming her. There was also how hot her body was, she couldn’t check her temperature but she had a feeling it was higher than it should have been. She had neglected to mention this to Diamond, she didn’t want the other girl becoming more worried than she already was, that could be dangerous in combat.

From the loud noises coming outside, it sounded like Diamond had ran into trouble. It wasn’t far from the house, Emerald’s sharp ears had been able to hear everything, even in her current state. It sounded like Diamond was okay for the moment, but Emerald wished she could help.

Emerald’s ears perked up as she heard something else...it was a bit more distant but it was definitely the sound of footsteps, humanoid for sure by the sound of it. Emerald held one of her shotguns tightly as they got louder, there was no way to know if they were friendly or not. She shivered, a sudden chill going up her spine, she had to be ready for anything.

---

If the grinding sound wouldn’t be a telltale, the look over her shoulder would. Diamond saw she had seconds before she was made tenderized meat. Duck! And then some! She looked in front of her and jumped down the first gap between the houses.

“Whoa!”

She did not expect anyone else to be there, much less one of the soldiers with Ms. Vanhomrigh. The wheels zoomed inches above her as she fell towards the street, with her surprised cry giving them the only warning before the student landed back first right under their feet, the wind knocked out of her.

The two of them both startled by the sudden and cliched appearance of a girl falling from the sky, Tony immediately acted upon his instincts. Just as soon as Diamond’s back hit the ground, he was literally right on top of her. Pressing his armored chest hard ontop of hers to force her center of gravity down, he roughly managed to flip Diamond over and twisted her arms so that they were behind her in the clutch of one of his hands. His other hand forcing her head against the dirt as he got up to press his knees into her spine. Diamond’s criminal background past would be immediately familiar with the rough treatment that most policing forces apprehended suspects, Antonio’s technique not too dissimilar. Following up behind him, Esther snapped in and stared down the holographic sight of her rifle as she pointed the muzzle of her weapon at Diamond’s head, distance staggered from where Tony and Diamond were. Of course they had acted so quickly that it wasn’t until Esther blinked a few times and recognized the face of her student. Before she could even sigh and say anything, Antonio angrily roared out questions. Going straight into the interrogations, taking Diamond to be a potential attacking enemy.

”Identify yourself!”
Esther lowered her weapon and sighed.
”Tony.”
Antonio’s helmeted head briefly turned to look at her before returning his attention to Diamond.
He did a double take, noticing Esther had lowered her guard so to speak.
”What? What is it?”
Esther clucked her tongue.
”That, ah...That’s my student you’ve got your kneecaps under.”
Antonio looked back down at Diamond and stared at her.
He had just been ready to draw his sidearm and press its barrel against the back of her head too.
”Oh. Shit.”

“Ugh! Let go!” Diamond growled but the weight on her back was enough to make breathing hard, let alone answering and swearing. The good teacher finally seemed to notice, and only Diamond’s gaze facing away from the gun pointed at her head spared her another theatre.

“Keep your dog on a leash!” she vented, shaking Tony off when she was identified. Taking a breath to calm down, she went to explain what was going on. “I’ll tell you more later but there’s this Bael… Harpy… Thing of a Grimm chasing me, which is the only thing keeping it from razing the town, so unless you have something better to do, I would very much appreciate a hand!”

More could be told later. Not waiting for an affirmative, Diamond launched herself back up the roof, alert for any incoming yo-yos of death. And then she saw it. Still up on the roof, there was her hat, sliced in half and shredded by the gods damn thing! Her jaw dropped a little and she could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes. For about half a second, before any other emotion was drowned in a flood of rage.

The lungful of enraged roar echoed around the streets even as Diamond picked up speed, her shadow twisting into an irregular, abominable sharp thing ready to tear the speaking grimm up limb from limb.

Unable to get any words in edgewise the pair could only watch as Diamond took off, hot on her heels as they chased after her. Esther was able to launch herself high into the air just as her student did, but Tony had to resort to a bumbling and clumsy parkour-like climb in his heavy high-tech suit of armor. Keeping up with Diamond, Esther’s eyes widened momentarily with shock when she saw the antlered and feathered creature she had mentioned earlier before gritting her teeth as her shock melted away into anger. With a burst of energy, she sprinted ahead of Diamond a short distance before stopping. Whirling on the spot, she shot out her leg to give Diamond a solid roundhouse kick into her stomach in an attempt to stop her. If successful, she forced herself on top of the young girl and would bury her face in her arms and chest. Looking up as she saw Tony lagging behind, Esther screamed at the top of her lungs at her comrade.

”FLASHBANG!”

Tony skidded to a stop and nearly lost his footing, almost falling.
But looking ahead to see what they were up against, he gave an understanding nod and pulled a canister off of his body. Twisting the top half of the explosive to unlock it, Tony hit the exposed button and chucked it hard at the creature’s face just as it was spinning up its weapon for another attack.

It took a special occasion to confuse Diamond, and this certainly fit the bill. First she saw Esther screaming past her - that much she expected. The cheap gutshot that followed not so much. She was going to have to talk to this bitch about her behavior, preferably in a soundproof room with a single chair, duct tape, car battery and jumper cables. All anger was gone the second she got treated to a face full of
lady pillows. Which would have been perfectly acceptable as an apology, were it not for the fact that she was being smothered by them. Hammering her fists at the weight above her, she tried to get free until she heard a hissing bang of the grenade that annihilated the weapon she was still holding, giving up trying to predict what would happen next.

After the flashbang went off, the creature howled and reeled back from the blinding light and deafening high pitched keening. Heavily disoriented, it wasn’t prepared for what came next. Across the way, Tony presented his rifle and let rip a blaze of automatic rifle fire into the creature’s body. Esther got off of Diamond and scooped the student up and onto her shoulders and back. Running towards the edge of the rooftops, she issued a command to Tony that could be clearly heard over the gunfire.

”Tony, we’re clearing out! We’re regrouping!”
Tony nodded just as he emptied his first magazine of ammunition and dropped it.
”Loud and clear!”
Pulling off another explosive from his equipment, he chucked it at the creature and chased after his comrades.

As the three of them landed safely on the ground, a loud explosion could be heard in the distance.
Running a good distance to get as far away as quickly as they could, Esther picked a residence and kicked in the door. Tony following in right behind her as he made sure nothing followed before closing the door behind them. Esther angrily removed Diamond from her back and subsequently body slammed her against the nearest wall, using her forearm to press it against her neck as she got in her face.

