A Grimm Discovery (Rewritten)
A Grimm Discovery
“You know, I was as foolish as you, once,” Merlot opined as the four huntsmen picked their way across his island. Four, not five; they hadn’t found Cinder at the last jamming station, and although they’d found a trail of green ooze that seemed like a promising lead to follow, they’d eventually lost that too. It was starting … not to worry Sunset, not exactly, but to concern her at least: where was Cinder, and why hadn’t she made contact with them? She wasn’t afraid that Cinder had been defeated, but she was a little disturbed by her silent, unexplained refusal to rejoin the rest of them.
Especially since night had fallen by now; they had been working their way across the island all day without much success at actually finding anything: not Merlot’s lab, or a way to get their location to Professor Ozpin. The fact that it was night had Sunset somewhat on edge: grimm saw better than humans — or Sunset’s kind of faunus — at night, and the rocky plain on which they walked had a surface so dark it was especially hard to see anything.
She wouldn’t have done this, but it wasn’t as though they had much choice; this wasn’t Mountain Glenn, it wasn’t as though they could find somewhere to hold out for the night, this was Merlot’s island, and it was small enough for him to know it well. They had no choice but to keep going, no matter how much Sunset might dislike the fact.
The fact that Merlot just would not shut up wasn’t really helping matters.
“There was a time,” Merlot continued, “when, like you, I believed in Ozpin and his ideals. There was even a time when I wanted nothing more than to be a huntsman and defend humanity against the foul creatures of grimm.”
“I’m sorry, are you still talking?” Sunset demanded as she kicked away a pebble that lay in their path.
“I only started studying the grimm because I wanted to create better weapons, superior countermeasures,” Merlot continued. “After all, if we didn’t know our enemies, then how could we defeat them?”
“We know enough,” Pyrrha muttered.
“Ah, a traditionalist? And yet, where did your elegant weapon come from if not as a result of clever men like me working tirelessly to advance science and technology?”
“Nobody died in order to create my weapons,” Pyrrha declared.
“And yet, people die every day fighting the grimm without really understanding them,” Merlot said. “Ozpin sends them off to die, just as he has sent you, with your knowledge coming out of mouldering texts delivered to you by equally mouldering professors. Tell me, Oz, is Peter Port, the great windbag himself, still teaching Grimm Studies?”
'The great windbag'? This from a guy who seems to think we’re hanging on the edge of our seats to know his life story.
Maybe he doesn’t like Professor Port because he sees too much of himself in him. Like me and … too many people to list, really.
“Professor Port may have a somewhat discursive style of teaching,” Ozpin said, “but he takes his role of preparing the students for what they’re about to face in the field very seriously; certainly, he has never endangered any students, still less caused their deaths. Unlike some applicants for the position.”
“I just thought that it might be a good idea if you were to have a Grimm Studies professor who was actually interested in studying the grimm,” Merlot declared snippily, as though this was something that had been bothering him for some time.
“Your obsession with studying the grimm has been and will continue to be your downfall,” Ozpin replied.
“'Downfall'?” Merlot said. “My downfall? It is only through studying the grimm that I realised the truth! That I could truly appreciate the brilliance of the grimm’s design. There must be a god in this world, for only an intelligent creator could have spawned such a … a pure organism: their biology, their unbridled aggression, their focussed instincts, they are the supreme killing machine.”
“Which is why you stopped looking for ways to kill the grimm and started worshipping them instead?” Sunset asked.
“Not at first, even then,” Merlot said. “At first, I still, naively, thought that I could win back Ozpin’s trust and respect. I set to work designing androids, the greatest androids that Remnant had ever seen, better by far than anything that the Schnee Dust Company or the Atlesian military had ever developed. I thought that they could take the place of huntsmen on the battlefield.”
“As I told you, Merlot, as I have told Ironwood, as I have always said,” Ozpin said, “no robot or android, however powerful or well-designed, will ever be able to replace a huntsman on the battlefield.”
“And why is that? Because if they did, it would threaten your monopoly on violence?”
“Because the hand that pulls the trigger should have a soul behind it capable of judging whether it’s right or wrong to do so,” Pyrrha murmured.
“Quite so, Miss Nikos,” Professor Ozpin said. “But also because even the most sophisticated androids are slaves to their programming: they can never find a new and novel solution to an unexpected problem, they can never decide to go above and beyond what has been asked of them in the face of a threat greater than could have been imagined when the mission began, they can never dig deep within themselves and find the resolve to stand against insurmountable odds. I understand the urge to replace humans on the front lines with weapons whose loss does not affect us, but it cannot happen because, in the end, our humanity is the greatest weapon against the grimm that we possess.”
“Spare me the sermon, Oz; 'our humanity'? Humanity is doomed; can’t you see that? Against an organism as perfectly designed for slaughter as the grimm, no army or defence can stand forever.”
“We’ve killed lots of grimm,” Ruby said, “and we aren’t beaten yet.”
“And yet you haven’t even made a dent in their numbers,” Merlot said. “I admit that the grimm have their flaws, and I will even admit that troubled me. But then I made a discovery.”
“Yeah,” Sunset said. “I think that we’ve just made a discovery as well.”
They stood on the lip of a sharp drop down into a kind of rocky trench, seemingly carved into the stone and leading away to the east. In the trench, or perhaps it was a naturally occurring but very, very shallow canyon, Sunset and the others could see bubbling pools of ichorous turquoise ooze.
“Eww, this smells terrible,” Ruby said, wrinkling her nose in a way that would have been adorable in a slightly less tense situation. “Like Uncle Qrow’s shirt.”
On the grounds that it was the first thing that they’d found all night, Sunset slid down the slope and into the trench, walking cautiously towards the nearest pool of ooze.
“Sunset,” Pyrrha said cautiously, “I’d stay away from whatever that is.”
“I’m not about to go swimming in it,” Sunset murmured as she unslung her rifle and poked at the pool with the tip of her bayonet. The substance wasn’t corrosive, or at least, it didn’t melt said bayonet, but it was viscous, and it clung to the tip of the knife when Sunset pulled back her gun.
“What’s Merlot even doing here?” Jaune asked, gesturing towards the pipes that, in the darkness, Sunset could just about make out running along the walls of the trench. “Are they harvesting this … whatever it is?”
“Students, have you found something?” Ozpin asked.
“Bubbling toxic pools and a collection of pipes,” Pyrrha said, with obviously false cheer. “We’re on to something.”
“There are a whole bunch of machines as far as I can see,” Ruby added. “I’m pretty sure they’re pumping something.”
“I suspect you’re right, Mister Arc: Merlot is harvesting this substance. He came to this island for a reason, after all, and I suspect whatever his reason is can’t be good.”
“And a gold star for Professor Ozpin,” Merlot said cheerfully. “My research into the grimm had revealed their potential, but it wasn’t until I stumbled across this island that I knew what I had to do. This is the only place on Remnant where I’ve discovered this substance. I call it Sycorax. Naturally occurring here, and only here as far as I can tell, it has unique properties that make it impossible to synthesise, even for a chemist so accomplished as myself. But, by refining what I can harvest and making a few additions in the course of the refinery process, I’ve been able to create a bonding agent that transforms the host organism in all the ways that you’ve already seen: enhanced strength, speed, survival instinct … for those organisms that survive the bonding process, that is. That’s yet another point in favour of the grimm; their existing qualities make them the perfect organism for the bonding.”
“So that’s what you did to the grimm,” Ruby said.
“You make it sound as though this ooze is alive,” Sunset said.
“Not in its natural state,” Merlot said. “But, when bonded … it is almost as if something inside the substance awakens and transmits itself into the host as part of the transformation. With the addition of Sycorax, the perfection of the grimm was almost complete. All that was needed was … well, plenty of time for that later.”
“Students, I need you to follow that pipeline,” Ozpin said. “It will probably lead you to Merlot’s main facility.”
“Yes, Professor,” Sunset said. “First follow the train tracks, now follow the pipes. Nice for Merlot to always leave us a trail to follow.”
Where are you, Cinder?
And what am I going to do if we get to the end of the line and you still haven’t caught up yet?
They followed the pipes, which had overloaded in places and ruptured, emitting — fortunately — not the ooze that Merlot had christened Sycorax but simply venting out steam, which could be eliminated simply by turning one of the various conveniently placed cranks to enable to proceed without burning their aura up protecting them from steam burns.
A few of Merlot’s mutated grimm barred their way: creeps that seemed to like swimming in the toxic pools that had birthed their strange mutations, beowolves that prowled backwards and forwards as if they knew they were on guard, and some of the grimm were prodded into place by the crimson androids. But, fortunately for them, there were none of the truly bizarre hybrids that Merlot had cooked up and which he still declined to explain, and though some of the mutant beowolves were tough, SAPR was able to make good use of the fact that they were advancing down a bottleneck, funnelling the grimm towards them in small numbers, using the fact that the creeps exploded to good effect — even if it was using up what had already been a vanishingly small supply of bullets, Sunset was inclined to think that it was a good use when she saw the creeps explode and take the beowolves and the androids with them, or at least injure or damage them considerably — to inflict more damage than their weapons could have inflicted alone.
