Chapter 45: Attack on Vale IV
-Near the start of the attack-
Neopolitan and Roman heard the elevator close behind them and shot each other a smirk.
"I'll take daddy issues, you take thirsty?" Roman asked, receiving a quick nod in return as Neopolitan started to strut over to Emerald.
"You fucker.. when did you betray us?" Mercury spat out as he stood up and faced Roman.
"Betray? I was never on your side to start with! I was threatened into joining, remember?" Roman dramatically sighed.
"Fair enough.." Mercury accepted his reasoning and began the fight.
Mercury swung kick after kick and immediately made Roman go on the defensive. Roman kept having to back up and block his hits, though he noticed them getting stronger with each hit connected to his weapon. He wasn't the fighter of the group. That's what Neopolitan was for. He could shoot and steal better than the best of them but physically fighting wasn't his forte. He narrowly avoided a kick and shot that destroyed the pillar behind him.
"My my! I didn't know you were such a bruiser, Kid! Or is that your semblance at work?" Roman fired an explosive fire dust shot at Mercury, who powered through and destroyed it with a roundhouse kick.
"Try magic. Really does come in handy huh? Now do me a favor and keel over fast" Mercury kicked off the ground and pummeled the floor with an axe kick and sent floor debris flying.
He missed the mark but he saw the debris hit his target. Grinning, he kept up his assault. Taking to the air again, he heard Roman sigh before dusting off his suit and aiming his palm at him before a purple energy shot out of it and formed a hand. It quickly went through Mercury and pulled some kind of silver aura out of him before it was pulled back into Roman. As he kicked the ground, he found out it only cracked a little.
"What the-" Mercury was interrupted with an uppercut from Roman's cane as he flipped it.
Before he could rebalance himself, he was hit with jab after jab and on the fourth hit, Roman kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying back into a wall and making his aura flicker. Mercury warily glanced up at the grinning thief who started throwing jabs at the air in mockery.
"What did you just do!?" Mercury spat out as he stood up.
"I wasn't exactly doing nothing since my 'capture' you know? I got some magic too. Fits me too, I think! I call it 'snatch'. I can steal your magic, semblance, physical strength, skills, memories.. Even your clothes! Neat trick huh?" Roman boasted.
"Wh- That's bullshit!" Mercury complained and pointed at him.
"Well it does eat up my aura so I'll make this quick!" Roman gestured at Mercury before surprise shooting the floor and covering the area before him with bright sparks.
Mercury moved back but that was what Roman expected. Mercury took another kick, this time to the ribs and it made him fly down the hall.
Emerald and Neopolitan were keeping a more even pace in their fight. Neopolitan was ducking under her kick and parrying her blade. Emerald was jumping over her blade and parasol while giving her illusions she was actually closer than she was. She saw Neopolitan grin after successfully scoring a kick to her guard. Neopolitan's aura blocked it easily and seeing her partner begin to finish up with Mercury, she decided to do the same with Emerald.
Horns grew on her head and a black succubus tail sprouted out along with wings as her eyes glew with power. Licking her lips at the shock of Emerald, she took out the life fiber scissors and stuck the other weapons in her inventory before dual wielding the pair of scissors. Giving Emerald a cocky smile, her eyes flashed with light and dispelled Emerald's illusion. Emerald was actually beside her, ready to swing once again but the moment Neopolitan's eyes met her she was immediately thrust into a powerful illusion.
"Wh..Where?" Emerald looked around and saw their dorm in Beacon.
Confused, she looked around with her weapons drawn and waited for Neopolitan to show her face. Instead, their dorm bathroom opened and Cinder walked out. But she was wearing very revealing lingerie that made Emerald's face heat up and redden.
"M..M..Cind..er..?" Emerald fumbled with her words as Cinder approached and got incredibly close to her.
"Yes, Emerald? Remember? You asked me what I want to do to this body? Well.." Cinder seemed to shyly remove her clothes but before she could, she heard something strange.
Emerald turned around and saw a very large, burly man run up to her and body check her before delivering a punch to her face and making her fly back. She faceplanted the floor and slid across the Beacon hall with Mercury. She groaned and looked up weakly, brain still rattling from that punch. She saw the big burly man in a business shirt, tie and glasses. He folded his arms and grunted before speaking.
"We're making the mother of all omlette's here, Emerald! Can't fret over every egg!" He shouted before the illusion broke and she saw Neopolitan twirling the scissors with a mischievous grin.
Then Emerald realized her clothes were in tatters and gasped, hiding herself as the duo walked over to them once again.
"My clothes! Ugh! Cinder bought me these!" Emerald complained but before they could get up, Cinder flew through a window nearby in a hurry and sighed once she saw the two were mostly fine.
"Emerald, Mercury.. I'm.. glad you two are okay" Cinder huffed and looked to the guarded duo of Roman and Neopolitan.
"I'm not your enemy anymore. I realized this was a mistake.. I won't be controlled anymore. Emerald, Mercury.. Will you still follow me? Even if we turn against Salem? If you're scared, you don't have to. But I would.. appreciate it if you followed me?" Cinder said, all while turned away from the two.
