102

Chapter 102

"Something is wrong! My grimm sensors are registering a signature that is far too high! Ruby may be in danger!" Penny called out, dodging a burst of gunfire from the still standing Paladin and returning fire with a splash of lasers from Floating Array, grimacing as they splashed off of the reinforced hull and the man standing on top of the mecha deflected a few of the stray shots. 

"Are you sure this isn't normal?" Yang asked, her and Nora engaging the other Paladin from where it was downed but not out, matching its massive punches with fist and hammerstrike alike while Cinder rushed forward to melt more of its vital components- only to be forced to fall back from more gunfire coming from the White Fang members who seemed to be showing up in droves- really, it was a fucking miracle that they'd managed to get away from the warehouse and find an empty construction site at all, but it didn't change the fact that the actual troops in the warehouse had managed to catch up and started firing at them from their cars. "Shit shit shit- fucking- Blake!"

"On it!" Blake answered, running with Neo as the two of them began to confuse the oncoming White Fang goons with clones and illusions, Sun joining in and wreaking havoc on their group cohesion as he throw his own exploding clones into the mix- the three of them working flawlessly together to take out the smaller threat while Neptune and Mercury backed up Penny- with Mercury shedding his disguise and trying to go in for a backstab on Adam, only to be repelled by a bloody red and black slash through the air that nearly sliced through his arm.

Thankfully, he got away with just a nick, and Adam took a shot to the face for his trouble as the silver haired menace backflipped away and dashed back just in time for Penny to charge up her laser and blast the hell out of the Paladin- punching a massive, molten hole through the entire thing and causing Torchwick to eject, fling himself out of his seat, and run away into the night screaming something about how "no amount of death threats are worth this bullshit! I'm fucking done! For real this time!" 

"If it were normal, I would be registering a level four grimm incursion! My sensors are indicating a level ten incursion! There has never been a threat as high as a level ten incursion in Vale's history!" Penny shouted in response to Yang's words, rushing forward as Adam leapt from the ruined Paladin- both of them now destroyed thanks to the distraction provided by Penny's laser- and threw himself into the fray with a flurry of crimson arcs and sword beams, the retort of his rifle sounding loud and clear as he took shots at everyone that came close and Moonslice splashed crimson through the moonlight. "We are all in imminent danger!"

"It's Ruby- why and how would she be throwing that much danger around? Fuck! Something really isn't right!" Cinder hissed, pulsing her Aura as she held off the White Fang leader for a moment, ignoring his taunts as she slammed her swords against his and superheated everything she could, the glass blades of her Midnight replica melting around the glowing crimson sword and dulling the edge as they hardened into a mess coating the entire length of the blade. "Penny! Nora! We need to regroup with Emerald's group now!"

"On it! Everyone move!" 

In an instant, there was a raucous flurry of activity as the entire group scattered , dashing away from Adam's position (with Blake firing a few shots as they ran) and heading to the nearest rooftops. Even as the terrorist followed, vitriol on his lips and blade swinging as he deflected and dodged the potshots they sent at him and they all had to throw themselves away from the massive blade beams of Moonslice he sent back, they ran back towards the warehouse and found-

Chaos .

Utter chaos.

The warehouse was gone .

There were Rosebuds everywhere, spreading throughout the nearby area and only barely being corralled by Weiss and Pyrrha, who were running ragged as they twisted the environment around to block the advance, even as the other members of their team ran circles around Ruby's new bestial form, dodging flames and acid and venom and quills and stings and sonic blasts- flipping over massive swipes of Ruby's claws even as the limbs extended and stretched out like some kind of nightmarish thing , the beast that was once the kind, sweet, innocent girl howling in rage as the sheer volume and force of its rage made alarms ring throughout the entire city. 

They were running out of time.

Cinder hissed as she leapt down and cast a wave of molten glass out with a grunt of effort- one part slide and one part barrier to keep the Rosebuds from breaching through even as she drew Midnight from her back and decapitated two of the humanoid grimm right then and there- she didn't want to, but her sister wasn't acting as normal and Ruby would have never summoned so many grimm if something wasn't terribly wrong.