Pyrrha in particular gave good account of herself during these actions, as SAPR pushed down the trench or narrow canyon following the trail of pipes. Pyrrha always gave good account of herself, but this time, it was a little different; although when the mutated grimm with their glowing green eyes and their maws that emitted the emerald light of the island’s ooze came close enough, she would be found in her place at the forefront of the fighting, hair and sash alike swirling around her as she danced through the midst of the enemy with Miló lashing out this way and that, that was not the most notable thing about her performance in this battle. No, what was most notable was how much more willing than usual she was to use her semblance to destructive effect was. It seemed as if her shield hand — which bore no shield, as Akoúo̱ was currently slung across her back — was permanently sheathed in the black halo that signified her use of polarity, and being used powerfully, what was more. She wasn’t just using it to move the spears of Merlot’s androids a little, or even to swing them around so that they shot each other instead of Pyrrha or any of her friends. She was ripping them apart limb from limb, crushing their chests, sending their spears flying to impale the grimm in the back. She was shredding their enemies without having to use her spear or shield at all.
It was very, very impressive to see … but to be honest, it was a little worrying as well. Sunset felt, and maybe she was alone in this and almost certainly she was way out of line to think it, but as she watched Pyrrha stand at the forefront of the ground, one arm — darkened by the black corona — raised to gesture at Merlot’s androids, demolishing them with the sheer force of her will … it almost felt as though she wasn’t looking at Pyrrha anymore.
Especially since she didn’t seem to be turning it off at any point. The pipes rattled and rumbled as she passed, and a couple of times, they actually ruptured, although thankfully not until the entirety of SAPR had passed by the point at which the steam and ooze alike exploded outwards.
But more than that, there was the fact that Pyrrha didn’t seem to be … didn’t seem to be all there with the rest of them. There was a look in her eyes as though … as though only the enemy really mattered at the moment, as though Pyrrha was really fighting solo, and all the rest of them were just trailing in her wake.
She had become quieter and more withdrawn as the day had gone on; Sunset was almost certain that she was brooding upon her thoughts — that was another downside of having nowhere to stop and rest; as you got more tired, your thoughts turned to things that were best not thought about, best slept on. Everything that might have felt less urgent, less worrisome under the night of day became magnified by the darkness, and then, of course, your worries started to reinforce themselves in a self-perpetuating cycle of ever-growing anxiety.
Unfortunately, by the time Sunset had noticed this and guessed what might be happening, it already felt a little late to do anything about it.
Not least because their enemies would not give them a moment’s peace.
They came to the end of the trench, which came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a high cliff leading straight down a very sharp and very, very long drop. Fortunately, a way ahead was provided by the very pipes that they had been following to get here; they extended out over the abyss in lines wide enough to be walked upon, spreading out to the left and to the right where a mixture of more rocky cliff and bridging metal walkways awaited them.
The route to the right was cut off by a rupture in one of the pipes, venting steam upwards like a geyser. They could have crossed it, but they would have taken a hit to their aura that they didn’t need to risk, and in any case, a pipe that had ruptured was not likely to be the most stable of places to put your feet if you wanted to avoid the risk of it collapsing underneath you.
But it was Pyrrha who started first upon the left-hand path, without a word; she just started across the pipes, leaving the rest of them to follow.
I suppose it is the only way we have. I cannot tell her not to take that path any more than I can tell her not to dispose of our enemies so swiftly.
So Sunset said nothing as she, Jaune, and Ruby followed Pyrrha out across the pipes. The pipes that started to groan painfully under the influence of Pyrrha’s semblance. The metal around the pipes on either edge of the makeshift walkway began to crumple, crushed inwards by the power that Pyrrha was exerting without — unless Sunset was misreading this completely — intending to at all.
As the pipes creaked ominously, Sunset looked down at her booted feet, trying to look only at her booted feet and not at the enormous drop beneath them. Glancing up again, it looked as though Jaune in front of her was just as worried about his footing as she was. Sunset looked back over her shoulder, but Ruby’s concern seemed only to be regarding Pyrrha, not where she was walking. That figured; she could probably use her semblance to zip to either side of the cliff the moment she felt the surface give way beneath her.
“Pyrrha?” Jaune asked nervously, but she didn’t appear to hear him.
The creaking of the pipes got louder.
“Pyrrha?” Jaune repeated, with even more nervousness.
The creaking of the pipes became a screech as an entire section became flattened down as though the metal pipes designed to withstand the masses of toxic fluid swirling within them were mere drinking straws squashed beneath the palms of someone’s giant hand. Jaune squawked in alarm, crying out as he lost his balance on the metal surface, his arms whirling, thrashing blindly as he teetered out over the edge of the cliff.
