Yira Shorne's Story

The fall of Beacon was quick and unexpected. White Fang and Grimm attacks have been on a steady rise in nearby villages. Many students have decided to return home, while other more experienced students have decided to help with the local evacuation. The students were a helpful addition to the already present Atlas soldiers and remaining huntsmen.

The town of Hyusung was a village rather close to Beacon Academy. The dense forest around it, unfortunately, made it difficult for airships to get close. With recourses stretched so thin there was no other choice but to send in a team of students. That team was team Onyx lead buy Bull faunus Onyx Aroth. A strong fighter with a slightly short temper. Yet when it came to rescuing people you would be hard-pressed to find someone more willing. Along with Nyx Bowick, Yira Shorne, and Xanthe Sterling they made the formidable team Onyx.

It had already been a few hours since they had arrived in Hyusung and begun preparing everyone for the evacuation. Onyx had already gotten a few looks from the not so openminded members of the village. As much as he tried not to let it get to him he couldn't hide shame on his face. "Alright everyone, keep an eye out for Grimm. A large pack of Beowolves and Ursa have been seen nearby so stay sharp." He made his way to the city gate and scanned the forest line for movement. They only had to make it to the next village where airships would be waiting, but that was still about a days walk. Luckily there were only about sixty people in the village so he hoped it wouldn't be too dangerous to keep watch over everyone. He stood silently as he waited for reports from his team about how the town was coming along.

Yira trekked back. "Everyone's flipping their crap," she called to Onyx in her sharp, grumpy voice. "They're scared for their lives, and a few are just sitting back to wait to be taken. It's pretty chaotic over here. If we're going to protect this place, we'll have to protect it not only from the Grimm, but from themselves."

Despite how small the village was, getting everyone ready to evacuate was no walk in the park. People who had called Hyusung home their entire lives were scrambling to decide what to leave behind and what to bring along, trying to find friends and loved ones in the chaos. Xanthe was itching to use her semblance to get through her sector faster, but settled for running from one building to the next instead of simply teleporting. Onyx had warned them about the Grimm lurking nearby, and she needed to save up her aura for whatever fight they had coming once they got moving.

As she herded people toward the main gate, Xanthe shot Onyx and Yira a thumb’s up. Even from a distance, she could see he was in a gloomier mood than usual, and with the number of villagers sending him nasty looks it wasn’t hard to figure out why. You’d think they would be a little nicer to someone trying to save their butts, Faunus or otherwise. Yira, on the other hand, was about the same amount of pissed-off as usual. After working with her for so long, her grouchiness was almost comforting. Once she was sure none of the people she’d gotten to the gate were going to run back into the village, Xanthe made her way over to her teammates. “We’re getting there, but it’s taking a while. I’m just glad all this craziness hasn’t attracted any Grimm yet.” With all the fear and uncertainty floating around, they might as well be carrying a big, flashing sign that said: “Attack Here.”

Making sure everyone in her section was evacuating was no easy feat for Nyx. A couple people kept standing there not knowing what they should leave and what they should take. One man even kept leaving his house and going back inside because he "forgot" something or "changed his mind" while others seemed to be off right away, not wanting to risk their own skins. One woman tried to calm down a man, saying something about how he "should worry about his family, not his stuff." Seeing that this changed the mans demeanor and he began to get a move on, Nyx started saying "Don't worry about your stuff. Go join your families." to those who were struggling to leave. After getting most everyone she could moving, she headed over to the others. "Not going as smoothly as it could, but yeah, we're getting their. At least the majority seems to be on their way." With a close eye trained on those she saw who were having trouble leaving, she could tell this won't be an easy start.

As people moved passed him he became more nervous of an attack, their fear would be most certainly attract the nearby Grimm. As Yira approached to give her status to him about how chaotic things were getting. "I figured as much. But this is what we were trained for." His hands slowly formed fists as the tension of the situation slowly started to show on his face. To be honest he wasn't sure how long they would be able to hold out if Grimm attacked in force. With his gauntlets still broken he would have to rely solely on his hand to hand combat and his semblance. The ability to draw the gaze of all the Grimm would be useful in a worse case scenario but it did come with the risk of him getting swarmed.