"Ruby! What's going on!?" she shouted, skidding to a halt and facing her baby sister without an ounce of fear, standing tall and bearing her swords in front of her. "What are you doing!? Snap out of it!"

"It's no use! She's not listening!" Weiss called out, grunting as she dodged another blast of sharpened quills and flung herself to the side while Cinder backflipped out of the way of a concrete shattering swipe of Ruby's tail that embedded the massive, glowing stinger on the end into the ground. "I don't know what's wrong with her! I've never seen her like this!"

"I have- she's lost to her grimm instincts! It's-" Yang cut herself off, yelping as Adam reappeared in the midst of the chaos and took a swipe at her, making her dodge away even as the red haired bastard started attacking her in a nearly blind rage with his blade oozing literal malice from every swing. "FUCK! OFF!"

"NOT UNTIL YOU DIE, BLONDIE!"

"Lost to her grimm instincts- that's not good, what do we do!?" Pyrrha asked, having managed to actually deal some damage in the intervening chaos as everyone continued to tear away at the Rosebuds scrabbling at the walls of ice and rock hemming the entire scene in, their weapons having long since dropped to the ground as they attacked with slavering maws and sharpened claws. She fired a few shots at Ruby, drawing a roar of agony as the combined damage popped one of the eyes on her skull and left weeping rents of black and red ichor leaking from the holes.

"She needs- she needs to calm down somehow! I don't know, dad never let me- fucking- Blake! Weiss!" Yang cut herself off yet again as she punched Adam aside, panting for breath and flipping back to rejoin her girlfriends, the three of them forming a huddle as they breathed harshly- they hadn't escaped from their situation without their own scrapes and bruises, all of them shaky and low on Aura from their respective battles. "We can't deal with all of this while there's Rosebuds and that asshole there- how the fuck did he even get his sword back!?"

"That's… not Wilt and Blush- that's something else. It's… something's not right," Blake muttered, grimacing as she fired a few shots into a Rosebud and blew it apart into a shower of crackling lightning. "Fuck- what is going on!? This is deeper than the Fang, something's not right and it's- how did she end up like this!?"

"I- I don't know! One moment we were all fighting these for people in creepy black robes then Ruby barged in and then there was this giant jellyfish grimm thing and then there was a person inside the thing as if they were using it as a scroll and then they started talking and then the thing vanished and now Ruby's- Ruby's like this!" Weiss answered, watching the entire melee go on as she coughed a bit, having taken a significant amount of hits in her attempts to prevent the Rosebuds from rampaging among the civilian populace. 

At least the Rosebuds were also dealing with Adam as well, attacking him wildly even as he cut them down. 

"Where the hell did Team SSSN go?" Weiss muttered, looking around for a moment only to see the four boys getting launched into the sky and over the nearest buildings by a particularly enthusiastic tail swipe from Ruby. "... Shit."

"... Shit."

"... They'll… they're gonna be okay, right?" Blake muttered, watching as the remainder of their teams all formed up together around the icy arena, grouped up in clumps as they tried to strategize against the remaining Rosebuds, Ruby, and Adam Taurus all at once. 

"Hopefully… Okay… here's the plan," Yang started, taking a deep breath as she started to activate Burn, licking her lips as she activated her comm. "Penny, Pyrrha, Cinder, Nora, Peppercorn Maneuver on Ruby! Jaune, Ren, Mercury, handle the Rosebuds! Neo, Emerald, illusion support where you can with Mirage! We'll handle Adam!"

"Do you think we can?" Blake murmured, ears pushed back as she stared at the man who'd made her life a living nightmare for so long, hands trembling around the hilt of Gambol Shroud as she held herself ready.

"With three of us working together? We'll be fine as long as we don't get cocky again," Yang nodded at Blake and Weiss, raising her fists and grinning. "We'll keep each other safe, right?"

"Right."

"Right!"

"Bees Schnees!"

"Mirage!"

"New Moon!"

"Peppercorn!"

The fray ignited again, chaos ringing out as the four groups attacked as one, screaming out battlecries as they charged in- and were met by the answering roar of Ruby's grimm form and Adam's rage.