27 -Chapter 27-

-Last Time-

"Whatever, let's just get back to our posts, our replacements are gonna be here any minute and I'd rather not get bitched at again for goofing off."

"Yeah, good point." Simon said while turning around and walking back to his spot, thus causing him to once again miss something important. In this case it was the mischievous smirk that crossed 'Diff's' lips as a soft glow of gold and light blue emitted from the eye-slits of her mask.

-And Now-

Total silence reigned inside a large bullhead as team RWBY, team JNPR, Penny, Winter, and Glynda sat in their seats without a word. They were all currently headed to a place known as Mtn Glenn, a failed expansion of Vale that was supposedly the White Fang's current hiding place if what Nora had literally squeezed out of Emerald two days ago was to be believed.

Nora still had an air of complete emotionless around her that made everyone nervous, especially those who knew here well as they could feel the raw bubbling rage beneath the surface just waiting to burst free. Thankfully though, it seemed that despite her overwhelming desire to just go after her son and destroy everything that got in her way, Nora was smart enough to know that such action without assistance was suicidal.

So she, with excruciating reluctance, decided to wait until she and her friends could get ready for such an endeavor and Ruby could recover from her fight.

Speaking of the raven-redheaded scythe wielder, Ruby was seated next to Yang, nervously fiddling with Crescent Rose while the blonde watched her from the corner of her eye disapprovingly. Yang had been very adamant that Ruby not come with them, saying that her sister was in no condition for such a mission.

Unfortunately for the busty blonde though, the doctors said otherwise as the worst injuries Ruby had being the bite on her arm and the four slash marks across her cheek, both of which were now nothing more than scars thanks to both her aura and Tsunade's healing mucus.

Physically speaking, Ruby was almost back at peak condition, however her mental condition was a matter of concern. Ever since she'd awoke in the hospital, the girl had been unnervingly silent and withdrawn, only really speaking to tell them exactly what happened and to demand to go on the rescue mission.

Most of her friends and her sister figured it was just her beating herself up for not being able to protect Naruto and tried to comfort her as such, all except for Pyrrha, who had an idea of what was really bothering the youngest huntress-in-training of the group. However, the redhead was unable to confirm her suspicions before they left so she just let the matter rest for now.

"Alright everyone! We'll be at the LZ point in two minutes! You better get your asses ready!" 479er yelled over the radio, getting everyone to jump from their seat and double check their equipment before moving toward the back of the ship as the door slowly opened.

"So… do we have a plan? Or are we just going in guns blazing and hope for the best?" Weiss asked loudly over the roar of the wind while looking down at the forest beneath them.

"Neither," Ren said, getting a confused look from the white themed girl before he elaborated. "We're only here to deal with the lucky bastards that Nora misses."

"Oh, alright then." Weiss muttered with a nod, understanding exactly what the stoic boy meant 'lucky bastards'. She'd seen the aftermath of Nora's… chat with Emerald after all.

"Fifteen seconds to LZ!" 479er yelled as the forest gave way to the decaying ruins of a city and the bullhead expertly lowered into an abandoned intersection. "And we're here, now get going already before someone spots me!"

"Alright, thanks for the lift 9er! We owe you one!" Yang yelled back as everyone quickly offloaded.

"Just make sure to get the little squirt back! That kid really livens up the place!" 479er said as the ship closed up and started to take off. "I'll stick to the outskirts of the city if you need me, but I only got enough fuel for two hours before I have to head back, after that you guys are on your own."

"I only need thirty minutes." Nora stated before smashing Magnhild in its hammer form against the ground, shattering apart a large chunk of asphalt to reveal the large underground city hidden beneath.

*Kraka-BOOM!*

However, just before she could jump inside, she and everyone else were surprised as a large explosion rang out from deep within the cavernous chamber, shaking the ground and creating several spiderwebbing fractures.

"What was that?!" Yang exclaimed as she and the rest of the group stumbled a bit from the unexpected shaking.

"If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say either Naruto just busted himself out or someone else is busting in, in any case we need to hurry." Winter said, quickly regaining her balance and starting to walk towards the hole Nora made.

*Crackle* She only made it a whole three steps though before freezing as she noticed the cracks rapidly spreading under her feet. Taking a quick look around, she saw that the same thing was happening with everyone else.

"…Oh son of a b-" The older Schnee started to mutter before almost everyone screamed out in surprise as the ground gave out under them.

The only ones who didn't scream were Winter herself, Penny since she'd detected the ground instability and was about to warn the others, Glynda because she's Glynda, and Nora since she'd had just jumped into the hole when the ground fell apart.

As she and her friends descended upon the ruined hidden city, only one thought was in the orangette's mind. 'Hold on Naruto, Mama's coming!'

-Explosion Ground Zero-

In one of the many abandoned streets of the underground city, a familiar masked ravenette stood in the dead center of a large smoldering crater. Behind her lay a trail of destroyed mechs, fresh rubble, and White Fang grunt bodies while several more grunts stood in front of her shaking in fear as they aimed rocket launchers and cannons at her.