"Hah.. well it's not like I have somewhere else to be. You helped me get back on my own two feet and gave me a reason not to kill myself. Sure, I'll follow" Mercury grunted out as he stood up.
"Of course I'll follow you! You.. give my life meaning" Emerald muttered the last part quietly, though Cinder heard it and smiled gratefully before turning to them.
That's when she froze and her face reddened by a lot. Emerald was quite exposed and certain areas were peeking out in her state of dress.
"O-Okay! So that's settled... then.. Mm!" Cinder nodded to herself and heard snickering from Roman and Neopolitan.
"Well that was cute! Now that this is all done, I think we ought to help outside, no? Fond as I am of our fight, I still wanna test out my magic on some vict-Bad guys, I mean!" Roman stated while twirling his cane.
"Arthur, Tyrian and Hazel should be close by. I can help with them" Cinder stated but Neopolitan caught her attention and texted her on her scroll.
>Neopolitan: The bird twins are probably fighting them or looking for them at the moment<
"Okay. I'll go look for them. Mercury, Emerald go help teams RWBY and JNPR. And.. get redressed for Gods sake.." Cinder finished with a blush before taking off in a hurry.
"She's into it" Roman commented with a snide grin.
-Vale rooftops-
Raven and Qrow were in their avian forms, perched on a tall building's roof. They were looking for their three targets. Raven was itching to fight, seeing the Huntsmen and Huntresses fighting the flying Grimm all around them along with the White Fang's forces, which seemed pretty preoccupied with something going down in the center of town. Fast movement caught Raven's eyes. She saw a man below kill a Huntsman with two tonfa-like blades.
Nudging Qrow and gesturing her head over, he spots him too. Tyrian Callows. Salem's number one fanatic and scorpion faunus. Qrow nodded before flying off the roof and diving down at Tyrian. Tyrian was reveling in the blood of the killed Huntsman but felt something off. He looked up and was greeted with the boot of Qrow right in his face. Qrow used him as a landing pad before springing off of the madman and taking out his weapon.
"So you're the insane bastard in Salem's menagerie? Well.. heh.. one of the insane bastards anyway. You'd have to be out of your damn mind to work for her" Qrow commented and saw Tyrian's crooked smile.
He heard heavy footsteps behind him and glanced back at Hazel, who had been secretly following Tyrian.
"We CAUGHT you, Bird-man! We knew Ozpin's little toy would come to look for me if I stirred up enough trouble! HAHAHA! Oh I had to kill four students and three huntsmen but you finally showed up!" Tyrian maniacally cackled.
"Oh is that right? Any more of you I should be concerned about then?" Qrow asked.
"Hmph.. might as well come out, Watts. Let's just kill him together and be done with this so we can move on to Ozpin" Hazel growled.
"Fine.. ruin the element of surprise then" Hearing a sigh, Qrow saw Arthur Watts walk over from a back alley, unholstering his pistol.
"Oh no.. Anyways.. you're just the three we've been looking for" Qrow shrugged and moved to the left, seeing Raven drop in from above and stomp on Tyrian's head before flipping off and landing next to her brother.
"GAH! Her too!? Fine! Let's just gut them both!" Tyrian suggested with a maddened and wrathful expression.
"Fine.. it won't make a difference" Hazel grunted as his muscles and skin transformed into hardened dust of all kinds.
"Very well" Arthur affirmed and rose his hands as street lamps, cars and other mechanical objects transformed into a giant metal beast.
Tyrian smiled from ear to ear as his muscles bulged. His tail bulked up and lengthened while a scorpion's exoskeleton grew over him like armor. He released an insane howl and all three enemies attacked the twins.
Qrow immediately smirked and activated his magically enhanced semblance. He glanced at Tyrian and immediately, Tyrian tripped over his tail and ran face first into Arthur's metal beast. Raven leapt over the hulking elementally charged Hazel and opened her palm, blasting him with a stream of fire and ice that blew up in his face and made him stumble back. Raven then made a rift without needing to cut it open. She appeared above Qrow and they both hit Arthur's metal beast in the head at the same time.
"Forgot how well we worked together" Qrow commented and dodged a stinger thrust from Tyrian as Raven blocked the metal beast's claw with her blade.
"Don't go reminiscing now. These three aren't exactly pushovers" Raven retorted and kicked off a wall and rolled away from Hazel's flaming fist which destroyed part of the building nearby.
It started to heavily rain now. Thunder boomed across the sky and a loud crashing noise was heard. The walls had finally fallen. The Grimm horde had begun to swarm Vale. There was still many people evacuating and relying on the students and Huntsmen to escape. The sound of battle picked up and became even more intense.
-Ruined ice cream shop-
Neo stepped in, lowering her sunglasses as she saw the Wendigo get up. His head was cracked and he looked incredibly unstable. She could feel the madness coming from him. His eyes trained on her as his body mass increased. Plating grew across his body and he grew to fifteen feet tall, ripping the building apart.
"I was planning to have at least SOME dialogue with you but I don't think that's an option anymore.. huh? You're all Grimm now. Fine, I'll just bury you then" Neo's hair turned white, calling out her Proxy form as she pulled out the sniper in her left hand while the halberd was in her right.
"Come at me, you dripless bastard"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone