Pyrrha had tried to call Shine--and got no answer.

Perplexed, she tried Weiss and got nothing there either.

"Guys," Neptune said. They were standing outside the train station, and he was holding his scroll. "Sun's not picking up... Are we sure service is back?"

"Try your other teammate," Ren said.

Well, Scarlet finally did answer--and he sounded like he was panicking.

"All over the city, they're huge!" he babbled. "And they're jumping on everything and spitting acid and melting stuff!"

"What are you talking about?" Neptune said.

"Frogs!" Scarlet yelled. "Or toads...not actually sure. But something amphibian, and they have long tongues."

"That would be a frog, yes," Nora said. "Well, that doesn't sound so scary."

"They're spitting acid," Scarlet said.

"So like a tree frog?" Ren knew about animals apparently.

"You leave for one day--" Neptune looked up. "--and this is what happens."

Winter looked up. "No one is answering my calls either," she said, paling. "But if they are in the middle of a fight, that might be why."

Or it might be another reason...

Then her scroll buzzed, and she jumped almost three inches.

"Mother?" she answered.

She could barely hear Willow yelling over the sound of some people first shouting at each other and then screaming in terror.

"Oh no, they're in the house!" Willow sounded ready to faint. "Or they almost are... They're not coming in the window yet, but they just broke it...and they spit acid through it... I don't know why they are coming in. They said that your friends put a boundary around it, but it won't last forever..."

"We have to go back now!" Jaune said.

"Jaune, even if we left right this minute, it would be 5 hours at least before we arrived," Pyrrha said. "The fight will be over by then."

"You can't come back," Willow said. "She's looking for you. We have two of you special girls here already. More will only make it worse--that's why I called you. We'll fend for ourselves... The others went out to try to stop them from getting this far, so that must not have gone well."

"Mother, talk simply. How many professional huntsmen do you have at the house?" Winter cut in.

"The huntsmen went to fight the problem, dear," Willow said. "It's just me and the broom girl who've got any fighting experience other than Miss Branwen and Miss Fall...who are too busy fighting each other right now to be useful."

"I heard that, you old hag!" Cinder said.

"Oh, leave her alone," Raven snapped. "She's helping more than you. Where's that fire you had a second ago? You have a clear shot now."

"Why don't you turn into a bird?" Cinder said. "Maybe one of them will snag you like a bug and take care of our problem."

"Or I could push you out the window!" Raven said.

"I'm going to strangle them both," Winter said. "Where is Qrow?"

"I think he went to look for the blonde girl," Willow said. "I'm sure they're fine though..."

"Knowing Qrow, he was in bird form and gotten eaten by now," Raven said.

Winter had a mental picture and looked sick.

"That's horrible!" Pyrrha said.

"Shine could get us back now," Jaune said. "None of us has magic except Winter, and she's been okay, right? We have to go now."

"Willow," Pyrrha suddenly said. "Let me." She snatched the scroll from Winter's hand before the woman could stop her.

"The cakes I left," she said, "Raven and Cinder should eat them. It would help."

"We have no better idea..." Willow said. "Ladies!"

She actually sounded kind of authoritative there.

Raven and Cinder stopped their bickering for a moment.

"Miss Nikos left you something," Willow said, "did she not?"

"What, this?" Raven pulled it out of her belt. "You think this will--?" Then she remembered that Vara had used it.

"What is that?" Cinder said.

Raven popped one into her mouth without another word.

Then her eyes blazed with red fire.

[For clarity, that does not mean that the food is making her magic stronger. It means it's making her Aura balance stronger for the time being, allowing her to use her magic freely.]

Clouds began to collect over the house.

"I'll take care of those monsters." Raven sprang to the window to get a better look.

You could see in her eyes that for the moment she wasn't afraid of them anymore, and maybe the Grimm could tell, because they stopped spitting and hopping at the broken window.

Ice formed around the Grimm quite suddenly, freezing them all--and since they were amphibians, it killed them pretty quickly.

It froze all the ones around the house and within Raven's line of sight.

"Wow..." Whitley had no snide remark--that was just impressive.

