Cassiel POV
Yang and Zwei woke us up, Ruby was nowhere to be seen, so Zwei led us to where she was last seen. Apparently the ground collapsed right out from under her, causing her to fall into an underground railway/ city.
"Well, if you'll excuse me, I might have some people to brutally murder." I summoned Nightfall as wingblades.
"Wait! I understand your desire to save your leader, but you'll be surrounded from all sides! I know the entrance to the tunnels, less risk that way!" Oobleck stopped me.
"If we do that, they'll have more warning than if we simply jump down there. No one will be watching a hole like this for various reasons. We go down this way, we land in the middle of a still relatively unorganized group, we go your way, they'll have positioning and better coordination. If only because I don't want to be bitched at by either Ozpin or Glynda, I'll do it your way, but if she's been hurt, I'm slaughtering everything down there."
"Very well. Onward!"
It didn't take long to reach the entrance. As I expected, we were met with resistance from the White Fang, though it was weaker than I expected. Ruby was fine, I didn't need to kill anyone, but Torchwick was down here and started a train that Ruby told us was carrying weapons, mechs, and basically an armory. I'm expecting high explosives as well, partially because these track supposedly lead to a dead end. After we boarded the train, we opened a hatch on top, but it was blocked off with a bomb on top. As Blake tried to disconnect the train car, it decoupled itself. The next several train cars also had bombs. I suggested throwing them into the SR, but when I tried to open it up, it kept getting left behind and disappearing. Those bombs were being used to open up the tunnel for Grimm and lead them to the city. I have an idea on how to use that, but that will have to wait.
The White Fang climbed on top of the cars, after fighting a few off, Ruby, Oobleck, and Zwei stayed on top while me, Blake, Yang, and Weiss went below into the train itself.
"I guess this is what we trained for." Yang said, Weiss reached into her, does she even have pockets?
"Here. This should help you." She handed Blake a Dust filled magazine. I looked to Lionheart.
"I still need to upgrade this damn thing." I said before we ran foward. About halfway through the train car, Neo dropped from out of nowhere. She's another to worry about.
"You three go on ahead. This one's mine." Yang tried to order us. If she were Ruby, I might have if we weren't in a tight spaced area.
"Sorry, but no!" I rushed towards Neo, she parried me and thrust her umbrella (parasol?) into my gut, sending me back a little.
"I said go!" Yang said again.
"She's not someone brute strength alone can beat." I paid close attention to whether or not Neo was perfectly still. That's her weakness, besides explosions that is. Yang didn't heed my warning and rushed right at Neo, she effortlessly dodged every punch Yang threw, then after a few blocks, Yang got spin kicked and knocked to the floor. Neo did a flip in the air and opened an opportunity for me. I airstepped to her this time and struck her while she was in mid air, sending her a good distance away before shooting Blizzard at her. She couldn't dodge mid air, so she blocked with her open umbrella. Perfect. Nevermind, she shattered the ice that would have slowed down her weapon by slamming it against the wall.
"You see what I meant, Yang?" I asked her. "If the first strike truly is what decides who has the advantage, then that would be her. Against two opponents, she's still smiling. She's enjoying this, she has no reason to believe she can't win."
"Then let's just prove her wrong!" Yang shot Neo and I threw Lionheart at her after she blocked it. She blocked Lionheart too, but she didn't notice the Fires I had going up the blade until they were about to explode and was forced to block again. I airstepped to Lionheart, catching it and slamming it into the floor under her with Blizzard, causing several ice spikes to shoot out from under us. She dodged backward while Yang jumped over me and assaulted her. Neo effortlessly did the same thing to her again, but was about to finish with a thrust this time.
"Barrier!" The unexpected shield threw her off and allowed me the chance strike her. Unfortunately she hooked the bottom of her weapon in the guard of Lionheart and sent me flying past her. I stabbed Lionheaft into the ground to kill my momentum and shot Fira to her side, opposite of Yang who was able to attack now that Barrier was no longer active. I would use Stop, but I didn't have enough magic before I got on the train. Neo blocked Fira and dodged backward, avoiding Yang's fist, and now sitting on a crate, still smiling.
"Has anyone ever told you you're way too agile? If not, let me be the first." I said, a chuckle escaping me. She visibly did the same despite being mute. "Yang, I'll be back, I need a moment." I didn't actually need it, but it would help in finding an opening. I stepped into the SR and summoned Nightfall as a twinblade. "I haven't really had much practice with this, but it'll work better than the others."