”Why the FUCK are you alone!?”
And so, it began.

Alex grunted and scratched at his head, making an odd face.
”Sorry, you may not know me as I was the co-pilot. I’m call sign ‘Gorilla’.”
The giant brute smacked Chase on the shoulder, startling the guy but ‘waking’ him up.
Chase cleared his throat and flashed an awkward grin.
”You guys already know me. I was one of the machine gunners. Call sign ‘Carnal’.
Alex shook his head as the two conversed with Oswald and Cobalt.
”No dice. Whatever is up with this area, communications are down. When we were shot out of the sky, we all got separated. But, knowing the two of them, they’ll be fine. Next question, is why did your team divide yourselves, and what was with that flare we saw?”
Chase spat to the side at the ground and added another question.
”And what’s the status of the Grimm nest? Did you guys take it out?”

“No unfortunately. Not only have we not taken it out, but all of our Intel is completely and utterly wrong. There's no guarantee that there even are any Grievers.” Cobalt replied sadly as he shook his head in annoyance. “Our team divided so we could accomplish two tasks at once. We were running on limited time and tensions were running high. The flare was to get your attention, too little too late though. At least you guys are still alive. All comms are down and we need as much help as we can get. Did Ms. Vanhomrigh make it?”

Alex and Chase looked at one enough and shared a knowing look. Both of them shook their heads and made a ‘Hmph’ noise. Alex spoke again, ”You can say that again. Intel is never good, even if Vanessa was the one that collected it. Shit’s gone south real quick. What needs to happen now though, is we need to confirm whether or not there is a nest. We find it, we burn it to the ground and we get the fuck out of here and link back up with the rest of your team.” Chase furrowed his brows and looked at Alex, the next to speak. ”Whoa, whoa, whoa! What? Alex, we need to get everyone together first! We never separate! You know this!” Alex looked at him and locked eye contact, ”Look, under any normal circumstances I’m with you. But if the success of their mission determines whether or not scores of innocent people starve or live, we have to move forward with the mission. Vanessa and Tony will be okay. If anything they’re on their way to us right now, or are maybe looking for the other half of their team. We don’t know, but we can’t waste time trying to find out. You know what happens at night fall, especially if Grievers are potentially involved. “ Chase sighed and turned away, walking off a few feet and muttering to himself under his breath. But, Alex was right.

Alex turned back to Oswald and Cobalt, ”Again, as I mentioned earlier we don’t have any good contact or communication with Vanessa and Tony. But we can’t worry about that right now. Do any of you have an idea as to where the nest may be? We’ll try there first.”

Frowning as the pair before them spoke, Oswald simply waited until he found an opportune moment to speak. “Emerald and I found a cave that was being used as their nest. At the cost of her entire supply of Aura, Emerald destroyed the mouth of the cave, and presumably trapped or killed the Grimm inside. We were coming back when she was wounded, likely by a Griever. Diamond went with her to retrieve medical supplies while the two of us looked for you. I take it...the crash didn’t end very well.” It wasn’t a question. Oswald could feel the death in the air, the loss that the two in front of them had suffered.

Cobalt looked at the two and his eyes widened a fraction. He hadn't even realized until Oswald had said something, but there definitely was an atmosphere of… “I'm sorry to hear about the rest of the team. Are you guys going to be okay?” Cobalt asked as he finally lowered his gun and relaxed slightly. He then looked at Oswald. “We should probably go find Diamond and Emerald now. They're right, we need to regroup ASAP.”

“The flare up in the sky would suggest that, as well.” His eyes narrowing, Oswald’s shield disappeared behind his back as he took off in a sprint towards the flare hanging in the sky, signalling Diamond’s call assistance.

Cobalt turned to the flare and his mind began racing. He followed after Oswald in a sprint of his own and quickly looked back at Chase and Alex. “Follow us if you feel like you can contribute! Otherwise, rest up and prepare for the coming shit storm!” He shouted as he ran off with Oswald. ’Please let us get there in time…’

Alex was going to question if they had confirmed any bodies. He was going to question them as to why they thought it was a good idea for them to separate when he was certain Esther was good about telling them not to. Both he and Chase were going to ignore their questions as to their well-being because they were beyond used to it at this point in their lives. Alex was going to ask if Cobalt was stupid because regrouping was not what he was trying to suggest, but all of that went out the window when another suspicious flare was shot into the sky a few miles away and the two boys decided to run off.

”Great.”
They both thought.
They both called out to Cobalt and Oswald to stop and return.
”Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!”
”Hey, we didn’t say you fuckheads should run off to go find your friends!”
”Get your dumb asses back here!

But of course, as fate would have it Alex and Chase wouldn’t be able to take but a few steps to run after the two Huntsmen before something flew from within the treelines and slammed into Alex’s chest. Sending his body flying through a few trees before the object retracted on the chain it was attached to to knock the living daylights out of Chase. Quite literally knocking him straight into the air before having him land against a nearby section of the shot down airship.

“GOD DAMMIT!” Skidding to a halt at whatever crashed into Chase, Oswald turned and looked around before teleporting next to Cobalt to get closer, then appearing a few feet away from Chase. “What the hell was that…?” Oswald asked as he bent down to help the armored soldier up.

Cobalt stopped as well and turned around. He rushed over to Chase, somewhat startled by Oswald’s sudden teleportation next to him and then away, and began looking around for the unknown object. “I think I saw a chain.”

“A chain, huh? Points to a trap. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but something tells me the Grimm were just an excuse to get us out here, alone and without backup.” Oswald scowled angrily, the tendrils of darkness once more covering his body, slowly worming their way over to Chase where the two were connected.

Not far from the boys, the sounds of chains clinking and clicking were heard. After a brief stillness, a shadowy figure shot out from the treelines and straight at Oswald. With a massive tombstone/epitaph warhammer in its hands, it reared back for a powerful crushing blow. Fully intent on plastering the Huntsmen into the dirt as it made an overhead vertical swing.

”More! Feed us! Make Us Whole again, heretics! Your bones shall be the tinder for the fires of resurrection!”

The figure hissed out as it swung downward with its gargantuan warhammer.

Well. Fuck. Oswald didn’t have much time to react- not long enough to arm himself, for sure. With Chase next to him and this...creature...coming straight for him, Oswald knew he only had one way to win this: raw power.