Pyrrha heard that. The distance in her eyes was gone as she whirled around, replaced by blind, wide-eyed panic as she yelled out Jaune’s name and threw out her hand to him. He caught it, and Pyrrha managed to prevent herself from being pulled off with him, rather hauled him back onto the dubiously safe ground of the pipe bridge.
Pyrrha let out a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I…” She looked down at the damage that she had done to the pipes. “I don’t know what happened.”
Sunset frowned, but said nothing. Now hardly seemed the time.
When they were all standing on something a little more solid, that was the time.
They quickened their pace, and with Pyrrha having — temporarily — halted the use of her semblance, they were able to move more freely and with a greater feeling of safety down the pipes and onto a metal platform supported by a tower of scaffolding secured to the cliff edge. The pipes continued to lead away to the south, but first, they were confronted by a six-strong squad of red androids, their spear tips gleaming the same fluorescent green as their eyes as they bore down upon the huntsmen.
Pyrrha raised her shield hand once again, and once again, she reached for her semblance. The distinctive black light of polarity enveloped her arm, and also enveloped the androids too. She didn’t crush them this time, she didn’t rip them limb from limb either; she simply shoved them all to the right, straight through the safety railing and off the cliff where she let them fall off the drop to their inevitable destruction.
Sunset decided that now was the time as she walked up behind her. “You’re freer with that than usual.”
Pyrrha looked down at her blackened arm. “I…” The dark shadow of her semblance faded. “I really am sorry about before,” she said, looking over her shoulder at Jaune. “I’m not used to using my semblance so continuously, without turning it off. Continuous use like this, over a sustained period, it’s … a little hard to control; I don’t have the practice.”
“Then…“ Sunset hesitated upon the edge of asking why; she felt as though she knew the answer already. “When you and Cinder talked on the boat, I thought that … I thought that the two of you had … I thought that it was settled.”
“I fear that it will not be settled until one of us is dead,” Pyrrha murmured.
“She does not hate you as she did,” Sunset replied. “At least, that is how it seems to me.”
“Yet her desire to fight with me is yet undiminished; she did not call me her rival for nothing,” said Pyrrha. She paused for a moment. “It strikes me that … Cinder … is me.”
Sunset snorted. “If I had said that, you would be the first to tell me it was not so.”
“Hiding her power,” Pyrrha said. “Fighting with less than she was capable of.”
Cinder didn’t use the least amount of her ability that would allow to win anyway, Sunset thought, but did not say because it sounded harsh. “Her reasons … are not the same as yours.”
“No, indeed, her reasons are more practical,” Pyrrha muttered. “I’d never thought of it in quite this way before, but I feel … somewhat condescended to. Not intentionally on Cinder’s part, that is some comfort at least, but nevertheless … she did not use her powers against me because they would have given her victory.”
Sunset did not reply to that. She was not certain how to reply to that. She had enjoyed the return of Pyrrha’s confidence, she was by no means anxious for it to slip away again, and yet … she was not certain how to bandage whatever wound Cinder had made. Cinder’s power was great, after all; there was no denying that. The power of a Maiden had turned the Red Queen from a bandit into, well, a queen. The power of a Maiden had been so dangerous in the wrong hands that Professor Ozpin had hidden it away, preferring to rob the world of light than risk its perversion.
All of which meant that it would be difficult for Sunset to argue with a straight face that it was of no consequence that Cinder had turned out to be the Fall Maiden.
And yet, she wanted to say something before Pyrrha did something she would regret, or fell into an even greater despair than she had suffered before her duel with Cinder.
“Such, at least, is what Cinder believes,” Pyrrha said.
Sunset tried to restrain the tendency of her eyebrows to raise up. “You don’t agree?”
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “What do you think is worse?” she said quietly. “Thinking that you are only alive because of someone’s sense of honour, or thinking that it need not have been so, but they, despite all their protestations, did not think enough of you to exert their full strength against you?”
Sunset shuffled on the balls of her feet. “I mean … leaving magic aside, you’re already only alive because of Cinder’s sense of honour; if she’d wanted to lure you into a trap and kill you, she could have done it already — as I believe was pointed out to you at the time.”
Pyrrha cleared her throat. “Yes, I … I recall that one of you might have mentioned it as a possibility,” she murmured. “Nevertheless … Cinder may think herself undefeatable, but recall that the Red Queens were hunted down in the past and defeated by those who, like us, had only … what we have to rely on.”
“You’re speaking rather obliquely.”
“I do not know who may be listening,” Pyrrha reminded. “My point is … I want to show that I can give Cinder a real fight, with no holding back.”