"So she uses ice, the other girl uses wind and lightning, and you use fire." Libby looked at Cinder. "Why aren't you just roasting them?"

"Shut up," Cinder growled.

"So what does the last one use? Rain?" Libby asked.

"I don't think so," Whitley said.

[Yeah, I guess the Avatar parallels break down after that.]

"I can't believe you didn't think of that before." Watts was miffed at Raven. "You had it the whole time?"

"I've never had magic food before!" Raven snapped. "You want to complain about me saving our a---s?"

Watts shut up.

"But the boundary doesn't last forever, does it?" Willow said. "We'll have to either run or fight."

"Mother, if I may," Whitley said, "perhaps we're looking at this wrong. Those brutes aren't that clever. Can't we fortify this house in some way?"

"It's not a fortress," Libby said.

"What could we use?" Willow asked.

"Well, one could just start with the immediate use of the ice," Whitley said. "Why not freeze a layer of it around this house? That would deter those beasts if they don't like the cold."

"So one of you actually does have an iota of intelligence?" Watts said. "Color me impressed."

"Shut up," at least three people told him.

"Mother?" Winter called.

"Oh, sorry," Willow replied. "Crisis averted. I think. We're going to try something. Just stay put for now, all right? I wanted to tell you what was happening so you'd know not to return till we've gotten them taken care of."

She hung up.

"That was weird," Pyrrha said.

"I know, right? We get attacked by Grimm flies and then Grimm frogs?" Neptune said. "Too bad Grimm don't eat each other--that could have been way simpler."

"No, I mean, a whole swarm of Grimm just appearing like that?" Pyrrha said. "No warning? Where did they come from?"

"Salem's made rivers, big whale things, and who knows what else. I doubt she couldn't think of a way," Jaune said.

"So, are we going or not?" Nora asked Winter.

Winter looked pretty somber.

"Realistically...if two Maidens are already cornered, it makes no sense to bring another one to her," Ren said. "And Raven was more necessary to our plan, but Cinder is more necessary to Salem. She might just capture her. She might not care about Winter, but Vara can't go back. We have to warn her."

* * * 

"Hi--what?" Oscar answered. Then he put them on speaker, and they explained.

"Oh no! We have to go back!" Ruby said.

"No, we can't," Theo said. "Even if we got there in time, which we won't, the attack could last days. Vara can't be anywhere near it. This is why we split up, remember? You can't go back on that the second something goes wrong, kid. Your team is tough. They'll have to handle it."

"That's leaving them to die!" Ruby said.

"I thought that was the plan," Vara said, rubbing her arms, "to keep all of us from being in one place. I have to hand it to Likstar--it really is like she can predict this stuff."

"It wasn't just her idea," Theo said. "But yeah...weird. We have to stick to the plan."

"Maybe you don't have to go, but I should. I could help," Ruby said.

"Ruby, they wanted you away in case Tyrian was there also," Oscar said.

"I think we could handle him. There's only one of him," Ruby said.

"We're discussing whether to go back or not," Jaune said. "As long as they hold out, which they should, we should go relieve them...but Winter will have to stay here."

"Don't leave her there alone," Theo said. "We need to keep the Maidens guarded. If some of you want to go back and risk your necks, fine. I'm staying with Vara. That's my job."

"How romantic," Aunt Emily said. She had no idea what was going on.

"Frankly, Oscar, you shouldn't come either," Ren said. "They'll want you too."

Good point.

"Well, we're not going back," Roman said.

"Jaune, I could help them," Pyrrha said. "I have the power to."

"If you go, I'll go," Jaune said.

"We all should go," Nora said.

"Wait a minute," Mercury spoke up. "Not that I care, but isn't that kind of exactly what you were supposed to avoid?" 

"It won't do any good if our plan falls through," Winter said.

"What plan?" Mercury said.

Silence.

No one had told Mercury the entire plan. They still didn't fully trust him.

Emerald pursed her lips.

"What do I not know?" Mercury said.

"The point is," Pyrrha said quickly, "we have to make sure it works. Or this was for nothing. And we need to be there for that."