Lifting his arms, Oswald stepped forward, aiming to grab the hammer during its descent. With as much time as he had, he summoned his willpower, causing the shadowy tendrils to surround his arms as he met the attack head-on, as only he would. Between the power of his sizeable, unrelenting soul, his gauntlets and his impressive physical state, Oswald was sure he could stop this plow from hurting Chase- as for himself, he’d live long enough to give back more than he got.

Cobalt turned towards the massive… thing, and time slowed again. He was beginning to get a headache from using his Semblance so much, but that didn't matter now. Cobalt saw Oswald try and grab the giant warhammer and so he in turn decided to try and weaken the warhammer. Cobalt pulled his gun up and began firing at the massive thing's arms in an attempt to weaken its grip. Hopefully Oswald could disarm the thing, then we could go from there. Time resumed its normal flow and Cobalt got a massive headache.

The creature didn’t expect the foolish Huntsman to take its attack head on, disappointed that some power was cut. It could only hope it did a significant amount of damage before the other Huntsmen blasted its arms. Letting go of its weapon temporarily, at the last second it regained its grip on the handle and distanced itself from the group, jumping away and hunching over to nurse its new wounds. Huddled next to its massive hammer, it appeared to some feathered creature. A pile of fur and feathers in some odd inhumanly mound. Sticking its arms out, the creature’s red eyes examined itself as wisps of smoke curled and danced off the areas it was shot at. It was seemingly unharmed. Slowly standing, it revealed its antlered head with its bone-white skull mask and glowing red eyes. Grabbing at its weapon, it remained still. Watching the Huntsmen from the corner of its eyes.

Forced to a knee as the blow connected, Oswald smirked as the creature retreated, standing up himself. Still watching his opponent, he drew his sword and shield with haste. “Get your friend out of here. Cobalt, try to keep up.”

Seventy to eighty feet. That was how far it had gone. That meant Oswald only needed to move thirty, tops. Good. The fact that the Grimm had spoken hadn’t even registered at this point, Oswald was too focused on killing it. As he rushed forward, Oswald kept an eye on the creature, ready to react.

Once he closed the gap to being around fifty feet, Oswald focused on the Grimm, suddenly vanishing from view. Instantly, he appeared to the side of the creature, sword lashing out towards its form.

The creature squared up with Oswald the moment he started his charge, bracing itself to counter whatever he had to throw at it. But, when he vanished it certainly threw it for a surprise. At the last second, it turned its head just in time to the side to see Oswald swing his sword and raised its arm to take the hit. Clashing with the blackened claw gauntlet, the creature hardly budged. Its ‘feet’ digging into the ground slightly from the strength of Oswald’s attack. Breathing out a single heavy breath, as if it relished combat, the creature quietly hissed out a few words for him to hear. Face to face, it was clear what it was saying was truly important, that Oswald had to understand.

”Heed our words, heretic. In Death we are One. In Death we are Whole. You shall make us Whole, again!”

With its other hand, it grabbed at its warhammer as the head clicked and split apart. Releasing the shaft of the weapon to be used as a pole weapon to attempt a strike at Oswald’s head.

What the fuck?! Why is a fucking Grimm TALKING?! Taken aback by the unexpected revelation that this Grimm could speak, Oswald jumped back and raised his shield. “What the hell are you?”

Cobalt stared at Grimm when he finally processed the fact that it was talking. He was stunned by this revelation, not stunned enough to drop his guard though. As Oswald kept it’s attention, he moved to flank the Grimm from behind and began firing once more. ’This mission has officially shattered everything I know about Grimm. I hate my job sometimes.’ He bemoaned mentally as he shot at the Grimm’s legs, attempting to slow it down.

Emerald had been listening intently to the outside noises as she hid under the bed. How could she not? So when she heard the door suddenly get kicked in she caught her breath, almost bumping her head on the bed just above her. She frozen in place, not daring to make a sound as she listened. Then there was a slam, like something was being pushed against a wall. She went pale when she heard Esther’s voice. She sounded rather pissed.

Pissed or not though, Esther being there was a good thing. Emerald sighed in relief, glad it wasn’t one of the Grimm that had raked her body or other not-so-friendly things. She squirmed her way out from under the bed, wincing whenever she had to move her arms or back, they still hurt quite a bit.

She headed to the other room, she wasn’t sure if they heard her approach, but she announced her presence with a cough. “I-I’m here too.” Her voice sounded terrible and shaky. .

Frowning, Diamond shoved the teacher off of her, her face twisted in an angered grimace. “Because I don’t know where to be first! I have a teammate down,” she pointed to Emerald before motioning her to lie back down, “And I had the guys go to the crash site to try to pull the rest of them-” she pointed at Antonio, “out of there before they burn to a crisp!”

Taking a breath to calm herself, she laid out more details. “We went into the forest to root out the grimm, only surprise surprise, Intel was total bogus! We didn’t meet a single greaver out there, but just about everything else! Oswald and Emerald managed to find and close off the nest for now, and meanwhile me and Cobalt were going back to shore up the defenses.”

“That’s where it all went to hell. The turrets weren’t destroyed, somebody just turned them off! So I had a look at one, and imagine my surprise when I found out somebody programmed them to shred everything on sight! And then, just as your ship approached, something remotely turned the things on. I have only one explanation, and that’s that this place was a fucking trap from the start!” Diamond droned on, both filling Esther in on the situation and venting her anger.

“I took Emerald here to find a medkit to treat her back, then I wanted to go check up on the guys, maybe see if I could fix or disable the guns. And you know what? Good thing I did because otherwise neither of us would notice a FUCKING TALKING GRIMM until it was right on top of us! What the hell even was that?” she asked, her hands trembling. Now that she said it out loud, it dawned on her just how deep they were in.

Esther stood, taking in what Diamond was telling her. To be honest, her collected intelligence being bad stung. It hurt her a little, but no one would be able to tell. Only Tony would know really. In fact, the armored mercenary flinched when he heard that part. Tony looking between Esther and Diamond a bit nervously. Esther narrowed her eyes when Diamond mentioned sealing a cave, turning to give Emerald a sharp look but withholding her tongue.

”You just about done prattling on?” Esther finally said.
Tony let out an electronic sounding sigh.
”Gods above, Vanessa. If you treat your students this way, then you really never change. Fuck, I’m sorry for your Huntsmen team lady.”
Esther removed a magazine of ammunition from her warbelt and chucked it directly at Tony’s face.
”Shut the fuck up!”
Tony’s head reeled back from the hit but it hadn’t really hurt him, kneeling down, he picked up the magazine.
”Aye, ma’am! Shutting up.”
Esther turned to point a gloved finger in Diamond’s face.
”Do you understand how more anally fucked you would’ve been if something had happened to her?”
Esther pointed at Emerald.
”You DO understand that, right? That you could’ve come back to a corpse. Or better yet what if something happened to you? And she had to find out the hard way? Fucking idiots, you NEVER go alone. You ALWAYS stay together and never separate!”