Looking back he saw Nyx and Xanith were moving about attending to the people as fast as they could. Nyx seemingly dealing with some more stubborn people. Eventually, both of them approached to tell that most of the village seemed to be on the move. This meant it shouldn't be too much longer for them to clear the rest out. "Keep up the good work everyone. We might even be able to get to the next town before it get's too late."

Turning back to the tree line something immediately felt off. Instinctively Oynx sniffed the air. A foul odor fills his nostrils and his eyes widened as he knew what it was. Grimm. "Everyone hurry!" leaping onto the outer wall of the village he scanned the trees for movement and sure enough several Grimm were running towards the town. Luckily they were coming from the opposite side of the village as the main gate giving him time to think. "Nyx get up high and cover the villagers." Onyx lept from the wall and ran to the opposing gate to meet the Grimm head on. "Yari get to the town square if anything gets past me kill it." The people began to panic and run out of the village following the others.

Oynx took in a deep breath and calmed himself. There was a flash of red around him as he activated his semblance and focusing it solely on the Grimm. "Xanith I need you to cover me. I'll hold their attention you blast them." He took a defensive stance staring down the enemy. As a large Beowulf that was leading the pack rushed up to Oynx he let out a mighty yell as he used his busted gauntlet to deflect its' claws and simultaneous punching straight through the beast. As the creature fell dozens more were already running towards him.

Seeing Onyx perk up she knew exactly what was coming. "On it." Nyx replied to his order to cover the villagers. She took a guick glance around and spotted the tallest building nearby. Getting on that roof would be the first step. It would be fastest and cost less dust to leap onto the outer wall and go across the roofs. But first the villagers. "Stay over there and out of the way." Nyx ordered them, pointing to a gap not too far from the main gate between the wall and a building. This way they'd be in some cover and be able to make a quick getaway.

Nyx then boosted herself onto the wall. Gaining balance, she looked Onyx's way then turned her attention to the roof. She ran along the wall, staff in hand until she got to a building low enough for her to jump to. Using her staff, she boosted herself onto the roof of the low building. She took advantage of the moment and checked out the villagers who seemed to have been making their ways to the gap.

Nyx then made her way to the tall building, running along the roof top. When she made it to the tall building, she made her way onto the roof with a boost by her staff and a short hover. As she came down on the roof, she ran to the edge and twirled her staff around, transforming it into a sniper rifle. She took aim, ready to take out any Grimm that start towards the villagers.

Xanthe immediately regretted her earlier comment as a pack of Grimm burst through the tree line and began charging toward them. She quickly pulled Daybreaker out of its holster and took aim as Onyx powered up his semblance, issuing orders to her and the others. “I got your back, oh fearless leader!” As Nyx and Yari took their positions, Xanthe zeroed in on the nearest hostiles and started firing. Her shotgun’s range wasn’t nearly as good as Nyx’s rifle, but it still packed a hell of a punch.

The first shot grazed a Beowulf’s shoulder, sending it tumbling to the ground but not killing it outright. The second was cleaner, a headshot that hit squarely between the eyes. For the most part, though, she settled for aiming anything black and white, keeping the growing red figure in the middle of the swarm out of the crossfire. Team ONYX had been in enough scrapes like this that she’d gotten pretty good at avoiding friendly fire whenever Onyx rushed in to draw enemy attention - which was constantly. Normally she wouldn’t worry, but with his gauntlets still on the fritz, he didn’t have his usual defense advantage.

Xanthe managed to take down three of the creatures and injure several others, but it didn’t even seem to make a dent in the pack numbers. Scowling, she lowered her weapon and shifted it into sword mode, pulling dust bomb from her pack. “Onyx, get clear!!” Tossing the bomb into the air, Xanthe lifted her sword and swung hard, slamming the broad side of the blade against the device and sending it flying into the fray. The moment it made contact, it burst into an explosion of sparks, sending bolts of lightning to any creature unlucky enough to get caught in the blast radius. It wasn’t nearly enough to kill them all, but it would at least stun them and give both Onyx and Nyx an opening to attack.