"In that case, Miss Nikos, the train is not the best idea," Winter said. "We have airships here. I'll have to commission one for you. It will save you at least 3 hours, perhaps more if I can get a fast one."

"Wow, you couldn't have done that before?" Neptune said.

"I didn't want to use one of the few we had left for selfish reasons," Winter said. "But Remnant needs us to protect those Maidens."

"Wow, how noble," Mercury said sarcastically. "Turn down using a ship to save us a few hours of wasted time, that would just be so selfish."

"Shut up," Emerald said.

"I would feel more at peace with staying if we could consult Miss Likstar," Winter mused. "Or one of the other senior members of the team."

"We'll keep trying," Jaune said. "Maybe they just didn't hear it ringing. For now let's just go to the base and get that ship. Emerald, Mercury, are you staying?"

"The thing is, I'm not going to be useful against that many Grimm," Emerald said. "And Tyrian is probably there by now... I mean, honestly I'd be better at guarding the Ice Queen. I can hide her."

"You think I want to go back?" Mercury said.

"We could use all the help we could get," Nora said.

"Right...because helping you is my priority," Mercury replied.

"Not even once," Jaune said flatly.

* * *

To Winter's relief, they finally got Shine on the scroll while they were waiting for the airship to be ready.

Oh, and that had been a fun conversation with Cordovin. She was still reeling from the day before.

Shine sounded out of breath.

"So you heard what happened?... They attacked last night. All of us who could went to help, but no matter how many we killed, more just kept coming... There has to be a Grimm river somewhere in the water here--dead fish have been surfacing in the bay, so...yeah. I'm looking for it right now."

"And is everyone...?" Winter said.

"Last I saw of them, everyone was all right, just tired. We haven't got a break since this started... Real mystery how you huntsmen do this for a living, by the way. Wally and I drove a bunch of the things back, but they got around our range, by the side of the city. They're destroying everything they can... The only good news is that the acid only stays potent for about 1 minute after it leaves their body, so most of the stuff they touched is still standing, just damaged. The people they touched mostly just have burns, thanks to Aura, but some weaker ones got hit more seriously. Still, it could be worse... They're meant to capture, not just kill. So we know why they're here."

"So where do you expect to find the source?" Winter said, with notable relief.

"My bet is it's up in the mountains around here," Shine said. "Over the bay. But if I find Tyrian guarding it, that's going to be fun."

"Why would he...?"

"I figure Salem wouldn't want anyone to find it after we managed to stop the last one. I'm sure she's still wondering how we did that. So anyone who got close, he'd probably attack," Shine explained. "Only reason I can think why he hasn't started murdering people in the city to add to the panic. She's a little short staffed, so he can't just be chaotically evil anymore. An office job doesn't really suit that lunatic."

"If you find him, you're not going to fight him, I hope," Winter said.

"Don't worry, I can handle that psycho," Shine said. "I've had a lot of time to think about it. Anyway, he'll be terrified of me, no doubt."

"Miss Likstar, he will try to murder you," Winter said. "And he'll like it."

"I doubt that," Shine said. "The point is, we're holding down the fort. My estimation is that if we stop this in the next few hours, the damage is repairable. Might take a few weeks, but we'll manage. I never thought of frog-toad things as hunters, but I guess they technically are... Gross. You know. the worst of it is the eyes. They're so--"

"I think I get the image," Winter cut in. "We're sending some help."

"Not you, I hope."

"No, team JNPR. And I suppose the other one."

Neptune wasn't that happy about it, but he couldn't just let them go alone when his team was in trouble also.

"But I will be rejoining you," Winter said.

"Just...give it another day, maybe." Shine sounded like she was going uphill now. "We may have to go to Vale sooner than we were planning to. Just try to recover for now."

Winter had no idea how to try to recover.

"We should have known that she wouldn't slow down," she said.

"We did know that," Shine huffed. "I've gotta go--talking and climbing at the same time are not so fun. Look, just be glad the plan is working. You all really know how to make doing what we said we'd do seem like a failure. Love you and bye!"