Scoffing, she motioned to Tony and the two of them approached Emerald and began to look her over. Though, it was clear that Tony was a bit uncomfortable eying over a half-naked minor and refused to physically touch her. Esther on the other hand, didn’t seem to give too shits and handled the girl a bit roughly. Somehow still managing an odd ginger and motherly touch.
”You’re hurt, Emerald? Tell me what happened while you tell me what you did to the suspected Grimm Nest.”

Emerald winced as Esther managed to poke at her wounds. “Well...Oswald and chased down this Ratatosk and it ran into this cave. It clearly wanted us to follow it inside...so instead I fired my cannon into the mouth of the cave and leveled the entrance…” Emerald paused, a wave of dizziness coming over her for a second, it was making it difficult to focus. “...after than my aura was pretty much spent so we decided to head back and regroup...but then this Grimm leapt out of the tree and sliced my arms and back up before taking off again…” Emerald quivered. “I feel feverish…”

Esther stopped her investigation of Emerald’s wounds and looked at Tony.
Tony looked at her and the two of them shared a brief silence.
Esther faced Emerald again and continued her line of questioning.
”A Grimm attacked you, your Aura is expended for the most part, and you’re feeling feverish?”
Tony looked at his forearm and opened a compartment.
Pulling out a little metal tube, he held it in his hand as he waited for Esther.
Esther looked at the metal tube before nodding.
”Anything else?”

Emerald gave it some thought, but eventually she shook her head. “No...I don’t think there is.”
Esther suddenly turned her head and pointed at something to Emerald’s side.
”What’s that?”
After doing so, Esther made a hand signal to Tony with her other hand.
He simply nodded, twisted off the top of the little metal tube to reveal a short needle.

“Huh?” Emerald turned to look to her side. “I don’t see anything…”
With her neck exposed, Tony gently stuck the syringe into Emerald’s carotid artery and pressed a pressurized switch to expunge the contained fluid into her bloodstream. Pulling it out, Tony discarded the metal tube.

”I’d give you a cute little bandage with a cartoon character, but I’m fresh out gal. Just a tiny prick, hope you didn’t mind.” Tony said.

Only Esther and Tony truly knew what it was that they gave the girl, but even still both of them put their hands on her shoulder to help guide her into a safe position. Whether that be sitting or standing, they would wait and see how it would affect the feline faunus. It was something they used off and on in the past, and they nicknamed it a “Shaken Cocktail”. Why? Really, only they would know. Regardless, after a brief few seconds or so and fighting over a temporary hill of haze and disorientation, the Huntress would feel right as rain.

Esther made sure to keep her face right in front so that Emerald had someone or something to focus on. Speaking carefully and slowly, she gave a few suggestions to help her.
”Count backwards from 10 to yourself. Breathe in and out slowly. You should feel a lot better very soon.”

Emerald felt confused, what was happening to her? The feeling scared her a bit, and so she did as Esther suggested and breathed slowly, attempting to count in her head as she did. She was only to five when she noticed she wasn’t feeling so bad anymore, the pain was disappearing. In fact she felt really, really good. It was difficult to think however, she looked at Esther. “Wow...I feel really weird...but in a nice way…” She giggled.

Diamond could only look down and away as Esther scolded her. Of course, now it was painfully obvious what could have happened, but Diamond worked alone her whole life and two weeks with dysfunctional team is hardly enough time to change that habit when under pressure. She felt relieved though when Antonio produced other medical supplies, but before she could say anything it was already applied. “That thing wouldn’t have happened to have any alcohol in it, would it? Because that girl is a mean drunk. And… thanks.” she whispered in relief. Drunk Emmy may have been a bother, but sick Emmy was a worry and Diamond would take the first one any time. “Well, now what?”

Esther gave Emerald a little pat on her shoulder and smiled ever so slightly. Turning to face Diamond, the Huntress rolled her eyes and shook her head as she walked past her to peer out of a nearby window. Looking out to scan for the creature, she saw nothing yet but remained on alert.

”Why don’t you tell me, ‘now what’? Part of these missions is to provide real-world training in actual situations and circumstances you’ll be facing yourself in the future. As such, you need to be able to come up with a plan and carry out that plan successfully on the fly. Adapt and overcome, Diamond. As for Tony and I, we already have an idea of what we’re going to do.”

The soldier looked at her.
”Uhh...We do?”
Esther turned and shot him a dead look, as if to say ‘Really’?
Tony cleared his throat and straightened himself up.
”I mean...Yeah, sure.”
Esther sighed and shook her head.
Tony shrugged.

”What we’re going to do is pay a little visit to our friend with the oversized yo-yo for a weapon and smear their face across a wall, ask them a few questions and get some answers. After they’ve been dealt with, we’re going to search for a signal that’s been jamming our communications ever since touching boots to the ground. After that, we can relink with the rest of our men and follow through with the rest of this sideways-fucked mission.”
Tony walked over to Esther until he stood by her side.
”Vanessa…”
Tony said quietly.
”You know how difficult this is going to be with nightfall…”
Esther said nothing and only checked her equipment over for the 50th time.
Remembering she was down a magazine, she tapped on Tony’s armored metal chest and held her open palm out to him.
Tony sighed and returned the magazine she had used earlier to head-check him with.
Esther guided the magazine back home into its proper pouch.
Looking at Diamond and Emerald, Esther waited but she wouldn’t be standing around for long.
”Unless you have different ideas, you two will be coming with us. Whether you want to or not.”

Emerald followed Esther like a lost kitten, she wasn’t entire sure where she was anymore. She decided it was a good time to wrap her arms around Esther’s waist and give her a hug. “Woo road trip...where are we going?”
”Whoa! Hey, there lady, you’re gonna not want to do that..”
Trying to be as gentle as he could, he pried Emerald off of Esther. Esther having gone completely rigid as soon as the faunus touched her. Tony nudged her away a little to give her a little bit of distance between the two and briefly explained his reasoning for parting the two.
”Esther’s got a ….thing with being touched.”
Esther slowly relaxed and sighed, ”I was really hoping she wouldn’t be adversely affected like she is. Unless she can sober up quick, she won’t be too much good in combat.”