A group of three or four Beowulves began charging at Yira, an Ursa at it's head. Yira called out to them, goading them forwards. "You mofos ready for a fight, huh?!"
The Grimm roared in response.
"'Kay then," she said as a coat of steel began covering her body. "Then y'all are gonna get the thrashing of your very short-lived lives."
Her semblance, Iron Maiden, fully complete, she activated her arm blades and charged into the horde of Grimm.
She became a tornado of spinning blades. Her steel armor blocked the claws and bite of the Grimm as she spun through their ranks, cutting them up with sharpened blades and appendages. Her armor gave her no fear of any accidental friendly fire from her allies. In fact, Xanthe's lightning blast conducted through Yira, allowing her to blast her enemies with a shocking grasp. "Thanks for that!" Yira shouted.

Onyx quickly lept to the left at Xanthe's warning allowing the massive blast to go off without him getting caught in it. This gave him a moment to breathe and focus his aura. His semblance still affecting many of the surviving Grimm he readied his defense once more, but his heart sank slightly as he saw more of the hoard appear through the treelines. "I didn't expect so many." He said to no one imparticular. "Think Onyx!" He said aloud. He quickly glanced at his teammates as he dodged and countered the oncoming attackers. He knew if he expanded the range of his semblance he could get a massive power boost but that would most likely cause his aura to deplete faster and could risk him going berserk. But with the number of options growing more limited by the moment. He was willing to take that risk.

A mighty Ursa came bearing down on him with its' mighty claws. Rather than trying to outright kill it he decided to use its own momentum and throw it into the oncoming Grimm. With a decent gap between him and the hoard, he shouted to his team. "Xanthe, Yari fall back to the main gate. I'm going to expand my range of influence and don't want to risk affecting you." He dodged an oncoming Beowulf, kicking it into its own allies. "With the power increase, I should be able to drop their numbers significantly. Focus on getting the villagers to safety." Another bright red flash came from him as he increased the range of his power. At that moment all the Grimm nearby froze momentarily turning their gazes to him.

Pushing himself forward he dashed quickly into the think of the pack punching and kicking through the beasts. For every Grimm that was locked onto him, his power rose greatly. Tearing through their numbers rather quickly it did soon become apparent that he was rapidly eating through his aura. Yet this did not deter him at all, in fact, it only seemed to spur him forward, lashing out at his enemies. His movements were sharp and quick as he moved in between them attacking them as he could. Unfortunately, the longer he fought the more he became lost in his own semblance, and with that, he became more reckless in his attacks. The Grimm swarmed around him swiping at him as he fought. One managed to bite into his arm while another slashed into his back. A loud scream of pain exited from Oynx, yet it seemed to only send him more into a frenzy tearing them away and continuing his attack.

Now with so many focused squarely on one man they were prime targets for the rest of his trusted team.

So much happened in the course of a the few minutes that Nyx was admittedly caught by surprise. Of course they knew there was going to be a lot of Grimm, but Nyx didn't think this much. She watched Onyx and knew his plan as he told the others to fall back. Now while a good lot of the Grimm were focused on him, Nyx took aim. Aiming for the spot in between a Beowolf's eyes, she took the shot. A few milliseconds later and a bullet went through the Beowolf's left eye. "Ooh, not exactly where I was aiming but it'll do." Using this shot as her test, she adjusted accordingly. "Watch out everyone, it's about to rain!" She called out as a warning to the rest of the team on the ground. She then let loose. Shot after shot flew through the air. Beowolf after Beowolf fell. One got shot in the head, another through the eye, another lifted his snot at the last millisecond and got a shot through the nose. Are what looks like where a nose would be. Either way, they were thinning out.

After a good amount of the outlining beowolves were thinned, Nyx set her sights on the big Ursa with the big claws. Taking a quick moment, Nyx cracked her knuckles. She was going to send rapid fire at that thing. She put her finger on her trigger and took aim. Shot after shot, much faster than before, rained from the rooftop she secured to the beast. It seemed to hold its own at first, bracing against the force of the fire. "Wear it down." Slowly but surly, it started being pushed backwards. With an aggravated roar, it rose up where it was then being hit in the midsection. With a split section window, Nyx aimed for its open mouth as it roared. The bullet went right through it's mouth, past its teeth, and it was down. "Stay frosty everyone!" She called another warning as she went back to picking off beowolves and tried to avoid hitting anyone who wasn't Grimm.