She hung up.

The ship was ready right after that.

"Well, be careful," Pyrrha told them.

"Yeah, watch your back," Emerald said to her.

Pyrrha hugged her, to her surprise.

"Ugh." Mercury made a face.

"We need to go." Ren was stressed and being rather curt.

They rushed to get on the plane and take off.

* * *

Shine found a path up the mountains of Mistral that led around towards where the bay was on one side and led down into smaller streams on the other. The source seemed to be a waterfall higher up.

Thanks to the CCT, she still had scroll service up here, and she finally got ahold of Wally.

"Good news," he said. "Most of the weird frog things are cleared of the residential area. We've driven them mostly back to the bay. But I think a few slipped past us. I saw a magical cloud thing near the center of town, one of the Maiden's."

"Yeah, well, in this case it might be necessary, but that definitely will tell Salem where we are," Shine mused. "We can be sure this won't be the last attack."

"Shine, where are you?"

Shine explained as briefly as possible.

"Okay...will anyone be guarding it?" Wally asked.

"Tyrian probably, if I didn't miss my guess. She's no doubt hoping someone will look for it and be an easy target."

"Shine, you're not actually going to take him on alone?"

"I think I can handle him, babe," Shine said. "He's just a bug."

"We nearly got killed by bugs," Wally said.

"Wally, we have to stop this. Now," Shine said. "You need to have faith in me to do this stuff. I have faith in you. More importantly, God will help me. I've never lost a fight I needed to win before."

Pause.

"Okay," Wally said finally. "You get him good then...but still, someone should probably go for backup."

"If you find Qrow, you could send him up here. He'd be the fastest other than you, and they need you down there," Shine said. "As long as he's recovered enough. I did think he was better today."

"Well, the two of you should have no problem. I'll find him," Wally said. "But just don't let that maniac get close."

"I don't intend to. But he can kiss his tail goodbye if he tries," Shine said, determined.

"Easy there, tiger. Remember we don't kill people," Wally joked.

It was kind of a bad joke, but Shine laughed because at least that showed some confidence in her.

She had to hang up then. She finally found the lip of the cliff edge that the goo was coming from.

She had her sword ready, and her eyes were blazing. She could handle Tyrian as long as he didn't get the drop on her; she wasn't sure she was fast enough to deflect him.

She wondered if his venom would even work on her--or if it would be worse. In other worlds, you never knew exactly what would biologically cross over. It was a toss up.

She wasn't wrong to suspect he'd be here, though, because he dropped out of a tree outside the hollowed out hole she saw the Grimm river in and landed with a psychotic grin.

"Boo," he said. [I got the hun vibes from this, like Mulan.]

https://youtu.be/yS2y0LJ-7JI

[Had to find one for just Tyrian. TCX's AMVs. "Circus for a Psycho".]

Shine only startled a little before turning to face him. She muttered a prayer.

Her calmness wasn't always as effortless as people thought. She had to choose to keep herself steady.

But she faced Tyrian, who was not the most perceptive person in the world, without a shred of fear in her expression.

But that didn't dissuade him yet.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he leered. "I don't believe we've met. What's a little huntress like you doing here all alone?"

Shine's mind raced. She'd had lot of time to think how she'd handle this if it happened...but one wrong move here could set him off.

She made herself relax her posture a bit and just give him a quizzical look. "Am I supposed to know you?"

"What?" Tyrian waved his tail. "My reputation doesn't precede me? No one has told you of Tyrian Callows, servant of the queen?"

"I wasn't aware that this land had a queen," Shine replied.

"Who are you?" Tyrian got a little mad.

"I'm not in the habit of giving my name to random strangers," Shine said. "Especially ones who are creepily waiting outside caves that have Grimm juice spilling out of them. So if you don't mind, I have tasks to finish, and you're kind of distracting me."

She waved him off haughtily.

"Distracting--" Tyrian narrowed his eyes. "Wait, I know you. Yes, you're that girl that Mercury was spying on! Shine Likstar, isn't it? What a stupid name."