Emerald seemed rather disappointed, but she seemed to understand. “Okay…” Her ears twitched a bit as her combat abilities seemed to enter the conversation. “Heyyy I can still fight...I just have to shoot em. Pew pew!” She made guns with her fingers and ‘fired’ them.

I am surrounded by hotshots with primitive vocabulary, even the teachers… Diamond sighed inwardly, her gaze ticking from one person in the room to the other. “Kill it and break it. Why didn’t I think of that. Some plan.” she said, her tone a pure resignation. “I prefer to go a bit into the details. Oh I trust you can kill that thing, but how exactly do you intend to find the jammer? To cover such a large area it would either have to be on a high spot or easily visible. If we assume this was a trap it will be like searching for a very specific needle in a stack of needles. And that’s not counting the possibility of it piggybacking on one of the many CCTS relays around here. If I was setting it up, I’d put it high on one of the hills that are all around this place in a camo net. If whoever set this up was half intelligent we’ll never find it unless you have ECCM gear you didn’t tell us about. On the other hand, you told us in two days help will arrive. It’s likely someone will be sent sooner when they realize no comms are coming to and from this place. Maybe we can slug it out with the grimm for one night. Town’s deserted, let’s forget it. If I get onto it right after we finish with Yo-yo over there, I might be able to get the turrets working safely in the area where the food’s growing. At the very least it would give us a defensible position and someplace to put the… indisposed” she offered another alternative, struggling for a word that would not make Emerald mad at her.

Esther’s eyes briefly widened as she went to open her mouth to make a retort of some sort. But alas, the maddening part about it was that her younger student was completely right. She fully intended on visiting the local police/security department and had hoped to locate the central terminal that controlled the turrets there, along with the source of whatever was jamming their communications. But, after hearing Diamond’s words she realized that she was possibly very wrong. On the flip side, the fact that Diamond made a lot of sense and was right drove her mad. To the point where she became flustered and her voice caught in her throat. Unable to fabricate a snide remark or inappropriate comment to fire back at the girl. Diamond was right. All she could really do was turn away as she grimaced angrily to herself and impatiently tap the tip of her boots against the ground repeatedly.

Tony saw this and he almost couldn’t believe what he had heard and what he was witnessing. Very rarely did he ever see Esther legitimately caught off guard and a plan of hers get dismantled so quickly. But, he knew not to say or do anything lest Esther take out her anger on him and in a bad way. Esther wouldn’t say it, but she was impressed. Finally, she silently conceded defeat to Diamond. Her plan was just a tad more sound and made a bit more sense than her own simplistic ideas. Shaking her head slowly, she smirked and let out a short chuckle.

”Well…”
Esther finally speaking.
”Sounds good. Lead the way.”
With that, she stepped aside from the entrance and motioned to it with her hand.
Tony looked at Esther and to Diamond, before doing the same and quietly stepping aside for Diamond to walk past the two of them.

Emerald meanwhile seemed completely oblivious to the discussion that had been going on and was busy staring at the adjacent wall from where she stood. She cocked her head as she continued to look at it.

“Why would they paint it pink? It looks like it could be cotton candy...bugs are gonna eat it up!” The cat faunus exclaimed.

It took a second for Diamond to process that what she was just told wasn’t an avalanche of reprimands seasoned with a couple of insults and a mountain of promised detention, but when the gears finally moved in her head, she was quick on her feet. Well, D, you said you’d lead those that would follow you. Put your money where your mouth is. she thought briefly as she poked her head out of the door. Yo-yo seemed to be not busy demolishing the city, maybe still recuperating from the grenade.

Twisting her head back, she gave the processing a look to get what she had to work with. They had to deal with the Grimm or whatever it was first. “A stoned girl, guy with no aura,” she glanced over Emerald and Tony before lingering on Esther and her weapon of choice for a while, “And basically Cobalt with half a dozen years of experience. Well it’ll have to do.” she grumbled. “I say first deal with that thing out there, then go to the crash site - link up with the rest of us before heading to the fields or we’ll never find each other, not with the comms down and I am getting short on the flares.”

”I managed to disarm Yo-yo by breaking the chain rather than the weapon itself. It managed to repair it rather quickly though, if it’s going to work again at all it won’t be for long. If I make a dodge, I may be able to immobilize it instead. If you know anything of it or noticed something else, now’s a good time to bring it up.” she asked, not really liking the fact that she was the only one who had to get close to the monster.

“Excuse you?”

Esther cocked an eyebrow and had a severe look on her face, then again when did she not? Diamond’s comparison of Esther to her team leader was clearly not appreciated, and almost riled her back up again.
Then again, none of them had ever seen her in actual full combat mode. So, it wasn’t their fault they didn’t know her capabilities. Esther was just about to go off the handle, but was still in a somewhat ‘subdued’ state so she kept the volume of her voice at her baseline levels.

”I’ll not have you compare me to your fledgling Huntsmen teammates, Diamond. You’d do well to re-”

Tony jumped in and cut her off to aide Diamond in a sense. He knew more than any of them how she could get.

”Ah, hold on. I’m gonna look over dopehead over there and make sure she didn’t have some allergic reaction. Excuse me, ladies.” Tony said, stepping between the two and walking over to Emerald. Standing in front of her, he held her face and looked into her eyes, ears, and placed two fingers on the carotid artery of her neck.

Esther, flustered even more so and red in the face to show for it, realized there were more important things than to just get all ‘huffy’. Looking back at Diamond, she made a suggestion. ”While I generally agree with some parts of your plan, wouldn’t you feel it a good idea to at least clear out some of the major parts of the town to see if we can find anything else? I would feel more comfortable if we at least attempted to check out the security offices and buildings.” She then shrugged. ”But, it’s your call. Antonio and I are mostly here to make sure you all don’t die on us.”
Esther sighed and looked over at Tony, who returned her gaze.
”As for our oddly-dressed ‘friend’...”
Tony’s shoulders sagged. He cut her off again.
”Vanessa, they don’t need to know all the details..”
She made a face and pursed her lips.
Turning back to Diamond, ”Let me be clear. What we’re fighting isn’t a Grimm.”
Tony shook his head and went back to his basic examination of Emerald. Doctor he was not, but combat life saver and field medical skills they both had.
Esther continued, ”If you’re looking to get in close for the kill. Tony and I can provide cover and suppressive fires so you can move a bit more freely to do what you need to do. If you need a bit of a ‘boost’...well, I can provide that too.”