Yang tried attacking Neo again, but still she avoided being hit directly. After a series of kicks and flips, she pushed Yang back. I rejoined the fight and airstepped to her while Yang was still recovering from practically being thrown back. This time, I was able to counter quickly as well. I threw Lionheart past her and made sure her back stayed to it the whole time. She tried to do to me what she did to Yang, but I had a way around that. I kept using Aero and Blizzard on each strike to slow her down and throw her off. Her movements became more readable and I became the one pressing the assault before long. After knocking her back, Yang took the opportunity to strike, but was launched into the ceiling seconds later, losing consciousness. Neo looked to me, annoyance evident on her face, then she smiled, and stopped moving completely.
"That won't work on me!" I dashed towards Yang and got us both airborne for what I was about to do.
"Thunder!" Neo's position revealed, I quickly layed Yang down and dashed towards Neo, her movements restricted further now, not just from the ice I was able to sneak on her weapon and boots, but from her muscles convulsing. She was still able to attack, but a parry with one blade and a quick strike with the other was enough to finish her. She was still standing, but the best she could do now was run, and she had just enough aura to use her Semblance one last time to do so. Yang began to regain consciousness seconds later.
"Can you move?" I asked her.
"Yeah... I'm fine." She answered as I helped her up onto her feet before retrieving Lionheart. We continued near the front of the train before climbing up and meeting back up with the others. This was short lived though as the exit/ dead end was close. I couldn't enter the SR here and none of us had enough time to climb back in. Thankfully, Weiss was able to encase us in ice, protecting us from the crash and blast, though we were still incapacitated for a few seconds until Grimm started pouring into the city.
Cinder POV
The city alarms are going off, a dropship just took off toward the city. Damnit, Roman!
"You don't think...?" Emerald asked.
"Sure looks like it." Mercury answered.
"That's still days away!"
"So? What do we do?" Mercury asked me.
Down in the city, Emerald and Mercury were instructed to kill any Grimm. I simply stood to the side, out of sight, and watched everything. Though one thing in particular caught my attention, something I know someone would like to hear about. It was that kid, Cassiel, and something similar to what She can use in appearance was flowing off of him. Grimm, even the larger ones such as King Taijitu and Deathstalkers were backing away from him. The giant snake lunged at him, but all he did was stomp on it's lower jaw, rip out it's fang, and stab it through the roof of it's mouth. He moved to a Deathstalker and placed a hand between all the eyes. Seconds later, he turned his back to it and all the Grimm focused on him went back in the tunnel. Is he commanding the Grimm like Her?
"This is... An interesting, albeit... Unexpected development... He could be a problem, or a valuable ally." I thought out loud.
Cassiel POV (when Cinder starts watching)
I'm getting the same result as with the last of that pack from Mountain Glenn. So, the Darkness grants influence over Grimm, good to know that the very thing they're attracted to is also what can tame them. That thought process was cut off though when the giant snake lunged at me, that didn't end well for it though. Turning my attention to the Deathstalker, I got close to it and placed a hand in the middle, between the eyes.
"Creatures of Darkness, of destruction... Born of hate and despair... Yet... You cower so easily before me... Run... Run away and never return... Unless you seek death that is." I said to it before turning and walking away. Most of the surrounding Grimm, the ones focused on me anyway, re-entered the tunnel that was eventually sealed up by Glynda.
(Back at the academy)
I'm holding Zwei right now, the others are sitting with their legs over a ledge and taking in the view of the city beneath the sunset. Good dog, really seems to like being held.
"Well, we did it." Yang said.
"We did it." Blake repeated.
"If we don't get extra credit for that, I'm going to be seriously disappointed." Weiss said.
"Weiss, a two headed snake literally crushed a bakery. I wouldn't count on it." Oh come on, Glynda repaired it in seconds, Yang.
"Plus, I mean, we didn't solve everything. A lot of people were hurt, and we still don't even know why they did this." Ruby said, disappointed.
"Well, not every story has a neat and tidy ending." Weiss commented.
"We might not have all of the answers, but we do have a lot of dangerous people behind bars. And I think that's something we can be proud of." Blake said, trying to get them to look at the bright side.
"Yeah. And if anyone wants to try something like this again, we'll be there to stop them." Ruby said.
"While we could do it, I think we're due for a little time off." I said after I set Zwei down.
"What Cassiel said! It'll be great to sleep in a real bed again." Yang said, all of us heading back to our room.
I still need to upgrade Lionheart.