"From the guy whose name means purple?"

"So you do know who I am!" Tyrian said. "You were just bluffing."

"I mean, who are any of us really?" Shine said, shrugging. "I wouldn't presume to understand the inner workings of your mind. If there are any such workings. What business is it of yours?"

"Why, because if you're here, that means you're trying to stop our goddess," Tyrian said. "And I can't allow that."

He smiled and then laughed crazily.

But to his surprise, Shine laughed back--not crazily, just dryly.

"I'm sorry, but how do you plan to stop me?" she said.

"Why don't we see?" Tyrian's expression hardened, and he jumped at her.

Shine had been waiting for this.

She focused, and her Aura activated in all its glory, much stronger than the normal people's were.

Tyrian hit it like it was a forcefield and bounced off, tumbling into a bush.

That surprised him.

He picked himself up and looked at her strangely.

Shine could have played this few different ways, but the one she'd thought would work best would be a bit trickier.

"Sorry about that," she said. "You rushed me. Are you all right?"

"Am I all right?" Tyrian got up and brushed himself off. "What is that? You're a bit stronger than I thought, but don't think that'll save you. Sooner or later you'll have to drop that shield. And I have all day."

"But I don't," Shine said. "So I have a better suggestion."

"Go at it like honest men?" Tyrian said.

"I'm not a man," Shine said. "But, no, I've something that I think will interest you more. Would your mistress like to know more about our plans?"

Tyrian had no intention of letting Shine get away, but of course he wouldn't pass up the chance to pump her for info first.

"In exchange for me turning a blind eye?" he said.

Shine knew he wasn't actually going to do that. That wasn't her objective.

"Sure," she said. "That sounds fair. I tell you something and you go away?"

"It would have to be worth it," Tyrian said, twitching his tail.

Shine wanted to gag, but she kept that to herself. Just a few seconds and this would hopefully be over.

"I've been meaning to tell her this myself, but she never does show up in person," she said, shrugging. "But I think she'd like to know who we are and why we're here, working with Ozpin."

Salem had expressed interest in that, Tyrian reflected. This could be good.

"You can tell her, if you see her, that we were sent here by a God much, much more powerful than the ones she's been so unfortunate as to encounter before," Shine said evenly, "and that we're going to set this world back on the right path. And that if she's smart, she'd accept that now, rather than force us to force her to. You can also tell her she should fire you, because it's doubtful you have the vision to see that."

"That's a little rude." Tyrian didn't buy it. "But whatever are you talking about? There is no other god. Salem is the goddess of destruction incarnate."

Shine laughed at him.

He didn't like that.

"What are you laughing at?" He scowled.

"The fact that you think Salem is a goddess," Shine said, in a tone that implied he was a pitiable fool--well, that was what she actually thought. Though the pity part was a stretch. "I almost feel sorry for you, Callows. Clearly you've never even seen a glimpse of a god."

"What?" Tyrian said in a tone that meant he was going to fly into a rage pretty soon.

Shine didn't stop.

"Salem is not a goddess," she said clearly. "I've seen gods before. She's not it. She is still a human, bound by magic to be what she is. All the power she has she gets from them. Ask her yourself. She won't answer, but you can ask."

"I would never dare to question her," Tyrian said.

"Oh, I know." Shine spoke in this babying tone that most grown people find infuriating. "I know you wouldn't, because poor, little Tyrian just can't help but destroy things, right? You don't care why you do it. The devil's got a hold on you something fierce, right?"

Then she spoke normally again. "I'm sorry for you. I wish I could free you, but you wouldn't let me, would you?"

She held out her sword suddenly, and it gleamed with gold light. "I doubt you could even stand to be this close to it."

Tyrian, for no reason that his small mind could have explained, flinched.

"What...what are you?..." he fumbled. "This isn't right."

"It's not right," Shine agreed. "It's not right at all to see a human being so bound up that they aren't even human anymore. What have they done to you? What were you once that this happened? I can see it, the years of cruelty and hunger and pain that probably led up to this point. Of course there's something just a little wrong within anyone who becomes a killer, but even so, we're all children at one point, right? I'm sorry."