Outside, the bone-shivering sound of sawblades grinding and spinning up could be heard. Tony and Esther immediately moved to cover with their weapons at the low ready.

”Stay away from the windows!”
Esther quietly hissed.

Tony found that Emerald seemed to be more or less fine, no allergic reaction was apparent. Emerald was fairly compliant as she was examined, behaving rather blissful and unaware. Till of course she heard the sound of sawblades, she was real quick to hide behind Tony. “I don’t like this.” She mewed.

3… 2… 1… Diamond counted in her head when she was finished talking. The slight smirk on her face told all too well that she intended to push Esther’s buttons with that comment, and her troll has been fed. She wondered why it was so easy to do so to this particular teacher - She didn’t think erupting loudly while they were trying to hide was the usual by-the-book procedure. Perhaps she was the first one crazy enough to try. And what was that ‘Vanessa’ business? Maybe a callsign? Then again, it didn’t quite fit with the rest of the Air Cowboys’ theme. Oh well. Philosophical thoughts about the workings of Esther Vanhomrigh could wait for later.

“Makes sense to search for supplies but what happened to not splitting up? We can’t cover any ground unless we do. I say first we find the rest of our people, see what condition they are in, go from there-” she started explaining her train of thought before she was interrupted by a sound that was starting to feel too familiar for comfort. Doing as she was told she flattened against one of the walls and ducked down, expecting the house to be ground in half above them. In retrospect, it was obvious it was coming with all the hot air Esther was venting.

Tony turned his head slightly and patted Emerald’s head to console her.
”There, there. Everything will be alright, little lady. Just remember we’re the good guys and they’re the bad guys. Your job is give the bad guys a hard time and to ruin their day. Think of it like that.”
Esther moved her jaw and sighed heavily.
”These fucking students, I swear.’” She thought to herself.
”I wasn’t suggesting that we split up, but if you’re so against it then so be it. Your call, Diamond. Where do we go from here?”
Misstep in character after misstep. Normally, Esther wouldn’t be too easily disturbed. But, there was just something about Diamond and her demeanour that made her temporarily lose her cool.
”Lock it up.” Esther told herself. Bringing herself back into the right mindset.

Outside, random sounds of destruction could be heard. It was obvious the creature had recovered and was angrily searching for them.

Emerald nodded, Tony was right, they were supposed to stop the bad guys. The sounds coming outside didn’t sound too good for the property value of the town however. Emerald found her hands reaching for her weapons instinctively, if anything her fear was making her slightly more sober.

When the grinding sound missed them, Diamond allowed herself to lose the breath she was holding. “First things first, we’re gonna do what you do best. Break people, monsters or students.” Diamond grinned, poking her head around the door to get a look from where the sound of destruction was coming. “I was thinking to use you as a bait, approach from behind and slay that thing before it knew I was there but what exactly did you mean by boost?” She spared a look to the other two in the room. They were in little condition to fight that thing off if it got close, so Diamond decided to go head to head with it and leave them to a support role for now.

Diamond’s comment about her role in ‘breaking’ things actually got Esther to smirk and chuckle ever so shortly and softly. She didn’t mind running interference and raising a little hell as ‘bait’ so that part wasn’t really the issue. The only real issue was Esther’s Semblance ‘boosting’ them and allies getting caught up in the crossfire. Then again, she could always limit her abilities but where was the fun in that?

”You’ll see for yourself when we get things rolling along. But, if you must know my Semblance allows me to literally multiply our fighting power and have near limitless ammunition.”
Tony whistled and slowly shook his head.
”And man, is it nasty!”
Remembering he was right next to a feline Faunus, he quickly apologized for whistling.
”Ah, sorry little lady. I hope that didn’t hurt your ears.”
Facing back towards Diamond, Tony posed the question.
”So while you and Esther are tangoing with the baddie, what do you want us two to do? I was thinking maybe we could help to disarm it..”

The whistle had surprised Emerald, but her response to Tony was to simply giggle. “Just surprised me a little.” She looked towards Diamond as Tony asked how they could help. “I want to shoot something!”

Diamond’s eyebrows shot up. Made sense why Esther carried a gun around. She didn’t need to know about her semblance to figure out the earlier episode with the ammo clip was more to satisfy her inner dominatrix. “Oh? Well...” she said, raising her arm to summon a sword to fight with, hoping to get a free one to come along without wasting a flare. “GODS DAMN IT TO OBLIVION!” She yelled in frustration. She noticed it before as well. Whatever it was she summoned was far from what she intended. Letting go of the malformed weapon causing it to dissolve she tried again. It took a couple more tries before the blade appeared straight. “Well then, If I could have an extra?” She asked with puppy eyes. “As for you two, feel free to take potshots but I don’t want you to draw too much attention The two of us can take a hit or two from that, but given what it did to the town, I don’t want to be scraping your minced guts from a wall.” She said. “Whenever you’re ready.”

”I could do without the stupid look in your eyes. But, this will definitely be interesting. Normally, my Semblance has only been used on physical objects. Not phantasmal objects such as a sword made from shadow. But, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot. You just want one?” Esther quietly approached Diamond and looked at the shadow sword before grabbing the handle and staring at it.

Three small specks of light like stars appeared in her eyes. As she uttered her incantation, the three stars connected to form triangles that entrapped her pupils.

”Non mi snvdare senza ragione, non m’impvgnare senza valore…””
As she finished, little wisps of greenish blue flames emanated from the shadow sword before ‘giving birth’ to a ghostly copy of itself.
”Do not unsheathe me without reason. Do not wield me without valor.”
Letting go of Diamond’s formed shadow sword, she seemed a little pleased with herself. She wasn’t quite sure it was going to work as she never had to copy something that wasn’t on the physical plane. Even still, she decided to warn the girl.
”The sword will be able to read your intentions and act accordingly. My Semblance is rather easy to learn to take advantage of. What you do need to know is that if you reform or lose control of your own shadow blade, the copy will go with it.”

“Oooooo!” Emerald looked at the copy of the shadow sword with awe. “Make a copy of one of my shotguns! No two!”

Esther turned and glared at Emerald, but her expression softened when she remembered that the comment was probably due to the medication doing its work. She half wanted to dismiss the copied sword she made and bar them temporarily from using her abilities. Instead, she just decided to shut down the faunus.

”No.”

Tony patted Emerald again.
”Don’t worry about it. You’ll get yours.”