“You’re … you’re taking this better than I thought you might, I must admit,” Sunset said.
“Would you rather that I despaired?”
“No,” Sunset said quickly. “No, not at all, I just…”
“No,” Pyrrha agreed. “Nor I. I … I would rather do something about it, if I can. And that involves testing my limits, seeing how long I can last, how much I can do. Would you begrudge me that?”
“I would begrudge you nought,” Sunset replied. “Nothing at all would I begrudge you or deny you; my comradeship least of all.”
She paused for a moment. I offered you my hand, Cinder; I offered you my hand, but you refused. I am sorry that you refused, I wish that you had accepted, and if you had accepted, then I would have kept my word and walked off the board with you. But, since you refused, since you are determined to fight this thing until death and destiny has claimed a life … then you must fight me also.
I choose Pyrrha. I will always choose Pyrrha; I can do nothing else.
“I … I know that you have misgivings about me, when it comes to Cinder,” Sunset went on. “You and Ruby and probably Jaune as well, for all I know. I would not be surprised. But if it came to battle, to her against you, against us … I would not hesitate.”
“I have never doubted that,” Pyrrha murmured.
Sunset smiled, for all that she snorted also, “You have no need to lie to me; I bear you no malice for your doubts.”
“No doubts,” Pyrrha insisted, her teal drops on their golden chains flying left and right as she shook her head. “No doubts at all. I have always known where your heart lies.” She placed one hand over Sunset’s heart, her fingertips lightly brushing the metal surface of Sunset’s cuirass. “Here, with us.”
The smile remained on Sunset’s face. “Then let your heart lie here with us in turn,” she urged, “and recall that it was not one great warrior but five who hunted down and defeated the Red Queens, one by one. You need not face Cinder in her pomp and power alone; in fact…” Again, she took pause, considering if her next step might constitute an overstepping of her bounds. Perhaps it was, but if Jaune could ask such a thing, then so could she.
Well, maybe not, but she was going to ask it anyway, and the worst thing Pyrrha could do was refuse. “In fact,” Sunset repeated, raising her voice so that Jaune and Ruby could hear her, “I will take a leaf out of Jaune’s book and ask your word that you will not seek her out again for such a battle on your own.”
Ruby and Jaune had stood a little farther off, giving the two of them some room to talk, but now that Sunset had let them know just what the two of them were talking about, they moved in a little closer, shuffling forwards in what might have been intended to be a discreet fashion, although the exact amount of discretion involved was somewhat limited by their circumstances: it was impossible to ignore the two of them or what they were doing.
“You’re talking about Cinder,” Ruby said, her tone making clear that this was a statement, not a question.
“You are talking about setting limits on my actions,” Pyrrha murmured.
Ruby folded her arms. “How the turn tables are … turned.”
Pyrrha covered her mouth with one gloved hand as she failed to restrain a laugh. “You have the right to your schadenfreude, no doubt; it was in poor taste of me to attempt to begrudge it, I am sorry.”
Ruby grinned. “There’s no need to apologise; I’m enjoying this too much to need an apology.”
“Sunset’s right,” Jaune said. “You can’t seriously be thinking about taking her on after what you’ve seen her do.”
“I would not seek out another bout of single combat between us; I am not a fool,” Pyrrha insisted. “I … I would not challenge her a third time to sate my vanity or further swell my self-conceit or even to answer once again my critics in the press; I do not value my pride or honour so that I would venture such a step against such power, but … would you have me flee before her? Would you have me fly in terror of her coming? May there not come a time when I have cause to fight her?”
“Then it will be cause for all of us,” Jaune said. “Together.”
Pyrrha hesitated. “You would have me admit that she is too much for me with Maiden’s magic, but you would throw yourself into the path of that same power?”
“I would rather die at your side than live with only a memory of you,” Jaune said earnestly.
Pyrrha’s eyes widened a little. “Jaune, I … I do not ask, I cannot—”
“You don’t have to,” Jaune replied, taking a step towards her. “I offer it freely.”
“Nobody is dying, not at Cinder’s hands or any other,” Sunset declared. “Neither of you, none of us. Cinder has stolen power, and that power makes her … powerful.” Tautology is unfortunate, but sometimes unavoidable when one cannot say exactly what one means.
“But power is my birthright, and I have power that, though it be not a match for hers in raw strength … with that power and with martial excellence combined, shall we not withstand her, overcome her even?”
A smile played upon the corners of Pyrrha’s lips. “You are invigorated since this mission began,” she observed.