Xanthe let out a whoop of excitement as she watched Yira tear through a group of Grimm, using the electricity from the dust bomb to her advantage. “That was awesome!!” The victory was short-lived, though, as more Grimm started. “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” she groaned, catching sight of a few Beowulf’s making a run for some stray villagers, having skated past the radius of Onyx’s influence. Powering up her Lightspeed, Xanthe focused on a spot in front of the charging Grimm. One moment it was yards away, and then in a flash of gold she was suddenly there, the blade if her sword catching against the teeth of the lead Beowulf. “Not so fast, Fluffy.”

As the villagers escaped into the crowd, Xanthe slammed her blade into any patch of black fur and white bone she could reach, using her semblance to dodge and momentarily blind the creatures with flashes of gold. While she knew she should be conserving her aura, the blonde couldn’t resist the thrill of effortlessly hopping from place to place, the rush of evading attacks and hitting back where they didn’t expect. She was so caught up in the fight that she barely heard Onyx’s warning, and it was only when she felt a sudden wave of irritation toward her team leader, not the massive beasts she was currently fighting, that she recognized what was happening.

In a scramble to get clear, Xanthe picked a spot near the main gate and teleported. She ending up sprawled on the ground several yards away from her actual target but, thankfully, out of Onyx’s range. The wounded Beowulfs she’d been battling didn’t even notice her sudden absence, having turned tail and begun charging back toward the mass of enraged Grimm. And somewhere at the center if all that chaos was Onyx, vastly outnumbered and relying only on his semblance and brute strength to survive. Staggering to her feet, Xanthe looked around until she spotted the rooftop Nyx was perched on and rushed over to the building, shifting Daybreaker back to shotgun-mode. “Nyx! Can you see him? How’s he holding up?”

Yira soon caught up to Xanthe, having dispatched many other Grimm. She was panting in a metallic voice, as she had been running a lot and her semblance was still active. She caught Xanthe mentioning how Onyx was doing, and turned to see him caught up in the middle of those Grimm. Ah, hell. she thought. Leave it to him to get caught up around all the enemies.
An idea struck her. "Hey, Xanthe," she said. "Got any more of those cool bombs? Preferably one that will take out a giant raving horde of Grimm."

Onyx had completely lost himself in the battle, his yells and cries could be heard echoing as he fought. Tearing and breaking through Grimm after Grimm. Unfortunately, it seemed he would soon be overrun by the unrelenting hoard. A massive Ursa slammed into him hard sending him flying into the nearby wall. Slowly he pulled himself up obviously exhausted yet his own semblance was now fueling his own rage spurring him onward. As the mighty Ursa charged at him once more, he lept on to its back wrapping his arms around its neck tightly. The beast started plowing through its own allies trying to shake off the young huntsman. As the creature moved Onyx steadily tightened his grip until he felt the monster's neck give under his strength, causing it to fall limply to the ground. Standing atop the Grimm he shouted as his aura flashed again, signaling he had almost used up his power.

Before Onyx could attack again a flurry of builts came flying from atop one of the buildings into the Grimm. Each expertly shot to ensure no one other than the Grimm were hit. A man stood on top of the building holding a heavy looking assault rifle, behind him stood several older model Atlas mech soldiers. "Sorry, we couldn't get here any sooner." The man together with the machines mowed down the remaining Grimm effortlessly, jumping down to ground level and approaching the mass of Grimm.

In a matter of minutes, the stranger had subdued the threat. Onyx stood motionlessly in the middle of the massacred Grimm. His semblance slowly fading and with it any energy that he allowed him to stay standing. Collapsing to his knees he looked down at his arm that the Grimm had bitten into, his aura had protected him for the most part but the teeth of the Grimm still managed to cut into his flesh as well as the slash across his back. He would need to bandage himself up till his aura recovered which would heal any remaining wounds, but that would come later. Carefully he stood up and approached the man. "Thank you." He said with his head hung low in shame. "We were supposed to protect these people but would have been overrun if you hadn't shown up." He cradled his injured arm and looked at his team. "I'm sorry everyone I failed you as a leader."