“Awwwww…” Emerald’s ears drooped sadly as her body leaned into Tony before she regained her balance. “Oh! The floor is moving…that’s weird…”

“I only have the two arms.” Diamond commented about the desired number of swords, “Unless you want me to carry one in my teeth. I think a rose fits that role much better.” She grinned. She wasn’t sure whether the chant was part of Esther’s casting, but she had to admit her semblance was impressive. Maybe she should get angrier herself if that’s the proper character to use the infinite multiplication bug in the game of life.

Having a look at the blade Esther summoned, she compared it to the original. Making a grab for the hovering eerie weapon, it felt slightly different in her hand. However what Esther said held true: Much like the original it felt like it reacted to her thought. It was an interesting bonus that this one she was actually able to drop. An idea took form in her head and a smirk blinked on her face. Before her options were to either sneak around or to charge head on - now she could perhaps do both. Where were you all my life? We could have ruled the underworld, you and I! Diamond thought as she nodded at the group to move out.
Esther quietly sighed, ”You can control any copies I create telepat-”
Tony suddenly grabbed Emerald’s head and forced it down lower, ”GET DOWN!”

BZZZZT!

At that moment Esther again spear-tackled Diamond so that the two of them hit the ground just as the combined yo-yo like weapon of the creature smashed through the front door and was tossed about. The head of the weapon angrily screeched and grinded as sparks flew off, chewing through whatever the head could make contact with and shredding it to pieces. The creature had located them, they had lingered for too long and it was able to track their whereabouts.

Emerging from the debris, Esther stood and squared off with the creature. Immediately raising her rifle and unloading a magazine at it. Over the din of her gunfire, she barked commands at Tony and Emerald.

”TONY! GET EMERALD OUT OF HERE AND FIND COVER!”
Tony burst from his pile of fragments of wood and torn fabrics with Emerald safe underneath him.
”AYE!”
Looking face to face with Emerald, he posed her a question.
”CAN YOU MOVE ON YOUR OWN OR DO I HAVE TO PICK YOU UP?”

The creature reeled back from Esther peppering it with bullets. Many of them hit but didn’t seem to penetrate whatever armor or protective measures it had so none of them were kill shots. Angered, the creature pulled back on the chain connected to its weapon to recall it.

Turning over her shoulder the moment she saw it pull back, Esther hit the ground as the sawblade head flew over her and returned to its owner. Esther stood right after and eyed the front door that was now hanging by its hinges. Grabbing it and ripping it from the door frame, she then spartan kicked it to send it flying at the creature which took it by surprise. Buying Esther a second or two.

Inserting her fingers into three slots on the side of her rifle, she twisted the insert with a click and charged her conventional rounds with Dust.

Ignis.

Shouldering her rifle, Esther then continued to bombard the creature with explosive fire-element Dust rounds. Igniting the feathery hide of the creature and causing it to thrash about in a frenzy as it became a fireball.

Dropping the now empty magazine from her rifle and going for a reload, Esther shouted at Diamond but didn’t take her eyes off of the burning creature. ”Whatever you’re planning on doing, do it now!” Insert magazine, send the bolt home. Weapon on ‘Semi’.

Emerald was in a state of shock, so much was happening around her and she couldn’t process it all in her current frame of mind. She eventually realised she was staring into Tony’s face, her eyes fixated on him. “W-What?”

That reaction was more than enough for Tony.
”Alright! You’re coming with me!”
Wrapping his arm around the girl’s waist, Tony scooped her up and high-tailed it out of there. Going out of a side door, Tony first planned to get the two of them far enough away to put a safe amount of space between the enemy and their allies. Judging that they were good enough where they were, he stopped. His breathing sounded scratchy and fuzzy thanks to the electronics of his helmet. Setting the Faunus girl down safely, he pressed his back up against a wall and peered around the corner and let the the HUD of his helmet zoom in and amplify what he was seeing to witness Esther literally lighting the enemy up.

Turning away to look at Emerald, he worried the girl wasn’t processing everything very well.

”Hey, little lady. You okay? Look and listen. You and I are going to be covering for our buddies. Position yourself so that if you see a break in the action where our mates aren’t attacking, we make up for that and do our thing. Put the pressure on and move fast so that it doesn’t have time to think or react. We’re responsible for buying time so they can do what they need to do. Okay? Try not to hit them either. You don’t want a stray shot to graze Esther. She...She won’t like that very much. Nor will you, later.”

Roughly patting her shoulder, he hoped to shake her out of her stupor and speed up her sobering process.

The buzzing sound told Diamond that the time was up. Time to put her plan into action. From before she knew that it was hard to get into melee range of that thing, so she came up with a rather ludicrous idea - wrap the sword into the chain of the monster’s weapon and let it pull her close. Unfortunately, someone else had a different idea.

“God damn it woman I know how hard it is to resist touching me but you’ve gotta stop!” She growled, jumping back up. There went that plan, time to improvise. Perhaps she could still cover that distance quick enough now that the monster was busying itself with the bullets raining down on it. OK, time to see how this works… the thug thought, bracing her aura and willing the spectral weapon up and forward to launch herself over the no man’s land, the other weapon ready to cleave something in half to avenge the hat.

As soon as Diamond even formed the thought, the phantom copy sword moved at her will. Positioning itself exactly where she needed it and hovered in place until another command was given. As Diamond took her time to position herself and come up with a plan on the fly, Esther continued to lay down the law with her suppressive/covering fires. So much so that the air surrounding the barrel of her rifle distorted from the heat waves. The barrel even started to glow red-hot.

In a rare form, Esther smirked and shot back a smart remark.
”Don’t act like you don’t like it, little girl!”
Whoops. Was there actually any truth to what she had said, or was that merely her crude time in service that had permanently affected her language?
The creature had enough, it couldn’t stand under Esther’s withering gunfire for much longer and decided to return to the offensive. Ignoring the burning flames and tanking a couple of Esther’s shots, the creature separated its combined sawblade into two and flung one each at Esther and Diamond in curved arcs so that if one missed, the other would be heading from the opposite direction.

Esther easily stepped out of the path of the first sawblade half and dodged the second. But, more importantly for the creature, it broke Esther’s focus and forced her to stop firing. Her attention now turned to Diamond, who had two of the sawblade halves heading straight for her from two opposite directions.

”Diamond! Get down!”