“I’m glad it seems so,” Sunset muttered. “Being 'scaped safe from Mountain Glenn has done me good that this of Cinder’s power cannot erase. I … am glad that you do not wish to despair, but nor would I have you think that you need bear this challenge alone. As Professor Ozpin said, we are none of us alone. And so long as that is true, the eyes of the White Tower will see us come again, by mountain or by sea or more likely by airship, but they will see us come again, I have no doubt.”
She paused. “I would have you be one of the five heroes who followed the old man, not your namesake empress who rode to Argus.”
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “You make me feel foolish at best, excessively self-regarding at worst.”
“There is nothing wrong with a little self-regard,” Sunset said easily, “provided it isn’t carried to excess.”
Again, Pyrrha’s expression hinted at a smile without quite blossoming into one. “Then in the spirit of a little self-regard, I will say that I still dislike the implied condescension. But your point is well made; I will not … when we face her next, as I think we must one day, we shall face her together.”
She held out her hands to them. Sunset and Jaune each took one, while their free hands were taken by Ruby.
“Together,” Jaune said.
“Well, isn’t this lovely?” Merlot observed. “And not sickeningly saccharine at all.”
“Oh, for—” Sunset bit back on something very unladylike. “Can you not leave us in peace?”
“Why would I want to do that?” Merlot replied. “Except, perhaps, to spare myself the rising nausea—”
“We are not that bad!” Sunset snapped.
“Oh, yes, I’m afraid you are,” Merlot responded.
“You know what, I’m going to start singing, and then you’ll see what saccharine is,” Sunset declared.
“Don’t be ridicul—”
“You’re never gonna bring me down,” Sunset began to sing, letting go of Ruby and of Pyrrha’s hands as she began to sway with her own crooning, hands up by her face, hips shaking, “you’re never gonna take this part of me—”
“Someone, put her out of my misery,” Merlot muttered.
Sunset felt the paw close around her neck a moment before she was hoisted into the air, feet kicking, by the beowolf that had suddenly appeared as if from out of the empty air.
It was green, as all of the beowolves were that had been infected by this substance that Merlot called Sycorax, and large too, larger than an alpha beowolf, even if it lacked the bony spurs and armoured plates. It lifted Sunset up above its head and roared into her face.
Sunset punched it in said face, which didn’t seem to faze it very much but which did make it roar again, louder this time, green-flecked spittle striking Sunset’s cheeks as her hair blew back behind her.
Pyrrha stabbed it in the back, Miló changing fluidly into spear mode as she thrust it into the small of the beowolf’s back.
The beowolf roared, flailing at her with its free and trunk-like paw. Pyrrha ducked, letting the paw pass over her head, then rolled aside, drawing Miló free as she did so.
“Jaune!” Ruby cried. “Lancaster Leap!”
“You got it!” Jaune said, gripping his shield with both hands, holding it up at an angle facing towards the beowolf, the golden glow of his semblance rippling across its surface like water.
Ruby jumped, rose petals trailing behind her as she landed upon Jaune’s shield. The light of Jaune’s semblance, shimmering and shining, began to climb up her feet, crawling across the surface of her boots, before she kicked off the surface, moving faster than before, flying like a missile, Crescent Rose trailing after.
She flew past the beowolf’s face faster than it could react to slice off the arm that held Sunset in its grip.
Sunset hit the ground with a thud, landing on her backside and feeling the blow to her aura as her tailbone came into contact with the hard, grey ground.
The beowolf roared in pain as it looked down at the stump of its severed arm, the arm itself turning to ash as it lay beside Sunset.
Then the beowolf began to laugh, a harsh, guttural laugh that almost sounded as though it were trying to cough up something stuck in its throat.
And as it laughed, its arm grew back, or rather, a new arm sprung out of the stump, or … at any rate, it had two arms again, looking as though it had never been wounded at all.
It hunched down, bending its back to leer at Sunset, showing the white teeth set in its green-tinted jaws.
Sunset threw out one hand, a beam of magic erupting from her palm to strike the beowolf dead in the face.
I’d like to see you regrow your head after I’ve blown it off.
The grimm staggered backwards, and for a moment, Sunset thought — feared — that it might absorb the blow, take the magic without perishing; then her magic burned all the way through the beowolf’s face and body and out the other side before Sunset ceased her onslaught.
The faceless trunk — not strictly headless; this beowolf had no head, only a face set into its chest — stood for a moment, facing Sunset, before it collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
Sunset scrambled backwards, every member of the team retreating away as the body exploded in a shower of the green ooze called Sycorax.
“Your powers are as interesting as your morality is tedious,” Merlot observed. “I can’t wait to get you onto the operating table.”
Sunset got up. “You’ll have to do better than that,” she muttered.
“Obviously,” Merlot said flatly.