Casually wiping off a smoldering rock off her shoulder, Raven turned to the terrorists and tilted her head. "Was that actually supposed to hurt me?" She asked blandly while drawing her sword, making several of the grunts step back in fear.

"What are you doing!?" A man with a slightly more ordinate mask, marking him as a lieutenant yelled at his men while pointing at her. "It's just one human! Kill h-"

The lieutenant suddenly froze midsentence along with his entire company as Raven vanished from sight and reappeared behind them.

"Hmph, pathetic," She muttered, twirling her blade within her grasp once, causing a small spray of blood to be flung off the blade before she sheathed it and continued forward, leaving the men and women she passed to fall to the ground, their heads rolling off their necks. "They are even weaker then you said they were Cat."

At first one would think Raven was crazy for talking to no one, but a few seconds after she made that comment, 'Diff' appeared next to her with a relax expression. "That's cannon fodder for you Chickling," She said with a shrug before gesturing to a dilapidated prison in the distance. "My brother's vessel is being held there. We must hurry though, you may have gotten rid of these guy's heavier artillery that arrogant whelp Adam will almost certainly use this attack as a reason to kill the boy."

"Then ditch that meat suit already Cat, it's served its purpose and is just slowing us down." Raven said without stopping, getting the cat faunus to nod before suddenly collapsing as a large ball of blue and black aura shot out of her back. Said ball then proceeded to expand rapidly and solidify until it took on the form of a large blue two-tailed feline.

"I have a name and I'd appreciate if you'd call me it Chickling," The massive cat said with a frown as she easily caught up to Raven, leaving poor Diff to wake up all alone and confused a few moments later with no idea what happened the last two days. "Say it with me now, Ma-ta-ta-bi."

"I'll stop calling you Cat when you stop calling me Chickling," The masked sword wielder stated while she hopped onto the massive cat's back. "Now get your twin-tailed ass moving, I have a future son-in-law to rescue."

"Alright, alright, I'm going." Matatabi said with a roll of her heterochromatic eyes as she shot through the abandoned city like a bullet. "You know, maybe if you'd actually been stealthy with dealing with those guys like we planned we wouldn't need to rush right now."

"And maybe if you could have warned me that they had heat-seeking auto turrets and proximity activated landmines I could have done just that." Raven retorted, slicing down a few more grunts they passed along the way.

"…Touché."

-Back with Others-

"Why does this keep happening to me?" Weiss asked exasperatedly as she lay across the ground, an irritated expression on her face as she glanced at the large groaning pile of people currently pinning her lower half to the ground. "And when the hell could you fly?"

Her second question was directed towards Penny, who slowly floated to the ground with Ruby in her arms thanks to the pair of jet-like wings sticking out of her back.

"I've always been flight capable, there has simply been no reason to use this ability until now." Penny said while landing next to Glynda, who had landed just fine, her wings transforming into her swords that then folded up and receded into her back while she looked around in confusion. "Uh, where are Nora and Winter?"

"They've gone off ahead to check out that area," Glynda stated while pointing towards what looked to be a recently repaired train station in the distance that had grunts swarming all around it in a panic. "It would be in our best interest to hurry and catch up with them as well, before Ms. Valkyrie's waning patience reaches its zenith, if it hasn't already."

"No kidding," Blake said as she, Yang, and the JPR of team JNPR got back to their feet, much to Weiss's relief. "That girl is a ticking time bomb about to go off and when she does she'll probably level this whole city, literally."

"Oh come on Blake, stop exaggerating, there is no way she could actually do that." Jaune said confidently… before turning to Penny with a nervous look. "Right?"

"The underlying structure of the city has lost an alarming amount of integrity due to the recent destruction of that load bearing building," Penny said with glowing eyes, pointing to the other side of the city where parts of a building and the 'ceiling' were still falling loose to the ground, allowing sunlight to stream in on the once hidden city. "I predict an eighty-three percent likelihood that any further damage to even one of the remaining main support building will result in a full systematic collapse."

"Oh… the train station wouldn't happen to be one of those building, would it?" The blonde asked even more nervously.

"No it is not." Penny said with a shake of her head, making Jaune sigh in relief as he and the rest of the group relaxed slightly… "However, I am picking up several concentrations of high-quality Explosion Dust along the remaining support buildings that indicate the presence of multiple high-yield bombs and a large amount of Grimm moving in from the surrounding area."

…for all of two seconds.

…

"I think now would be a great time to start running." Yang said before everyone broke into a dead sprint towards the train station, Penny and Ruby taking the lead as the former grabbed the latter and took to the air again.

Meanwhile, at said train station a still heavily bandaged Cinder Fall scowled angrily as hoppled across the area towards a bullhead as White Fang grunts ran around chaotically. 'How did they find us so fast!? I took every precaution! Left a hundred fake trails! Covered every track!'

It briefly crossed her mind that Emerald may have given her up but had immediately dismissed the thought. That girl practically worshipped the ground she walked on ever since she'd taken her in, there was no way in hell that Ozpin would ever be able to get anything from her, not this fast at least.