"On the contrary, you did very well for a group of students." The stranger said with a smile and patting Onyx on his good shoulder. "If you hadn't dropped their numbers by such a large number we might have had a very different story playing out right now. You and your team should be proud, you protected each and every one of these villagers. Not a single person was injured." He motioned to the robotic soldiers to start escorting the villagers to the next time. "My name is Gemell I'm a huntsman from Atlas. You all must be Team Onyx. I was tracking that large group of Grimm, luckily we were able to catch up to you before anything bad happened."

Yira ran up to Onyx carrying a large shopping bag. She barely gave a glance towards Gemell before settling down by Onyx, pulling out the bandages, and getting to work patching her leader up. "What the hell, man?" she whispered to him as she patched him up. "I get that your ability makes you stronger and tougher, and it can be useful, but you got to learn to get that anger under control! But just in case something like that happens again, I bought some bombs." She gestured towards the bag. "Don't worry I paid."

Nyx didn't have time to answer Xanthe's question before the Atlas soldiers appeared and completely wiped out the rest of the Grimm. She was awed by the feat. "Let's go join them, eh?" She mentioned to Xanthe and made her way over where Onyx was with Yira patching him up. She was caught between wanted to say something like "Oh my god, that was awesome!" and "How do you know we're team ONYX?" But she settled with asking "So, what are we going to do now?" She paused a moment then continued. "Like, with you guys here and your ship, you can get the villagers to safety, but where do we go now? I for one still want to help."

Onyx flinched slightly as Yari started to look after his wounds. "R-right. I'm sorry. I never had to draw that many before guess I lost it there." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I just didn't want anything to happen to my team." he lowered his head in embarrassment. "I know you all can handle yourselves, but I guess I just want to keep everyone safe." his cheeks turned a light shade of red.

Gemell chuckled at the faunus' embarrassment before turning to Nyx. "Well, this still is your mission we were just called to back you up when the oversize hoard of Grimm were noticed. But after this, I was asked to find a team by Oz I mean Ozpin, before the incident at Beacon happened. Your team was put forward as a likely candidate for a very important mission."

"That so?" Yira said, not looking up from tending Onyx's numerous wounds. "What kind of mission?"

At Yari’s suggestion, Xanthe had been searching through the last of her bombs for anything that might be able to take out the hoard of Grimm without hurting Onyx in the process when helped arrived, mowing down the remaining creatures almost effortlessly. “...Okay, that works too.” With the threat apparently taken care of, she collapsed Daybreaker down into its dormant mode before going after her teammates, haphazardly shoving bombs back into the pouch on her belt. “Hey, wait up!” With the battle over, she didn’t see the harm in saving herself some time by teleporting.

Apart from a nasty-looking bite on his arm and borderline exhaustion, Onyx seemed to be in pretty good shape for a guy who’s just taken on twenty or so Grimm with his bare hands. Xanthe couldn’t help but smile as Yari chewed him out for his recklessness while patching up his wounds, and made a mental note to see if Yari would be willing to trade a few dust bombs with her - her current stash was running low, and variety was always a plus. In the meantime, though, the really did need to figure out there next move. The people of Hyusung were on their way to safety, but Vale was a long way from being the safe, happy kingdom they all knew and loved. Nyx had the right idea: if there was anything they could do to help fix things, their team was up for it. And this “very important mission” Gemell had mentioned sounded like a as good a place as any to start.

((OOC: Sorry for the wait, just got done with midterms for my summer classes :P))

"We can talk about that on the airship. Some of it is fairly classified. Attend to your leader and let's go with the rest of the villagers to the next town." Gamell commented passively as he watched the group. "I would also like to add you a well done on your mission. There are not many out there who could have dealt with a hoard that large."

Onyx flinched every now and then as Yira continued to patch him up. "I still have a long way to go as a leader." he said with his head low in shame at the state he was in. "But if there is a mission that we can do to help everyone will do it."

"Alright, that all sounds good to me," Nyx said with a small solute to Gamell then turned to Onyx. "Hey, you're a pretty good leader if you ask me," she added with a light pat on the shoulder.