The grey goop emerged out of the darkness and the shadow to snare Sunset, pinning her arms to her sides as it wrapped around her like … like a spider’s silk. Sunset squirmed and struggled, but the sticky thread she was ensnared by was stronger, stronger than steel; she couldn’t break it, she couldn’t even make it budge a little bit; as she tried, she felt herself in danger of toppling over onto her side.
Another grimm appeared from out of nowhere, shimmering into view as it lumbered forwards. A trail of grey thread ran from the cords that bound Sunset to its left paw, which was invisible beneath the stuff.
With a tug, the beowolf pulled Sunset off balance and onto her back on the ground.
Jaune drew his sword, swinging Crocea Mors down upon the line of silky thread, where it got stuck; Jaune grunted as he pulled at it, but he could not tug it free.
Pyrrha gripped Miló — still in spear mode — tightly in both hands. “Ruby, we’ll snip the stem; come from the left, I’ll come from the right.”
“Right!” Ruby cried. “I mean, left! I mean, let’s go!”
They both charged, rushing towards the grimm from opposite directions, feet pounding upon the ground. Pyrrha ducked beneath the thread from the grimm’s paw as she came in from the front and the right-hand side; Ruby came in from behind on the left.
Miló and Crescent Rose attacked together, Ruby and Pyrrha swinging their weapons two-handed, both aiming for the beowolf’s midriff.
Their weapons struck home, carving through the green-black flesh, cutting into the beowolf, Miló passing beneath the blade of Crescent Rose as the two of them sliced the beowolf in half.
Its upper half was still alive as it dropped to the ground, roaring, growling, still holding Sunset bound, its threads still holding Crocea Mors fast; as it lay on the ground, a new pair of legs began to grow out of its severed torso.
Pyrrha raised Miló up above her head and brought it down upon the beowolf’s face.
The bone mask cracked but did not break.
Pyrrha threw Miló up into the air, the black light of her polarity engulfing the spear as she slammed it down with her semblance, just as Ruby struck with Crescent Rose.
The bone mask shattered, and the beowolf died. Pyrrha and Ruby leapt away before it exploded.
The thread that had held Sunset and Crocea Mors stuck fast dissolved to ashes.
Sunset got up, and the four huntsmen regrouped, back to back, staring warily out into the darkness and the shadows.
No further grimm appeared.
“First aquatic beowolves, now invisible ones,” Pyrrha murmured.
“And ones that can regrow body parts, or spit whatever that was,” Ruby added.
“What is going on here?” Pyrrha asked.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Merlot said smugly.
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately, he’s right,” she muttered. “We need to keep moving.”
And so they did. It was not their last encounter with either grimm or robots, far from it, but they did manage to fight their way through all who tried to bar their way, until at last they stood before a black cliff-edge, rising imposingly up in front of them, and set into the stone was a great door, easily wide enough for a train to be driven through — or for a monstrous grimm to stride into and out of.
As they stood there, getting their breath back amidst the shattered remains of the robots that Merlot had set to guard the doors, and which they had despatched one and all, the door rose up with a grinding, grumbling sound of engines, although what lay within was hidden from view by the brightness of the light spilling out.
“That seems almost like a trap,” Sunset said.
“And yet you’re going to walk into it anyway,” Merlot said. “You did come all this way looking for answers, after all.”
“Mmm,” Sunset grunted. “Although I’d have thought you’d be a bit more circumspect, considering you haven’t had much luck in stopping us so far.”
“It’s true, you’ve proven to be quite prodigious,” Merlot admitted. “That’s why I want you to come inside. The quicker we can get you into autopsy, the faster I can dissect your corpse and find out what kind of marvellous power you possess.”
“Thanks,” Sunset growled. “So … what do we think?”
Pyrrha took a deep breath. “Therefore, let us go,” she murmured.
“Right,” Sunset said softly, making a space for Ruby to stand beside her, as Jaune stood beside Pyrrha.
They took the first step forward together.
Stats
Page generated in 0.06 seconds
Total duration
965 users online
156,866 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Machine Learning says hi, Ozpin. Computers are no more 'shackled' to their programming than a person is 'shackled' to the firing of their brain cells.
9734863
I think what Ozpin is talking about is the human's ability to be creative with their surroundings to find a solution and the machine's inability to duplicate that as it is more focused on the predictable paths to the solution
9734863
To be fair, machine learning is both slow and very random. Besides, putting a truly intelligent robot into the field (aka penny) is basically just the same as a person, so the ethical side is moot.
9734863
Penny says Hi!
Funny how Ozpin is ignoring the robot girl that has aura and so must have a soul.
Did you just successfully pull off a World of Cardboard monologue with Pyrrha? Kudos.