Hearing the sounds of fighting and destruction getting closer, Cinder's pace quickened as much as her battered body could handle. 'And of course they attack right after I sent Mercury off to deliver those blood samples to Watts.' It was like the universe was conspiring against her or something since, as much as she hated to admit it, she was all but helpless at the moment without her grey-haired subordinate.

'How did everything go so wrong? I am supposed to be strong. One of the strongest! And yet I've been reduced to constantly running away like a scared mouse!' Cinder thought angrily as she finally reached the vehicle and signaled for the pilot to take off. 'I swear, one day I'll get them back for this! All of-'

*Swish* *SCREEEEEEEEEEEE*

Cinder was broken from her thoughts when something flew past her head, just narrowly missing taking it off, and tore its way through the interior of the ship until it smashed into the cockpit. Looking back at the object, Cinder only had enough time to see a large silver hammer with pink highlights sparking wildly before the front half of the ship was engulfed in an explosion, sending her flying.

Skipping across the ground like a stone until she collided with a half destroyed wall, Cinder groaned weakly in pain as she slowly sat up despite her entire body protesting the action. Her somewhat blurry and doubled from the impact, she could just make out as a certain orange haired huntress-in-training stalked towards her at a sedate pace, all the grunts in the area already knocked-out or dead.

'Oh son of a bitch.' Cinder thought with a grimace as she scooched away as quickly as she could. She knew who this girl was, thanks to Neo's reports, so she also had a pretty good idea why she was here. "Hello Nora, I'd say it's nice to finally meet you, but I'm sure we both know that's not true."

"Don't bother with the sweet talk," Nora said in a cold tone, reflexively catching her hammer as it fell out of the air and shifting it to its grenade launcher form and pointing it directly at Cinder's head. "You are going to tell me where my son is, or I am going to make what he did to you look like a nice day at the beach."

"Ah, well if those are my options, then I guess I don't have much choice do I?" Cinder asked calmly, barely able to keep her voice steady as Nora pressed the barrel of her weapon against her cheek, the hot metal only not singeing her cheek thanks to her aura. "He's locked in a reformatted cell of the city's prison, just over THERE!"

Using every ounce of speed she could muster, Cinder shoved Magnhild to the side and threw a fistful of dirt in Nora's face, causing the angry orangette to stumble back slightly with a grunt. Briefly blinded, Nora was unable to react as Cinder planted a hand on her torso and released a concentrated blast of aura, sending her flying out of a destroyed window frame.

'I need to get out of here, that only bought me a minute at most.' The injured woman thought as she forced her body to get up and run away, channeling her aura through her body to help numb the pain and keep her from collapsing.

Her motivation for fleeing was good as back outside the train station, Nora slowly got back onto her feet and wiped the dirt off her face. She didn't even look away as she idly smooshed a beowolf that tried to jump her from the side.

"Nora! I know you're angry and rightfully so, but please calm down!" Winter, who was currently stuck in the middle of a free for all between White Fang grunts and various Grimm, yelled while stabbing the dagger half of her weapon through a man's throat and using the sword half to slice a pair of boarbatusks in half. "You are attracting unneeded company!"

If Nora heard her though, she didn't show it as she proceeded to stomp back towards the transportation building.

However, she only just made it to her self-made doorway, aka the giant hole she'd put in the wall, when an escape jet, small jet-like aircraft that was barely big enough for a single person, suddenly shot out the roof and shot towards the upper city.

"Oh no you don't!" Nora yelled while aiming Magnhild at the ship as the front of the weapon opened up to show several extra chambers ready to fire. "You are not getting away from me that easily bitch!"

"Nora! Stop! Don't shoot!" Just as she was about to pull the trigger though, Nora's view was blocked as Penny and Ruby floated in front of her, Ruby holding her arms out in a blocking manner.

"Hoi!? What the hell are you two doing!? She's getting away!" Nora yelled, shoving the pair aside as she realigned her shot.

"Wait Nora! This whole city is rigged with explosives! If you fire recklessly like that then you'll almost certainly-*Bang*" Penny started to say as, only to be cut off when Nora fired, releasing a half-dozen pink rocket grenades that shot towards the fleeing aircraft.

Inside the escape jet, Cinder held a detonator in hand, her finger hovering above the activation button, waiting until her ship passed through one of the recently made gaps so she wouldn't be crushed along with everything else. 'Just a little bit higher, almost there… and… no-' *BOOM* "SHIT!"

"Gotcha." Nora muttered with a vicious grin as one of her grenades managed to hit the plane's side, causing it to spiral out of control. However, she quickly lost said smirk when the jet still made it to the upper city before crashing.

To make things worse, she finally noticed as her other five grenades detonated across the roof of the cavern, which caused several chain reaction explosions that spread across the underground city.

"…cause them to go off." Penny finished weakly as the rest of the group caught up in time to see the entire spectacle go down. In just a few seconds the whole city was lit up like a Christmas tree and entire sections of the city began to descend upon them.

"Whelp, we're boned." Yang stated dully.

-End Chapter-