“Put the pressure on? Okay!” Emerald chirped, grabbing one of her weapons and quickly knocking over a nearby table and mounting her shotgun on the top of it, aiming the dangerous end towards the Yo-Yo guy as she hid safely behind the table. Now she just had to wait for the right moment.

Mmmmmm now’s good. Esther and Diamond were well away from her line of sight, so she fired a round at the creature’s center, making a loud boom. Then she fired two more in succession, the house shaking as she did.

The wind howling around her ears blown away Diamond’s response ‘Neither the time, nor the place’ as she hurled herself towards the black thing. It appeared it was done waiting though. She could barely hear the warning, but turned just enough to see what was happening.

“I’M DONE HIDING!” She growled, dropping low to the roof. Few seconds, I just need a few seconds! she thought, putting her weapons up against where the sawblades were coming from, channeling aura and spells in them. It was close, but she managed just in time, sending a cutting kinetic blast in the direction of each of the offending projectiles. Not waiting for anything, she willed her legs to carry her towards the enemy, her mind busy trying to figure out how she would tackle it once she got there. It seemed to have something like an aura, making this a bit more difficult.

Slam!
Emerald’s shots hit with good effect.

In the barrage, it had forgotten it was in a 1vs4 situation and Emerald’s first shot stunned it. The creature stumbled and had zero time to recover as two more shots hit higher one after the other. The very last shot smashing into its face and knocking it back a few feet. To make matters worse for it, Diamond’s attacks caused the sawblades to bury deep into two adjacent buildings to its rear. In combination with Emerald’s and Diamond’s attacks, the whole effect lead to the creature being dragged back. Its back impacting with a hard wall and temporarily placed the creature in an unconscious state.

As it laid there in a slump, it's invisible protective force eventually fanned away Esther’s flames to reveal its true form. Having its feathery hide/cloak removed, what lay underneath was disturbingly familiar and human. It wore a black full body suit that hid any and all exposed skin, draped in archaic armor that was parts chainmail and plate. The metal plate armor that protected what could be considered its most vital body parts and joints was particularly ornate. Engravings etched every surface of the plates with stylized runes and symbols that couldn’t be compared to any written or spoken language in Remnant, to the point of where they almost seemed alien in nature.

Head bowed low as its arms were lazily lifted and raised by the chains of its embedded sawblades, the creature appeared to be some sort of dark knight of an unnamed abyssal hellscape. Its claws were just part of the design of its gauntlets, same going for its boots that made it look as though it had talons. Most notably, the face of its skull and antler mask/helmet was heavily damaged by Emerald. A large visible crack threatened to split it straight in half.

Esther kept her rifle trained on it, doing an administrative reload just to be sure in case it suddenly reacted. Breathing hard, she carefully strided towards it, focusing on steadying her nerves as she got closer. Wary of Diamond still charging towards it to perhaps finish it off, but uncomfortable with her doing so. It felt as though Diamond swapped roles with her and decided to be the decoy/bait. Something didn’t feel right about the situation, but Esther couldn’t pin what it was that bothered her.

Tony clapped Emerald’s shoulder and laughed.
”Good show, little lady! Shit, where’d you learn to shoot like that with shotguns?”
Peeking out from the cover he was behind, he made sure to keep his tone hushed.
”Even still, let Vanessa and Diamond assess things. Stay in cover until we have to move, okay?”

Emerald smiled at the praise, she whispered back. “I’ve been practicing since I was seven, living in an unknown village in the middle of a vast forest had it’s advantages, no one out there to complain about a little girl playing with guns ya know?” She started to giggle, but she quickly covered her mouth. It was rather easy for her to forget the danger they were in with her current state of mind.

As Diamond saw the thing get incapacitated, she slowed down her approach, gears spinning in her head. Despite her anger, or maybe because of it, she decided that disposing of it wouldn’t be the best course of action. Better to see what it knew first. And who knew, maybe someone would want to see what the hell it was made of.

As she got closer though, her anger flared up all over again. The thing was in fact very human looking. Just their rotten luck. Pointing an arm at it, her eyes shone blue. A short moment later, the glimmer of ice appeared all over its armor and continued to grow, engulfing it in a freezing prison. “Now, mister. You’re going to tell the heretic all she wants to know, before she decides that what she wants to know most is what kills you faster, hypothermia or that armor contracting form the cold and squeezing the life out of you.” She hissed, searching for the eyes on her captive. With a flick of her wrist, she sent a telekinetic slap to break the mask.

The ‘creature’s’ mask snapped and cracked, falling apart to reveal its face. The pieces of the mask crumbled and shattered like ceramic, splintering into little fragments on the ground. It came to no surprise to Tony and Esther, as they already knew what lay beyond her mask. Pale white skin with silver hair to match. Veins dark purple and visible through her almost translucent skin. As if she was a porcelain doll that had been faintly painted on. Eyelids slowly fluttering open, what should’ve been white sclera were black, her irises a bright crimson red giving her a demonic look. Finally waking, she blinked a few times before looking down to see that she had been imprisoned in solid ice by the young Huntress and gave her a smug look. On her throat was a small orange glowing device, a voice modulator that concealed her true voice to make herself seem more like a monster. Closer to a creature of Grimm than anything else.

Her hair hung short, barely extending past her jawline and was slightly curly. In any other situation, she could’ve been considered a rare and dark beauty. But, as with the rest of her, it did not seem natural. More so along the lines of an inhuman glamour, otherworldly.

An old fear was confirmed at the sight of her face in both Esther and Tony. Though they didn’t know it, in unison they quietly cursed.

”Shit.”

In memory, a younger Esther stood over the corpse of someone just like her student’s current enemy.
She had asked the same question that was quite possibly on Emerald’s and Diamond’s mind.
”What...what are they?”
And in response, someone had told her all she really needed to know.
”They were once Huntsmen, just like you and I.”

Returning to reality, Esther realized she had slightly lowered the muzzle of her rifle and brought it back up. She then projected her voice so that Diamond could clearly hear her.

”Don’t you dare get too close, Diamond. I know what you’re thinking and it’s not going to work. She won’t give you any information. She won’t talk. Just do your job as a Huntress and end it. Finish her.”

If Diamond wouldn’t, Esther would. She and Tony both knew how dangerous her and her kind were, but she couldn’t do Diamond’s job for her. She was just there for support, for backup. In any case, Esther’s trigger finger just barely touched at her rifle’s trigger. A light amount of pressure on its face, ready to hollow out the ‘creature’s’ skull in the blink of an eye.

Beasts were most dangerous when cornered, after all.