Because the one thing this setting needed was Phazon.
...Ok the tiger metaphor has me thinking of Atsushi from Bungou Stray Dogs. The literal weretiger, struggling to keep his power from hurting others, only releasing it when he can control it...
And Oz....I think we need to talk about Penny. Or at least James needs to talk to you about Penny. She is the greatest of androids; she is human, but simply more. A shame she never gets a chance to unlock her Semblance in the show. Given that this story's purpose is to create a situation where Pyrrha survives the Fall of Beacon, is a there way to extend that same mercy to poor Penny? I'd love to see what sort of Semblance you create for her
9734954
There's a fic where Celestia also makes the Cardboard speech.
Words to live by, Pyrrha.
And Sunset? Pyrrha's not the only one with an incredible advantage against robots. Those androids don't have any Aura to protect them from your spells and enchantments! Turn them into garden gnomes!
9734981
makes you wonder where it came from.
edit: since Cinder is part grimm, I wonder what I could do to her.
Don't go all Magneto on us, Pyrrha.
9735397
Oh no, she should go all Übermensch Magnus on us... Phyrra was one of the mostest tragicest beings in creation...
9734948
9735034
Penny sort of proves Ozpin's point: the way to get an android that can replace a human is to...make them essentially indistinguishable from a human. It's certainly not to just build your robots bigger and with larger-calibre guns.
You can't expect me to tell you all my future plans.
9736514
TBH I wasn't expecting you to comment on that bit at all. The fact that you even told me Pyrrha will live was surprising. It made sense in our conversation, but still. So no, I don't expect you to tell me your plans, but I just enjoy making these kinds of comments.
And yeah, didn't really look the android debate that way. You've definitely got a point.
9736514
Hey what do you think of the SAPR Chibi idea I proposed , for when you are finished with Vol.3
9736521
Considering that she's one of the four mains in this story I don't think that fact is entirely a surprise, even considering canon.
9736550
It's certainly an interesting idea, but whether I could see the characters in that way...I'm still thinking about it.
9736557
Fair enough, considering no member of Team RWBY has died, even if Weiss came close.
9736514
Maybe Robots cannot fully replace Hunters, but how about robots being ordered by humans?
Phrasing... wait, are we not doing ‘phrasing’ anymore?
Great chapter, I particularly liked that argument against automation. I work in the aviation industry and that’s pretty close to the stance a lot of us take on the subject (minus the good vs evil aspect obvi,) lest we end up like those guys on South Park yelling “they terk our jerbs!”
I'm expecting something like this to happen
https://youtu.be/_HENON6KiPg?t=70
The end of this chapter reminds me of The Yellow Brick Road. Off they go, skipping into the lab.
9742937
I think the reason for that is because she's such a complicated character, especially when written well. Her character could resolve in any number of ways, and depending on how it resolves, she could be a good partner for several people.
9735960
We have the same word 'romnce' and it has the same meaning as in english , it's just writen a bit differently , we spell it 'romans'
9735089
“Teacup! Teacup!”
9746784
... what?
9746823
What you're describing reminded me of when Trixie was learning the same kind of magic.
"You have been following the exploits the Great and Powerful Trixie, haven't you?"
I’m sorry, but if I was in Sunsets position I would knocked Pyrrha out, bound her up, and take away her comm unit. The way she’s acting makes me see her as a wildcard liability, not an asset. She was as much a threat to the team as she was to Merlot’s androids and Grimm. And I personally can’t have that kind of person on my team. Does it make me sound callous, rude, and arrogant? Maybe. But if one of my best teammates suddenly went off the deep end like that, it’s either knock ‘em out and bind them, or force them to talk about what’s bothering them sooner than when Ruby and Sunset did.
I know this is not important to the chapter, and is kinda unimportant. But I wonder if Sunset will ever get the idea to use her sembelance on Ozpin...
Canterlot maze trap
Let's go Pyrya show who's the boss
Sunset truly needed this mission. It has done wonders for her. Confronting Mt. Glenn, declaring her offer to Cinder and her undying support to Pyrrha, facing off against a monster (who is worse than Sunset ever thought of herself), all as Team SAPR. Just the four of them against the evil of the world, as it should be.
She’s even feeling good enough to dig into her Equestrian heritage and sing a few lines to annoy the bad guy!
It is so wonderful to see the two of them reinvigorated, their faith and confidence in themselves and each other renewed, stronger than before. This is the magic of Friendship at work.
Oh, for crying out loud, that's my favourite part of the song! Unappreciative little...
I really, really like the way you ad the canon song and some other references to the story. This is so just and natural and not just fanboying like to often...
We are venom! This is literally a symbiote. Hella cool!