Tyrian took a step back.

"Stop doing that," he said. "Stop talking. We should be fighting, not talking, you witch."

"I'm not the witch." Shine's eyes gleamed gold at him. "But you'd know that, wouldn't you? You know you do need help. Do you want me to try?"

[Shine image designed by OneRose]

"What? No!" Tyrian said. "I mean, stop! I mean, I'll kill you!"

"Poor fellow," Shine said. "Even now he can't stop. It's really pretty sad. I really don't even have the heart to fight you anymore. I mean, you can try if you want. Would that make you feel happy?"

Tyrian hissed at her.

Shine just watched him coolly.

There was a long pause while Tyrian seemed to be trying to move forward to attack her, but he kept backing up instead.

"What are you?" he finally said.

"I think you know what I am," Shine said. "But this struggle is useless. Maybe I should pray for you instead. That would be better."

She looked upward.

"Lord, I pray for this creature, that he will have the sense to turn back now, and not come any closer to your chosen one. That You will open his eyes to see the situation as it really is."

"Stop that!" Tyrian said. "You're supposed to fight me."

"And that he will stop trying to fight." Shine ignored him. "And will realize that he should probably run."

"I will not--" Tyrian stopped.

Then suddenly he yelped like he'd been stung and ran from her view.

Shine watched him take off into the mountain, not even toward Mistral, as if there was a Hound after him.

She let out a long sigh and sank to the ground.

"Well, that was interesting," she said, "and unpleasant...ugh... Being near that guy is like being dipped in tar."

But speaking of things that looked like tar, she still needed to stop that stream.

She rushed to the river and jammed her sword into it.

"If it worked for them, it should work for me," she said. "STOP!"

The goo started to sizzle at the touch of the blade.

Shine glanced at it. "Salem, I don't know if you can sense this, but this is your second warning."

She looked out at the sea. "Next time, we're going to have to make this more personal. I can already see it. You'd be wiser to back off now."

The pond disappeared. But Shine wasn't holding her breath for that last part.

"Likstar?" Qrow appeared out of the air.

"Oh, hi," Shine said.

"Did...did I just see that right?" Qrow said. "I saw you talking to Callows, and I was coming to help, but he just ran off... You didn't even throw a hit."

"I didn't need to. He knew he was whipped already." Shine brushed her hair back. "Just as well. Fighting him would have wasted precious time and not been a good idea on the edge of a cliff."

"You actually talked him into giving up?" Qrow said.

"You could too if you knew the trick," Shine said. "It's no matter. People like that respond to power and power alone. Did you think it was my first time dealing with a creep like that? Honestly, it's not that big a deal."

"The more I hear about your life, the more I think I would never want your job," Qrow said.

"I agree that you're not suited to it," Shine said. "You like living here too much. But it's not really so bad once you get used to it. You just can't let psychos bother you. That's what they want. Are you holding up okay?"

"Better than before." Qrow rubbed his side. "Aura's finally started to heal the wound more, but just the same, after all night at this, I'm not sure how long any of us are going to last."

"Well, there shouldn't be any more now." Shine pointed. "We have to round up the stragglers, and then we should be good. I talked to Winter, by the way."

"Is she okay?" Qrow said immediately.

"She's fine. Nothing happened to them," Shine said. "But I told her not to come back till we had this mess sorted out. It's not looking like this will be the last of it. Salem definitely knows where we are."

"Then maybe they should just stay in Argus," Qrow said.

"No, Salem will find out they left soon enough," Shine said. "And if she attacks Argus, we wouldn't be there to stop it. It's better to stay together. The respite was nice, but it's not feasible. At least with CCT up we can stay in touch. Let's pray she forgets about destroying it for a while. We've got her focus, for better or worse."

Qrow sighed. "At least Ruby is far away from Callows right now."

"That is more of a problem," Shine admitted. "But I don't think he'll dare come to the house. The bigger issue is what happens after we leave it. We can't stay here for long. But let's talk about that later. Follow me, all right?"

She portaled.